Got Photos? You Could Win $600

Kate from Heyday Books sent me some information about a really cool photo contest they’re running with the Yosemite Association.

Heyday Books Baby Yosemite Photo Contest

Send us your best photos of adorable creatures enjoying the splendor of Yosemite!

Heyday Books, in partnership with the Yosemite Association, is holding a photo contest to aid in acquiring photos for a new children’s board book—Baby Yosemite—to be published in 2010.

We’re looking for photos of baby, or at least juvenile, animals native to Yosemite. We’re also looking for photos of human babies—photos taken while visiting Yosemite National Park—the cuter the better.

If your work is chosen, you’ll receive a cash prize of $600 per photo and five copies of the book Baby Yosemite per photo, and you will be given photo credit in the publication and elsewhere as appropriate.

In order to minimize impact on Yosemite’s natural resources, we’d prefer to have photographers submit work from their own stock not expressly taken for this contest. We urge those who’d like to generate new material for the contest to take great care in following all Yosemite National Park regulations especially as they apply to wild animals, which can be very dangerous when approached; please keep your distance from wildlife!

Submission guidelines:

We are accepting two categories of submission—young animals and baby humans.

For the animal category the guidelines are:

1. The photo must be of an animal that has not reached its mature state. All animal species will be considered for publication (no plants!).

2. The photo must be of a species that actually lives in Yosemite National Park, though the photo doesn’t necessarily need to have been taken in the park.

3. Preference will be given to photos that are at a high enough resolution to allow for the kind of cropping that will make the animal appear to be “close up.”

4. The photo must be taken in the wild. Photos of captive animals will be automatically rejected.

5. Any photos of animals that appear to be harassed or otherwise harmed by the photographer will be automatically rejected.

For the human category the guidelines are:

1. The photo must be of a child under the age of two (at the time the picture was taken).

2. The photo must have been taken in Yosemite National Park and this should be made obvious by the presence in the photo of natural features, signage, buildings etc. of Yosemite National Park and/or Yosemite-related activities like camping, hiking, fishing, or skiing.

3. Any photos that show behavior in conflict with Yosemite National Park regulations will be automatically rejected.

All photos must be submitted by July 13, 2009 in the following manner:

1. Multiple photo submissions are welcome, but please use a single entry form and disk. We will need a digital file at 300 DPI for at least 8 x 8 inches (at least 2,400 pixels in both directions).
Send common format digital files on CD for submission. We accept Acrobat, Photoshop, JPG, and TIFF files. Color images only. Discs will not be returned – DO NOT SEND ORIGINALS. Please no date or time stamps, watermarks, signatures, or copyright notices on images. Mark the disk with your full name and phone number and label every file with the following information: your full name, title of image, date taken, and place taken.
2. Submissions must be made via mail and accompanied by a signed entry form. Please send to:

Photo Contest
c/o Kate Brumage
Heyday Books
P.O. Box 9145
Berkeley, CA 94709

3. Questions about the contest may be sent via email to Kate Brumage (kate@heydaybooks.com), but please do not email any photo submissions.

Judging:

Photos will be judged blind: the panel will, without knowing who the photographer is, consider the effectiveness of the photo in conveying the uniqueness of the subject matter, technical expertise, composition, creativity, and ability to capture the beauty and wonder of Yosemite. The panel will also consider the submission in terms of its suitability to the format of this particular project—a small board book for children. Extra points will therefore be awarded for cuteness.