Yer City's A Sucker Photo Challenge

YER CITY'S A SUCKER PHOTO CHALLENGE

Let me explain.

THE GOAL: Spark a network of photographers, young and old, rookies and veterans, amateurs and professionals, to go outside, experience the joy of their favorite places, document their experiences photographically, and state their case (via photographs) for the "greatest place in the world."  Get out there, take pictures, and show off the amazing places all across the country and all across the globe.  Then argue about it with others by challenging their photos with photos of your own.  Obviously, I think Kansas City is the greatest place in the world, but that's where the challenge comes in.  Prove me wrong.  Join in with photographers from all across the nation (maybe even the globe).

HOW THE CHALLENGE WORKS:

1.  I am kicking this off by posting the above picture of The Scout Monument in Kansas City's Penn Valley Park.  

2.  In order to challenge my picture, the challenger must comment on my blog post.

3.  In your comment, talk a little trash (no vulgar language please) and give a link (or just type the URL) to your blog where you have posted a photograph to challenge mine.

4.  Your post as a challenger must include these things: 

• a) a photo, taken by you (not by someone else) of a place you really like, the photo can be one that you took a long time ago, as long as it was you who took the picture
  
• b) the name, location, and/or brief description of the place in the photo 
  
• c) a link back to The Bait Shop (this blog and I explain why this is important below) 
  
• d) a link to the post which you are challenging (I'll explain this further as well) 
  
• e) something in your post that says this picture is part of the "Yer City's A Sucker Photo Challenge"
  

5. Post a picture on your blog that is captures an even greater place than the photo you are challenging.

6. Then other people can challenge the challengers and so on and so on until people all over the country are heading outside to take pictures (or resurrecting old pictures) of their favorite places and challenging each other.  

*Quick Note: Once this thing gets going, there will hopefully be a lot of people on a lot of different blogs posting photos of their favorite places.  Thus, eventually the photos you will be challenging will be on other blogs, maybe even taken by people you've never met

NOTABLE PARTICIPANTS

To kick this thing off, I'm sending emails to three photographers I know and one photography class.  They are as follows:

Cassie Edmondson: photography teacher at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.  She started a cool photo blog with her class.  She's way cooler than me and has a knack for wearing things 6 months before other people.  I guess you call that a trend setter. 

Allison V. Smith: a Dallas-based, freelance photographer.  She's my favorite photographer of all time and is super trill.  Here's her blog and her website and buy her zine.

Bobby Neptune: a friend of mine from the University of Arkansas.  He's got big plans for using photography to serve people across the globe.  Check out his gallery and his organization, Echolite Media.

Booker T. Washington Photography Class: they're running a pretty trill blog.  Plus, my hope is that this challenge will be a fun way to kick off their school year.

USE FLICKR IF YOU DON'T HAVE A BLOG

What if I don't have a blog?

1. Post on Flickr and in the description of the photo put all the information that you would be putting in a blog post (see above).  In your challenge, just put a link to your Flickr photostream.

2. On Flickr, I've created a Group Photo Pool here.  Add your photos to the pool.  While your at it, become one of my contacts on Flickr.  Here's my page.  I've already added to photo above to the group pool on Flickr.

WHY DO YOU HAVE TO PUT A LINK ON MY POST BACK TO THIS BLOG?

1. No it's not an shameless attempt at self-promotion.  My goal is to promote Booker T., Allison Smith, and Bobby Neptune.  The more people who read the post, the more people who will check out their work.

2. This is the only place where "the rules" for the challenge are consolidated.  It helps people have an idea of what is going on.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

1. TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS.  The more people we get involved, the more fun it will be to look at other people's pictures, to have our own pictures looked at, and to challenge one another.  Maybe you could even mention it in your status on Facebook.

2. POST LOTS OF PICTURES.  Post pictures from lots of places.  You don't have to choose just one.  And look at other people's pictures.

3. Direct people back to this blog post so they know what is going on.

4. Be creative.  Have fun.  There really are no rules.

5. Rep your city as hard as you can.  You'd better believe I'll be repping KC harder than anyone.

So that's it.  Make a case for your favorite place using your camera.  You don't even have to have fancy cameras.  All I have is a cheap Holga and a point-and-shoot Canon PowerShot.

- Joel