Thank you once more for your votes. The results are in and it's time to announce the top photos.


Beautiful Imperfection Top 3 :

Breakthrough for 2020. Congratulations, Ry! 1st Place gets an extra 10 points, 2nd Place gets 7, 3rd Place gets 5, 4th Place (undisclosed) gets 3, and 5th Place (undisclosed) gets 2 points for Focus Bulacan's 2020 Photographer Of The Year competition. Participants automatically get 3 points for submitting entries.


Don't forget to keep posted for new contest theme announcements every start of the month. Till the next one!

Truly, we are grateful to all of you who took the time to review the entries and cast their votes. It's time to find out the top photos.

Top 3 of 33 entries :

That familiar texture-rich portrait! Congratulations, Bobby! 1st Place gets an extra 10 points, 2nd Place gets 7, 3rd Place gets 5, 4th Place (undisclosed) gets 3, and 5th Place (undisclosed) gets 2 points for Focus Bulacan's 2020 Photographer Of The Year competition. Participants automatically get 3 points for submitting entries.

A new theme is set to be announced soon. Good luck on the next one!

For this photomeet, participants were asked to declare the camera and lens that they use most of the time, and the genre that they usually shoot when using that setup. In a twist to make the activity more challenging, the officers-in-charge randomly paired the participants and each pair had to EXCHANGE their cameras and shoot their partner's genre. Furthermore, a theme was given for the photos : "ALONE".

Thank you for your votes. Now we reveal the top photos.



EXTRA CHALLENGE TOP 3 :

Congratulations, Alih! Congratulations as well to Omac and Chi (who were EXCHANGE partners) for both making it to the Top 3. 1st Place gets an extra 10 points, 2nd Place gets 7, 3rd Place gets 5, 4th Place (undisclosed) gets 3, and 5th Place (undisclosed) gets 2 points for Focus Bulacan's 2020 Photographer Of The Year competition. Participants automatically get 3 points for submitting entries.

Thanks to everyone who participated! Let's keep it up!

First of 2020 is in the books and if it's any indication, this year's competition will definitely be hard-fought. Let's see who will keep up the charge till the end.


New Year Goals Top 3 :

Just like your entry, you're on the right track, Alfie! Congratulations! 1st Place gets an extra 10 points, 2nd Place gets 7, 3rd Place gets 5, 4th Place (undisclosed) gets 3, and 5th Place (undisclosed) gets 2 points for Focus Bulacan's 2020 Photographer Of The Year competition. Participants automatically get 3 points for submitting entries.

Thanks to everyone who voted! We certainly hope the good start gets sustained for the rest of the year. A thank you, as well, to our guest judge, who we can't reveal just yet.

Till the next contest, Focus! :)

2019 Competition Officer Jing Calonge reprises her role and will continue to handle Focus Bulacan's contests this year. Competition Officer is still not eligible to enter Focus Bulacan's competition. She may, however, join the FPPF PhotoWorld Cup competition (in representing Focus Bulacan), the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk contest, and other national/international contests that are not organized by Focus Bulacan.

Purpose. Focus Bulacan’s photocontests are meant to inspire improvement by providing an organized form of objective (votes and points) and subjective (critique) evaluation of photos. Photo entries are individually assessed, then compared to other entries, with these assessments being the basis for voting. The results and feedback of the contests should serve as critique, which in turn would guide the participants as to where improvements should be made on their next photos.

Approach. Contests are competitive in nature. Competitiveness - within the boundary of rules, fairness and sportsmanship – spurs improvement. Participants are urged to do their best to win contests while adhering to these guidelines. However, may we remind everyone that there will be winners, there will be losers, yet the ultimate goal is for participants to learn something from the feedback and critique on their photo entries. Winning isn’t everything. Wanting to win AND learning from trying are everything.

Methodology. Focus Bulacan contests are open only to official members and applicants. Likewise, only members and applicants are allowed to vote on the photos. Entries will be kept anonymous so as to eliminate bias and make voters assess the photos purely on their merit.

