Good morning

In the thread Remember When?, Rob suggested a thread be begun with suggestions for possible future assignents. I have already spoken to Rob and given him this one, but this seems as good a way as any to make the suggestion "official".

Wazza.

Yep. That's it. Wazza. As in Wazza nice meal. Wazza good game. Wazza nice drive. Wazza good road (once).

Do I need to give any more hints about what a "Wazza" is?

Enjoy your day

Romane

Interesting. If I understand you correctly, you wan't to focus on something that has changed from the present state into past? It could be a wonderufl idea if everyone grasps the concept, but I am not sure I do. It sounds rather broad, which is just the way they seem to like it (that way only the pros get to have a descent chance, which is only fair because they are pros). :-D

Good morning
Not from the present into the past, but an image showing what is now and the title leaving it to the imagination of the viewer what it looked like at it's prime. Doing this and having an image that is artistic and without negative connotations is a challenge - for example, a piece of old road that is now returning to nature because another road has been built to replace it; does the image convey the regrowth or does it convey the deterioration? And that is an equal playing field, as both pros and amateurs have the same capacity to make good compositions - this site is ample proof of that. So not a "Remember when..." but a "where it is going".
Enjoy your day.
Romane

Mayeb another way to describe the concept could be "Aftermath"? Not sure if that helps or hinders.

Good morning

Well, aftermath could be one way to describe it <grinning>, but that suggests more an ending rather than a new beginning.

Does anyone else have suggestions that can be added to the list of potential future assignments?

Enjoy your day

Romane

Here are a few contest ideas that have been suggested in the past; I guess they could be applied to assignments just as easily:

"Motion" , ie a photo or image that captures/suggest motion or movement.
"Music" - this has already been a contest topic, but my idea was that you would choose a musical piece/song and have an image that would invoke the essence of it. This is a bit similar to the "Earworm" idea.

I'm sure there have been others, but can't be bothered looking through the forum for 'em right now.

Sam .. back to your first action of setting up a gallery for Assignments... could you raise the prospect of a permanent gallery for assignments with Caedes?

All: We could come up with some general instructions on Assignments, coming out of lessons learned from Remember When. I suggest that ANYONE can craft an idea for an assignment but that any such assignments be posted as NEWS. This gives Caedes or Xentrik the ability to pass an approving wand over the assignment before it's posted. In their approval they can ensure that standard assignment instruction text is included in the news article. This might help consistency, improve the focus of new assignments and help weed out assignments which might otherwise not complement the site.

Thoughts?

It might also be worth considering a new discussion forum for assignment-type activities.

Caedes: Great idea on the discussion forum.

Do you know anyone who can do this? *wink*

Black and White allows the photographer to develop themes related to shapes and their relationships to each other. How about a Black & White assignment called "People In Motion" in which we try to show people doing or becoming? It can be an expression on someone's face as they look at another, or the wind blowing the skirt of a woman walking down a street ( I guess that one's been done.). It will allow us to strech our B&W muscles - something rarely done here on Caedes. I like the idea, because it will force us to design new images rather than just digging into our libraries (I know I have a huge one.) of images and pulling something out for the show. Each image can have the prefix, "PIM - " to identify it as part of the assignment, so they will come out together on the search tool.

Romane, you rock. This thread is a great idea.

Setting up a gellaery for assignments is pretty simple. I did originally do this for the first assignment but changed it after there was some confusion. If there are no objections I'll make one for the "Remember when"s in a day or two. Should all assignments be moved to the permenant galleries automatically, as is done with the contest, or should they be moved on the same basis as the other permenant galleries (ie based on quality, originality etc.)

This may be off the subject, I apologize...

Music is an interesting idea, it must have been before my time. I would like that idea except for the simple reason that not that many people would have heard what song I would try to visually replicate. I have thought many times before (usually not seriously) "...I wish I could throw in a song while they look at this...", but for a music contest, you almost would need to.

Is it unneccessary or impossible to have a song feature on images, or perhaps even a step further (I think) for personal profiles and galleries? If so, proper doccumentation must be available for each audio piece.

