Welcome to MyParkPhotos!

Thank you for joining our online photography community as a guest member so that we may better promote and support public lands in your area!

Displaying photographs and sharing your experiences from visiting local, state and national public lands with other like-minded photographers can be very fun and rewarding.

We are sure that your photographs will encourage many others to visit and support the same properties where you took your photographs, and hopefully, come to appreciate the wonders and unique opportunities available at those and many other public lands.

The rules below govern all instances of participating with the MPP and our Partner communities, and especially the MPP daily, monthly, yearly and scholarship contests. If you have any questions, please Contact Us and we will respond to your inquiry as soon as possible.

 

Photo Registration Rules

1) Property (contest) photographs must be taken in any city, county, state, provincial or national public park, wildlife refuge, forest or trail (general public lands). Personal photographs may be of any family-appropriate oriented subject.

2) All Photographs must be registered at a minimum resolution of 800x600 pixels with a maximum file size of 4MB, and in .JPG format. Photos are displayed online with MPP and Partner's galleries at approximately 700x525 and reviewed by judges at 800x600 for greater clarity during the POTD, POTM and POTY selections.

3) Property (contest) photographs may only be registered once, and similar photographs or photographs in a series of four or more may be restricted for display in the member's personal photo album.

4) Students, Full, and Lifetime members may register an unlimited number of property (contest) photographs.

5) Guest (Partner) Members may register an unlimited number of property related photographs from their home state and an unlimited number of personal photographs for display in their photo albums. Guest photographs are displayed both in their personal photo gallery and the individual property galleries. Guest photographs are not eligible for the MPP community POTD, POTM, POTY or Scholarship contests.  For more about joining our photography community as a Full member, please visit our Membership FAQ webpage.

6) Student Members
The scholarship competition shall consist of a 250 word minimum article and three corresponding photographs pertaining to the subject of the article, one article per property maximum. Students may write more than one article for the competition on various properties. Each article and corresponding three photographs will be judged as one body of work with points given to the photographs according to Focus, Composition, Lighting, Technical Superiority, Impact, Creativity, and Storytelling, and the article will receive points according to grammar and storytelling in conjunction with the photographs.  All individual photographs are a part of our POTD, POTM and POTY contests.

Students must register with an .edu email address to be eligible for the scholarship contest.

Note: Parental approval is required for students under 18.
You may download a student parental consent form here (PDF)

6) MyParkPhotos.com reserves the right to crop registered photographs for display purposes, if necessary, and for other needs as required.

7) Parental Release: Photographs of children (when recognizable in the photograph) must have a written and signed consent by a parent or legal guardian of the child or children "on file" with MyParkPhotos.com before the photograph may be displayed.

Note: Please mail a signed release to us before registering your property photo with a recognizable child.  You may download a parental consent form here. (PDF)

8) In the event that ownership of any photograph submitted to MyParkPhotos.com is contested in any manner, MyParkPhotos.com reserves the right to remove and disqualify the photograph from the member's gallery and any contests.

9) By registering your photographs with MyParkPhotos.com, you agree to the following:

Release by the Photographer

I warrant that I took the photograph(s) submitted here (collectively, the "Photographs"), that I own the copyrights to the Photographs, and that I have authority to enter into this Release;

I understand that MyParkPhotos.com has entered and will enter into agreements with public land entities, to include Parks, Wildlife Refuges, Forests and Trails and non-profit organizations supporting interests in public lands, and nature and wildlife (“Partners”) for the purpose of displaying certain Photographs on the Partners’ websites.

I release MyParkPhotos.com and Partners from any liability whatsoever that arises from the use of the Photographs except for uses that violate the terms and conditions of this release. I agree to work in good faith with MyParkPhotos.com and Partners to promptly resolve any problems or disputes that may arise due to my registration and the use of the Photographs.

By registering my Photographs with MyParkPhotos.com, I grant MyParkPhotos.com and Partners the royalty-free and non-exclusive right to use my Photographs as follows: (i) on Partner and MyParkPhotos.com websites; (ii) for Partner and MyParkPhotos.com advertising and brochures; (iii) in Partner and MyParkPhotos.com electronic emails. I waive the right to inspect or approve the final use of my Photographs by MyParkPhotos.com and Partners for the above uses.

I understand that MyParkPhotos.com and Partners will request permission from me before using my Photographs for purposes other than listed above. I understand that my Photographs will not be otherwise distributed to any third party or sponsors without my permission.

This agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the state of Florida.

I agree that if any portion of this Release is found to be void or unenforceable, the remaining portions shall remain in full force and effect. Void where prohibited by law.

10) Members must register each property related photograph into one relevant category.

Note: Guest members may select to upgrade to a Student or Full membership and participate in the MPP POTD, POTY or Scholarship contests at any time, therefore, all property related photographs are required to be registered into a particular category. If at anytime a Guest member selects to upgrade their account, all previously registered property related photographs are automatically entered into the POTD and POTY photo contests.

2007-2008 Categories
  Architecture
  Birds
  Black & White, Sepia and IR (Infrared)
  Close Up
  Events/Programs
  Flowers
  Landscapes
  Plant life
  Seasonal
  Sunsets/Sunrises
  Waterscapes
  Wildlife

Additional Categories
  Camping
  Portrait
  Recreation
  *Personal (See Note)

Note: Non-contest related personal photographs are registered under the category Personal and are placed into photo albums created by the member.  Property photographs consisting of four or more in a series should be placed by the member into one of their personal albums so that a property gallery may display various aspects of the property and not the same or similar content.

For more information, please visit our FAQ for Contest Categories.

MyParkPhotos.com reserves the right to determine and change a photograph's category at any time.

11) All images that include captive birds or wildlife should be identified as such. This may be done by putting a (C) at the end of the photo caption/name. This applies to any animal or bird restrained by a fence, cage, pen, cage, tether, wing clipping, or any other method, and includes wild animals temporarily captive during rescue and treatment pending future release. Animals freely roaming wild in parks would not be so identified.

The POTD, POTY and Scholarship Contests

12) Photographs must be registered no later than 11:59 PM Thursday, July 31, 2008, to be included in the community's last month's contest and the MyParkPhotos.com annual contest of 2008.

13) Judges base their decisions on the following qualities for the daily and yearly recognition contests:  Focus, Composition, Lighting, Technical Superiority, Impact, Creativity, and Storytelling.

14) Daily, Yearly and Scholarship Contests:

A. Daily Photo Contest: One photograph is selected each evening to be displayed as the POTD from among all of the photographs registered by Student, Full or Lifetime members over a 24-hour period.  The most recent POTDs are displayed at the top of all pages in a filmstrip for community recognition and also displayed in sequence on the POTD archive.

B. Yearly Photo Contest: All photographs registered between August 1, 2006 and July 31, 2007, will be judged by a three-member panel and winners will be announced in August 2007. The POTYs are displayed in sequence by year on the POTY archive.

C. Student Scholarship Contest: All articles and set of (3) corresponding photographs registered between August 1, 2007 and July 31, 2008, will be judged by a panel and winners will be announced in August 2008.  A tuition scholarship of up to $500 will be awarded to one student in two $250 installments during the Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 semesters.

15) Members are limited to winning one yearly POTY contest category.

16) Photographs eligible for the various POTD, POTY and Scholarship contests must adhere to the following guidelines regarding photo modifications:  Minor digital enhancement for cropping, red-eye removal, filters, corrective functions and legitimate manipulations such as burning and dodging, brightness and contrast, color adjustments, saturation, stitching and cropping are permitted, but not images that have been judged to be significantly altered.

Significantly altered: Pertains to photos that have had significant portions of the photo altered to display features or subjects that were either created with the use of a clone tool or in cases where elements of the photo were changed from the original view by the photographer. I.E. cloned features such as birds in flight, flowers in a field, etc. and altered skylines or foregrounds/backgrounds.

Additional Types of photography allowed and encouraged: Infrared (IR), Underwater, Black & White, Sepia, and High Dynamic Range (HDR).  Photographs should show a scene as natural as possible working in the respective medium.

Please do not place borders, frames, or dates on your images. Photos with these elements will be removed from the various contests and property galleries and displayed only in the member's personal albums.

Signatures, watermarks with signature, and copyright notices are allowed and may be placed on the photograph by the owner. Due to judging and display purposes, please place your copyright or watermark information on the photograph as faint as you deem practical with a balance between the understandable need to protect your images and the community's interest in promoting the properties. Thank you!

17) The decisions of the judge(s) for the POTD, POTY and Scholarship contests are final.

18) Photographs that fail to comply with these rules may be disqualified from the contests and displayed only in the member's albums, or removed from the site.

 

Return to Top