Member Help and Information

Top 10 ways to build a very successful gallery with MyParkPhotos.com!

1) As much as possible, leave encouraging comments on other member's photographs, and if a member encourages critiques, offer constructive criticism that will help the member grow in their photography. This is probably the best opportunity to meet other members and have them reciprocate and leave comments to your photographs. Another helpful aspect to commenting on other member's photographs is that it establishes a link back to your gallery every time you write a comment...so it's good marketing and will bring members and visitors to your gallery through your comments on other member's photographs!

2) Register one to three property photographs (three property/contest photos maximum per property per day) on any given property or subject. Building your gallery a few photos at a time gives other members the opportunity to see and appreciate your work rather than skimming through a bunch of photographs all at once. You will find that your photographs receive more comments and views by members and visitors the fewer photographs you register at one time.  On the other hand, your personal albums can be created and filled with as many non-contest related photographs as you would like.

3) Write a comment when posting each photograph and help readers understand your technique and any special feelings you had about the photo. How did the scene make you feel and what are you hoping to convey to the viewer?  We display the photographer's comments in various places on the website and in the daily email to all members.  It's certainly worth the time to add a sentence or two about each photo as it draws additional attention and comments by other members!

4) Add a thoughtful and fun title to your photograph.  Try to encapsulate the moment, action or your interpretation of the scene with the photo's title.  You will receive more photo comments from members and bring a smile to the viewer with informative and fun titles!

5) Write about the property where you shot the photograph.  The ultimate goal of this website is to encourage more people to get out and visit these many beautiful and important public lands...your property comments will certainly help to go a long way in encouraging others to visit the property where you took your photograph. How did you find the property? Did you have a good time and enjoy the various aspects of the property? Would you recommend the property to other visitors?

6) Add a personal thumbnail photo of yourself through your admin "Upload Personal Photo" link.  Simply upload a square photo and it will be reduced down to 125 x 125 pixels.  This personal photo will be displayed on your gallery homepage and with all photo or property comments that you write.  Also, if you are selected as a "Friend" by another member, then your thumbnail will be displayed in their gallery.

7) Add a Bio about yourself and your photography interests.  This is a great way to let members and visitors know more about you, your photography goals, and past photography/life achievements and future interests.

8) Help to promote your favorite public lands by adding your most visited properties to your gallery homepage.  Simply click the link "Add Your Most Frequently Visited Properties to Your Bio" in your gallery management section of your admin.

9) Create a few personal albums and register personal photographs that you would like to share with the community that may or may not be "property" related.  Photos of family vacations, friends, backyard birds, outdoor activities, etc.  It's a great way to build your gallery and allows other members to know a little more about you!

10) Participate regularly by following 1-9 above.  :)

If you have any questions about this website, please email us or call (850) 519-5400 and ask for James Chapman.

Registering a "Property" Photograph (three maximum registration)

Up to three public property photographs may be registered each day into our POTD, POTM and POTY contests as opposed to an unlimited number of photographs registered into a member's personal albums. The category that you select for each photograph is very important and for more information about contest categories, please read our Contest Category FAQ.

Property photographs are displayed immediately after registration in your personal gallery, however, they are not displayed in other galleries such as the particular Property gallery, Most Recent Photos gallery, or Category galleries until after the evening approval process simply so that we can guarantee appropriate material before the photographs are displayed in galleries other than the member's personal gallery

After uploading a property photograph, the registration form will refresh to the Edit Photographs page where you will see the titles and information from your most recent registered photographs.  The editing options available are Delete, Edit, Review, or Add to a Friend's Group album.  An "Add another Photo" button is displayed at the top of the Edit Photographs page and retains much of the previous information if you wish to register a similar photograph.

Registering a "Personal" Photograph (unlimited registration)

If you enjoy shooting in your backyard or locations other than at public properties, you may easily create personal albums in your admin for displaying all of these photographs along with your property photographs in your gallery. Albums can be easily created and pertaining to any family friendly subject.

To create a new personal album, go to your admin and click on Edit Personal Photo Albums.  From this admin page you may Add, Edit, Group, and write a description for your album web page.  When registering new personal photographs for a particular album, simply select that album name from the Personal Album drop-down list in the registration form.

Visitors to your gallery may view both your property and personal photographs by clicking either the My Property Photos and My Personal Photos links displayed in the menu at the top of your gallery.

Registering a Photograph with a "Partner" Website

There are currently three specific partner's with MyParkPhotos: California State Parks Foundation, Florida Wildlife Federation and the Florida's Birding & FotoFest. Any current member who meets the partner's requirements (see partner rules with the partner gallery) may register to participate in the specific photo contest.  To register with any partner, simply click the drop-down list in the "Join a Partner Gallery" section of your admin, chose a particular partner, and click Send Request.

You will register your property photographs as normal through the property registration form and these will be made available for display in each appropriate partner's gallery.

Photo Registration Fields

The fields marked with an * asterisk are required fields. The fields shown in light blue are fields that you may edit after registering the photograph. The fields Date Submitted, Photo, and Category are not editable by the photographer, however, the contest organizer may edit these fields if necessary to make a correction. (the category selection may be changed administratively prior to or after the approval process if it is deemed that the photograph does not meet the nature of a particular category.)

• Date Shot *: The Date Shot field may be filled out in the following format or however you would like to display the date: 10/04/2004

• Category *: Select one category that best fits your photograph, either a contest category or the personal photo category (first category on the list). To read more about the various contest categories, please visit our FAQ.

• Location *: For property photographs, after selecting a location the web page will refresh and provide you with a list of properties from that particular state or province.