• Only Focus members and applicants are allowed to join and vote on our PhotoMeet and Theme contests. Photowalk contests may be joined by photowalk participants (Focus member or non-member) and they may also vote.
• For photomeet and theme contests : only members, applicants, and guest judges may vote (public voting).
• For 2020 contests (PhotoMeet/Theme/Photowalk), we will use a private voting system where votes will be sent to our Competition Officer via Google Forms. Voting mechanics are also published whenever a contest is posted for voting.

Voting Mechanics

• Contests are open to Focus Bulacan official members, applicants, and Photowalk participants (who are confirmed to have attended). Voting is also open only to members, applicants, Photowalk participants, plus official guest judges.
  

• There's no specific criteria where to base your vote. Just vote for the photo that you think best represents the activity or theme.
  

• Please view each and every photo before casting your vote.

• Pick one photo for 1st place, one for 2nd place, and one for 3rd place. Cast your vote by stating the entry numbers of your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place photos. 1st place votes get 3 points, 2nd place votes get 2 points, and 3rd place votes get 1 point. (Guest judge's votes count for 10 points for 1st place, 7 points for 2nd, and 5 points for 3rd.)

• You need to pick three photos. If you name only one photo, your vote would only count for 1 point.
• Although not required, voters are encouraged to offer constructive critique on their picks.
• Participants may not vote for their own photo. Self-votes will be nullified and offender's entry (if he/she has one in the contest) will be automatically disqualified.

• The entry that accumulates the most number of points wins.

• Send your vote via the Google Forms link.
  

• To the participants : win the contest thru the merit of your photo, not by other means.

• Voting usually takes a week (7 days), with the winner announced the next day once voting ends.

 
Vote Solicitation/Influencing

• Soliciting or influencing votes is strictly prohibited.
• Do not ask voters to vote for your entry or influence them to do so by showing them your entry.
• Keep your entry anonymous as much as possible. Do not post your entry on social media until after the voting period has ended.
  
• Proven cases of vote solicitation/influencing will lead to disqualification of involved participant.
• Please report cases of vote solicitation or vote influencing to Competition Officer Jing Calonge. Rest assured that your report will be handled confidentially.

To eliminate (or at least minimize) vote influencing, and also to intensify the challenge, Focus Bulacan's guest judges for 2020 shall be kept anonymous until after the 2020 Competition has concluded, or until the last PhotoMeet and Theme contests have ended. The identity of our judges will be announced during year's end. Rest assured that our judges are well-qualified to offer insight and critique on contest entries.

Points/Scoring System - Points awarded for contests and accomplishments :

• For every submission of entry to a Focus PhotoMeet or Theme contest : 3 points
• Bonus points for placing in the Top 5 of a PhotoMeet or Theme contest :

          + 10 points - 1st Place
          + 7 points - 2nd Place
          + 5 points - 3rd Place
          + 3 points - 4th Place
          + 2 points - 5th Place
          (No additional points for 6th place onwards)

• Scoring for Focus Portrait Project :

             Submission of entry : 5 points
             + 20 points : 1st Place
             + 15 points : 2nd Place
             + 10 points : 3rd Place
             + 7 points : 4th Place
             + 5 points : 5th Place

• Scoring for Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk contest :

             Submission of entry : 3 points
             + 20 points : 1st Place
             + 15 points : 2nd Place
             + 10 points : 3rd Place
             + 7 points : 4th Place
             + 5 points : 5th Place
             Additional Bonus points :
             + 10 points : if included in Honorable Mentions list
             + 20 points : if included in Finalists list
             + 30 points : if People’s Choice winner
             + 50 points : if Grand Prize winner
             * +10 points for Photowalk Leader (who can only enter Leaders Contest, not the regular contest)

• Scoring for Fujifilm Nationwide Photowalk contest :

             Submission of entry : 3 points
             + 20 points : 1st Place
             + 15 points : 2nd Place
             + 10 points : 3rd Place
             + 7 points : 4th Place
             + 5 points : 5th Place
             Additional Bonus points :
             + 10 points : if Top 30 Finalist
             + 15 points : if Top 5 placer (2nd-5th place)
             + 25 points : if Grand Prize winner / People's Choice winner
             * +10 points for Photowalk Leader (who cannot enter the regular contest; if not submitting entry)

