Caudata.org calendar competition continued....

This is a continuation of this thread. Please post new submissions here.

Dear all, Caudata.org is aiming to produce its first caudata themed calendar for 2007. The great news is that the photos in the calendar will all be taken by members of this forum. We are looking for 12 great pictures, one for each month . So, if you want the chance to become part of caudate calendar history and see your photo in print all you need to do is read the rules below and submit your photos. You may submit as many photos as you like. The closing date for the competition is the 31st October 2006 and the winning photos will be judged by a panel of forum users which will be decided nearer the time. The calendars will be sold in the caudata.org shop and all profits will go to the upkeep of this site.


The rules of the competition

1) The copyright of the photo must belong to you i.e. you took it. You retain the rights to your photo should we choose to use it.
2) You must have the original.
3) The image must be of a caudate (wild or captive)
4) The picture is in a digital format. We cannot transfer 35mm film to digital for you. The owner is responsible for this process.

To Submit Photos

There are 2 ways to submit your photos. Either post your photos here on this thread or alternatively you can email low resolution versions to the following address: admin@caudata.org
Where possible please include the name of the species depicted and the pixel dimensions of the original photo (or camera spec: e.g. 4 mega-pixel digital camera etc) with each submission.


May the competition begin - GOOD LUCK!

I agree with Andy
We could make a calendar just out of Henk's pictures

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Quoting Francesco Spallone on Friday 29 September 2006 - 20:10 (#POST107278):</font>

We could make a calendar just out of Henk's pictures<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>Yes Francesco, you've hit the nail on the head, so to speak. I'm a huge fan of Henk and I have no hesitation in stating he has real talent as a photographer (and goodness knows his photos are good sellers).

However I found myself overwhelmed by the sheer onslaught of beautiful photos posted by Henk in the previous thread. Henk, it would have been more helpful to have whittled the list down to perhaps a quarter or a fifth. I want to see all of your trip photos (the more the better) but not in this thread.

As it stands, I am sure many people who were thinking about entering are going to feel intimidated by the staggering standard set by Henk's plethora of pictures. I really hope we haven't discouraged others from entering the competition as it would be a real shame.

Mark: I think perhaps we need to set a limit on the number of photos any one person can have on the calendar?

And by the way, it just occurred to me to ask if I may enter? Would that be proper?

Perhaps we could delete the photos that were taken in vertical format and don't look amenable to horizontal cropping. Most likely these wouldn't be suitable for a calendar. This would reduce Henk's somewhat overwhelming submission. Also, in the judging, perhaps there should be a rule limiting the number of winning photos per photographer. What do you think, Mark?

I don't see anything improper with you submitting entries, John. (Unless, of course, you're planning to be the sole judge ) Bring it on!

(Message edited by jennewt on September 29, 2006)

I don't think it would be wrong for you to enter, John, and in fact I would quite welcome it.

As a suggestion, perhaps there should be a limit on the number of photos a member can have in the calender? If not, I could see Henk nailing all 12 months, plus the cover.

Looks like you were reading my mind, Jen.

My personal opinion is that the calendar should have as broad a selection of photographers and species as possible. In an ideal world we would have 12 fantastic photos from 12 different members. Clearly that relies on the submissions we receive. The primary aim is to have a great calendar with as many people involved as possible.

As site founder I think you probably have a right, and maybe even a duty to enter, John. I too would like to submit some photos at some point and have wondered if this would be proper? The judging process will be all about the photos and be as fair as possible.

Vertical orientated photos look like they may be unfeasible unless used as the cover image on some of the larger calendars. I don't think we should rule them out but it's unlikely we'll be able to use them in the body of the calendar. We do however need a nice cover image for the 11inch x 17inch calendar....

Hey everyone,

I have been looking at all the really nice photos, and not just Henks, and I have to agree that the bar is set pretty high.

The way it all looks to me, is that 12 is not alot of pictures at all, I see so many that I would love to have on a calander that its going to be really hard to judge this thing, but I did have a idea...

