For those of you who are new here, this “What You Missed…” theme began when I started posting photos of my morning rides. Looking back they were horrible, but people seemed to enjoy it. Somehow this caught on and I still get heaps of photos sent to me of other people’s morning rides. I often see the #WYMTM hashtag on twitter and other blogs have adopted the similar themes. I think it’s fantastic because there’s much more to cycling that action shots of the PROs.

Over Christmas I’d be running the third annual What You Missed This Morning Photo Competition. This will provide some escapism to our northern friends enjoying their white Christmas while we’re out riding in prime season. There are some terrific prizes to motivate you to start snapping!

HOW TO SUBMIT

There are a few ways to submit your photo into the competition. You can simply tweet your photo with the hashtag #WYMTM and include @cyclingtips, you can email to [email protected] (make sure it’s this address!), or you can upload via the form below. All photos that get past moderation will be updated and posted in the gallery below (to get things started I’d added a couple photos that will later be taken down).

PRIZES

I’ve received some excellent prizes from many brands for this competition and thank everyone for their generosity.

RULES

The last time I held this competition I only allowed camera phones so that everyone could be involved and it wasn’t dependant on equipment. However, this time I’ll be opening up the competition to any type of camera. Phone cameras are becoming quite adequate and if you compose properly you’ll beat anyone who doesn’t know how to use a fancy DSLR. I’m guessing that most of the shots sent in will be on camera phones since you’ll always have one with you and some of the best shots arise in the most unexpected moments. As Chase Jarvis always says, “the best camera is the one you have with you”.

I will be moderating all photos that come through and will only be selecting the best.

Photos that have been heavily manipulated by Photoshop (i.e. subjects are superimposed) will not be accepted.

The theme is “What you missed THIS MORNING”, but I’ll give some leeway for accepting photos up to 6 weeks old. I can see from the EXIF data when the photo was taken. Some of you will know how to manipulate that though…

Only one submission per person. If your photo does not get make it into the competition the first time you try, feel free to try again.

Competition closes on January 2nd and I’ll be announcing the winner on January 4. The winners will be picked based on a public reader voting mechanism. Any complications that arise during the competition, I will be the eternal “Dear Leader” for any rules I need to create or modify. I always set out with these things for just a bit of fun, but once prizes come into the mix, there are always a few people who take these things far too seriously.

I’m very sorry but this competition prizes are only open to Australian and New Zealand residents. If you’re one of our international guests reading from outside ANZ, feel free to submit your photos and I’ll try to find you a small token of appreciation to the top 3 photos.

The following photographers are not eligable for this competition: Veeral Patel, Kristof Ramone, Mark Gunter, Jered Gruber, Jarrod Partridge, etc. Just kidding, but you’d better use a camera phone.

SUGGESTIONS

This competition is not about photos from the local crit races or you meeting your favorite PRO. This is about capturing the magic of your ride. Feel free to submit whatever you like, but be aware that your photo of you and Renshaw at the coffee shop will probably not make it through (unless of course Renshaw submits the photo).

Please be careful while shooting and riding! I strongly encourage you to completely stop, compose your photo, and carry on your way. I can’t stress this enough. You’re playing on open roads with traffic. I don’t want to hear about any accidents during Christmas - especially because you were taking photos while riding!

Take LOTS of photos. For every good photo I take, I also have twenty bad ones.

Feel free to post-process. Use a program like Lightroom or Aperture to adjust your contrast, exposure, color, etc. There are lots of excellent iPhone and Android apps as well. Don’t overdo it though!

Make sure you photo is sufficiently large enough. 800px wide is the ideal size. Any smaller and the gallery will try to enlarge and it’ll become pixelated. Please try to make the photo in Landscape framing as portrait does not fit in to the framework of the gallery.

Shoot your photos during Golden Hour. This is the first and last hour of sunlight during the day. Typically the lighting is softer, warmer, and shadows are longer. You don’t have to do this, but it’s the secret to beautiful photos.

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Have a very Merry Christmas to you and your families and get snapping those photos! I can’t thank you enough for reading each and every day and making it such a spectacular year. All the best in 2012 and ride safe.