Sam: Subject to Caedes agreement I would suggest that there be a single gallery for assignments for now. I don't know the exact count for Remember When but I'd guess that there was 30ish. Too few to have a gallery of their own. On the presumption of a single assignment gallery, we can always create sub-gallery's in the future as volumes dictate. The suggestion of having a gallery dedicated to assignments was to make it easier to find them as they could otherwise be lost in the existing structures.

I'm had a fair conversation with Caedes on this and he was not fully conviced that a gallery for Assignments was required. The feedback that I've received, since the Remember When assignment tends to support the creation of one. It's his site .. he can make the call!

Hmm... on your question about whether assignments s/b kept regardless of quality or whether they should follow the same rules of quality followed by the site. I suggest (my opinion only) that it should be the latter. The mission of the site is clear .. produce high quality images intended for use as wallpaper. If the images posted don't meet muster, they should go.

Such are my thoughts .. what say you (all)?

I agree that a gallery just for "Remember when" is unnecessary, I was meaning as a sub gallery of "Assignments". I have posted a note on the mod discussion forum for the mods to read this post and make any suggestions/objections; if there are none in a few days I will go ahead and set up the Assignments gallery.

Actually I just had a thought; how about we just make a sub gallery, "Remember when assignment", under the Contests gallery instead? I know it isn't technically an assignment but it fits into the same sort of category?

Hmm.... sorry Sam if I was unclear. I think we are tightly aligned here but let me encapsulate:

1. Create a gallery called "assignments".
2. Once the volume of postings in the assignment gallery becomes large, we can look to create sub galleries as required. It's unknown, at this time, if the volume of assignment postings will warrant this. This will be clearer in time.

This is just my opinion, but I think we should keep a distance between Contests and Assignments. Contests are adjudicated, Assignments are not. Contests are daunting to some, Assignments are not. (I'll spare you by not going on! *wink*)

I think if we are going to create and "Assignments" galler, we might as well have the sub galleries from the beginning. There's no reason not to really, as that way you will be able to veiw all the assignments together, or in the seperate sub galleries, plus it will just be easier to do it at the start rather than going through all the images and trying to sort them into seperate galleries later.

Sam:

Cool. Do it.

More assignement ideas: "Old childrens tales", a contest suggestion from Cain some time ago; and I also thought "Old wive's tales" could yeild some interesting results... ;-)

Another assignment idea "Unusual Road Signs" ... for example, we have signs warning of a snowmobile crossing. Bet they don't see many of those in AU or South Africa. Some signs viewers could guess their meaning, some might require an explanation.

How'd they do that!

Good morning

Thanks for the vote, regmar <bowing>, but the credit for this thread goes to Rob for making the suggestion that a thread for this might be an idea worth pursuing.

I agree that the images should be under the same rules as those that go into all the other galleries. If it don't make the grade, then it don't stay on the site as per the normal rules.

Some interesting themes being put forward here. Looks like we have many challenges possibly ahead of us :)

I like the interesting road sign one. There is a sign near me here that I'm going to snap for this (just in case, mind) in the next couple of weeks, 'cause won't have a chance to after.

Enjoy your day

Romane

At the top of each gallery, there is a text field to give a clear definition of the contents.
Rob & Sam: which would be your definition for this 'Assignments' gallery?

<<for discussion to move this forward. Feel free to tear this apart as I have no emotion in the words.>>

Assignments:

Topic specific suggestions leading to the task of producing high quality images, suitable for use as wallpaper. The goal of any assignment: Within the subject provided, to teach/learn/experiment with new ideas while having fun. Assignments are not contests and as such will not be judged. Assignments will not have prizes nor awards beyond the natural reward of presenting your best work and soliciting constructive feedback. Participation is optional but encouraged.

That's probably more info than is needed in a gallery description. I'd say just the first line would be enough.

<<draft 2 - Aussie rules>>

Non-contest, topic specific suggestions intended to produce high quality images suitable for use as desktop wallpaper.

