Last night Colon made the nicest comment and it totally made my day! ....and it reminded me of the story of the little boy who wished that everything he touched would turn to gold and the wish was granted and then he died because when he would try and eat his food would turn to gold. bummer. :)

Also! the OpenPhotoContest has been rocking! Sign up AND SUBMIT A PHOTO fast to take advantage of the 1/2 off special and for your chance to win an 85mm f1.2 lens (or equivalent) worth $1,800!!! We're giving that away to the winner of the "Stellar Brides" contest and what is so cool is that YOU choose the winner! 162 people are already registered on the site and we've been receiving thousands of votes EACH DAY! Checkout how fun it is to pick your favorite images by clicking here. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Opensourcep...89/so-cool.html

So cool DJ! You have an amazing little brain in there... if I could just think of one of your ideas!!
Someday....

Just signed up, Thank you!


Ariel Green

www.AnikaLondonMedia.com

Very cool DJ! Congrats!

There is defiantly a grace on your life to do what you do; that only comes from God above. I pray continued blessings on your family, life, and business.

Bryce

Thanks you guys! This is turning out to be one of my favorite projects! All day I go on the site and look through the pictures that people submit and to see everyone signing up and how fun it will be when the first contest launches and the whole community gets to decide the winners!

I really think this is the way it should be and when I saw other contests started charging $240 to join and $10 to enter a photo I knew I had to do something about it and do my best to keep it affordable too!

DJ, real voting doesn't start for awhile yet though right? So we don't need to have the images in until the vote starts?

Plus what if you don't want to vote for any of the 4 choices? Something you may not have voted for gets a vote. Is there going to be a next button so you don't have to vote on something just to advance the set?

Good question frank! If you don't like any of the choices you can refresh the page and it'll give you new choices but an advance button is a great idea!

Yea - A few of the contests will close early next year but I'll be sure to send out reminders when the deadlines are approaching.

If you have any other ideas on how we can make this better please post'em up. I'd love to hear anything and everything!

Rock on!
DJ

yea, its cool that your contest is free to enter...whats REALLY cool is that this is going to stir up a TON of interest in your new web templates AND get you enough content to fill those templates.

can't wait to check out the templates man!

Hey Shawn, Sorry to confuse you and just to be clear OpenPhotoContest isn't free to enter but it is way cheaper than the other contests out there so that's super cool!

Also, I actually don't have any web templates planned. I think that web templates are going to be a thing of the past very soon and I highly encourage everyone to not buy any type of web template or you will regret it.

Is that some of Mike Colon's images that I see in there?? Wow... um... I thought about joining and adding some photos in and what not.... But I don't have a shot in h e double hockey sticks with that calibor of photographer in there.

Cool idea though.... Maybe next year. I have some shots I think are good but... I'd hide them in comparison to these images. Beautiful

I know you're an extremely busy man, but any sort of time estimate before that is released would be great, as some of us need sites soon and there are sales until the end of the year with many template people! Thanks DJ

I don't think any of Mike's pics are in there. Which one did you think was his? ...and ya never know until ya try.

sorry dude, someone told me that you were creating a site builder and thats what i was thinking of...can't wait to hear more detials about that one!

Do you pay to enter yourown photos DJ? I saw at least one David Jay image in every 4 that I looked at...

I agree that they will be a thing of the past soon...but the end of year sales are very tempting and I need something better than what I have right now for the next few months to get my calendar rounded out. If my template site gets me through that it will be worth it....unless there is a 'showit sites' announcement in the immediate future that is.

~rc

Hey David .... I will NOT be entering the contests...the sample right now is a demo and actually 1 out of every 3 shots is mine! We had to use mostly my images for the sample BETA contest so we could show an example but again I won't be entering the actual contests because I can see behind the curtain so that of course wouldn't be fair.

It's really cool to see everyone voting! Already over 1,165+ votes today! ...and it's only 10am! So fun!

I guess I am still confused DJ.

Are people only voting on OPC Beta?
Should people not enter the beta contest because everything there already has such a huge head start in voting?

The actual contest/voting does not start until after the submission deadline dates right? It seems like you are planning to get everything in first and then start the voting?

I think it is missing a candid/PJ section? There is prepared and stellar, but a lot of wedding things don't fit into either of these two. Plus portrait isn't really portrait when you read the description of it. It sounds more "family portrait" than portrait?


Stellar Brides (Wedding) Submit By 1/1/08
Traveling (General) Submit By 12/31/07
Engaging (Wedding) Submit By 12/31/07
Prepared (Wedding) Submit By 12/31/07
Family Time (Portrait) Submit By 12/25/07
OPC Beta (Wedding) Closes on 1/5/08

Thanks.

Hey Frank! Yea Good questions! -

Our main goal is to just get the BEST work out there so everyone can see it! We want to give everyone equal opportunity to enter and win contests judged by the community with very few guidlines, restrictions or associations. We want to see the Niiiiiiiiiiiicest shots and be inspired by them and learn from the photographs that everyone loves!

The way the contest(s) work is:

1. Submission Starts - There is a submission period in which no photos are displayed for that contest. Currently ALL contests are in that stage.

2. Submission Closes - Voting Starts - Then after the submission process ends the contest is launched and people can vote on it for another couple of weeks. NO MORE PHOTOS CAN BE SUBMITTED INTO A CONTEST AFTER VOTING STARTS because votes are already being tallied. This is why we will stagger the launch date so there will always be contests to vote on.

3. Voting Closes - Winners announced! Yea!

Each month will have a new variety of contests to enter and I agree that a PJ section is a must and yea we did intend for our portrait to be more portrait and less weddingy but if you did get a good portrait at a wedding feel free to submit that as well.

Again, this is for everyone so any ideas on how to make it easier, better, more fun please post'em up!

Thanks man, I'm sure that clears up a lot of things.

Another Niiiiiiiicce idea by crew DJ

As a freedom club member, and someone that has all of your fabulous products (and stands behind each and every one), you can bet I'm stoked about the Showit sites and can't wait to see what you have been working on!

Rock on Bud!

I wish you many blessings and happiness for the holidays and always.

Ohhhh Actually I think they were your photos not Mike's. I knew I had seen them before and I culdn't put my finger on where. It was the shots of the guys in the supermarket and a few others. I bet they were of yours now that I think about it.

Can I ask a question though?
It doesn't say anything about what "credits" are actually worth. or how much they cost to rebuy etc, except the initial fee.
I'd love to know a little bit more about what the credits mean. Does 1 credit equal one photo entry? Is each credit a certain amount of money?

Please let me know, I might still be interested, but not knowing this info is kindof like entering it a little blind financially.

Thanks!!

Good questions Jeff - yea - each contest is a different amount of credits and some contests are only 1 credit to enter and other contests are up to 5 credits. The Stellar Brides contest which has a prize of an 85mm 1.2 lens is 5 credits. Where as the Travel contest which has a price of a Lensbaby is only 1 credit to enter.

You get 50 credits when you join and then after that there are different credit packages you can buy to allow you to submit more pictures and they are roughly $1 each but as you buy bigger packages you get them for a bit cheaper.