We just finished looking through over 200 photo contest entries, and you won’t believe the stuff people try to get by us.
We’re wrapping up the 2009 Popular Hot Rodding photo contest, and this year produced a bumper crop of entries. Close to 300 readers sent in photos of their cars. After a while, we start seeing trends as to the things that are being done wrong repeatedly, some of them funny, some of them just plain stupid, and some of them the product of laziness.
One guy sent in a bunch of shots of the rear of his car, which we can’t use. The only front shot showed the reason why: he left his beer bottles on the ground behind the car, and had a little too much to drink during the photo shoot. Another guy photographed his 200-lb. wife with his car in front of his double-wide, which we would’ve printed, except he gave us no cover letter, so we can’t run it. (We dodged a bullet there!) And there were tons of cars on dirt, gravel, and grass, which are a big no-no.
We agreed to print every car you sent, but there were a few basic rules to follow. Surprisingly, a lot of folks just couldn’t handle them. Here are the top 10 reason that got entries disqualified:
The photo CD is blank—yes, some people forgot to burn their photos on the CD before sticking it in the envelope
Too many photos on the CD—we said pick just 5 images, but some folks loaded up the CD anyway. When there are close to 300 entries, lots of files take too much time
Photos are low resolution—we need high-resolution files in order to print them in the magazine. 3,000 x 2,000 pixels minimum
Car is cut off—maybe cut down on the alcohol consumption during the photo shoot and look through the viewfinder to get the entire car in next time
No front shots of the car—apparently, some folks are in love with the rear of their cars, and hate the front. We need the front…
Sent in more than one entry—Don’t get greedy! Some other folks want to get into the magazine too.
No cover letter—We ask this little favor of you so we know something about your car. Still, some people couldn’t be bothered
No photos or no CD—Yep, it actually happened! Others even thought it was just ok to email us stuff. No dice there.
The entry came in after the deadline—we gave plenty of time to get your entries in. If it came in late, it got put aside. If we feel magnanimous, we might run it later