What is this?

Many of you will recall the Coaching Competition, "Beyond Boundaries", from 2013. Basically, it was a 2-month competition in which participants were assigned to a coach (mentor), who was an advanced photomanipulator. The coach taught the students specific skills in accordance with the students' needs, and in the end all students had to complete one photomanipulation in accordance with a theme that was provided to them. It was a great opportunity to learn firsthand from someone who has mastered the field and who wants to share knowledge with members who want to expand their skills.

Improvements for 2015

This year, we are hoping to do another coaching competition, this time with some edits:

We will screen participants in advance and only allow those who are sincere photomanipulators to join. By "sincere photomanipulators," I mean individuals who have at least 3 honest attempts at photomanipulation in their galleries and who credit their stock. This is not a "how do I do photomanipulation?" contest, but rather a contest to allow people to hone skills they already have and to develop new ones. You must know the basics, like how layers work and how to cut out your stock.

The teams will be bigger (5 per team), and to compensate, each team will have 2-3 coaches.

The coaches (mentors) will provide lessons either in group form or one-on-one on content to be determined by CRPhotomanipulation staff in accordance with the needs of the students.

This is a learning opportunity for coaches, too, as they can learn from one another. We will be pairing coaches with different skills so that students get a variety of techniques.

Each participant (not coaches) will have to create a photomanipulation in the end.  The 5 photomanips for each team will be gathered into one collective for the team.

People seemed to enjoy the 2013 competition, and they learned a lot. We think this one can be fun, too.

Prizing

The prizes for this competition will, at the very least, include 2,000 points per team member (and coach) on the winning team, plus a print of your choice worth up to US $20. These prizes come from Community Relations on DA. There will only be one winning team, to keep costs down. We are, of course, open to donations, but please keep in mind that your donation will be divided over 7-8 people.

Coach Mentors

I have some spectacular coaches in mind, but I need to know how many of you want to play so I can figure out how many of them to recruit. I am not going to reveal who I have in mind for coaches right now, so please don't ask. If your heart is set on being a coach, please note me (Aeirmid).

How to sign up

If you are interested in being a participant in this contest and receiving personalized mentoring from a coach, please send CRPhotomanipulation a note saying that you're interested and indicating one or two areas that you most want to improve. Please keep in mind that this is a 2 to 3 month contest and that dropping out could hurt your team. Participation is open to photomanipulators who want to learn more, regardless of skill level, with the exception of true novices (e.g. those without basic photomanipulation skills like cropping and using layers), as described above.

Please sign up ASAP so we know how many coaches/mentors to recruit. Thanks!

Questions? Note CRPhotomanipulation.


Thanks!

Aeirmid / Jade