Categories
I'm taking any large scale, rideable, model railroading subject.
Including: "Steam", "Diesel", "Trolleys", "Traction Locomotives", "Rolling
Stock" or almost anything else. The categories are:
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Realistic I enjoy photos of trains that are hard to tell from the actual
prototype. There are many ways of using "tricks of scale" to fool the eye
like shooting from a low angle, keeping the background a little out of focus and
use of fog or smoke to give the feeling of distance. Here
is a good test to determine if a photo comes under the category "Realistic":
If no humans are visible in the photo, I call it a Realistic photo.
Sorry, No Computer Tricks allowed in the
Realistic Category.
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People enjoying Live steam I always liked photos of
people (little kids and us bigger kids) enjoying the hobby.
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Kids in the Live
Steam Hobby (its back to stay)
"Kids (up to 12 years of age) actively pursuing the Live Steam/Diesel hobby".
Sure, all kids like trains. But some kids really love railroading and have
a real respect for workman ship and time that goes into those wonderful
locomotives and cars. We are looking for photos of kid engineers, kids
building equipment or maintaining track and rolling stock, kids working in other
capacities. These are serious kids, "The future live steamers of the
world" (photos of kids riding in railroad cars, not actively
working in the hobby, should be entered under the "People enjoying Live Steam"
category).
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Special Category 2008: "Close Ups"
and "Structures"
Close Ups Close up photography of both model and full scale locomotives and
cars.
Structures Track side
buildings and towers. Both model and full scale will be excepted.
Sorry, no prizes for this category. If a sponsor steps
forward with a special prize for us, this could change.
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The Special Category for
2008 is...
"Close Ups" and
"Structures"
Both Rideable Scale Railroading
and Full Scale Railroading
Close-Ups. Be sure to use the close-up setting on your
digital camera or it will be blurry. |
Photo
Submission
Limit yourself to one photo per category (4 photos total).
There will be a maximum of ONE PRIZE WINNER per household.
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You nominate the winners (starting in
November)
Anyone can vote. Only one ballet per e-mail address
please. The top vote getters will be the finalists. The order of the
winners (1st prize, 2nd etc.) will be chosen by an expert panel of judges made
up of last year's winners and our sponsors. |
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Submitting Photos
We need to limit the photos to keep the contest
manageable.
We are limiting the number of photos to 100 total.
Anyone can enter, (see Rules).
except for those that received a prize in last
year's contest. You will need to limit yourself to 1
photograph per subject (4 total). Be sure to send no more than 1 photo for
each category!
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Submit a photo by clicking here:
Photo
Submission
Photo formats I can use are jpg (preferred), gif, bmp. Submitted
photos should be 800 pixels wide or 800 high maximum. (I will reduce them if you
can not). |
Please be ready with following information:
- Title of the photograph (if you can't think of one, I'll
think of something).
- Your name, (the name everyone knows you as...such as..."Skeeter
Brock")
- The photographers name (If you are not the photographer, I
need the name of the person that actually took the photograph. He/She will
be the prize winner. Make sure he or she knows the photo is being entered)
- Interesting information for the caption: What type or wheel
arrangement is the locomotive (if known) and/or the manufacture of the equipment
(i.e.: MDM diesel/electric model SD50 or Little Engines 4-4-0 American) Any
other interesting or useful information such as the location photo was taken,
(i.e.; "Illinois Live Steamers track, Chicago Illinois" or "my private track in
West Texas"), the name of the folks in the picture, or what's happening in the
picture, anything you want to add (i.e.: date loco was built, "Bill and Joe
blowing off steam", "Frank's first time out with the new engine" etc.)
NO EMAIL ADDRESS WILL BE POSTED IN THE CONTEST.
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Prizes
Prizes will be shipped direct from the sponsor.
Shipping will be via common carrier, UPS, FedEX etc. FOB: the continental US.
Normal shipping costs are the responsibility of the sponsor . Additional
off shore shipping and export arrangements are the responsibly of the winners.
A cash prize in place of the standard prize my be arranged if agreeable to by
both parties.
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Rules
- Photos must be your property, taken by you,
not copied from another source.
- The photo must be free of copy write restrictions. In other
words, the entered photo can not have been published someplace else such as
another web site or a magazine.
- All photos submitted become the property of
Discoverlivesteam. You can still use your photos for other purposes.
I would ask that you let me know if you need to use them some place else.
- If you did not receive a prize last year you are eligible to
win this year. If you live in my house, you can not win a prize. All others,
except last years winners, are eligible.
Sorry, only one set (4) of photos (one from each category) per
household.
Photo Shop Editing (digital image manipulation)
Many digital cameras come with software programs to "fix" your photos.
If you need to remove "Red Eye" or correct color or some other problem, go
ahead, that's OK. When it comes to extensive digital manipulation, we do
not have a category for photos created mostly by software. In other words,
we can not use photos that have undergone moderate to extensive digital
reworking. If you have any questions on this issue, send in your
photo, I'll take a look at it.
Contest Ends
The submission of photos ends when we reach 80 photos. A
winner will be selected when voting and judging is complete. |
Contest Sponsorship
The placement of
sponsor's "banners" receives a ton of exposure. We are
promoting this hobby to the ever increasing number of live steamers that are on
line. Most of these steamers have been in the hobby for years and are
happy to find web sites for live steam suppliers. Others are just finding
out about live steam railroading. Those folks look to this website as a
starting point. Discover Live Steam specializes in resource data such as
the most complete data base of
Live Steam Tracks and
Clubs any where! And a comprehensive listing of
suppliers by gauge.
This is a
once a year opportunity. Don't miss out.
Sponsors can provide
a "banner" ad for us to place or we will design a banner ad (with a link to your web site). Custom banner design is
included. Banner placement in the
contest and size is based on the value of the prizes
offered.
If you are
interested in sponsorship for this year's contest, email me. |
History of the Photo
Contest
This
hobby is made for photography. The models look so real, the people riding
are almost always smiling. How can you miss? The
first
year, 1999, I wrote everyone I knew in the hobby and asked for photos. We had
some great ones.
In our
second year I changed the name of the web site from Jim's Live Steam to
discoverlivesteam.com. Also that year we spilt the photos into
"categories". During the first contest I noticed the photos could easily
be grouped as "realistic" or "people having fun". That same year we
introduced "prizes" donated by Real Trains, Little Engines, Cannonball and
Mountain Car. And these prizes were very generous.
The
third contest we really started rolling. We had nine sponsors and 45
photos entered. Live Steamers looked forward to the contest to see some really
nice equipment and to see what was new in the hobby. We had photos not just from
North America but also from England and France.
In
2003 we offered a special category, "Kids in the Live Steam Hobby". It
proved so popular we made it a permanent feature.
The
contest was getting big. We had to limit the number of photos if folks were to
be able to seem them all in one evening at the computer. This was tough to
do. I didn't want to turn down anyone. Only the first 80 photos will be
excepted. Please
send them in early. |
Vote
VOTE for your
favorites
Voting will start in
Mid-November. The voting page will be
posted when the voting starts. Watch this space.
Enjoy,
Jim O'Connor.
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