Vortograph of Ezra Pound by Alvin Langdon Coburn
(Study 2, 1917)
Our Baker's Dozens are simple: readers submit JPEGs of their own photos, and I curate a presentation of a dozen of them that seem to go together, plus an extra one for good measure.
There's a prize this time: a $100 B&H Photo gift card for first place and a $50 Amazon gift card for second place. Hugh Crawford will be the judge. (I haven't asked him yet, so that's provisional on his acceptance of the judge's robes and gavel*.) [UPDATE Saturday evening: Hugh has agreed to serve as the awarder of the prizes. No word on the wig yet.]
THEME
The only requirement this time is that the picture should use some sort of blur. It can be any kind of blur: motion blur, panning, camera shake, a pinhole image, a picture that is all or mostly bokeh or is deliberately defocused, a picture taken with a soft-focus lens or filter or a toy camera, or anything else you can think of. Blur can affect all or only part of the picture. I will tend not to pick pictures that happen to be blurred but that would probably have been as good or better had they been sharp. The only sharp picture admissible would be of the English band Blur.
Also new this time, you have to tell me whether your entry is an "old" picture (one that already existed before this notice was posted on Friday, April 28th, 2023), or "new" (created specially for this Baker's Dozen). On your honor. Prizewinners, however, will be selected from the "new" pictures. [UPDATE Saturday evening: on further reflection this seems unfair, so if it's all right with everyone I'm going to rescind this and let Hugh award the prizes to any of the pictures chosen. To be clear: I choose the shots for the portfolio, Hugh awards the prizes.]
TO ENTER
Email one picture per entrant to me at [email protected]. Note the "T" in JohnsTon; my name is not Johnson.
Very important: the subject line of your email must be:
BDblur
...just exactly like that. Uppercase-uppercase-lowercase, no space. The reason for this is that I will search my very considerable email stack for that exact term and if your email is not labeled correctly it will not come up and I will never see your picture.
The picture should be a JPEG, 800 pixels wide (yes, wide), saved as sRGB. Include it in the body of the email and please, make sure your email program is not set up to automatically reduce the size of inclusions or attachments.
Please include:
- Your name
- Your address (or where in the world you are, city or town and country)
- A short single paragraph describing the work. This will be published with your picture when you win. You can say whatever you want about it, but what makes it blurry might be a point to consider. Not required though.
- The word "New" or "Old" as explained above.
(Note: if you screw up and need to submit again, please make a whole new complete submission. Do not send additional information in a separate email and ask me to add it to an earlier email, because although that ought to be simple, experience predicts that it will not get done.)
The deadline is Monday, May 8th, at one minute to midnight in the Eastern U.S. Time Zone. I'll remind you.
Untitled Photo by Hugh Crawford
THE FINE PRINT
You must own all rights to the picture you submit and it must be entirely your own work.
You retain all rights to your picture at all times, except that you grant me one-time permission to publish it on TOP if it's selected (as of course yours will be).
I cannot think of anything else offhand.
EXAMPLES...
...Of past Bakers Dozens:
"It Must Be Color" Part I, Part II, Part III
Pictures Taken with Leica Lenses
Have fun, and have a nice weekend. Remember the subject line
BDblur
!!!
Mike
*And wig, because our judge will perforce be bewigged, as they are in Blighty. It's a great look.
Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)
Featured Comments from:
I know it's a stupid question but can it be AI generated?
Mike replies: that’s a good question. I’ll have to add verbiage to the post to the effect that it must be a photograph. Which would rule out AI because AI images aren’t photographs. This response was dictated so please forgive any mistakes.
Posted by: Patrick Dodds | Friday, 28 April 2023 at 03:55 PM
Do you care about file size?
[It should be 800 pixels wide. --Mike]
Posted by: Ken Lunders | Friday, 28 April 2023 at 07:06 PM
Being a bit lazy and generally not in favour of photo competitions I'll just add some links to some old work. These were done as part of my Bachelor of Photography studies, needless to say I was an art major. They worked best when printed large, A3 at a minimum right on up to A0.
