NEFF's First Photography Contest!

[dcabarle]

Digital photography has really picked up over the past few years. Just about anyone can take an awesome photograph of an insect, post it online, and we can't tell the difference if it was taken by an amerature or a professional. There are a few pros that stick out in my mind, one being Thomas Ames Jr. This is a guy who obviously takes his time when taking pictures. It actually looks like he calls his insects together and says, "Come on guys, we're going to get the family portraits taken." What I would like to see is what some of the ameratures are thinking of when they take a photo and what they would do with the opportunity to take a great photo and get something in return for it.

A while back, I was looking for some good closeup insect photo's. I'm not in love with insects, but I do appreciate good photography. Getting up close and personal to any insect and getting a perfect shot is not an easy task. Sometimes I sit for hours taking hundreds of photo's of insects, just because I want the perfect picture. One thing that I enjoy is seeing the intricate body parts of an insect. It's amazing to see all of these parts come together to form such a small creature.

Here's a website that I found a while back while looking for some good Insect pictures. Mark Plonsky. Here is a sample of what you will see there:

Yeah, that's one ugly insect but look at the detail!

What I would like to do is have a photography contest. The winner of the contest will receive 5 dozen flies. That's a retail price value of $120.00!

The rules of the contest are as follow's:

• You must be a NEFF registered member
• You must own all rights to the photo prior to uploading to this site.
• Photo's must NOT contain a watermark of any kind.
• Photo's must not have a signature on them
• Your photo could not have been entered into any previous contests
• The photo must be uploaded in its original form, no modifications other than brightness, contrast, or transfer from Color to black and white.
• Your photo's must be Fly Fishing related. This includes photo's of a fish caught on a fly rod, photo's of insects, photo's of a person or people having the greatest time of their lives, or maybe you caught someone not having the greatest time. Nature shots of trees or mountains without a moving, living, breathing subject will not be accepted.
• Photo's already uploaded to this site or another site are not permitted.
• Photo's entered must be upload to NEFF. Links to photo's will not be accepted.
• All photo's become the property of North Eastern Fly Fishing and/or the owner of this site, once uploaded.
• Photo's MUST contain a Title and a description regarding the photo. Yes, we want to know what was on your mind while taking the picture.
• You may enter up to 2 photographs for this contest.
• The winner will receive 5 Dozen flies distrubuted via 1 dozen or 1/2 dozen lots of each fly. For example... If I have 1/2 dozen size 14 Elk Hair Caddis, you will receive 1/2 dozen of this particular fly and 4 1/2 doz of other flies.
• The winner will receive 5 Dozen flies chosen by me. You don't get to pick the flies.

All are welcomed to join in. It's February, there are plenty of photo ops everywhere. You wont see Hendricksons or March browns but be creative and take some good pics.

The winner will be judged by the Registered users of this site. If there is a Tie, the flies will be split equally.

The contest will end on Friday, March 31st 2006, no exceptions. What a great opportunity to fill your box with some free flies!

*The rules of this contest are subject to change at any time, without notice. Please read and understand the rules before you participate in this contest.

*This contest will require at least 10 participants (Photo's are not participants, users are participants: 1 Participant = 1 user) to qualify for the prize. If there are less than 10 participants by the end date of March 31st, 2006, the contest will be shut down. Your photo's may be used again in an upcoming contest.

If you would like to participate in the contest, you must upload your photo's to THIS AREA ONLY! CLICK HERE.

To see the photo's entered into the contest, simply CLICK HERE!

 

[jcstikfish]

Cool idea Dennis! :applaudit


~James

 

[Arbond]

I assume that if you like bug pictures that you are familiar with this link - but in case you aren't:

http://www.troutnut.com/

Enjoy.

Oh yeah, great idea for the contest.

 

[Fly Ty R]

So you're saying I can't enter any of these...... D'oh!!!!!

Cool contest!! I'll see what I can whip up by the end of March. :applaudit

 

[flyin]

the greenie and horsefly3 pics are absolutely terrifying !!!!!

I can feel the bits in the middle of my back .... ouch!

 

[dcabarle]

Fly Ty R,

Great looking pics, nice work!
_________________________

Troutnut is a great entomology resource, but his Ento pics are more in line with scientific study. This contest is more on the Art side of things. Creativety is what we're looking for here.
_________________________

By the way, this contest is open to anybody, so if you visit other websites and care to mention the contest to other people, be my guest. The more the merrier.

