Announcing AMC's First Mountain Watch Flower Photo Contest!

We are asking hikers like you to zoom in on native flora and take their picture this spring and summer along the trail.  Bring our flower monitoring materials along as well and you can be a citizen scientist as well as a wildflower photographer.  Learn more about, and download or request materials, the Mountain Watch mountain plant monitoring program.

While many flowers may make beautiful subjects, we will only be accepting native woodland or alpine flowers that can be found along the Appalachian Mountain corridor (although the photo and/or monitoring can occur wherever the species is found, in other mountain ranges and at lower elevations).  Below are guidelines for good plant subjects.  Photographs of our current target alpine and forest plants, including 6 new woodland species we are piloting this spring/summer, are also acceptable. 

All flower development stages, buds to berries, will also be accepted as the monitoring program is aimed at tracking flower phenology from start to finish.

Judges will select the best photograph and the winning picture will be the highlight of our Mountain Watch newsletter and web site!  The AMC also holds an Annual Photo Contest which you can enter separately starting this summer. 

How to Participate

Look for good subjects:

• Common native woodland and alpine plants throughout a portion of the AMC region (roughly Maine to Virginia).  You can check http://plants.usda.gov for species distribution maps.    
• Easy to identify / not easily confused with other local species.
• Easy to determine between different flowering phenophases (i.e.: is the plant not yet in flower, flowering, or past flowering).

Taking good photos:

• Be sure the photo is in focus and well lit.
• Try to avoid a background/surroundings that distract from the subject.
• Capture key characteristics that help to identify the species and have the phenophase (flower, bud or berry) clearly visible.
• Photo must be taken in 2009.  The idea of the contest is to inspire you to get outside to photograph and observe native wildflowers in your region, not to search through your collection for photos you’ve already taken.
• The photo should be aesthetically pleasing and have some artistic merit beyond its function of clearly showing the subject.

Submitting photos:

• At this time we will only accept photos via online submission through Flickr.
• Upload up to three digital photos to the AMC Flickr group.
• You will need to login with a Flickr ID or sign up for free at www.flickr.com
  
• Once logged in, join the “AMC Mountain Watch Flower Photo Contest (2009)” group by clicking on “Join this Group?” on the group’s homepage.
• Upload and tag each photo with "mountainwatch09". Please add a second tag if photo was taken near an AMC destination.
• Create a title for the image, that includes the plant name if known, when prompted.
• Use the “Send to Group” link located above each uploaded image to submit the image to the AMC group.
• It is very important to email us with your name, the title of the picture submitted, your Flickr username, and your general contact information at AMCmtnwatch@outdoors.org as we need your contact information in case you are selected as the winner. Put "MW 2009 Photo Contest" in the subject line.
  
• For additional help using Flickr, visit www.flickr.com/help/faq/ or email any photo contest questions to AMCmtnwatch@outdoors.org 

Deadline for submission is August 31, 2009

Contest Rules

Eligibility: Open to all (except contest judges and AMC employees).

By submitting a photo in the contest, you grant AMC non-exclusive, royalty-free rights for unlimited reproduction in print and electronic publications and promotional materials for an unlimited period of time. We will provide photo credit if we publish your image in print.

You may submit up to three entries.

Submit all digital images via www.flickr.com/groups/1072322@N21 . Image upload requires a free Flickr.com username and password. Free accounts have 10MB limit per photo. Submit high-resolution images (300dpi or better) formatted as jpegs or tiffs; a minimum size of 6x9 inches is preferred.

Each image submitted to Flickr should be uploaded to the AMC Mountain Watch Flower Photo Contest (2009) group site, titled with plant name, and tagged with: "mountainwatch09". Winners will be notified in November 2009.

Be prepared to provide AMC with the written consent of anyone who appears in a photograph.

Photos must be of a native woodland or alpine plant found in the Appalachian Mountains.

Decisions of the judges are final.

The winning photos will be published in AMC Mountain Watch newsletter and posted on www.outdoors.org.

All works must have been created since April 1, 2009.

All digital entries uploaded by 11:59 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, on August 31, 2009.

Photo credit:  Bird's foot violet by D. Weihrauch