The first group were done using a mirror lens (Pentax 400-600 zoom mostly) and were intended to verge on abstraction.
http://www.paulewins.com/galleries/psc_semester4a/index.html.bak.bak
The second group were made using a 50mm lens with a circle of black paper stuck to the rear element to try and mimic the mirror lens bokeh with a more studio friendly focal length. In this case the intent was to see how far you could defocus the image and still have it work as a portrait.
http://www.paulewins.com/galleries/abstract_portraits/index.html.bak.bak
Hopefully the galleries will work for you as the rest of the website is pretty badly broken,
Posted by: Paul Ewins | Saturday, 29 April 2023 at 12:32 AM
The Hugh Crawford photo doesn’t show for me (iPad, various browsers)
[It didn't show for me either at times over the last couple of days. I suspect it's a problem at headquarters...sometimes TypePad has problems with illustrations. It seems to be working for me again last night and this morning (Saturday morning). Hope it works for you too. I checked the file and there's nothing amiss with the formatting. --Mike]
Posted by: Richard Parkin | Saturday, 29 April 2023 at 03:15 AM
800 pixels is a thumbnail.
You're judging thumbnails.
Although I suppose it doesn't matter so much if they are blurred.
[It's the size of every other illustration you ever see on TOP.... --Mike]
Posted by: Luke | Saturday, 29 April 2023 at 07:34 AM
So "old" photos are welcome, and might be in the top (TOP?) thirteen, they just won't win the top two slots?
Posted by: Phil Stiles | Saturday, 29 April 2023 at 09:44 AM
I wonder what photo the “ Untitled Photo by Hugh Crawford “ is.
Perhaps it’s that photo of Schrödinger’s cat.
The linked photos are a fun selection that I had long forgotten about.
Posted by: hugh crawford | Saturday, 29 April 2023 at 12:07 PM
Is an entry (a non-winner) to a previous Baker's Dozen acceptable in the "old" portion of submissions.
Thanks,
Marshall
[Sure.]
Posted by: Marshall Smith | Saturday, 29 April 2023 at 12:10 PM
How in the name of everything Photographic Holy can you write:
"I will tend not to pick pictures that happen to be blurred but that would probably have been as good or better had they been sharp."
If a picture maker creates a picture(s) in which he/she uses blur/soft focus/shallow DOF as an integral element of his/her total visual presentation-paying absolutely no attention to how the picture might look as a sharp image-how do you justify seeing beyond/thru the blur as one of the criteria for acceptance?
I know its your playground and you make the rules but it seems to be a contradiction to judging the successful application of blur in the making of a good visual presentation.
[Just trying to discourage anyone from submitting mere mistakes. I'll stay open-minded, I promise. --Mike]
Posted by: Mark Hobson | Saturday, 29 April 2023 at 12:29 PM
I suspect that you will receive all sorts of weird image dimensions. Your lead-in picture measures 400x563, at 72 dpi. Easy mark to hit.
If printed at 360 dpi, its width would be 2.9" so bigger than a thumbnail, more like wallet size.
I don't have anything to submit, but I'm trying to encourage my wife to send in one of hers where the blur is part of the art.
Posted by: MikeR | Saturday, 29 April 2023 at 01:17 PM
"Mike replies: that’s a good question. I’ll have to add verbiage to the post to the effect that it must be a photograph. Which would rule out AI because AI images aren’t photographs."
Don't bother. ChatGPT is more than happy to do the heavy lifting:
{Prompt}
Write a notice for posting on a weblog that makes it clear that entries for a photographic competition must be actual photographs rather than AI-generated images. Include a statement that clearly distinguishes between the two forms of imagery.
{GPT-4}
Subject: Notice - Photographic Competition: Authentic Photos Only, No AI-Generated Images Allowed
Dear Photography Enthusiasts,
We are excited to announce our upcoming photographic competition! Before you grab your camera and start snapping away, we would like to clarify an important rule for this contest: all entries must be actual, genuine photographs taken by the participants, and not AI-generated images.
