Prizes and Judging
Your Rights
Restrictions on Entries
Deadlines
Win a Subscription to Bay Nature

Prizes and Judging

Entries will be judged solely by the editorial staff of Bay Nature magazine based on composition, originality, overall impact, and artistic merit.

The top eight winners will be included in the October-December 2009 issue of Bay Nature, with credit, in an article marking the 75th anniversary of the park district.

The grand prize winner will receive a $200 cash prize from Bay Nature and a Trek Tech monopod/hiking stick (valued at $200) from Sarber's Cameras and Trek Tech.

The second place winner will receive a $100 cash prize from Bay Nature and a sling-style camera bag (valued at $110) from Sarber's Cameras and Lowe Prowe.

The six remaining winners will each receive $50 from Bay Nature and a $20 gift certificate from Sarber's Cameras.

Your Rights

You will retain all rights to any photograph you submit other than those rights licensed in these rules. By entering the contest, you grant to Bay Nature Institute and Sarber's Cameras:

1. A nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to reproduce, distribute, and publicly display the photographs you submit as long we include photo credit and do not attempt to resell the rights or use the images on products meant for resale, such as calendars or framed prints or any similar products.

2. The right to use your name in promotions and other publications.

The winning images published in Bay Nature will also be subject to these rights from the East Bay Regional Park District: "The District has the right to reuse article text and images in its own educational materials in the context of the published article in which they were included. (District does not have the right to reuse the article or images in any materials that are sold, or intended for sale, by any party, without further permission of the author(s), artist(s), photographer(s), and Bay Nature.)"

Restrictions on Entries

Please enter photos with a resolution of 4 megapixels or greater. That means that the width times the height (in pixels) of the file should equal at least 4,000,000 pixels.

Enter up to 5 photos. If you tag more than 5 photos on Flickr, we will consider only the first five we find.

For images with people, you are responsible for obtaining the necessary model releases (download sample) from the individual(s) depicted, and must be able to provide copies of those releases to Bay Nature and/or Sarber's upon request. Entrants must not submit images that involve harassment of wildlife, damage to the environment by the photographer, or infringe on the rights of any other photographer or person.

Do not include photographs of pets or domestic animals, other than dogs or horses using the parks with human supervision. Images of captive animals photographed in zoos and commercial game farms are also prohibited; however, wildlife photos from the parks are encouraged.

All photographs should accurately reflect the subject matter and the scene as it appeared. Photos that have been digitally altered beyond standard optimization will be disqualified. Acceptable methods for standard optimization include removal of dust, cropping, and reasonable adjustments to color and contrast. Multiple exposures that have been combined to produce a single "High Dynamic Range" image are acceptable.

All published photographs will be credited with the photographer's name, but Bay Nature and Sarber's Cameras will not be liable for any errors in attribution other than to make reasonable efforts to correct such errors.

Deadlines

Entries must be received by 11:59 PM Pacific Time on July 20, 2009.

Win a Subscription to Bay Nature

After you've uploaded your photos, you can enter to win a Bay Nature subscription by contacting us on Facebook or Twitter. Just follow the steps below.

To Enter the Drawing on Facebook

• Become a fan of Bay Nature Institute on Facebook.
• Post a message to our wall letting us know that you entered your photos in the contest and provide a link to your photos.

To Enter the Drawing on Twitter

• Write a message @BayNature on Twitter letting us know that you entered the photo contest and post a link to your photos.

Informing us of your entry on Facebook or Twitter does not impact your status in the photo contest, but enters you in a drawing for a free one-year subscription to Bay Nature. Current subscribers enter to win a free one-year renewal. The drawing will take place on Monday August 3, 2009