And the nominees are....

[Jonathan Bird]

Time to vote for the winner of the second UWPhotoChat photo contest! Winner shall receive glorious praise, a place of honor on the splash page and well, not much else!!

The nominees are:

1. Ralph's soft coral:
http://www.ralphoberlander.com/images2/f003.jpg

2. Alan's basket star on soft coral:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/adsads/Eastport/basketandcoral11a.jpg

3. Ken's Goby
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d151/buchhawk/Malinbegjuly2Gobycrop.jpg

4. Mark's Sea Turtle
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i284/mongo255/Copyright%20Pics/VerticalTurtle-Edit.jpg

5. beau_gust's Sea lion:
http://www.uwphotochat.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=87&d=1164591190

VOTE NOW!

[Jonathan Bird]

I'm bumping it up to the top so people see this thread....

[mark eaton]

Perhaps I am being dense. How do I vote? I know I am going to feel stupid hit me with the blindingly obvious.

As you were, just found the voting form. DOH!

[Clay Coleman]

Mark: You should have little circles in which to cast your vote when logged in. Is this not happening for you? -Clay

[mark eaton]

Thanks Clay, but i had sorted it, I was not logged in!

[Daniel]

For what it's worth, I feel that all the submissions are great. I realize you can only have one winner, but they all deserve an honerable mention.

Cheers!
Daniel :)

[Jonathan Bird]

I agree Daniel, and this is one of the reasons I do not really believe in photo "contests" (implying one photo is somehow "better" than others.) Photography is very subjective. Nudibranch portraits might do it for one person, and sea lion face shots will do it for another. In a traditional photo contest, such as organized by a dive club or something, I have always pushed for the idea of a photo exhibit, rather than a contest, where all images that meet some kind of judging criteria are displayed, and nobody "wins." Unfortunately, they always seem to need to have a "winner" and a prize that goes with it. (I'm not against the concept of winning, such as in a game of soccer, just to keep people from having self-esteem issues, I just really think photography is very subjective. I mean, imagine if you had a painting contest between Van Gogh and Picasso. Who would win? Would that make the other a loser?)

In our case, this thread and the previous one are the "galleries" and the only reason we have a winner is so we can put the image on the home page. The image that wins this poll is simply the image that the majority of the people found most pleasing/interesting but the others are outstanding. In fact, it was a tough choice getting it down to 5 semi-finalists. There were outstanding images in the original submission thread that aren't here.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

Only three more days to vote!!!!

[Bodie]

Great photos all, very tough choice.

[Jonathan Bird]

WOW! A tight and close race! By the smallest margin, beau_gust's Sea lion takes the win! Congratulations to everyone for fantastic pics.

beau_gust: please contact me about putting your picture on the home page!

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

Congratulations to Kurt Schurenberg (beau_gust) whose amazing sea lion shot now graces the opening page of UWPhoto Chat for the next couple of months! NICE SHOT KURT!!!

http://www.uwphotochat.com/

I guess it's time to open the bidding to the next contest....


Stand by.....


Jonathan