It's a busy day over here. I have backed up beer and beer book notes I would like to post. If I have the time I would post about the great post over at Max's which builds on a comment he left at Jeff's on Thusday. I would also like to go over the amazing work Craig has been doing in the great cause of examining Albany brewing, soundly defeating the often made claim that there was no real organized US brewing before lager. I would even like to catch up with the prize offerings so far. But I have an important issue to mention. What is and is not a crap photo for contest purposes.

Jerry Davison of West Peoria, IL forwarded the photo to the above right and wrote:

Crappy Beer Photo Entry... or do you decide that?! This was taken inside of Deschutes looking out during our annual Portland trip. They have a saying in Portland that fits this to a “T” in my opinion, Keep Portland Weird!

Fortunately for the world, yes, I decide. And I have to say that this is in no way an entry for the crappy photo context. It is a delight to my eye. Look at the range of pinky purple reds. The flower, the hair, the wall across the street, the tattoo. Then look at the girl. She is anonymous because of her posture. She doesn't care. She is fixated on the smart phone but firmly grasps her drink. She is unaware that she is being photographed. As Jerry says, she exemplifies her own town. It is taken at a famous cornerstone brewery, Oregon's Deschutes, but it does not tell us that - except perhaps for the logo on the pint glass. But the fact that she is there says a lot about her. I expect she is not a lass who needs beer for women marketing. I bet she knows a lot about what she likes in a beer and in life. Now, it is not a perfect photo. The window pane is dirty, marring the image of her hair. I would have lifted the camera's lens to not see the underside of the table. We'll have to see how it stacks up to other entries come prize giving time. But let's be clear. This is not an entry for the crap photo award. It's a story.

Crap photo? This is a crap photo, the first crap photo category winner from 2009 submitted by Bill Night. Interestingly, it is also from Portland, Oregon. And it is truly and deeply crappy. Crap photo rule #1: it has to tell no story. Crappy colour scheme is a bonus. Other rule reminder: Keep the scale of your photos relatively small. I do not need a 3 MB image. Keep them under 500K or I have to spend too much time cropping and resizing. Need some inspiration? Here are the 2007 entries. Bet you have some photos like these ready to be submitted, too.