After quite a bit of discussion among the Contest Administrators with input from site members and a review by the Site Administrators, we have published today an edited set of rules for the Picture of the Day (POTD) and Picture of the Day 18+ (POTD 18+) contests.  These are effective immediately and will be applied to all entries from this time forward.  They can be accessed by a link on the Contests page now titled POTD rules and thru this link.

http://www.modelinsider.com/potdrules

To highlight two substantial changes that have been made:

"3- An image that is entered cannot be resubmitted for 15 days even after an alteration to that image, I.E. a different crop, a change from color to B&W etc."

Currently, an image can be submitted within the 15 day period that is essentially the same except for a minor change, for example, adding a border, photoshopping in a graphic, converting to black and white.  Such entries will now be deleted.

"6- All POTD entries must have a model in the image."

In the past, we have allowed entries that were landscapes or photos of objects with no humans in the image.  Since this is not a general photography site but a model-focused site, we decided it must be a requirement of an entry in a contest to contain a human element as part of the image; in other words, a human model must be in the image.

This simply highlights two significant changes.  Please read through the entire document and ask questions of the contest administrators if you require more guidance.

The contest administrators are:

Site Administrator SLE Photography (James)

me (John) http://www.modelinsider.com/profile/207

Super Laura the Super Perv

PKM Images  (Kim)

Curtis Wood

gpmcguire (Glenn)

Thanks for playing and voting!! Continued good luck to you all!

If you enter the daily contests then at some point you have probably posted an entry that you have previously posted with the last two weeks.  That violates the competitions' rules and the contest administators (including me) will delete it and most likely send you a PM to explain.  It's happened (I believe) to just about everbody, including me.  When it did, I then looked for a way to prevent me from repeating the mistake and more embarassment.  It works for me so I offer it to anyone else who thinks it might help.

I keep a separate folder on a local hard drive titled Contest Entries.  As I edit images and determine that I would like to enter them, I store a copy in this folder.  Within the folder, I then create sub-folders, each with the date of the contest and I then move the images selected for that day to that folder.  When the appropriate time passes (two weeks) and I can re-enter those images, I move them back up under Contest Entries and then I delete that day's folder.  So far it has worked quite well and it is pretty easy to maintain.

Since contest rules also prohibit re-entering a winning entry, I also have a sub-folder labeled "Winners" to contain those and prevent me from re-using them.

Looks kinda like this:

§  Contest Entries

·         10-30-09

¨       Img1.jpg

¨       Img2.jpg

·         10-31-09

¨       Img3.jpg

¨       Img4.jpg

·         11-01-09

¨       Img5.jpg

¨       Img6.jpg

·         Winners

¨       Img1w.jpg

¨       Img2w.jpg

¨       Etc.

·         Etc.

§  Img7.jpg

§  Img8.jpg

§  Img9.jpg

§  Img10.jp

§  More images ready for entry

It takes a little more work, I know, but it's pretty foolproof if you stick to the plan. :)

Of course, your mileage may vary. 

OK, OK, it's not about THAT first time, but my first opportunity to work with a pregnant model.

I have attended several of Dave Hall's Arizona Shootouts and have got to know and work with a number of beautiful, talented models.  I was exchanging e-mails with one about plans for the upcoming event in October and said that, for a number of reasons, I wouldn't be attending but hoped that we could work together again since she is a relatively short drive away from where I live.  We finalized the plans and I was just looking at her MM page a day or so before we were scheduled to shoot and saw some tags congratulating her on her pregnancy.  So, I was eager for the opportunity.

I was immediately struck by that "glow" in her face and her "baby bump" - so we began shooting.  I'll share a couple of the results here and would love to know what everyone thinks.  Thanks!

Some of us in chat have talked a little about the wonderful/frustrating game of golf. I watched with great interest today as the Open Championship (or British Open, as it is more commonly called here) was concluded. Fifty nine year old Tom Watson (elected to the Golf Hall of Fame 21 years ago!!) led going into the final round. He miraculously went to the final hole with a one stroke lead with several records on the line, not the least of which would be winning this major tournament at his age, an age 11 years greater than the existing record.  It is an age when most senior golfers (me included, because I am about 3 months older than he is) are just happy to get thru a round without losing something or getting too confused :).

 But I guess his age caught up with him, as he faltered at the end and lost in a two-way playoff. At the press conference after the match, one reporter asked him to help craft the headline they should use for tomorrow's papers - I quote "The old geezer almost won it!" As a fellow old geezer, I say "Damn fine try, Tom, damn fine!

Got back in town last night after my trip to the Catskills.  Thursday was drenched with rain so we had to shoot indoors all day.  Still managed to get some lovely images, including this one of Marketa - lovely Czech model with appearances in the Czech Playboy...

Friday was lovely, some off and on sprinkles but generally nice for outdoor shooting.  There was a stream flowing through the location - this shot doesn't show how strong it was moving that day but, believe me, it was flowing at a rate that was intimidating.  Nonetheless, Valerie Whitaker promptly volunteered to wade out to pose on a downed tree laying across the stream.  Wow!!