 

[CR]

Dennis,

All photos become the property of you? With all due respect, are you kidding?

 

[dcabarle]

Dennis,

All photos become the property of you? With all due respect, are you kidding?

All,

Yes, CR is correct.

Please keep in mind that I'm sponsoring this photo contest. The money used to purchase the flies came out of my pocket. It's possible that some or all of the photo's entered into the contest may be worth 10 times of what the contest is offering (5 Dozen Flies). My take on that is: If you feel your photo's are worth more to you or someone else than 5 dozen flies, then use your best judgement when you consider submitting them. I'm not looking to hit the motherload with your photo entries. It's possible that at some future date, I may make money from one or all of them, but at the present time, it's not my focus. My focus is to get some site participation that is fun and rewarding at the same time.

Out of all the photo's I've taken for this site, only 1 of them was actually used in a catalog (Loon). The proceeds of that photo were roughly $80.00.

On another note, I've decided to allow for multiple photo entries. You may enter up to 2 photographs.

I'm adding a second place prize of 1 Dozen flies in which the same rules through-out this thread apply.

 

[sqerl]

All photos become the property of you? With all due respect, are you kidding?

I don't mind at all! First off, I'm not a professional photographer by any means. Secondly, I pay nothing to post my pictures and thoughts on this site and the paybacks are immense. There's not a lot of spam here, friendly and informative people and great time wasters for work. What more could you ask for?!

IF and I do mean IF I can take a photo for this contest and it suddenly turns up as the front page cover for Field & Stream, then I would honestly be tickled pink. If I can do it once, then I can do it again... Besides, anyone of us would have bragging rights on this board at the very least

 

[jmoore]

Having rights to the photo is pretty common with photo contests.

Two questions:

Are you expecting exclusive rights? Meaning I no longer have any rights to use the images myself.

Can you let us know what the flies are going to be? A nice assortment in 1/2 doz increments would be nice. I'm not trying to tell you how to run your contest, I would just like to know what flies are being offered.

 

[dcabarle]

Some of the fly's being offered are:

At least 1 dozen Elk Hair Caddis
BWO Cripple Duns
Sulphur Comparadun's
Green beadhead scuds
Isonychia Comparaduns
March brown Wets
Yellow Humpy's
Small black midges
Mickey Finn's
Prince nymphs

At the time of winning the contest, I'll certainly speak with the winner about swapping them out for something else that I might have in my stock. For example, maybe you don't want March Brown Wets and you prefer an extra dozen Caddis or 6 caddis and 6 of something else... That won't be a problem as long as you realize that I don't have every fly on the market.

I'm adding a 3rd place prize. 1 bottle of Frog's Fanny. This is a retail value of 5.00. In order for 3rd place to qualify, we must have at least 15 participating members.

 

[Scott]

Dennis, I know the subject of copyright has been brought up before (and by me, maybe a couple of years ago I think...).

I believe your position at the time was that photos uploaded to the website were considered "used by permission" and should be considered by the author to be a permanent donation and addition to the website, but uploading a photo would not be considered a transferral of ownership rights.

Has your policy changed, or are you asserting full ownership rights "on upload" just for this contest?

All of my photos are copyrighted and fully owned by me, and their usage here consists of usage by permission. I am happy to grant you permission for full use of my photos that are uploaded to this website, including the right to reproduce them if it will help support NEFF, but I'm not about to reliquish ownership of the copyright.

I'm not trying to be a jerk or a killjoy here, but there seemed to be a few others with similar concerns, so I thought I'd ask. Thanks!

 

[dcabarle]

All,

The overall policy hasn't changed. I was going to modify it for this contest only. After some suggestions from a few members and after some consideration, I've decided to revise the policy for the photo's being uploaded.

The policy will be consistent with all previous uploads. This means that you are the owner of the items you upload. As Scott mentions below: Photo's uploaded to this website are considered a permanent donation and an addition to this website. This website may or may not profit from the use of your photo's. Uploading a photo DOES NOT transfer ownership rights of your work. Uploading a photo simply gives this site permission to use your photo's for the eternity of this sites existance.

Scott, Driften, and anyone else who contacted me... If you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear about them and possibly implement them. The last thing I want to do is scare anyone away from this contest. Let's keep it fun!

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I hope we have a more friendly approach here.

Dennis

Dennis, I know the subject of copyright has been brought up before (and by me, maybe a couple of years ago I think...).

