Hypothetical Winners of the Flickr x LEGO “Build & Capture” Photo Contest
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If you are a frequent reader of our contest round-up articles, you may remember that a couple of months ago Flickr and LEGO got together to sponsor a “Build & Capture” photo contest. Their general contest guidelines were as follows:
“Photographers are all about creating, and the LEGO brand loves creators. So we’ve teamed up for a one-of-a-kind photo contest! We are looking for photos that feature LEGO bricks in a creative, fun, or fantastic way. For this contest, the focus should be on the art of photography, and how you can incorporate LEGO into it.”
For those not familiar with Flickr, the photo-hosting website has been a great home for AFOLs (Adult Fans of LEGO) to upload and share high-resolution photos of their LEGO builds over the past 15 years or so. Some people feel that Flickr’s best days are behind it for being an AFOL community hub, especially since now there are so many other social media platforms to “get the views/likes”; Instagram, Facebook, Discord, YouTube, etc. While there is some truth to that, most MOC builders (My Own Creation) would still agree that Flickr is the AFOL photo-sharing site for sharing custom LEGO creations. You may not get as many comments or favorites like you do from the “Everything is Awesome!” masses on the other socials, but the ones you do get will be from your MOC building peers and mentors—fellow creators. I know the feedback I received on Flickr through the years improved my own building (and photography) skills tremendously. But I digress…
The judges of the “Build & Capture” contest obviously have had a tough time determining the winners out of the 3,495 submitted entry photos. So much so, that they ended up postponing the winners announcement from its originally scheduled November 9th date to tomorrow, December 7th. They will be announcing the winners during their “Smug Mug Live” broadcast on YouTube at 11 am US PST.
LEGO Polaroid Land Camera OneStep - by Nick Jensen
While we are counting down the hours until then, I thought I would take a quick look through all 3,495 entries and determine which of the photos I think will be highly rated by the judges. If you are reading this and I selected one of your images, well “Congrats on Explore!” and for catching my eyes and admiration. If not, then you are in good company with thousands of others (as admittedly, I was also a little bleary-eyed after looking at the 2,750th photo or so …).
Judging Criteria (Hypothetically Speaking):
Having spent a fair amount of time on Flickr, both as a photographer and AFOL, these are the things that I expect to take priority in the judging.
High-quality photos: This should go without saying, but Flickr is first and foremost a place for photographers (both professional and aspiring) to gather; in other words, a “photography site for photographers”. The judges are going to value a photo taken with great technical skill; composition, lighting, the points of interest in proper focus, clean photo editing, etc.
Photos that “tell a story” (especially a light-hearted, whimsical story): The saying goes that, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Well, I suspect the top photos will have been worth a couple thousand more than their competitors. If you have watched any seasons of the LEGO Masters television show in your part of the world, you will remember that the Brick Master judges are all about “story telling”. I have no doubt that the same will hold true in this contest. Flickr is also known for highlighting light-hearted, whimsical photos in their blog articles, as well as using the “bad panda” image we occasionally see when the website is having technical issues… perhaps one of the winning photos will become its replacement? So expect to see the winners using some emotive minifigures to help tell those light-hearted stories.
An image with an international flair/universal appeal: Veterans of Flickr will also be aware that when you click on your profile icon, you are greeted with the phrase “Hello! Now you know how to greet people in XYZ language”. Flickr is indeed a site with an international following, and the images selected will likely also have an international flair or universal appeal. The story that the winning photos tell should have little risk of being lost in translation.
Well-built MOCs will likely take a back seat to official sets and posed minifigs: Many of the judges will likely not know, or care, what is an official LEGO set and what is a MOC in the submitted photos. Anything LEGO is fair game when telling the story. Also, if a MOC is so well built that viewers think “I didn’t even realize that was made from LEGO bricks!” then that might be a disadvantage. They will want the LEGO usage in the photo to be recognizable in a significant way.
Other things to watch for: I would guess that at least one “real person in the LEGO world” photo will take a prize…. along with one “minifig in the real world” photo. Posed minifig photos are certainly an easy way for any skilled photographers with a limited LEGO collection to participate on a whim. I also expect the winning images not to heavily rely on using figures from licensed themes… but that said, expect the unexpected. I’ve learned never to underestimate the appeal of a photo of a stormtrooper in a grassy field.
Ted’s Top Picks
With my hypothetical judging criteria laid out, here are the photographs that I suspect will be highly rated amongst the judges (note: I did not confirm that all of the images below meet the contest requirements, like when they were taken, etc. If you want to go back through them all to do it, be my guest). In no particular order, they are as follows:
So there you have it. I’m sure there are plenty of other great entries that I missed, but these are the ones that really grabbed my attention, and I suspect they will grab the judges’ attention too. Let me know if I missed any of your favorites in the comments below, or share them in the contest’s LEGO Galleries discussion. Otherwise, we will see during tomorrow’s winners announcement if any of these “hypothetically highly rated” images are named as one of the prize winners. Good luck to all the entrants!
UPDATE: The actual winners have now been posted on Flickr… and my prognostication abilities have been proven to be virtually non-existent - not that I ever had any doubt. Congratulations to the actual winners, and again to all of the highlighted images above, which in our eyes would have been just as worthy.
Which photo do you think should win? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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