Monthly Photo Showcasing

Julio C Castro

Julio C Castro

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Hey everyone, some of you may know me from various photos take predominantly at the LA Zoo. I want to thank anyone who took time out of their day to see them. I had an idea about having a showcasing of photos we are most proud of taken every month. The limit would be 5 photos, each photo must be of different animals or subjects such as wonderfully designed exhibits. The reason for this is I truly enjoy seeing a plethora of photos from amazing photographers on here and this way we have a monthly thread posted to show off photos that we are truly proud of. The the showcasing will start a day or two prior to the end of each month, ending by the 2nd day of the following month. This isn’t a contest so don’t feel pressured to feel like we need to compete, we all have different skill sets and we just want to show off to fellow Zoochatters what we consider some of our best entries. It doesn’t matter if all the photos taken are from one location or multiple, I do plan to make monthly visits to the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park as well as the Aquarium of the Pacific too. I’ll post the threads 2 days prior to the end of the month under the example name “January Photo Showcase” and will remind everyone who decides to post that they can be posted up until 2 days into the new month as long as they are from the month in reference. Please give me any suggestions or critiques about it, or let me know if this is something a good amount of you all would like to do. Take care and good luck! :)

*An amendment: I wanted to add that those who may have difficulty adding photos from the current time due to any technical issues or needing to develop their films can post their older photos that may not be of the month in the name. Although the emphasis is to show off what we consider our own best work for month mentioned, I want everyone to participate and I don’t want anyone to feel rushed to do it if they need time or resources to submit their entries.
 
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I like the idea, but it will mostly exclude some people, including most of my "good" photos. I shoot with film and get it developed once or twice a year, so photos wouldn't be from that month...
 
TinoPup said:
I like the idea, but it will mostly exclude some people, including most of my "good" photos. I shoot with film and get it developed once or twice a year, so photos wouldn't be from that month...
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I don’t want anyone to feel excluded and I totally understand. This is just to show off our best photos when we can and I can make an amendment of those who have difficulty developing their photos on a frequent basis can upload photos for that monthly submission that may have been from a long time ago. Although my main reason for posting of the current month mentioned is to show off new photos but I will amend it so others such as yourself can post photos from an earlier date than the month posted :) Don’t want to exclude anyone, just want everyone to show off what they consider their best work and no judgment to be passed.
 
@TinoPup I shot film longer than most photographers I know, though I also worked at a photo lab so developing was easy! When I went digital I kept one film body for a while, mostly to use for double exposures. But I finally got rid of it and am now one hundred percent digital. I salute you for your commitment!
 
@Julio C Castro Just to confirm, you do want to see only photos taken at zoological parks? Also I think each month's contest should include instructions on how to embed the photos. The reason is when you go to your photo there are five different embed options on the right (BB with thumbnail, etc) which I find utterly confusing and I am not sure why the site even offers more than one option. But if you were to specify which one to use it would make the threads look better I think (make sure it's not the one that crops images square).
 
Arizona Docent said:
@Julio C Castro Just to confirm, you do want to see only photos taken at zoological parks? Also I think each month's contest should include instructions on how to embed the photos. The reason is when you go to your photo there are five different embed options on the right (BB with thumbnail, etc) which I find utterly confusing and I am not sure why the site even offers more than one option. But if you were to specify which one to use it would make the threads look better I think (make sure it's not the one that crops images square).
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They don’t have to be at zoological parks, they can be taken at sanctuaries, aquariums, and wildlife reserves. As regarding embedding, I don’t think I’m too familiar with that function but we can use that for submission if it will make it better :)
 
Arizona Docent said:
@TinoPup I shot film longer than most photographers I know, though I also worked at a photo lab so developing was easy! When I went digital I kept one film body for a while, mostly to use for double exposures. But I finally got rid of it and am now one hundred percent digital. I salute you for your commitment!
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I think we might have talked about it on here before, somewhere. Just in the last 5 or so years I've gone from still being able to get 1 hour development at walgreens to having to send it out and wait weeks to get it back (so I only send once or twice a year now), and paying way more. And I buy my film off of ebay.
 
I really like this idea and have previously thought how nice it would be, and I commend you for willing to do this. We have several wonderful photographers on here. Just a thought though, if everything is posted in a single thread for each month, it could lead to a very long and confusing thread. If I might make a suggestion, and I don't know the technicalities or possibility of doing this, that would be to create a gallery for each month, then post each member's submissions for the month to their own individual thread or gallery within that monthly gallery. I think this would make it more organized and easier to follow. As an example. One would not have to read a comment on page 12 and try to figure out if it referred to a member's photo on page 2 or another member's on page 7. All the members' photos they submit and comments about them would be in their own separate individual thread or gallery within each monthly photo gallery.