I agree that an "Assignments" gallery should be created with sub-galleries. When I searched for "Remember When" I get lots of hits that aren't part of the assignment. As for upcoming assignments, I love the idea of "Wives Tales", though I'd also like to see cliches like, "A Stitch In Time...", or "One Bad Apple...". That might be fun.

I think it might be better for the assignments though if we apply some technical restrictions to them to encourage people to use techniques not common in the Caedes community. For this reason I don't feel that the assignment products necessarily should have the popularity criterion applied to them. This will encourage us to try things that have not worked for us in the past. The assignment should have a cut-off date, and the results should probably have an enforced limited lifespan, so we won't be trying to create popular images, but rather to create artistically proficient ones. After the assignment results are cleared out, the participants could have the option of uploading the images to the wallpaper galleries if we feel that they're likely to be popular. A possible suggestion might be that only those who participate in the assignment could have access to the galleries to comment (?) This would limit the number of "Beautiful Image" or "This sucks!" comments, and would encourage critical analysis. Also the images wouldn't be available for download during the lifespan of the assignment.

Caedes, is it possible that we could have a separate site for this? I would be happy to help with the development, but I (sadly) only write in VBScript and javascript. That means ASP or Visual Basic-based CGI in the Windows environment, and I get the impression that you're a UNIX-head.

I think that a separate site would be rather unnessesary. If the site ever forks it will probably be between wallpapers and photography.

I don't think I understood what was being discussed by "Assignments", but I think I finally get it. It sounds like an excellent idea from my perspective. It creates more variety in one's projects. Would there be a line on each subject?

One interesting road sign I saw that is unfortunately a several hour drive south on a freeway reads "Welcome to Manly Forrest City, Iowa". Nothing against its residents or even the whole state, but they do ahve some pretty funny city names.

I am still curious about the question I asked earlier on the thread. Could somebody respond please?

Luke. read the following found in the Caedes news section concerning your question about assignments: Image Assignment - Remember When?

I'm not sure I fully understand your earlier question.

Rob

I think he was asking if you could have music associated with an image? I think that would be too difficult to implement and take up too much space on the server. And there would be copyright problems also.

Sam is right, I just needed a mod to confirm it so I wouldn't ask again.

I am sorry, I must have missed that "Remember When?" thread; I was out of the country when it was posted. That explains a lot, and this is really the wrong place to be asking stuff like that. I am not sure I could enter the assignment; I have not been taking pictures long, and I certainly don't have any pictures of that genre. I guess this is an area of art that I could learn to appreciate more, I would ahve thought nobody would care for those type of images.

Thanks for the clarification.

Hey Luke:

Concerning the music notion, please read this and see if it evokes any thoughts for you.

Concerning the image assignment, you should DEFINATELY give it a go. If not the Remember When then one in the near future as the ideas for the next assignment matures. Toss in any ideas that you may have.

Assignments are intended to appeal to everyone, including those new to the Order-of-the-itchy-finger. We had first-time contributors in the Remember When assignment that not only had fun with it, but have continued posting. To that I say "Good stuff!".

The Remember When is not bound by any of the ideas you have already seen expressed. It's only bound by your own creativity. If you're looking for ideas ... PM me. Take a look at your gallery... you're already producing high quality images. The assignments just push your thinking out a bit moving us all away from shots of convenience to shots with purpose.

Everyone here, at one point in time, touched a camera for the first time, uploaded for the first time, heard praise or corrections for the first time. It's all about fun and the chance to grow your skills in a supportive community.

Cheers,


Rob

Thanks a bunch!

I apologize, I feel rather seperated in that area. For me it is the exact opposite; I see a picture and occasionly think of a song that I could nearly gaurantee nobody on this site would recognize, but I know very few famous tunes or jingles, usually only what I hear at school (huming is not our national pastime), and I have trouble adapting an image to an idea.

