In response to Jeff Schultz' comments about the TRAINS photo contest I like to offer my point of view; not in defense of TRAINS or to criticize Jeff.
I think that there are probably only half a dozen folks at TRAINS who do the judging. I might be off by plus or minus a body. In the past, they have projected every entry on the first pass, saving the "oooohs and ahhhs" for another go round. I'm not sure how long this process lasts before they are down to the finalists. Then, the real judging begins with arguments for and against each entry. Finally, you (we) see the results. This is somewhat time-consuming for a group of people who have other tasks to perform on jobs that require deadlines. My point here is that maybe they can't spend as much time judging all the good material that they would like to. Another, and very important point is that each of the judges like particular types of shots and/or subjects. So, the basis for selection is highly subjective with a very small population doing the selecting. (Dave Cohen knows all about that!) Imagine if TRAINS published their selections of finalists and asked readers to do the final voting. Only a small percentage of readers would probably bother, but I'd be willing to bet that the results would be different just because there is a larger population of subjective voters. And when all is said and done, there would still be many with views that the wrong photo won, or all entries were weak, or.....and the list goes on. JCL -> SPORRS: 'Serious Photographers Of Railroad Related Subjects' -> Web Site: http://www.anet-stl.com/acphotog/sporrs/ -> Message © 1998 SPORRS® - All Rights Reserved