One other suggestion would be to change the submission period from just 4 days to anytime from the 3rd day of the month to 2nd day of the following month. I think that would give everyone a better opportunity to participate.
 
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@RetiredToTheZoo Thanks for adding to the discussion. However I confess I am not following how you are suggesting we do this. Can you explain it in a different way? There is also no way to know how many submissions we get until we try it, but my hunch is it will not be as many as you think (as in 12 pages of posts).
 
RetiredToTheZoo said:
I really like this idea and have previously thought how nice it would be, and I commend you for willing to do this. We have several wonderful photographers on here. Just a thought though, if everything is posted in a single thread for each month, it could lead to a very long and confusing thread. If I might make a suggestion, and I don't know the technicalities or possibility of doing this, that would be to create a gallery for each month, then post each member's submissions for the month to their own individual thread or gallery within that monthly gallery. I think this would make it more organized and easier to follow. As an example. One would not have to read a comment on page 12 and try to figure out if it referred to a member's photo on page 2 or another member's on page 7. All the members' photos they submit and comments about them would be in their own separate individual thread or gallery within each monthly photo gallery.

One other suggestion would be to change the submission period from just 4 days to anytime from the 3rd day of the month to 2nd day of the following month. I think that would give everyone a better opportunity to participate.
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I wonder how it would be possible to make a custom gallery since the site already had its own gallery but I’ll try to see what I can come up with during this weekend while I work. I’m glad there are some who like the idea and any other thoughts about how to come about it would be much appreciated :) and of course we can extend the deadline for the month’s entries so that we can post at any given time if we happen to take a photo we really want to show off, I may change the limit of how many each person should be able to post. I only said 5 because it seemed like a small but good number to show off our work but not be so cluttered, but if there is another number for the total photos to be submitted monthly per person would also considered if most can agree to it :)
 
Arizona Docent said:
@RetiredToTheZoo Thanks for adding to the discussion. However I confess I am not following how you are suggesting we do this. Can you explain it in a different way? There is also no way to know how many submissions we get until we try it, but my hunch is it will not be as many as you think (as in 12 pages of posts).
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I think you’re right about it may not be overflowing with so many entries that it will make the thread too confusing but any ideas that can improve the thread once started is more than appreciated. I can’t wait to see everyone show off their best work and I don’t want anyone to feel stressed about being judged, we are just here to enjoy each other’s work and show off different skill sets :)
 
TinoPup said:
All the time :) Lately I've been carting around multiple film cameras to zoos!
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You’re so cool to shoot using just film, I heard it is more difficult that digital and I chose the coward’s way by upgrading to the new Nikon Z50 haha But any and all formats of photos that are to be submitted are accepted of course! :)
 
I'm probably wrong here, and maybe @Simon Hampel can clarify, but I thought there was limited space in the gallery, or at least the powers that be wanted us to be more selective in what we post; why have several shots of an enclosure from the same perspective, or a particular animal's butt, when someone has already posted a clear bodyshot of that specimen?
Maybe it's worth thinking about creating a flickr (or similar) page to host them and linking them back here, which also gives you the option of posting higher res photos if visitors wish to follow the links.
 
littleRedPanda said:
I'm probably wrong here, and maybe @Simon Hampel can clarify, but I thought there was limited space in the gallery, or at least the powers that be wanted us to be more selective in what we post; why have several shots of an enclosure from the same perspective, or a particular animal's butt, when someone has already posted a clear bodyshot of that specimen?
Maybe it's worth thinking about creating a flickr (or similar) page to host them and linking them back here, which also gives you the option of posting higher res photos if visitors wish to follow the links.
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Oh really? Maybe we should do that and just attach the link to the thread, I didn’t think of that but that’s actually a good idea!
 
I haven't been using flickr much since they reduced the free space last years (although I've read from some that it hasn't strictly come into effect) but I'd imagine many of the photographers here use it, or something similar. Albums could easily be created for each month and contributions linked into them and here. I'm starting to think it's a bit complicated now :D
 
littleRedPanda said:
I haven't been using flickr much since they reduced the free space last years (although I've read from some that it hasn't strictly come into effect) but I'd imagine many of the photographers here use it, or something similar. Albums could easily be created for each month and contributions linked into them and here. I'm starting to think it's a bit complicated now :D
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Honestly it does sound like a good idea though, yes it’s a bit more complicated but if it will allow for the thread to be more uninformed, then maybe going the extra mile will be good. And as I mentioned before, we can upload a handful of pics a month for the thread that could possibly help with the free space issue :) I’ll check up Flickr to see how it is and I think I’d want to use it or just have everyone use it if they choose to!
 
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