I believe your position at the time was that photos uploaded to the website were considered "used by permission" and should be considered by the author to be a permanent donation and addition to the website, but uploading a photo would not be considered a transferral of ownership rights.

Has your policy changed, or are you asserting full ownership rights "on upload" just for this contest?

All of my photos are copyrighted and fully owned by me, and their usage here consists of usage by permission. I am happy to grant you permission for full use of my photos that are uploaded to this website, including the right to reproduce them if it will help support NEFF, but I'm not about to reliquish ownership of the copyright.

I'm not trying to be a jerk or a killjoy here, but there seemed to be a few others with similar concerns, so I thought I'd ask. Thanks!

 

[Scott]

Thanks Dennis.

OK, it looks like nobody has posted any entries yet.

Maybe I'll be the first?

 

[Scott]

OK maybe I've broken the ice here? Vote for me! Vote for me! Vote for me! Vote for me! Vote for me! Vote for me! Vote for me! Vote for me!

I rarely take pictures of people, just landscapes, fish, animals, etc. So I hope the pic of the guy in Rangely boat makes the cut.

People often ruin the picture for me. Geez, just how sociopathic does THAT sound???

 

[Scott]

Hey Dennis, I uploaded it to my album using that option box, and then it didn't show in the contest album. So I uploaded again to the contest album.

I thought that if I uploaded the photo to my album using that option box in the contest entry form, it would also be in the contest album, but apparently that is not the case.

I don't know if this will be an issue or not, but I thought I mention it. I hope it doesn't disqualify me!

 

[dcabarle]

Hi Scott,

I took care of the duplicate.

I also had to disable the voting because it might get confusing. Voters can only vote on 1 photo, so it makes sense to start the voting for the contest when the last photo is uploaded (This is how MSNBC runs their photo contests as well.) I think it makes the best sense this way. Everyone will be presented with all of the photo's and they can place their vote on the one photo they like the best. The one with the most votes by the voting end date will win the contest.

Thanks for kicking it off! I wish there was a kick-off consolation prize!

 

[Scott]

Would it be possible to put a link to the contest gallery on the home page somewhere? Maybe more people would notice it and participate.

Right now I'm a lock for at least second place, and I think I've got a shot at the title!

 

[dcabarle]

Scott,

It is on the front page (Dead Center). I'll make it larger!

 

[Scott]

I didn't mean the "Most recent" photo space, because people who upload to their galleries will bump photo contest entries. I just meant a link to the specific gallery where the contest photos go that will maybe help draw attention to it.

You know, like a "To View Photo Contest Entries Click Here" kind of thing.

You sure we can only enter one pic? I have others that are pretty good too. In fact, I think I may try to publish a calendar!

 

[Scott]

Do they really have to be action/FF/Fish/Bug shots? No landscapes? I have some pics like this one I really like:

I mean, the water is moving...

 

[RedTag2000]

Scott,
Nice pics above, is this SBR, KLG?

 

[Scott]

Scott,
Nice pics above, is this SBR, KLG?

Nope, wrong state!

 

[dcabarle]

That's a beautiful shot, but it's gotta have a subject other than mountains / trees / water / etc... and could not have been previously uploaded or used on another site or elsewhere.

 

[RedTag2000]

Nope, wrong state!

I was thinking this is too pretty to be NJ, but this river bend reminds me of KLG a little. Either way, nice shot, I wish I was there to see it and take it; any filters on Your lens?

 

[Fly Ty R]

WB Ausable?

 

[Scott]

I was thinking this is too pretty to be NJ, but this river bend reminds me of KLG a little. Either way, nice shot, I wish I was there to see it and take it; any filters on Your lens?

You're right, it is too pretty to be NJ. Nope, no filters. This one was taken wth a Canon SD110 Digtal Elph.

I have two Canon digitals. The other is a G2. The G2 has a lot more features, and takes fantastic shots, but the Elph fits in my pocket, and is easy to carry everywhere. So I do...

 

[Scott]

WB Ausable?

Nope! (this is fun... )

 

[Fly Ty R]

Well, ok, it could be one of a trillion streams in the Northeast... Am I close???

At least give us a hint which state it is in (obviously not NJ).....

 

[Scott]

hint

OK, well I hate to spoil the mystery so here's a hint:

Clue #2: It's a river, not a stream.
Clue #3: I've mentioned it before on this website. (Edit - I think...)