• Points for FPPF PhotoWorld Cup competition :

             + 5 points for submission of entry (regardless if approved for entry or not)
            
             Bonus points according to contest ranking :
             + 10 points : Enter the Top 30 of a PWC contest (13th-30th place)
             + 20 points : Place 2nd-12th (Top 12) in a PWC contest
             + 30 points : Place 1st in a PWC contest

             Bonus points according to year-end competition ranking :
             + 75 points : Finish 1st in PWC Photographer Of The Year competition
             + 50 points : Finish 2nd-5th (Place) in PWC POTY competition
             + 30 points : Finish in Top 10 of PWC POTY competition (6th-10th Place)
             + 50 points : Win PWC Rookie Of The Year award
             + 20 points for each Focus participant if Focus Bulacan finishes in Top 10 of Club Of The Year competition

The Focus Portrait Project is our annual year-end tradition of randomly pairing members to shoot portraits of each other. Instead of exchanging gifts, we exchange prints. And for 2019, the seventh edition of the challenge, the theme was "exchange lives". The photographer must shoot his/her partner in a concept that would portray or tell something about his/her own self.

The entries for FPP 2019 :

After the photos were unveiled, they were voted on by members who were present at our year-end party.
Here are the FPP 2019 Top 5 :

Congratulations to the tandem of Jovit Caballero and Erik Madlangsakay! As the winning photographer, Jovit took home an Andbon dry cabinet as prize.

FPP participants get 5 points for submitting entries for the Photographer of the Year competition. First place gets additional 20 points as bonus, 2nd place gets 15 points, 3rd place gets 10, 4th place gets 7, and 5th place gets 5 bonus points.

Congratulations once again to the top photos! See you again for next year's edition.

Bikes! They have a different appeal and attachment to each of us. How the photos are presented is another matter. Thanks to everyone who voted! So which ones were the top picks?

The Top 3 :

Congratulations, Shauang! A splendid lightpaint. 1st Place gets an extra 10 points, 2nd Place gets 7, 3rd Place gets 5, 4th Place (undisclosed) gets 3, and 5th Place (undisclosed) gets 2 points for Focus Bulacan's 2019 Photographer Of The Year competition. Participants automatically get 3 points for submitting entries.

We are done with all our theme contests for the year. There's only one contest remaining : Focus Portrait Project 2019!

From our recent trip to Doña Remedios Trinidad, here are the top photos from our contest. Thanks to all the voters especially those who offered critique.

Our DRT Top 3 :

Congratulations on your third Focus contest win of 2019, RY JACINTO! 1st Place gets an extra 10 points, 2nd Place gets 7, 3rd Place gets 5, 4th Place (undisclosed) gets 3, and 5th Place (undisclosed) gets 2 points for Focus Bulacan's 2019 Photographer Of The Year competition. Participants automatically get 3 points for submitting entries.

One week of voting is up! As always, we thank you for your votes and remind to also give insightful critique.


Abandoned Top 3 :

One of our best contests of 2019 is also a tight one.  Congratulations, Awel! 1st Place gets an extra 10 points, 2nd Place gets 7, 3rd Place gets 5, 4th Place (undisclosed) gets 3, and 5th Place (undisclosed) gets 2 points for Focus Bulacan's 2019 Photographer Of The Year competition. Participants automatically get 3 points for submitting entries.

See you again next month! :)

Salute to Kelby Bulakan participants who joined the contest. Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote. Every vote counts in determining a clear winner especially in a contest like this with so many entries.

Scott Kelby Bulakan Photowalk 1 Top 3 :

Congratulations! Jer's entry will now move on to the worldwide contest to compete with winning photos of other photowalks around the world. 1st Place gets an extra 20 points, 2nd Place gets 15, 3rd Place gets 10, 4th Place (undisclosed) gets 7, and 5th Place (also undisclosed) gets 5 points for the 2019 Photographer Of The Year competition. Participants automatically get 3 points for submitting entries. (Since our winner is a non-participant in Focus Bulacan's 2019 POTY competition, bonus 20 points will be voided.)