• Property *: If you do not see the property listed where you shot your photograph, you may add the property and specific information through your admin by clicking on the link Add Property not in Database.

• Photograph *: Use the "Browse" button to locate the photograph on your hard drive and then click on "Open" to add the photograph to the form.  Photographs must be a minimum of 800x600 pixels and 72 dpi.

• Scoring/No Scoring: If you would like for other members to score your photograph, select "Allow Scoring" from the Scoring field.  If you would not like to have your photograph receive scores, then select "Do not allow Scoring".

• Critiquing/No Critiquing: If you would like to receive critiques of your photograph from other MPP members, select "Allow Critiquing".  All critiques are emailed directly to you and not displayed online.

• Name of Photograph *: This field allows you to provide a name for your photograph.  (Searchable)

• Photo Subject *: Please add the full name of your actual subject of the photograph here. (Searchable)

• Photo Keywords: These are additional search words to help members and visitors find a particular photograph.  (Searchable)

• Latitude/Longitude: For those with a GPS instrument.  Adding the latitude and longitude will help other photographers and property visitors find the location of the subject of the photograph. We will also be developing in the near future a Google Maps feature that displays all photographs on Google Maps that have a latitude and longitude added to the photograph's information.

• Camera *, Lens, Filter, Details: Type of camera, lens and filter used to take your photograph.  This information is very appreciated by other photographers and helps for better understanding of the photograph.

• Photographer's Notes/Experience: This field may be used to write about your experiences while taking the photograph, the subject, or anything about the property that you would like to share with your readers.

• Send Invitation to Friends: This is a brand new feature that allows those members and non-members that you have added to your Friend's List to automatically receive an announcement of your registered photograph and asking them to visit your gallery and add a comment to your photograph's homepage.

Scoring other Member's Photographs

One of the best ways to participate with the MPP community is by taking time to score other member's photographs and providing a (1) thru (5) to each of the four values for Focus, Composition, Impact and Lighting.

A (5) is a perfect score.  A (1) is the lowest score.  A (3) is an average score. Quarter points .25, .50 and .75 are available to better acknowledge a photograph with an additional percentage when a member feels it should be used, rather than a whole number 1, 2, 3 or 4.

Once you provide a score on another member's photograph, your name is displayed on the photograph's homepage, which allows others to link back to your gallery to score your photographs.  Your name is accompanied by the number of photographs that you have scored overall, not by the score that you provided the particular photograph. This total number of scores automatically changes as you score additional photographs. Your scores remain anonymous except when providing a photograph with a perfect score of 5-5-5-5, and then a little gold star is displayed along with your name.

The following formulas place more emphasis on scores for focus and composition.  All of the Focus points awarded by participating members (totaled) are multiplied by 1.02.  All of the Composition points awarded by participating members totaled are multiplied by 1.01.

Scoring Guidelines

Determining the intent of the photographer can help when deciding on any given score. Did they succeed in their intent? 

Focus:
Depth of Field can be anywhere from a fraction of an inch to virtually infinite. For instance, a closeup of a person's face may have shallow DOF (with someone just behind that person visible but out of focus—common); a shot of rolling hills might have great DOF, with both the foreground and background in focus. A closeup still photograph might employ a very shallow DOF to isolate the subject from a distracting background.

Composition:
The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in photography. The rule states that an image can be divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines. The four points formed by the intersections of these lines can be used to align features in the photograph. Proponents of this technique claim that aligning a photograph with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the photo than simply centering the feature would.

The application of the rule of thirds to photographs is considered by many to make them more aesthetically pleasing and professional-looking. The rule of thirds can be applied by lining up subjects with the guiding lines, placing the horizon on the top or bottom line instead of the center, or allowing linear features in the photograph to flow from section to section. In addition, many photographers recommend treating any "rule" of composition as more of a guideline, since pleasing photographs can often be made while ignoring one or more such rules.

The rule of thirds is a very good starting point, but any many cases, subject can either be framed into the middle of the image or framed in other was and the image may be well composed to the viewer.

Lighting:
A well-exposed image should reflect a full ranges of tones, from black to whites, with some detail preserved in both the lightest and darkest areas of the image. For example, an overexposed image will have "blown out" whites, where there is no detail at all. The perfectly exposed image will not exhibit blown whites. For images including people and animals, the angle and intensity of the lighting are important considerations. Very bright midday light will normally cause harsh vertical shadows, which obscure details of the subject and produce an unpleasant effect. The optimal lighting would typically occur when the light source is behind the photographer and fully illuminating the subject with few if any shadows on the subject. For nature photography, the best light usually occurs early or late in the day when the light from the sun is more horizontal and less harsh. In many cases, side lighting or backlighting can be effective and beautiful, however the resulting images should still retain shadow detail. The front side of backlit subjects are often underexposed and many photographers resolve this with the use of fill flash. Of course, backlighting can result in dramatic silhouettes that are by design. This will be obviously different from a poorly exposed backlit portrait.

Also see a good article on Composition and Impact.

Creating a Friend's List to promote your new photos and Blog entries

See "Manage Friend's List" in your admin.

Logging Out

You may log out each time you visit the website or you may check the "Keep me signed in on this computer" button to remain logged in on your personal computer.

If you are on a public computer, please be sure to log out of your account!

Editing Your Profile

All of the fields available in your member profile are editable at any time including the Login, Password, Email Display, and Bio. To change any of the information in these fields, simply click on "EDIT PROFILE" next to "My Profile" and retype or reselect your new information and click "Update".