John, what if you selected a main picture for every month, preferably something that showcases a nice shot of the newt/salamander in a "natural" setting, for example that one above from thomas, and in addition, for each month, on the page with the days and such, we have one additional picture at the bottom, or in a corner somehow, cropped more of a flat rectangle. I realize this may be a format problem, but I have seen this done with alot of calanders and it really could give it quite an edge. Also, it would allow us to showcase some of the photos that might not be cover shots, but pictures that would be very cool to have in the calander, such as some funny ones, larvae, newts in setups, Like christian's tiger shot, or that one karen posted with the newts standing up.

perhaps also there coudl be one extra page at the end that has 25 shots or more all together, sort of a runner up page that would just increase the diversity and allow us to put some of these larval shots in that I love...

what do you guys think?

heres some of mine BTW, all are huge but shrunken down

Wel let me first assure you it is/was not in my intention to 'frighten' other competitors. I just discovered the competition and maybe I got a bit too carried away... ). If you feel this is too much just wipe some out I have no problem with that. I just happen to have soo many shots (be sure not all of that quality ;-) choosing was difficult ...

I really have no intention to out-compete the others in any way and if the photos do more wrong then right to the cause, just delete my post.

And there are other fine shots in there already, as mentioned before some do need a bit more processing to enhance them a bit (sharpening, colour balances that are shifted to 'blue' and fuzziing the details which we do not need like the dirt on the glass plate). By the way the head shot of the axolotl by Jeff is pretty nice shot .... and to show what you can do with some post processing I have taken that shot and worked some 10 minutes on it with this as a result.

Jeff I hope you are ok with me doing so, but I thought this was a great shot where you could easyly see and feel the impact of the changes.

I fully agree with you Henk, almost all of my pictures could do with a little work, and I am sure others would agree that allthough you try as hard as you can to minimimize tank glare, blurryness, water marks on the glass, you never know if you got your "money shot" untill you are sitting at the computer hours later.

I have no problem with you touching up my shot, and It does look much sharper and more well defined. The sand looks a bit blurry, but overall it appears that the touches you made are good examples that could make all of our good pictures "great" pictures. I haven't done much photo editing of recent. Perhaps those who are more comfortable and more expirianced would be willing to assist in the final shots to do some touching up like Henk did.

Also, John and or Mark, let me know about the ideas I had about the extra pictures.

To answer the few points that have been made since my last post:

- I think you can edit your post Henk to whittle the selection down somewhat, if not, just post here with which ones you wish to remove and I'll do it for you.
- Regarding having multiple pictures on the calendar, I'm certain we can only put photos in one place on each month page so having multiple photos would be difficult, unless we stick them with the main month photo (which I think is feasible).
- With regard to limiting the number of photos, I was thinking perhaps we should limit each person to 1 photo for the 12 months and then have an open round for the cover page. Thoughts?
- Regarding post-processing, I will do this to each photo anyhow before I put it on the calendar (to give them all a unified "look") and I'm sure some cropping will be involved for most. I think Jeff's axolotl is probably the best axolotl photo I've seen so far and personally I am likely to choose it for the calendar (of course I don't get the final say).
- Thanks for letting me enter. I'll get Picasa out .

If our photo is no longer on this thread, should we assume that it was deleted (and should be re-posted)??

OK John, I'll see what I can do . But what I can propose from my side is help with the actual processing, if you care.

John- I believe when I resized my photo it was 400 x 300 pixels.

Karen - this is a continuation of the previous thread, there's no need to post again. I think John was after the pixel dimension before you cropped it.

Henk - It would certainly be a good idea to get more than one pair of eyes (and photoshop skills etc) on the final grading of the photos. Someone with your photo knowledge would be very useful. We'll see what John says.

30 days left people! More photos, less discussion!

Sorry, I didn't realize this was a continued post.

Karen: what size is the photo straight out of the camera (dimensions)?

Regarding post-processing, I would rather do it all myself just for consistency's sake. I appreciate the offer of help but it's really not needed.