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I know a lot of your are waiting to find out a bit more about the rules to this Canon & Vimeo film contest - not to mention the deadlines etc. For now - let me simply say: stay tuned. Once the rules and regulations do come out: you’ll have a few WEEKS to get your short film ready - fair enough? (For now -consider the Jan 15th date to be the announcement date of future details - NOT your deadline.)
Now back to the more interesting topic of “Contests.” I think it’s important for you to understand my philosophy on contests in general - for you all to have a better understanding of where I am trying to guide this next journey of ours.
When I was 15 - I entered my first photo contest at the local camera store named “Westside Camera” on 87th and Broadway in New York City … to this day I know people who once worked there (the camera store has since become a franchise…)
The contest rules were simple…
“Please enter the most original image you can come up with - something we have never seen” yada yada yada..
So off I went - with my film camera and few rolls of film - photographing my first multiple exposures on the roof of my building in Manhattan (on film!)
In other words - I had to wing the exposure and other details without the benefit of an LCD screen. I fired off a multitude of strobes (a la David Hobby) years before Pocket Wizards or TTL ever existed… it was a big risk…
Luckily - the images came out. And quite decently. And I entered them - dropping off my favorite 4 X 6 print from the roll of film that had been processed by Westside Camera. I can honestly say these were my most “daring” images of my career up to that point.
Every day - on my ride back home from school on the M86 bus - I would take the detour to see if the winner had been posted for all to see on the main window of the camera store.
For 3 weeks - I would get my transfer from the bus - and jog -not walk - towards that big storefront window - holding my breath the entire way…
Finally - it happened.
The winner was announced.
The winning image was of:
A palm tree at sunset - in Hawaii.
Yes - a silhouette of a palm tree… at sunset…
Need I say more?
Since then - I have had the honor of judging a few dozen prestigious contests - in photography, design and film.
All I can say is: if you make it within the top 3 - you’ve succeeded.
Whether you’re #1, #3 or #2 - is pretty much completely irrelevant - any judge will tell you.
At that point - it’s utterly subjective. In fact judges will at times make “deals” - i.e. you gave 1st place in this category - it’s my turn to give first place in this other category…
I digress.
Point being: The upcoming contest will be about doing our best to find TRUE talent.
Play it safe: and I hope you really nail it cold.
Take chances and maybe have an imperfect camera move or performance - and expect the judges to reward you for pushing the envelope and for “swinging for the fences…”
You can only fail if you try to excel - after all…
You will fail if you stay in your comfort zone.
I will always reward people who take chances and try to do something that’s never done before - not those that execute something absolutely perfectly - that we’ve all seen before.
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Dear Vicent,
I agree with you in nearly everything you say. But las chaos theory says “something you can do once doesnt tell me you can do it.. just you got lucky”. Even to nail things, and being absolutly perfect is an art form itself and something not that easy to achieve.
But I agree… its always needed a combination of creativity and perfection on everything.
Thank you
Couldn’t agree more, regarding most photo competitions. Boring sunsets, cute babies and other pretty pictures. Aargh! And then there are the competitions where “our users will vote for the best picture”. Again: Boring sunsets, cute babies and other pretty pictures. Aargh!
Push the envelope. Well said.
Comment by Jarle 01.14.10 @ 8:12 amthank you!
i think the greatest thing about this contest specifically (and hd dslrs in general) is that creative, along-the-same-lines-thinking people from all over the world get their minds together and form an uniquely new way of film-making.
Hey Vincent:
Can we see this picture you’re talking about?
Best regards,
Bruno Pires
“You can only fail if you try to excel - after all…”
love it! thanks for the inspiring words.
best,
daniel stark
OMG! I was the winner of that contest.
And dude, it was the perfect palm tree — all bendy and stuff — in front of the most awesomelicious sunset, EVAR.
And in my defense, I *did* underexpose it by a stop — without a TFT screen on the back — to saturate the sunset colors even better. There’s your creativity, right there.
You’ve had a great career, Vincent. You’ve won lots of awards and contests. Let “Palm Tree at Sunset, Hawaii” go.
Comment by David Hobby 01.14.10 @ 5:06 pmIn their defense, maybe they *hadn’t* ever seen a picture of a Hawaiian sunset (you don’t get many of those in NYC, I hear) 
One takeaway from this is that in any endeavor, if you set expectations, live up to them. The most exciting presentation on new DSLR video techniques is a failure to a crowd showing up to a talk billed as “Introduction to Composition and Exposure”, and vice-versa. The camera store contest folks perhaps didn’t keep this important (but oft forgotten) concept in mind.
That’s gotta’ be tough for a 15-year-old. Glad you didn’t let it deter you.
Comment by Jeffrey Friedl 01.14.10 @ 8:17 pmGreat story! I can perfectly imagine that young boy jogging towards the camera story.
The story perfectly shows how small our worlds once were when we were young.
I have won every one of the one contests that I have entered in the last three years and haven’t won any of the ones I didn’t enter (not even close.) Big competition, at least 20 other entries
You got to be in it to win it. Entering is half the battle.
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Hello Vincent, I’m posting here but my question has nothing to do with this thread.
You mentioned a list of gears that you’re using including aerial exposure stabilizers, however when you were depicted in a picture of advertisement for CF card manufactor, you were using your canon camera with a different gyro stabilizer. Can you please share details about it? I’ll have to shoot video with a Nikon D3S from an R44 without its right door and I’m looking for a working solution. Thank you for you help.
Well said Vincent! And excellent point GlenF. Years ago I entered every month (and did so for years)the Monthly Clip Contest sponsored by the National Press Photographers Assco. One month I felt I had an excellent chance of placing in the news category, but the judges that month decided that they would judge only ‘happy news’ photos. Do’h!
Comment by Garry Bryant 01.26.10 @ 10:22 pm[...] whatever my interpretation turned out to be, that would drive my story. I was inspired by this post by Vincent Laforet (one of the judges) to be creative! So I decided to go outside of the box (or [...]
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Ryan Koehler Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at 11:55 am
@Bruno Pires, For some reason I’d assume this image is long gone. He was 15, after all.
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