To make sure there's no confusion, let's clearly distinguish between the two forms of imagery:
Actual Photographs: These are images captured by a camera or other photographic device, representing a real-life scene or subject. They can be digital or film-based, but must be the original work of the photographer, and not manipulated or altered to create new subjects or scenes that did not exist in the real world.
AI-Generated Images: These are images created by artificial intelligence algorithms, which generate realistic-looking pictures by analyzing and synthesizing patterns found in existing photographs or other input data. They are not actual photographs, as they do not represent real-life scenes or subjects, and have not been captured by a camera.
For the purpose of our photographic competition, we are solely interested in showcasing the creativity, skill, and unique vision of photographers who capture authentic moments in time. As such, we will not accept any AI-generated images or heavily manipulated photographs that deviate from their original subject or scene.
Please ensure that all submitted entries adhere to this rule. Our judges will be carefully evaluating each submission to verify its authenticity. Any entry found to be AI-generated or heavily manipulated will be disqualified.
We encourage everyone to explore their passion for photography and capture the beauty of our world. We look forward to seeing your amazing, authentic work!
Best of luck to all participants!
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Competition Organizer]
Posted by: Chris Kern | Saturday, 29 April 2023 at 07:00 PM
>> It's the size of every other illustration you ever see on TOP.
What about the other half of them?
Posted by: DB | Monday, 01 May 2023 at 06:26 PM
Blurry pics - piece of cake!
I got a gazillion of 'em!
Posted by: JTK | Tuesday, 02 May 2023 at 10:37 AM
I am unlikely to have a suitable image to submit for the Baker's Dozen but as soon as I saw the theme I thought of this image of a professional cyclist from the famous Milan-San Remo one-day race in March, taken by Simon Gill.
The article has a story about the image and the event, including some quotes from Gill about the image.
https://thecyclingpodcast.substack.com/p/a-portrait-of-the-poggio
Posted by: Simon | Tuesday, 02 May 2023 at 03:22 PM
Writing rules is hard. Other people think of, and consider important, things I might not (routinely; people are a lot of trouble!). Talking about your preferences and what you value is useful in that it lets people acting in good faith get a better idea of how you will react to photos they are considering submitting.
And of course the stakes here, the monetary value of winning plus the global prestige conferred upon the winner, are not such that lawsuits are at all likely, so you don't need to be as careful as one would if say writing rules for the Olympics. (No insult to this contest intended! The prestige level is rather HIGH I think for the size of the community involved, and there IS an actual cash prize.)
I'm buried in other photo work right now, and don't expect to find time either to choose an old photo or make a new one; so I'm reasonably objective, maybe, about whether to allow old photos into the competition; at least, not influenced by my chance of participating or winning. I kind of like the idea of limiting it to new photos (though maybe with a longer timeline?), but I remember, when first reading the description and coming to that restriction (which, yes, I know has been changed), thinking "Well, I guess I won't be doing that then!". Weird reaction. I don't have time anyway, so it doesn't matter.
800 pixels is small -- but as a universal condition of contest, it just constrains somewhat what images would work best. Having a specific standard is clearly necessary for this sort of online contest. Having it be the same standard used for other photos displayed here and for earlier Baker's Dozen contests is not an unreasonable choice. If I ran your blog I would have changed to a higher standard photo size some years ago (I think I've been reading TOP since I had a 7mbit/second DSL Internet connection, I now have a gigabit connection; other users have had somewhat similar levels of bandwidth increase, and can handle larger image sizes IMHO). But then, if I ran your blog very few people would bother to read it, and I would have given up many years ago, so perhaps this is not an important consideration!
Oh, and while I'm chattering, I admire Chris Kern's thought to get Chat-GPT to write a rule forbidding use of AI-generated photos!
Posted by: David Dyer-Bennet | Wednesday, 03 May 2023 at 02:56 PM
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52867680187_c83f9c3953_o.jpg
Doug Anderson - Red Bank, New Jersey, USA
After shots of the inside of my lens cap, my most common oops photos result from neglecting to focus the lens. I liked this one well enough to make a print.
New
Posted by: Doug Anderson | Wednesday, 03 May 2023 at 05:23 PM