10 replies to this topic

[Tyler M.]

The Turtle Times Community Calendar Vol. 7

We are pleased to announce the 7th annual calendar contest at Turtle Times.

It's time for all you shutterbugs out there to share with us some of those amazing images that you have been collecting all year long.
Don't have one yet? There's still time for a last minute photo shoot!
Don;t forget about the idea of Holiday related photo submissions (Valentines, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas)
We look forward to everyone helping to build another amazing Turtle Calender!


IMPORTANT GUIDELINES & INFORMATION:
* MOST IMPORTANT: Original submissions only! You may not enter photos that do not belong to you.

* The photos must include a turtle, terrapin, sea turtle or tortoise as the primary subject in order to be considered.


CONTEST PROCESS:
* A voting poll will be conducted to narrow the field down to the TOP 30 photo submissions public finalists.

* A final voting poll will narrow the TOP 30 qualifying photo submissions to the final 13 photo submissions.

* A final judging process will be conducted on the final images to ensure a certain amount of diversity.

* The contest voting is open only to members of the forums, although anyone can join the forums.

* All photographs must meet the basic photo requirements describe below to be considered a qualifying image,


THE OVERALL RULES & GUIDELINES:

* The larger the image the better the quality for the full size calendar. We recommend 5+ mega pixel camera or higher.

* Ideally we want an image at least 2300 x 1800 pixels or larger for a full sized calendar. Click Here for the CafePress.com template for reference.

* Pictures should be of turtles or tortoises, although we will allow a little tolerance for other items in the photo but the main focus must mainly be of the turtle.

* Pictures may not contain people in them (although a body part may be allowed i.e. a hand)

* The picture must belong to you, and you must have the right to release it to Turtle Times.

* Out of focus, blurry, otherwise hard to see or small sized pictures (ideally the larger the better) may be disqualified.

* You may submit as many photos as desired but the must be submitted one entry form at a time.

* You may may win more than one final slot in the contest but not more than 3 winner slots.

* Only existing members at the time the voting starts may vote, new members are always welcome but can not vote on the process begins.

* Photo submissions that tie for the same position in the TOP 30 will hold the same slot, allowing for more than 30 in the the Top 30 in those cases.

* A winning photo submission may be replaced with the next qualifying photo submission to allow for as much diversity as possible.

* In the case of a disqualified or replaced photo submission will use the next qualifying photo submission as needed.

* Turtle Times will determine the order of the winning photo submissions without regard to numerical order.

* Turtle Times may include additional photo submissions, text or clip-art, into the calendar as needed to accommodate a successful calendar.

* Disqualified images will be determined after the TOP 30 voting process is completed, to allow all photo submissions to be viewed, depending on the impact of the disqualified images some adjustments to the rules may be required.

* Turtle Times may choose to remove duplicate images or offensive images at their discretion at any time.

* This is a just for fun contest, the winners get to have their photo submissions in the eventual calendar and featured at Turtle Times.

* Rules and Guidelines are subject to change.



THE CONTEST TIME LINE:
* Photo Submissions starts "now" and ends on ~Saturday, November 19th at 11:59:59pm MST or until the voting starts.

* TOP 30 Voting starts November 20th and ends on November 23rd at 11:59:59pm MST

* TOP 13 Voting starts on the evening of November 24th and end on November 27th at 11:59:59pm MST

* Calendars should be announced and ready the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend.

Click Here to Submit your Photo Now.
Good luck,

Tyler M. at Turtle Times


Changes: This year there were a lot of of pictures that were disqualified after the Final voting due to image size, focus, etc. This left a challenge in addressing the rules properly. The winning photos were all too small, or in one case belonged to one person. It left some challenges to providing a calendar that met the spirit of the contest, and to do that I decided to make a collage of the highest vote candidates, then when you take diversity of species into effect it felt like it was right to allow an exception to allow one person to have a 4th photo. The ultimate goal is to have a high level of photographic quality and diversity of turtle species which while keeping in mind cuteness and members.  This is where I believe the judging comes into effect, and I want everyone to know that I am very aware that everyone would like to be in the contest... which is why I allow all photos to be seen instead of disqualifying them upfront (so they can at least be a part of the process). I take all the voting into consideration to get a feel for what the calendar should be. The times I step in are when were are at the bottom 1/3rd of the pictures (because of disqualification/quality/diversity)... it is then I say what fits and works with calendar and the next available image.


Frequently Asked Questions:

I figured I would dedicate this space to answer people's questions.

Where do I upload my photo? Click Here
Digitally Altered Photos? They may be considered
Do I have to own the turtle? No, but the photo must be your own.
Do I have to use my real name? Yes, but you can add in the comments to not have it on the calendar. We will use your first name and the first initial of your last name so Tyler M. on the calendar.
Where I can get the calendar? When ready, Cafepress will handle the orders.

Photo Submission
I click submit and nothing happens. Depending on your connection it will take a little while to upload, if it takes longer than 15 minutes then the system will timeout.
Why don't you have a progress bar for the uploads? PHP does not include an easy way to do it without 3rd party resources. I just watch the status bar of my browser to see the progress. IE, Opera, Firefox and Safari all have one. You might have to enable it ... usually View > Status Bar

[Tyler M.]

How is it going anyone having any problem so far?

[ihaveaquestion3]

No problems, but I'm not familiar with this forum...where do we view the submitted photos?

[BoxTurtleLover]

The submitted photos will be displayed on 11/20 at the time of the first voting poll to reduce entries down to the top 30...

"THE CONTEST TIME LINE:
* Photo Submissions starts "now" and end on ~Saturday, November 19th at 11:59:59pm MST or until the voting starts.

* TOP 30 Voting starts November 20th and ends on November 23rd at 11:59:59pm MST

* TOP 13 Voting starts on the evening of November 24th and end on November 27th at 11:59:59pm MST

* Calendars should be announced and ready the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend."

[Tyler M.]

Here is the link to the Calendar Photo Contest:
http://www.turtletim...pCalendar_2009/

There isn't as many pictures this year, so far, so chances are better than normal for everyone involved this year.

[CHELID]

here we go again! looking forward to this years calender.

[samsmom]

It didn't work for Windows 7 and IE8 (file uploaded but no confirmation page), but it did work for my older system (Windows XP and Firefox).

[Tyler M.]

Thanks for the input on that. I admit there were no changes to the upload system from last year.

I also discovered the iPad do not do web page uploads so that has been interesting as well.

[cordell]

I just made a submission, I hope its not to late!

[Tyler M.]

Hi Everyone,

This weekend has been a little hectic. I am just starting on the next stage of the contest. It takes a few hours... plus I have a dinner to attend. Anyway we'll be accepting photos until the very last minute... basically if the system lets you upload then I will take them.

Hopefully in 3-4 hours the voting will begin.

[turtle-riiko]

Tyler M., on 07 November 2011 - 02:43 PM, said:

How is it going anyone having any problem so far?

hi there, im the one with the turtle and the cat, im not sure if the pic is bigger or not. im having a hard time with it, but i tryed putting it one the biggest setting possible. im reposting it again.