Hi all,

In a similar vein to past (and current) threads asking for travel assistence, help me go to New Zealand (at no cost to you)! There's a local camera shop that's running a travel photography contest, open to entries taken on travels during 2003. I did a bit of travel last year (a week in Costa Rica plus a month in India), netting about 1000+ photos, so I figure I might as well enter a few.

Unfortunately, I can't just enter all 1000 pictures. (Okay, maybe that's a good thing. ) There is a limit of 3 entries per person. There are 3 categories -- people, place, and humour. Sadly, there's no wildlife category.

The tricky part (and this is where you folks come in), is in narrowing down my selection of what might stand a chance of winning. Don't worry, you don't have to look at 1000 vacation photos. I've already culled it down to about 30 photos. There are some definate front-runners in there, IMHO, but I'm curious to know what the "average" public likes.

Please take a look at the photos. At the bottom of each large view (click on the thumbnail), there's a link at the bottom to vote for that photo (it helpfully says "Vote for this photo!"). Since I can enter more than one photo, feel free to vote for more than one photo.

The three photos that have the highest tally of votes will be what ends up in the contest. (Deadline for entry is the 17th, and I still have to get the photos printed.)

Cheers,

PS... The photos are being hosted from my closet, so, uh... please be patient if it's running a bit slowly...

very nice photos. I particularly liked about 3. You should post the tally of votes.

very nice photos. I particularly liked about 3. You should post the tally of votes.

Thanks! Congrats on being the first to vote for anything!

I'll post a tally of votes once I'm ready to drop film off at the lab.

Very nice work!!!

I have done my duty. Voted for 3.

You've got my 3 as well, nice work!

Done my bit, 3 good un's!

Gave my 3 cents.

I actually voted for 4. Great pics!

Me 2. I mean 3.

I liked them all so much I voted for every one!

No, I'm just kidding, I voted for 4. Great pics!

I voted for a few outstanding ones. They're all quite good.

I liked them all so much I voted for every one!

Yeah, me too!

Thanks all for taking a look, and for the kind words. Keep the votes coming, everyone. About a dozen votes didn't get registered -- the quick script I whipped up just logs the referer, and it seems some browsers don't pass that back. I'll be able to recover the missing votes from the access logs, thankfully.

Cheers,

I'm going to vote now...

cheers, Thomas

me i voted 3
i live in New Zealand

Hmm... very strange. I was trying to reconstruct the votes from the browsers that didn't include referer links, and I discovered that all of them came from the same IP address, and semi-regular intervals over the course of the day, from 07:54 PST, to 19:54 PST.

Unfortunately, I can't figure out which ones these votes are attached to (possibly due to browser or proxy caches being hit, rather than my server), so for whoever it is in the 192.127.*.* address space, if you want your votes to count, you'll need to re-vote (I've modified the voting script so it no longer requires the referer). Sorry 'bout all that. Rookie web developer mistake.

They are all so beautifully taken photos but I finally voted for Tree near ferry landing #8..

Good luck with your contest and show us the picts when you get back!!!

Sean in NC

Are you using a router or proxy to get into a NAT space? It might be that the votes are fine, just that you are seeing everything coming through a redirecting IP address...

Are you using a router or proxy to get into a NAT space? It might be that the votes are fine, just that you are seeing everything coming through a redirecting IP address...

I have a Linux machine acting as a firewall, which is doing NAT, as well as port forwarding for HTTP. However, the IP address in question isn't one of mine -- according to host/nslookup, the address is in a block reserved for NCR Corporation. My ISP is a customer of NCR, but if there's any redirection through them, it's nothing I can control.

I've had a few more hits from that address, and if it's not some random process, then someone's got an out-of-date cache -- all my current pages call the CGI script with a parameter, but there weren't any parameters given in the access from this particular address.

Hmm... some wag out there voted for everything. Not too helpful when the goal is to use the votes to help narrow the field down to three submissions.

You got my 3 votes.
Nice work and good luck!

I voted for 3, 1 per category.

Speaking of "not too helpful," and not to imply my digicam skills rank with yours, but I have a few shots from my October '03 trip to NZ that I could submit in this contest (I'd love to go back; I didn't get to the south island because of unseasonable weather). By "local shop," you mean there in LA? Is it just for local customers?

Is it just for local customers?

Not that I'm aware of. Deadline for entry is Feb. 17th, though, so if you can get them printed and mailed in time, you should be fine. However (presumably because they're not accepting submissions electronically), I can't find an online version of the entry form. The only mention of the contest I can find online is here. If you really want to enter, you could give them a call at the Beverly Hills office (which is where the photos are supposed to be sent to), and have them fax you an entry form.

If you want more details, let me know.

Okay, I'm taking film to the lab tomorrow to get a set of 5x7 "proofs" made. I'll make my final selection based partly on how those turn out, and partly on the results of the poll.

Current tally:

17 votes each:
.....#27 Sun peeking through forest.**
.....#08 Tree near ferry landing.**
8 votes:
.....#03 Shy kids.*
7 votes each:
.....#13 Girls at Chowpatty Beach.**
.....#10 Fishing boat near Haji Ali.*
.....#09 Pigeons.
6 votes:
.....#18 Girl near Gateway of India. (close up)**
5 votes:
.....#04 Saddles at Costa Rican ranch.*
4 votes each:
.....#30 Petting the cat.*
.....#02 Row of houses in San Jose.
.....#01 Civil War bullet holes.
3 votes each:
.....#32 Elephant.
.....#21 Fisherman.*
.....#15 Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai
2 votes each:
.....#31 Carrying water through rice field.*
.....#14 Ancient carving.*
.....#11 Boats at Chowpatty Beach, Bombay.**
.....#07 Sunglasses vendor.
.....#06 Church doors.
1 vote each:
.....#28 Bike mechanic.**
.....#26 Morning mist.*
.....#24 Bison River resort, near Dandeli.
.....#19 Cyclists on country road, near Alibag.
.....#17 Girl near Gateway of India.
.....#16 City cow.
.....#05 Ranch hand.

* are still in the running.
** are my personal front runners.

I'm actually pretty surprised by the way some of the votes fell. Some of the ones I thought were just kind of so-so did well, while the ones I thought were better didn't do as well as I thought they would.

Cheers,

PS... oh, what I'd have given for a [table] tag.

I think the fact that two of your images received more than double the votes of any others gives you a strong indication for at least two of your three choices...

Yeah, these results make sense to me; if I hadn't limited myself to one pic in ea. of the contest's stated categories, I would've voted for #27 as well as the one I did vote for, #08. And I was also torn betw. #13 & #18 in the people category.

And many thanks for sharing the info; since Samy's has a toll-free number, I may give them a call about the contest.