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Post by SSO JOAT on Sept 3, 2016 13:33:50 GMT -9
GeocacheAlaska! 2017 Calendar Photo ContestIt’s time to download the contents of your cameras! As in previous years, we are running a photo contest and it’s time to submit your entries. Unlike prior years, we have greatly simplified the submission process. We are not using a vast list of photo categories this time. Each photographer may enter up to 15 photos to the contest. We will be screening all photos by committee and selecting those that meet the requirements set out below. Those that are accepted to the contest will then be voted on by the geocaching community using a 0-10 rating system. The highest rated images will get bragging rights and be published in a 2017 wall calendar that will be available for purchase this December. Deadline for submitting photos to the contest is midnight, Sunday October 2, 2016! An online survey to vote for your favorite photos will be published later in October. Contest Rules: Participants must be current members of GeocacheAlaska! at either the Sourdough or Cheechako level. All photos must be taken in Alaska within the last two years. The theme of our photo contest is Geocaching in Alaska, so all photos must depict scenes of geocaching activities or the sights and scenery experienced while geocaching. Every photo entry must be associated with a published geocache. Any geocache or spin-off may be used, to include any physical geocache, Earthcache, virtual, webcam, event, CITO, letterbox hybrid, benchmark, or Wherigo cache in Alaska. Caches that have been disabled or archived are still acceptable. Photos may also depict any trackable or travel bug item as long as they are taken in Alaska and there are no tracking numbers visible in the image (digital redaction is acceptable, but should be done in an aesthetically pleasing fashion). Photos must be submitted in digital format as a High Resolution jpg image with minimal compression. Photos must be taken with a digital camera of at least 3.3MP resolution (5MP or higher preferred) and submitted to us in a format of no less than 96dpi (150-300dpi is preferred) and at the highest image resolution possible. All photos must be in landscape format (wider than they are tall) with a size ratio of about 1.3:1 to properly fit on a printed page of 11 x 8.5 inches (this aspect ratio is very close to the commonly used 4:3, which is acceptable if that is what your camera records). Photos that are not exactly 1.3:1 aspect ratio may be subject to cropping in order to fit within our publication parameters. Photos in portrait, panoramic, or other aspect ratios that are too far out of our required range will be rejected from the contest. GeocacheAlaska! Inc. will publish all accepted images to the photo gallery on the GeocacheAlaska! website. The images on our website will be highly compressed from the submitted images in order to facilitate network bandwidth limitations when visitors view our website. In that process, all images will be subject to cropping, resizing, and altering the image for color, brightness, and contrast. Photo credit will be given to the photographer. By submitting images to the photo contest, the entrant affirms that the photograph is their original work and they allow GeocacheAlaska! to publish the image on our website, in a printed calendar, and in any other GeocacheAlaska! electronic or printed media as part of club operations. Photographs may be submitted by emailing a high resolution copy to PhotoContest@GeocacheAlaska.org. Please use the tag (PHOTO CONTEST) as the Subject Line of your message to help our email system sort your entries directly to our inbox instead of junking them to the SPAM box where they could get lost in the clutter. Please, submit only ONE photo per email. Processing the entries is a lot of time consuming work for the volunteers that make this contest possible. Having just one image per message really streamlines this task. In the body of the message, please state the full name of the photographer as well as their geocaching nickname. We must have the GC# of the geocache the photo is associated with. You may include a brief description of the contents of the photo and provide a title or caption for the photo, which will appear with the photo if it is published. If there are recognizable people in the photo, please provide their name or geocaching nickname. All photo submissions must be sent to the official photo contest email account AND include all the requested information above in order to be included in the contest. Rejected entries will receive one notice of missing information, inadequate photo size or resolution, or inappropriate content. The submitter will have until the close of the contest to correct any issues and resubmit their photo for further consideration. If you have geocaching photos from your vacation or from outside of Alaska, these may also be submitted for inclusion in the GeoFest slide show by sending them to the same email account as above, but using the tag (SLIDE SHOW) in the subject line of your email. We still request that you include the info listed above. There is no limit to the number of photos you may enter into the slide show pool, so any and all geocaching-related photos are welcome. Rejected photo contest entries may be moved to the slide show at the discretion of GeocacheAlaska! If you have any questions, send an email to the photo contest email account. Thank you for participating!
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Post by freeweez on Sept 6, 2016 9:32:51 GMT -9
Nice.....very complete description of the photo contest! Thank you!
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Post by NorthWes on Sept 20, 2016 8:50:48 GMT -9
Nice.....very complete description of the photo contest! Thank you! Thoroughly well done - now for entries!
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Post by SSO JOAT on Sept 20, 2016 8:57:27 GMT -9
Since publishing the photo contest call via social media and newsletter, we have received exactly 1 photo. The given deadline is now only 2 weeks away. If we don't have at least 3 dozen images to choose from, I'm afraid the calendar part will have to be cancelled.
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Post by freeweez on Sept 20, 2016 9:15:43 GMT -9
Yes.....don't know why folks are not submitting photos..... Can previously submitted photos from the newsletter be used? just wondering.....
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Post by SSO JOAT on Sept 20, 2016 10:23:01 GMT -9
Photos submitted to the newsletter may be used. I would say that the only absolutes on NOT picking photos would be any photo that appeared in a previous calendar (e.g. the winners) and any photos that were not taken in Alaska.
