We've heard a few comments of late that our biweekly Trackside with Trains photo contest is growing stale, and I agree. So starting with September we're going to mix it up. The contest is now on a monthly schedule and we're treating each theme as an assignment: go make an image with it in mind rather than digging through your archives for something relevant from long ago.
The first email newsletter each month will announce the previous contest's winner and the theme for the next contest. Contestants will then have a little less than two weeks, but still two weekends, to capture a compelling image to enter in the contest. Trains staff will choose the entries that best fit the theme and other criteria, up to six per contest.
Why are we making these changes? There are a few reasons. First, it encourages readers to go out and make new images, which also benefits the magazine. Second, it gets back to Trackside's roots of fostering photographic development among our readers. In its early days, two Kalmbach staffers would go head-to-head to make competing images with a common theme and along the way explain why they made the choices that they did. That is the most important part of the change for us: teach your fellow photographers about photography!
The next theme is "more than meets the eye" and entries are due no later than 12 P.M. CDT Monday, Sept. 17, 2018. Be sure to include the caption information that you always have, along with an explanation of why and how, and the basic equipment and exposure information.
Good luck!
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