Ana, (I see you are up early, as usual)

Yes, this is an obvious homage to Thelma Blizzard's departure from WeeklyShot. No, I did not ask permission, but I don't think she'd mind too much.

For those who may be interested, the photograph I'm cutting in half is Thelma's image from the Alone theme:

http://www.weeklyshot.org/theme/alone/response/13/

I wrote the W.S. across the heart sections using Photoshop before I printed it.

The background is not probably what you are thinking. It is a straight, unretouched screen shot from my monitor. That is, there is no Photoshop manipulation.

I have a little executable called "Heat.exe" that causes whatever is displayed on your monitor to appear to melt. I created the montage in Photoshop, maxed it's size on my monitor, then let it "melt" for less than 1 second before hitting the Print Screen button. It is very beautiful to watch, and it keeps melting forever.

...more description: I assembled some of my favorites of Blizzard's entries as layers in a single Photoshop document, then moved them around until I liked the arrangement--knowing that I was going to melt them and that another image would be superimposed in the bottom left. I did nothing to the photographs other than arrange them before applying the melt action, nor did I modify them in any way after flattening the image--no curves, levels, saturation...nothing.

...have to get this right. This is an homage to Thelma Blizzard, who, to my regret, has decided to leave WeeklyShot. This is not an homage to her departure.

well, okay too... I want some points back ;)
*kidding*

ChriZ,
You voted for the sentiment that you share with me.

The sentiment is why I posted this, out of respect for Blizzard's many contributions to W.S., not just her photography.

I wondered what I could do for another contribution and this idea popped into my head on the drive home from work. I hope I put enough of myself into the work so that using Blizzard's images (a necessity in this case) doesn't look like a cheap trick to get ratings. My motive is sincere.

King, I'm glad you did this.

Folks,

In case your are interested, I "melted" this page twice, once for about 1 second, then for about 3 seconds. You can compare the two here:

http://kingdouglas.com/weeklyshot/melted.jpg

Someone is having fun here =)
melted melts!

I should have known King would be behind it. Well done my friend.

Speed rater just came through and thoroughly trashed my ratings (I give Blizzard more than half the credit for this image's better qualities and I take all the blame for the flaws). Of course, there was no comment or helpful suggestion on how to improve this apparently dismal effort.

I know this, Mr. Got Up On The Wrong Side of the Bed This Morning, whether you like this image or not, whether or not you think it is relevant or has impact or is well composed...technique-wise and quality-wise, this is a very good image, so why give it 1's and 2's? I wouldn't do that to you.

...yes, I know, he didn't leave a comment, so won't read my umbrageous response. Anyway, I'm not hurting just for me, I'm hurting for two. :>)

Let's see if we can figure out who the speed rater is.....

Only 3 submissions in the last hour, so unless it was a random speed rater (which I highly doubt), then we know it was one of the 3 most recent submissions: 40, 41 or 42.

That's what I was thinking. Being new to WeeklyShot gives you a pass on the Relevance and Impact ratings, but only Scrooge or the Grinch assigns 1's across the board.

Here are the Quality statistics before and after. With 13 ratings, 3.54 in Quality.
With 14 ratings, 3.36 in Quality.
Here's the proof:
3.54 x 13 ratings = 46.02.
Add 1 for the speed rater = 47.02.
Divide by 14 ratings = 3.36.

I think we should out these speed raters. I know Ana would be in favor of public humiliation for them.

I can't out anybody. My reputation, what's left of it, is in a shambles.

You know, it doesn't have to have been 40, 41 or 42--the are just easy targets. Anyone could have assigned the 1's, whether they intended to post an image or not.

Speed rating is a figure of speech, of course. I think this is a case of malicious rating. It doesn't hurt my feelings or offend me, really, but I don't think I've ever assigned a 1 and *very* rarely a 2, with regret.

I think we have some mean-spirited, anonymous trolls. Now if I could hack into the W.S. server...

unleash the fury!!!
how about an "different" rating system?
it won't respect ratings too far off!
so if a person has threes, fours and fives, and then only has one 1, it won't be respected!
just an idea... should easily be realized! but then again would that make sense?
or maybe have a person having to comment an image as soon someone tries to give it a rating below or equal to 2. If someone gives such a rating he should be capable of giving some constructive crits!

just some ideas...

ChriZ,
Both of your suggestions have been offered before in the WeeklyShot Google Group. The second is more probable, but still makes rating less anonymous.

You are on the right track, though.

Thanks for your comments.

"but still makes rating less anonymous."

nobody would know that you are commenting because you gave low marks!
This would just prevent speed raters to give low ratings, since they wouldn't want to comment! add a minimum 30 character input and we'd be pretty secure...

And if a pic really is lousy then it needs a lot of suggestions!

Well, maybe also just leave it the way it is and forget about it ;)

Anybody out there want to respond to ChriZ's thoughtful suggestions?

