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I told you there was some controversy about the winning photo this week. Well it got deeper and thicker until the point that we decided something had to be done. Now according to the rules Ian Millar is eligible for the contest because his main source of income doesn't come from photography. That part is all good. Unfortunately there was another issue. Another rule stated that a shot would be ineligible if it had been published in a 'major' magazine. I didn't want us to be dealing with images that many of you had seen before so I hoped to keep out shots that had been in bike or MBUK or even Decline. Now Ian Millar missed this rule and his photo - the one of Ben Boyko in the fog pulling a large no-foot can which you can see below - was published in a magazine. Ian is the publisher of Modest Bike and the shot accompanied an interview with Ben. Ian runs off two issues a year and it's getting to be a really nice book, but it wasn't what I intended when I wrote 'major' magazine. Many of our visitors disagreed though and a few of our staff did as well.
The fantastic shot that we have declared ineligible. Photo ~ Ian Millar. Rider ~ Ben Boyko.
In the end we decided that the best thing to do to preserve the integrity of the contest would be to move the second place photo up to first and declare Ian's shot ineligible. Everyone agreed that Ian's shot was the strongest for week two but since we couldn't agree on whether it met our criteria it was bumped. I spoke to Ian this morning and he was an excellent sport about the whole thing - but the sun was shining and he was about to hop on his sled and scope out some back country lines near Whistler so who wouldn't be?
To clarify the rules we are now going to say that photos published in any print publication are not eligible for the contest.
Over the course of this imbroglio I spoke to Sterling Lorence, our February judge, several times and we got to talking about how he chooses the winners. He starts out by going through the each image at full size by pushing the 'next image' button. Every time he finds an image he likes he right clicks on it and saves it to his laptop. Once that is done he puts each image in a slideshow and slowly whittles it down. He does this over the course of a day so he can walk away and come back to them later on. Eventually he ends up with his top images in order. Because of this process Sterling doesn't see the name of the rider or the photographer. In fact he didn't know that the shot he chose was taken by Ian Millar or that the subject was Ben Boyko until I told him.
Below is the image that will now be entered for the February Grand Prize from Dakine. The photographer will also win the Dakine Nomad pack and Cross-X gloves that Ian Millar has graciously declined. Congrats Rene!
I would like to thank all of our readers and bulletin board members who took the time to let us know what how they felt about this issue and about the contest in general. Thanks for continuing to tune in!
Check the week three entries here.
Bumped into the Gold Medal position! Week Two Money Shot. Rider ~ Jonathan Desrosiers Photo ~Rene Gouin Click image to enlarge.
Money Shot prizes were provided by the following sponsors - thanks very much!
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For more info on the contest click here. To check out this week's prize click here. To see the whole gallery for the first week hit this.
If you have any questions about the contest check this thread on our bulletin boards.
Click here to check the entries
