A few weeks ago I entered into a contest on picture.com. I did it just for kicks, I didn't expect anything. I got a letter yesturday saying not only is my picture going to the semi-finals, but I will befeatured in an upcoming anthology, "Endless Journeys" (working title). The picture I had submitted was "Our America"

Congratulations!!!That is an awesome picture! I noticed that you entered it in DeviantArt. My daughter has a photo that got 2nd place recently.

Good luck in the semi's and would love to see the anthology when it comes out!
Kerri

That's an awesome photo!

I hate HATE hate to tell you this, but picture.com is sorta a scam site. If you google "picture.com contest scam" you'll find tons of posts about them. They respond to pretty much every submission with a "You Won!" email and then send you an "invitation" to be published in one of their books. The scam part is that you have to pay to be in the book and to get your "trophy" for winning. I entered a photo years ago and when I "won" I was so excited, too. Then I started getting all the letters asking me for money and I got suspicious. I googled 'em and found LOTS of negative info about them. To test it, I had a friend of mine submit a photo that was NOT GOOD and surprise, surprise, she was a winner, too. It was pretty disappointing.

Even more sucky, I STILL get mail from them, telling me I'm a winner - MORE THAN THREE YEARS LATER. Oh, well!

Great photo, though!! Sorry about the bad news

What Sarah said. :|

I won with a point & shoot that shouldn't have been let out of my cam let alone published. I know this 5 yrs later.

They want you to buy the book. They'll bug you for the next 5 years about buying crap. (The photo is very nice and I'm sorry to be piling on about Picture.com but it's sort of a joke of a site)

Here's my "winner" lol http://www.picture.com/picturebuy/product_info.asp?ID=990994

M

It's a beautiful photo though!

Yup...sorry to say, but +1 on this. These are the same geniuses behind the huge poetry.com scam.

Oh my gosh! I know all about Poetry.com! I almost got conned with that.
What a huge bummer to read this! Sorry guy! But take heart it is still the same photo that you are proud of! And we all like it!

Kerri

no i got a letter in the mail, it says the book will be published in winter of 08, but im not obligated to purchase anything.

edit*

after looking through some other stuff, i can honestly say....

WHAT.
THE.
F***!!!!!

Someone should go to Owings mill, MD and rip them a new one

Yes, they send the letter in the mail as well. In fact, they won't STOP sending you letters in the mail. Ever. For the rest of your life. Hehehe...

You're certainly not obligated to purchase anything, but then you'll never see it. The only way these scammers survive is by the people that actually order the book because they're excited to see their work in print.

Sorry to say.

yeah i just looked through a bunch of sites about it. well congrads picture.com, you alone have reached the epitomy of douchedom.


someone delete this thread this is just embarassing.

It is ok...we are all winners here no matter what...

/starts the one man clap that turns into the entire OSP clan...

hahaha, o well, anyone know of any LEGIT contests?

Enter the WPPI print competition next year. Go to Vegas and sit in on the judging. It is WORTH IT!!

I still get emails about a picture from 2002 from picture.com HERE it is

don't worry about it!

I remember when I was SOOOOOOOO DARN excited because a businessman in Nigeria wanted to decorate his new office building with my beautiful pictures. (I really was excited about it -- so embarassing). He just wanted to over pay me and have me wire him back his "change". Once it got to that point, I told him PayPal invoice, paid, funds in my PayPal account, or no deal. Never heard from him again... hmmmm.... bummer. I had to figure out different ways to go global

Don't be embarrassed... I "won" too, back in 2002.

People love to take advantage!

THIS THREAD COULD GET FUN

REALLY

how have these guys not been shut down? I'm baffled by it.

Yeah I made the mistake of entering a picture at the beginning of the summer. The emails never stop Ugh.

Yep.. I made the same mistake too and won! What a crock...

Sorry, I know it's a big let down. Your picture is great!

hey, that's only about an hour from here. not that *i* would ever leave a bag of flaming poo on anyone's doorstep for running scams, but i'm just sayin'... that crap just isn't cool and they would deserve it if someone did.

That sucks, but it is an awesome picture!!!!

haha if i were an hour away i might have a mind to do that

but o well, glad you guys like it at least.

Lol, I was a "winner" as well...

and my then boyfriend bought me the book. In fact, it was him that bought me the camera. I'm a lot smarter now.

I still have the book somewhere. I still have the boyfriend, too, only now he's my husband.

Live and learn...

Screw them! Great photo though! That's what counts..enter it somewhere else.

I won too.. for a photo that I didn't even enter. They found it off of my blog!! And I still get spam from them all the time.

Your picture is great!

No, but this winter...when the first snow falls...a flaming snowman might do such a thing.

If he had access to a big bag of sasquatch poo.

Yeah man, the picture is cool! There are legit sites out there that will accept you as an individual artist entering a contest...just got to do some research and in the process you probably will learn a great deal that you can help teach others! ie, NOT TO USE picture dot come again!

I had entered on the Poetry dot com site years ago and got the same junk about being a "semi-finalist" Waahooo! I even bought the book for the "fractioned off price"...but all in all, even if you get the book or whatever they sell along with it...you can still say that you were "published", because after all, it is in the book whether picture form or poetry. You could always get it and put it on your studio shelf and share it with others who visit!

The greatest thing this company could do is to get honest, really honest with their advertising....! Like how about, "Enter picture.com and everybody is a winner! We care about your pictures so much we will enter them into a book that you can purchase from us! And you will be a published photographer!" or something zany like that!

Just my spare change on the idea!