Thanks, ChriZ.

This aint featured yet King ;)
maybe open up another group thread...

ChriZ,

Can't get featured if folks give you 1's. At least I got some 3's and 4's from Montage. It will take quite a few 5's for this to get featured within the week. One set of very low ratings takes a lot to counter balance. Thanks for the support.

Thanks, Montage! Did you notice that this is a...montage?

King,

I did, and it made me think once again about asking Brandon if it's possible to change my username. :)

King,

I did, and it made me think once again about asking Brandon if it's possible to change my username. :)

Montage,

May I suggest the following names? All have elan, flair and a certain je nais se quoi:

Composite
Decoupage
Pastiche
Jumbled
Sequential
Aggregate
Cutout
Hodgepodge
Pasticcio
or..my two favorites (and the start with "M")
Matisse
Mondrian

Or maybe just Heath, since that's my name and all ;)

Heath? Hah! How droll.

King

well, I had four people comment on my photo that has 13 rates, and it's near this one....so I think we have some folks that rate, post and don't comment.

Yellow...

I like ChriZ's idea of mandatory comments for very low ratings. It would at least force speed raters to give 3's, which wouldn't hurt an image's aggregate score.

No need of mandatory comments, I can tell you why I trashed this picture. It was an emotional reaction. Believe it or not, I very seldom use the "poor" button. Here, I was pretty sure it was King's work, but I don't like the idea. Not the idea of the tribute: I this Thelma was the most creative personality here, IMHO. I don't like the way you used her pictures. You already used one of her pictures just to show off, and she didn't like it, remember? As I can't speak in her name, let's say I wouldn't like my pictures to be used this way. I think it's heavy and tasteless, the opposite of Thelma's pictures.
As for not leaving a comment, it's just that sometimes I have the time to comment, sometimes I don't.
Now, if the "yellow" is for me, and if I understand what it means, I save a few words for you too...
Are you satisfied of this comment?

Philippe, just because you dislike an image doesn't mean you have to give it low ratings. There are actually 5 different categories you're giving marks at, no kidding!
And as King pointed out you probably gave a 1 in image quality.
Ok you could say the melting part looks really bad (1), but the photo that gets cut is probably as sharp as you can get a jpg (5), add them together and divide them by two (3)

And since this picture had gave you such a strong emotional reaction, impact should be at least a 4.

The point I want to make is that personal feelings shouldn't prevent people from giving "professional" feedback. And if an Image causes such an emotional reaction, why not just not rate it? Bad/Poor and emotional is not the same thing!

Okay in this particular case everything is a bit difficult and I probably can - while I can't at the same time - why you gave this such a low rating...

Just a thought... or another one...

And no offense mate! Just doing conversation here ;)

philppe, my friend,

"yellow" was a pun, based on the movie, "I Am Curious, Yellow." You said "curious", I said "yellow". Simple as that.

I don't think Thelma Blizzard was the least bit offended that I inverted the solid black negative space of her image. What's to be offended about? Someone could ask her if she's offended by what I think is a tasteful tribute to her contributions.

I am the last person to want to limit what others say, so I welcome your comments. I do, however, agree with Chriz that you *could* have been a bit less vendictive with your ratings club. :>) Smiling here, philippe--dont' swing again!

Thanks for speaking up.

***I like ChriZ's idea of mandatory comments for very low ratings. It would at least force speed raters to give 3's, which wouldn't hurt an image's aggregate score.

hee hee. Ana said this YEARS AGO in the google group.
Well, okay, it wasn't years......

Yellow

Oh, and people didn't like that suggestion, by the way. It was thought it would deter people from giving one's all together. :)
Most likely, true.

Since I've only given 1's once in a blue moon, I'd have not problem with that. But then I tend to comment too.

Also, since I'm new to WS, if I know I don't have anything worthy to contribute I may still rate, but not comment because I know enough to know I have a lot to learn.

This is very clever. Well done on all categories.

Who's on a roll? Congratulations!

.

Ho! with just an hour to spare, it made it! Congrats.

Congrats King...however this featuring is came ;)

I'm pretty amazed. Thanks everyone for helping this image rebound.

Hummingbird...good guess! and thanks.

Lemingstone...thanks!

Tracy...another good guess. Thanks again.

@Flatline...thanks for rating this image in the same spirit in which I rated your controversial image in the previous theme.

I rated it objectively. This is a great image. I am happy that it's my vote that got it rated just in time.

Great! Happy it made it up,
Thank you King for this nice contribution.
Thanks Blizz for all you've done here.

Lovely work King (as always!)! I have been away from Weeklyshots for a while now, wonder what was the reason for Thelma's departure.

Thanks, Ashish.

I don't think we know the underlying reason for Thelma's departure, and you'd have to ask her directly to be sure. However, her motivation appears to be associated with this image:

http://www.weeklyshot.org/theme/big/response/79/

King

Thanks King!
She will be missed :(