Galapagos Conservancy 2012 Photo Contest

Galapagos Conservancy invites you to submit your favorite Galapagos photographs for our 2012 Galapagos Conservancy calendar.

Staff and close supporters of Galapagos Conservancy will choose 13 winning photographs sent in by our members: twelve to be included in the 2012 calendar and one for the cover of our 2011 Annual Report. One photo will be chosen as the overall “winning photo” and will be featured on the cover of the 2012 calendar and in many of our web and marketing materials.

We will also select 25-35 additional photos to appear as small details in the empty spaces of the monthly grids of the calendar.

Eagle Rays Underwater by Alice Bartlett of Victoria, Australia. The winning calendar cover shot from Galapagos Conservancy’s 2011 calendar.

We are hoping to showcase the biodiversity of Galapagos in our calendar. In addition to the ever popular sea lions and marine iguanas, we also hope to receive submissions depicting Galapagos’ other living treasures, both on land and under water. Scenery shots are also welcome.

Images will be judged on originality, technical excellence, and composition. Thought will also be given to selecting photos that will help create a calendar filled with a variety of Galapagos subjects.

Green Sea Turtle and Steel Pompano Fish by Matthew Meier of La Jolla, CA and Rabida Island by Andy Teucher of Victoria, BC Canada

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS and INFORMATION

HOW TO SUBMIT:

We accept digital images only. To submit your digital images, please email them as attachments—one at a time—to photo@galapagos.org, and be sure to include your name, mailing address, email address, and telephone number in the email. In the subject line of your email, please put the subject matter of your photo and your name. (example: Waved Albatross by Charles Darwin)

We are no longer accepting printed photographs, slides, or CDs submitted by regular mail. We apologize for this change, but given the volume of submissions we receive, we can no longer dedicate the extra time needed to process these photo formats.

RULES FOR SUBMISSION:

1) Submissions are due by midnight (EST) on July 30, 2011.
2) Please do not send more than 5 photographs per person.
3) Do not send photos that have been submitted to past photo contests held by Galapagos Conservancy.
4) Photographers must be at least 18 years old.
5) Photographers must be members of Galapagos Conservancy. If you are not a member, we kindly ask that you join at our minimum annual membership level of $25. You can do so on this website.

GUIDELINES FOR ELIGIBLE PHOTOS:

High quality photos make all the difference! Keep in mind that the winning calendar photos will be printed in an 8.5 × 11 in. format, so the quality of the image is very important. Photo submissions must meet these requirements in order to be considered:

Rectangular shaped photos only.
The main subject matter in your photo should be perfectly clear (unless using an obvious visual effect). Photos that have been digitally altered beyond standard optimization will be disqualified. Removal of dust, cropping, minor adjustments to color and contrast, etc. are okay.
Photos should be proportional to standard photo size—no panoramics, please.
Digital photos must have a minimum image resolution of 2000 × 1600, image size of 8 × 10 inches, and/or a file size of 2 MB or higher. Generally, a 3.1 Mega Pixel camera or better should be able to take photos that fit these requirements.
Vertically oriented photos are welcome; however, the calendar has a horizontal format, so vertical photos must be able to be cropped accordingly.
Keep in mind that we may need to crop your photo to fit the proportions of the calendar, so we advise against substantially cropping your photos prior to submitting them. We are more likely to choose your photo as a winner if you have left some room for us to determine how much should be cropped.
Digital photos must be in a .JPG format.
Please label digital photos with the subject matter, your name, and 2012, as follows:
- subject.photographer’s firstnamelastname.2012.jpg. For example: SeaLions.JaneDoe.2012.jpg

PHOTOGRAPHER’S RIGHTS:

By submitting your photographs to this contest, you agree that Galapagos Conservancy has the right to edit and resize the photographs as needed, is under no obligation to publish your submission, and may use your photographs, with proper credit given, in any of our future marketing materials. By entering the contest, you hereby grant to Galapagos Conservancy (i) a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to reproduce, distribute, and publicly display the photographs you submit to Galapagos Conservancy, and (ii) the right to use your name, city, state and country of residence in promotions and other publications.

We do not allow third parties to use your photos without your consent. Occasionally, we field requests from other businesses or organizations who request permission to print or post photos of Galapagos subjects for their own use; if one of your photos fits their needs, your email address or phone number will be given to the third party so that they may contact you and negotiate a fee and/or request permission from you directly.

NOTIFICATION OF WINNERS:

The 13 winners will be notified by email in late August or September of 2011. The first-place winner will receive 5 free calendars, and the other 12 winners will receive 2 free calendars each.

In addition, 25-35 photos may also be chosen to appear as small details on the monthly grid pages of the calendar; the photographers of these photographs will be notified by email of their inclusion in the calendar, but they will not receive free calendars.

Winning photos will also be posted on this website in the Photo Gallery in September 2011, and a notification will be emailed to our GC membership email list announcing the winners.

CALENDARS ON SALE

Galapagos 2012 Calendars will be made available for pre-order in our website store in September 2011. Pre-ordered calendars will be shipped immediately to customers upon receipt of the printed calendars sometime in October.

QUESTIONS

If you have any questions about the contest, you may email them to:
photo@galapagos.org. We will do our best to respond to you within a day or two of your email.

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