"Very lucky" Picture of the Year
The Wikimedia Commons 2012 Picture of the Year contest (POTY) has ended, with the winner being Pair of Merops apiaster feeding, taken by Pierre Dalous. Second place went to NASA's Magnificent CME Erupts on the Sun - August 31, and third place to Stefan Krause's Glühlampe explodiert.
- The contest
The competition was organized into two rounds, and users who had at least 75 edits on any Wikimedia project before 1 January 2013 were eligible to vote.
The first round consisted of all of the images that ran on the Commons' main page in 2012. Users were allowed to vote for as many pictures as they wanted. With 631 votes, Ponte Vasco da Gama 25 received the most; Darvasa gas crater panorama crop ran a close second with 626.
In the second round, users were only allowed to vote for one picture. The second round's candidates were selected by votes: the top 36 pictures from the first round, along with eight additional images that were in categories not represented by the top 36. With 347 votes, Pair of Merops apiaster feeding not only beat the next-closest competitor by 43 votes, it managed to overcome a 254-vote difference from the first round, where it came in a stunning 24th. The first round winners (Ponte Vasco da Gama 25 and Darvasa gas crater panorama crop) finished in ninth and eighth place, respectively.
- The images
Pair of Merops apiaster feeding was taken by Pierre Dalous. Dalous started contributing images to the Commons only last year, and even before this, he had never participated in a photo contest. While he has only 113 edits and uploaded 24 images, 11 are now featured thanks to User:Lemon.
Taking the picture required finding a perch frequented by the European bee-eater, but the location and time windows were limited: the bird will normally frequent rivers so that it has a steady source of food (e.g. dragonflies) and a place to construct a nest, which it likes to do in eroded banks and slopes near rivers. In addition, the birds are migratory and only present in France from roughly April to September; this time was further limited by the 22 hours a day with inadequate light, leaving only two where Dalous could take the shot.
Dalous captured the birds with a tripod-mounted Canon EOS 7D camera with an f/4 Canon EF 300mm lens. He told us that the birds do not take long to enjoy their prey, so his major challenge was to catch both birds in the act while keeping them in focus. Dalous called the eventual result, which won him the POTY, "very lucky".
A senior Commons editor told the Signpost:
| “ | In my view some of the technical aspects of the image were achieved with great skill. While the right side of the branch is a bit out of focus and the under chin of left bird is shadowed, the action frame and the composition of the birds are excellent. I particularly like the forked shape on the branch that mirrors the beak. And there's inadvertently an almost human look in the bird about to catch the insect: look at its eye. | ” |
The second place image, Magnificent CME Erupts on the Sun - August 31, was published by the NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. It shows a coronal mass ejection leaving the Sun at over 900 miles per hour (1,400 km/h). Capturing this image required NASA to record it in the 304 and 171 angstrom wavelengths. One Commons reviewer commented that "the wow factor is great here! ... I thought this was an artist's impression."
Third place went to Stefan Krause's Glühlampe explodiert. Krause, a German Wikipedian, told the Signpost that he has uploaded many images in the past—roughly 120 this year alone—and has 17 featured pictures to his name. In addition, he had two finalists in the 2010 POTY contest alone (Schwappender Wein, in eighth place; Eilean Donan Castle Panorama, in fifteenth). He also participates in German Wikipedia photo-related WikiProjects, like Projekt Fotoflüge.
Krause's third place picture was inspired by one of his earlier images, Glühwedel brennt durch. This image highlights the gas coming out of a cracked light bulb. From this grew the idea of making a light bulb 'explode' with the help of an airsoft gun.
Capturing this image was no small feat, though. Krause remarked that getting the photo right required fine-tuning his flashes to 1/4000 seconds to "freeze" the scene. In addition, a trigger was required, so that when the gun was fired, the camera would capture the moment soon after impact. Krause constructed a full photo set in about an hour, taking care to account for flying glass fragments from the exploding bulbs. Finding the perfect combination then took nine lightbulbs, frequent corrections to the gun and trigger, and experimenting with the voltage supplied to the bulbs. In all, Krause said that it took him about three hours to take the photo.
The camera used was a Nikon D700 with a Nikkor 70mm-200 2.8 VR1 set at a 160mm focal length. The bulb was 1.8 metres (5.9 ft) away.
- Aftermath
The POTY contest organizers were very proud of this year's competition. The Signpost emailed User:Mono, User:Miya, and User:Beria, all members of the POTY organizing committee, for their opinions on the competition. Mono and Beria told us that the participation in the contest was far higher than previous years: this year, roughly 3200 and 4000 people voted in rounds one and two (respectively), as opposed to 2011's 1393 and 1178, and 2010's 1722 and 2400. The members also highlighted the growing difficulty of winning the contest. Miya pointed to this post, while Mono said that "It's always been a dilemma when some people are disappointed that certain unique and valuable images were left out. It's a delicate balance between preserving the popular vote and ensuring that everything gets a fair shake in the competition."
According to Beria, the competition was also much easier to run this year, as much of the coding was done last year, and the contest was translated into 29 languages. Mono emphasized the early timing of this year's contest when compared to previous years. Last year's competition (see Signpost coverage) ended in June; this year's ended in February. The difference was in when the preparations for holding the contest began. For this, Mono told us that the organizing team started in November 2012, whereas in past years they have started in March or April of the following year.
In addition, a 2014 calendar comprised of the top 12 images from this year's POTY will be published by the Wikimedia Store. Those interested in being notified when it comes out may sign up here.
Overall, the organizers believed that this was at the least a highly successful contest. Mono said "we're very pleased with this year's contest. ... I'm proud to say that this was the most successful contest we've ever had", while Miya thanked the users who either contributed or voted in the competition.