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akrud
Bronze Cacher
Posts: 55
GeocacheAlaska! Membership Level: Sourdough
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Post by akrud on Sept 20, 2016 12:13:57 GMT -9
I have to admit I am just now getting all mine in order to submit. I am learning that I don't take many landscape ones... So if any of mine make it, feel free to crop as needed... On another note I think sometimes the general population does not spend as much time talking or thinking about GeocacheAlaska! as we do as board members. It will be interesting to be on the other end and see how much I miss because I am not being included in everything. Honestly reminders on social media are probably a good idea. When I submit I will post a little (Yeah! I got my photos submitted for the Calendar). I'm guessing a bunch of people will go Oh my gosh I spaced that. Not necessarily a complete list of rules, they can scroll back and get that.
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Post by freeweez on Sept 21, 2016 10:25:05 GMT -9
I agree with Erika.....many members are just not used to talking 'up' the photos or calendar. Also....for me personally....it looks a bit daunting to have to figure out all the requirements before submitting a photo! size/pixels/etc.....just way too much for me!
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Post by SSO JOAT on Sept 21, 2016 11:52:45 GMT -9
You don't need to figure any of that out. Send photos of the largest resolution you have. If it is not acceptable, I'll let you know. Nearly every digital camera on the market today meets the requirements specified in the "rules".
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akrud
Bronze Cacher
Posts: 55
GeocacheAlaska! Membership Level: Sourdough
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Post by akrud on Sept 21, 2016 12:03:50 GMT -9
Haha yeah I simplified it for Wally Body of message: Your name (geoname) GC Code name of cache name of anyone in pictures explanation if wanted I also told him to rename his photos as the GC code name of cache so it was quicker when sending to get all the info in. I created a folder for him to specifically save those photos in so they were all in one place. LOl I'm gonna have this down to an art form. I have to admit I love taking the photos as much as the geocaching. It puts things in a different perspective for me. I guess I love geocaching to take me to new places.
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Post by TheFirefly on Sept 27, 2016 13:44:34 GMT -9
I do think that all the technical details about the photo may scare some people off. I happen to know that my dSLR takes photos that meet the requirements, but I also take a lot on my cell phone, and I have no idea what the specs are on it. Honestly, I'm not likely to go looking to figure it out....sad, but true. I think you could probably just say 'high resolution, landscape orientation' and it would seem less intimidating. If most cameras on the market today meet the requirements, we probably don't need to list all those details! Every year I tell myself I'm going to create a folder to put all my photos that are associated with geocaching...and every year about this time I realize I haven't done it!
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Post by freeweez on Sept 29, 2016 12:22:27 GMT -9
I agree Firefly! That might be a good idea---just submit what photos one has and if they don't meet requirements---then you will be notified!
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Post by ladybugkids on Sept 29, 2016 17:08:49 GMT -9
That's a lot of work to shove back on the contest coordinator. Many times, people won't even reply to e-mails. Some years, it's been like pulling teeth to get the high resolution photo from the photographer to upload to the calendar blueprint.
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Post by SSO JOAT on Sept 29, 2016 17:12:45 GMT -9
With only 3 days left in the published contest and only a dozen or so photos submitted by only two members, I think any terms of a "contest" are likely off the table. I guess this is just a website image stocking promotion. I'll jet out a final notice email and see what happens.
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Post by TheFirefly on Sept 30, 2016 6:24:08 GMT -9
Wait a minute - I didn't say anything about just sending things and letting the contest coordinator sort it out!!
I just said that if it is true that the majority of cameras on the market today take photos that meet the technical requirements, then listing the technical details may be unnecessary.
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Post by ladybugkids on Sept 30, 2016 6:58:20 GMT -9
Hi Ericka:
I was responding to Louise's post of:
I lost interest in submitting entries a couple of years ago when only a minimal number of people actually bought the calendar after the Webmaster and in the past, others, put hours of work into the contest. GeocacheAlaska! has so many core things that aren't getting done that a low-volume (although very sharp looking) calendar run likely isn't worth the resource cost unless Scott particularly enjoys doing it.
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Post by SSO JOAT on Oct 3, 2016 11:02:16 GMT -9
The contest deadline went by and we only had 3 people submit photos. Since we didn't get a final notice into a newsletter about the end of the contest, I'm going to extend it by a week. I've had other day job obligations pop up that will prevent me from working on sorting photos this week anyway.
New contest deadline will be midnight Monday Oct 10, 2016.
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Post by SSO JOAT on Oct 4, 2016 11:09:18 GMT -9
Reminder... Contest eligible photos must be taken IN Alaska. Your travel photos are ok for the slide show at GeoFest, but won't be part of the contest or calendar.
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Post by SSO JOAT on Oct 20, 2016 6:31:14 GMT -9
Looks like the final photo tally includes 78 photos submitted by 13 cachers. I had to reject 4 photos from the "contest" that were not taken in Alaska, but those will appear on the website photo gallery.
Will post a notice when the photo gallery is populated.
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Post by freeweez on Oct 20, 2016 12:58:34 GMT -9
YEA!! thank you for your work on this!!
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