My boss and I have once again entered the Battle Royale on the istockphoto website. My boss “D” encourages this creative time and is cool with me using part of — or the whole — day to get my entry just right. I think I used at least two almost full days fiddling with it. We critique each other’s work and give suggestions if need be… mostly I just say “Oh wow – you are totally gonna win!” and then ask him “Do you think mine is too weird?”
(Just for clarification for those of you who might not know me that well.. I say “Oh wow – you are totally gonna win!” because I really mean it. I am always completely shocked when I see how good “D’s” entry is.
Istock changed it up this year from previous years… but basically we were given about 10-12 “Seed” images and told to be creative and make whatever we wanted! They have a very loose judging criteria but its based on things like creativity & originality, execution & technique, use of elements and composition. As you will see my boss and I used a completely different set of images from the 10-12 that were available and came up with very different ideas.
109 people entered, which is only about 8 or so less entries than last year (you can view here) and each entry is unique. “D” and I ranked the other entries by pulling out the “BEST” and the “CRAP” first. Then we went through the middle of the pack with my other boss “A” and decided if they were better or worse than our entries. It’s all very scientific and unbiased… Because there are only three of us we tried to use a 2 out of 3 vote but for some reason my vote was overrode on a few occasions. (Mainly I thought a couple were good because of personal preference/taste and “D” and “A” happened to disagree — but really it went both ways.) We ended up with about 7 “BEST”, a bit of “CRAP” and a lot of “Middle of the pack”. (Obvisouly the math doesnt add up to 109 — I told you it was VERY scientific.) We shall see how the cookie actually crumbles when judgment day comes.
Here is my entry: “A Wild Sheep Chase” (Click to zoom)
Here is my boss’s entry: “Welcome to the Jungle” (Click to zoom)
Let us know what you think about our entries and any other entry you might like. Istock will announce the top 32 contenders on July 10th — cross your fingers that we get to move on to the next round of competition!
Wow . An album cover for sure. I think Edward (not your brother) and Mary Shelly had a little influence here as well as Serta Perfect Sleeper. Tee hee. Seriously, it’s compelling. The house on the hill adds to the aura of supernaturalness of the subject – we would not expect him to carry forward his ancestors lineage. The lightening, however, expresses his vitality despite his terminal existence and the sheep appear to be waiting for his next command, suggesting he’s a powerful leader. Very nice.
omword!! you’re so good at this!!
Aww thanks cuz!!