Pile Appreciation Program (PAP) Contest

[Fearless Weeder]

Pile Appreciation Program (PAP) Contest
Judge- bubbleoffplumb
Deadline for entries- 30 September, 2009

All members are welcome and encouraged to participate. Any subject that would fall under the classification of being a habitat pile is appropriate for the contest. We encourage you to enter even if you only have one photo that you like; the judges will be looking for quality, not quantity, so that one photo could be a winning photo.

Wildlife Gardeners’ editing rule:
Altered Images—Photographs manipulated for artistic purposes by applying digital and/or traditional special effects (i.e. hand coloring, toning, bleaching, collage and photo composites, etc.) will be disqualified.

Clarification of the above:
Minor alterations such as cropping, rotating, and resizing will be permitted.
Adding or replacing elements in an image will not be permitted.

Photos should be no larger than 1024 pixels x 1024 pixels. Pixel count should be no more than 100 pixels per inch. This will keep the image file size reasonably small so that all of our members can enjoy viewing all the pictures. If you need help resizing your photos, you can try resizing them online here:
Picnik - edit photos the easy way, online in your browser
http://www.shrinkpictures.com/
The software program that came with your camera should also be able to resize your photos. There are also free programs that you can download for photo editing (Google has Picasa, for example:
http://picasa.google.com/#utm_source=en-all-more&utm_campaign=en-pic&utm_medium=et)

Winner will receive National Wildlife Federation's 'The Best of Backyard Habitat' Volume 1 DVD personally signed by David Mizejewski.

FW, where does WG stand on basics like enhancing contrast? Assuming nothing is added or subtracted and keeping in mind much outdoor photography is done in poor lighting conditions.

Did the basic enhancement help reflect the subject matter as it originally appeared? Yes or no?

What we need to avoid is crossing that line by allowing any images that would otherwise be unattainable without digital manipulation. This is a photo contest not an art contest. We don’t want to end up in a position where we are forced to define art. All members are on their honor to submit what they believe represents what was really there. We’re keeping it simple to rely on everyone’s integrity and for the sanity of the judges.

All decisions of the judges on placements and prize winners will be final.

By entering, participants grant permission for their winning photos to be used as an anchor photo in a forum on the Wildlife Gardeners.

Good luck with your entries, and we hope you enjoy the photo contest!

Supplemental rules for the Photo of the Month Contest per bubbleoffplumb:

#1 – photos of naturally occurring piles may be submitted

#2 - no limit on number of entries.

#3 - photos need not be taken in the current year entered.

#4 - post submissions to the Pile Appreciation Program' (PAP)Contest in this thread- 'WG's Pile Appreciation Program' (PAP).

[Fearless Weeder]

We present to you, bubbleoffplumb's Pile Appreciation Program.

'WG's Pile Appreciation Program' (PAP).

[Fearless Weeder]

The contest has come to a close.
First Place- BooBooBearBecky
Second Place- Equilibrium
Third Place- NEWisc