POY Dogs
Can’t take credit for that witticism, that’s all Keith Simonsen, who was deeply and critically involved in POY as the assistant director, or something like that, for at least a couple of years when I was at MU. Great guy, great photographer. And super detail oriented, holy smokes. I think technology would make his former job easier. You should have seen the mountains of slide trays to house the tens of thousands of entries. I think there were a total of over 25,000 slides in the contest back then. He had to set up the room with a lot of wiring, 12 slide projectors, wall-mounted light tables, 3 judging stations, and so much more. It was crazy. I even got to operate the side judging stations a little, which was fun and exciting.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the countless hours I spent in the small auditorium in Gannett Hall where they judged POY (Actually I could probably estimate the number of hours, but it would scare me. My class attendance and homework usually plummeted during the first part of the Winter semester. Sorry J105 professor Bob Sullivan! Sorry GPA!). While I really miss being there for the judging – dark room, tens of thousands of good, great, and amazing photographs, lively and illuminating discussion among the experienced and learned judges, and side discussions with the students, big bowl of chocolate which you got sick of by the end of POY – I’ve enjoyed watching and listening live to the judging from the comfort of home. POYi is using Adobe Connect’s software and servers to live stream the judging, and you can chat with other people who are watching via Connect during the judging. I’m seeing some people I went to school with in the room, as well as some recent award winners chatting with everyone about the photos being judged, and people from all around the world participating in the discussions. Ain’t technology amazing?
POY isn’t the time suck it used to be for me, but it’s still so much fun to be a part of it, especially since I know what’s it’s like to actually be there.
Judging ends next week, check it out before then!