I will give these assignments a try when I have mroe time now that I feel like I am qualified to enter. Thanks for the enouragement. :-)

personally.. im not sure if we would have enough to warrant an entire gallery all its own just yet.. remember, we have a great wallpaper search where we can find any of the images contained within each assignment.. which brings up more than just the assignment entries, but as long as they are titled, as the "Remember When.." series was, you can go thru and still find them all.. and in the future, we can hopefully get a new gallery for it.. so please dont feel this is discouraging in any way.. merely stating how we have an alternate means until that point..

also.. i have, what i think, is a great idea for an assignment.. "Connection".. can be taken in many ways.. could become more specific, but leaving it to many meanings opens up many possibilities.. it could mean a mental connection - ie: seeing an object that triggers a fond memory, a song that makes you think of high school (granted a song cant be seen, but there are ways to express the song into visual form.. if even making the image of the thought it inspired), etc.. it could also be more literal - ie: the physical connection between two people and/or objects.. for instance a stairwell, which is connecting floors in a building.. or say a railroad which is connecting cities, etc..

again, i think this idea would work really well with the many great artists here on this wonderful site..

Dj

<snip> defer to another plan!

Hey people, the discussion board's up and running. Post your ideas each one under a new topic heading so we can sort them out!

so how are things progressing with "building" the assignment team Rob?

DJ:

The new discussion forum caught me by surprise. Not wanting to work outside of the intentions of the site I think it may be best at this stage to simply follow the lead of whomever put the new discussion group in place. As such, I suspect, there will be a new thread for each assignment suggestion.

If you have an idea (and many wonderful ones have been shared) start a thread on it and we'll see how the members support them.

Make sense? ..or am I missing something?

sounds good to me.. *starts things off*

I know I'm quite a *noob* and unrecognised member of this site...but I thought that an assignment dedicated to illustrations (hand drawn stuff obviously...no computerised images or photos, etc) would make a change as it's very rare that you find content like that on this site - the illustrations gallery is very small. And for people like me, who don't own a camera or are too inexperienced or young (Bad excuse I know) to understand the way most of these computer programs work...I think this would be quite a good idea. Also I think this would show off a different kind of creative side in people as (though I know there are a number of people who are absolutely amazing, talented and unique when it comes to the computer or photography aspect of art) it's not exactly hard to create fractals or take photographs (though you could argue that professional photography and computer design is quite challenging...no offence meant to anyone) etc...but drawing is something that requires real talent and I think an assignment like this would benefit some people, especially members like kie and prowler_75 who have exceptional skills with a pencil/paintbrush/whatever.
Erm...let me know what you professional guys think...I merely thought this would make an interesting assignment and would give diferent people the chance to shine...thanks! :D
Oh and by the way...like the idea of the above suggestions too :) I'm looking forward to whatever the next task is :D

PrettyFae ... bring it on!

Define your assignment, post it as a new topic in this forum. I noticed one of your drawings hit Top New Images in the past day or so the site has an appetite for the talent of those with your skills.

*practices drawing stick figures*
*notices no improvement*

Ok, thanks Rob!!!
But I just had a second thought...since we already have an illustrations gallery on this site...an image assignment gallery based on illustrations would probably look very similar so how about using one of the above ideas/themes that other people have thought of but only allowing hand drawn images to be submitted to that assignment?
That way it would be more interesting... :D
Thoughts please... ?

i agree with prettyfae although i have not got gallery and no one nos me i think not every one wants a computer created background some people want a scetched or painted background. In a scetched or painted background theres more time and effort than a computer created background so people enjoy it more.

that would be fun Pretty Fae,Kudozs for this idea !!!:0))! I can do portraits, t least I could in my young days....well...*sigh*

The only bad drawing is the one untried.

You clearly haven't seen any of mine :-)

Awww, bless...there's talent in everyone, dear...you just need to work on it :D (lol...that makes me sound like an old lady when I say dear...oh well :P)

I just saw this today, had no clue it was going..but I DO KNOW I think I am the ONLY one who does NOT understand any of it...oh my....where have I BEEN keeping myself? lol