Photo Contest @ MindSay

There are now seventy amazing pictures of Ontario Tourist Attractions

on this cool new photo contest website.

Starting in september, Lenzr has been collecting Ontario Tourist Attractions pictures and is set-up to make participants slightly nostalgic and reminiscent of their own family road trips across this great big province. They should reflect on all the places they stopped wherein family pictures for scrapbooks and photo albums occured. The Big Nickle was submitted by sj_gb who delights the admin by linking to a personal photography blogspot in the designated area in the user profile.  This contest is a search for pictures that celebrate of our province’s most interesting destinations, and The Big Nickle is a classic. Look at these other gems, This photo by Slimmswitch is called Ottawa - The Spider City and so far it has the most votes with the highest rating.

Caption: Located in Ottawa, if you stand under this huge spider and look up you can actually see they put fake spider eggs inside the structure??

The one is titled, No Pesky Neighbours Here and was uploaded by mommakoala. This is a terrific photo from 1000 islands tourist attraction in the most eastern corner of Ontario.

Lenzr is an online attraction that celebrates Ontario as it asks users to upload scenic shots of the province's most delightful destinations. Ontario Tourist Attractions photo contest on Lenzr sponsored by Kanetix insurance & mortgage rate quotes This photo contest ends 12:01 am on the morning of November 1st 2009. Two Prizes: both cash prizes. There’s a $200 value first prize, followed by a $100 second prize unit.

I had followed a link in another mindsayers post many months ago and entered an on-line photo contest at

www.photo.com  .  Then I promptly forgot about it - it was a monthly contest and obviously I didn't get a notification so didn't get selected for my photo of a windmill in Texas :

>

 

So today, imagine my surprise when I thought I had received an early Christmas gift! 

A notification letter in the U.S. mail from the  International Library of Photography ( aka photo dot com )saying my pic had been chosen for publication!!

It included a form to give them permission to publish, a promise of a copywrite notice to accompiany the picture, a sample of my photo, right there in the letter, wow!  And the proposed name of the book of photos that was to be published in early 2008. 

And that's not all!  They listed the library of congress serial number for the book!  AND told me I was still eligible to be selected from those in the book, for a prize ranging from a modest $25 medallion, to the $1,000 first place!

But wait!  There's more!  For a low, low, price, I could pen my own 'photographer's bio' to be published with my winning entry!  And if all that isn't enough, I have first shot at buying the book at a low, low, pre-publication rate of ONLY $70 !!!

 

MY GOD!!  (how expensive is that book gonna be if that's the discount price?)

 

But don't worry, they said, "BRUCE, you don't have to buy the book, your photo has already been selected for publication".

 

So, looking outdoors to my pickup truck, I clearly see it is NOT full of turnips, thus I couldn't have just fallen off it, and I googled. 

 *did you ever notice that without the ogle, googled spells GOD?* 

I digress.

 

This outfit has been running this scam legally since 1999! 

http://www.betterphoto.com/forms/QnAdetail.asp?threadID=12825 

http://www.acecam.com/photography/11077.html

They apparently manage to repay disgruntled ripped off customers so the multitude of Better Business Bureau complaints against the Owings Mills, Maryland company must get recorded as settled.  But think of the millions they must get every year from people falling for this overt expensive form of vanity publishing.  Oh yes, they do occasionally publish a book, and some people in various forums say they have received it, and it does contain their photo.  But people, SEVENTY DOLLARS?????   To get ONE picture published??????

You know, if this company was legit, they could actually make a decent living by being honest, soliciting photos, and publishing them in book form with the pre-order payment of the contributors.  They could sell it to them at cost and then maybe even sell it on-line as a product with NO complaints against it that would encourage more photog wannabes to get in on the next publications.

In my letter, they call it Endless Journeys - the title they used according to some people who complained way back in 2003 !  They also use the same ISBN # 0-7591-5247-7 that they have used for years and years (it is different from the books that they really have published).

 

One response to the HUNDREDS of on-line complaints suggest going to Kodak.com and arranging to publish your OWN book of photos.  I haven't researched that yet, but really, wouldn't THAT be worth a hundred bucks?  To have a coffee table book filled with nothing but your OWN great photos?  Look into it, and please, please, please, don't fall for this photo.com scam.

 

OK, I looked into it for you (your welcome).  Kodak photobooks two styles, one $30 one $70 - the Legacy is the more expensive, 12" x 14" hardbound with a leather cover, 10 single print pages, or 20 double sided pages (40 pictures!) , that can be increased up to 40 single side, or 80 double side (uncertain of the costs of the larger page counts).  And right now?  Offering 20% off AND free shipping!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/PhotoBookOverview.jsp 

 

But I guess as long as photo.com can trick people into throwing money away on a product that may never even be published, they will continue to do so.

 

 

From where I live the hiway into town has some of the few remaining giant billboards. One in particular remains neglected for extended periods between being changed. That, basically, is the billboard you see above. The ocean is a stock photo. Between Photoshop and Paintshop X an hour and a half of manipulation and detail work I ended up with this.

 

What does is mean? It means: Mindsay, blog, blog, blog! You would have to view the high-res version to see the details of the neighborhood of homes behind the "blog, blog, blog" on the billboard... implying a neighborhood of bloggers. Anyway, I guess the sky is the limit, every blog is large, out there, and soon to change... hence the peeling and fading words on the upper part.