Second Life is full of contests….from ‘BEST IN RED’ to writing competitions, photography, modelling and logos. Some of these contests are judged, some are put to votes, some are legitimate, and others are shady as hell.
Photo contests seem to be one of the most common, after the BEST IN type, and personally I can’t stand, never enter and never vote in pay-to-vote contests, because the winner inevitably comes from the largest Tiny Empires Kingdom or Bloodlines Clan, its pointless although a great money maker for the person running the contest.
Judged contests in theory should be better, someone independent judging the quality of the entries sounds nice, however this has issues too, there have been times where ineligible entries have won, or the contest just fizzles out of existence altogether with no winner (yes I’m talking about you Hoorenbeek). I wanted to enter a judged contest, with clear end date that was happening in-world. I found one……..
As some of you may know, I had a few issues with the PhotoLIFE group a few months back. But, they were running a ‘Album Cover Art’ contest that I wanted to enter but due to the history felt that I couldn’t enter as myself. I am using this contest because it is inworld, not Flickr has restricted entry of 1 image per person and maximum of 50 entries. It’s a manageable size for me to show you all the entrants. So I entered under my alt. Katey at Glitterati generously made me a custom pose for the contest (although I didn’t tell her what I was doing) and I went to work.
Here is a copy of the rules of the contest:
photoLIFE Cover Art Contest
This is a contest of photographers who can make the best SL photo reproduction of ANY musical album cover using their photoLIFE 3.0 studio and in world building skills.
50 contestants will be allowed to enter. Here’s how.
Contest Rules
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*From now until October 3 select and begin to work on your cover art photograph reproduction.
*Photographs must be done with the photoLIFE 3.0 Studio.
*On Saturday October 3rd , 50 Entry Panels will be available at the photoLIFE store in Opium.
*Entries will be available throughout October until they fill up or until October 30 when a winner will be selected.
*You may NOT use any original cover artwork in your photograph.
*The cover art texture must be full permissions – this is for contest purposes only and will not be redistrubuted.
*The name of the texture must be the name of the artist – album …. An example is Journey – Escape.
*Post processing is allowed but should be only be done tastefully with the primary focus on in-world creativity.
*Only one entry per photographer
*The cover art texture should be 1:1 ratioJudging
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Judges will be instructed to select entries who display the most creativity and accurate SL reproduction of the original album cover. Complexity of the reproduction will also be a determening factor. Photographs that are overly processed meaning obviously heavily photoshopped will be less likely to win than one that only relied on processing for avatar blemishes and fontwork.Prizes
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1st Place – photoLIFE 2009 Cover Artist Award – 10,000L
2nd Place – photoLIFE 2009 Cover Art Contest Runner-Up Plaque – 2,000L
3rd Place – photoLIFE 2009 Cover Art Contest 3rd Place Certificate – 500LThe Winner Will Be Announced October 31
LIFE is GOOD
-Oom
I am writing this blog with no malice intended to PhotoLIFE, I chose this contest to blog as it was all based in-world and not Flickr, and I know from previous experience that they do end their contests when they say they will. I am not going to pass comment on the merits of the winner, I’ll leave that to you, when it happens. I do not know who the judges are either at this time. Before anyone starts screaming about me being a hypocrite and showing images without getting permission first, the images below are covered by Fair Use. 
11th October – Uploaded my image and entered it into the contest.
There were several other entries on the board already, although all spaces hadn’t been filled. I am not going to reveal which entry is mine till the end.
16th October – went back to the PL store to check on any new entries, all but 4 slots were filled.
27th October, only a few days before the contest ends and there are some new entries.
30th October – Contest ends and will be announced after 7pmSLT on the 31st, tried to find out who the judges were again with no luck, if they are not revealed when the winners are then they will stay anonymous.
31st October
The Winners are……. remember the judging criteria “Judges will be instructed to select entries who display the most creativity and accurate SL reproduction of the original album cover. Complexity of the reproduction will also be a determening factor. Photographs that are overly processed meaning obviously heavily photoshopped will be less likely to win than one that only relied on processing for avatar blemishes and fontwork.”
1st Prize Winner…. Corinne Helendale for Debbie Harry – KooKoo
2nd Prize Winners – Brie Pinazzo for Pink – Funhouse and Talyia Tarber for Asia – Astra, Brie and Talyia are both PhotoLIFE Master Photographers.
3rd Prize Winners – Ando Joubert for Catherine Wheel – Chrome, Shareen99 Foggarty for Fleetwood Mac – Rumours and Serene Fall for The Clash, London Calling
So, What do you think of the winners? Do you think the best picture won? There were 19 entries and 6 winners in the end. I changed my mind, I’m not going to tell you which one is mine, although it’s fairly obvious 
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Hmmm.. well I do agree with the 1st place winner, quality of avatar and treatment is spot on.
I thought Chrome and Close to you are pretty good too.
I actually do like the pic that won…for once. I had to google the original cover and I think it is a good SL version of it. I did like Brie's "Pink" one as well. The rest…not so much. Lotta overprocessing though.
I would have picked London Calling as your picture, but its not…and I wanna know!!! Katey Perry?
I also think judges names should be revealed after the contest ended. Why hide them? Its not like they can be bullied or influenced now?
I am in total agreement with you about the majority of contests in SL. I have always had a niggle about the previous pL contests held in conjunction with stores where pL photographers always won. I always felt it was a conflict of interest in a way. Like all those other photo comps you see where the store owner's "sister" ends up winning.
I like many of these but it doesn't surprise me at all that the contest winners are already folks majorly supporting this 'company'.
I think the best photos won. Had I been a judge and I wasn't, the winning first place photo would have definitely been Corinne Helendale.
My favourites are the one that won, the Asia one and Chrome. I have absolutely no idea which one's yours – I would have guessed London Calling.
I know which one is yours and i love it… Pretty authentic
As for the whole spin on competitions, i don't enter them usually, although i've been in a couple of DJ competitions and will be running one next year. I find that there is always something usually a little fishy about the whole thing, it's hard to place, but having seen things happen to a friend of mine in a photo comp, which were apparently 'accidents' then i'm always scpetical…
This is the first contest ever I think that the picture I liked best won. Yay!! All the entries were super cool, imo, and most were spot on. Excellent competition! Dying to know which one was yours
I'm kind of surprised. The ones I would have picked are the ones that actually won. I usually avoid contests like the plague in SL, for the same reasons Darkly does.
My one was London Calling
Man my hat is off to the judges. This was an incredibly hard one to pick, because there are so many exemplary photos. I honestly don't know that i could have picked, but I think that the judges would have had a hard time going wrong with this one … shame there could only be six winners cause there are so many deserving ones
hahaha You sneaky bint! Looks cute though. Some of the entries were really cool.
I tend to avoid contests, because every time I enter one, I always lose to someone with a far lesser product, and mainly because they are 'big in the community' or just buddy buddy with the judges. Especially in the really big name contests, it bothers me. And that's not to say that I should always win, but when someone with a far lesser product than mine, or other people in the competition are passed over for someone's buddy. It really puts a damper on the whole situation, why even bother trying?