Spring 2009 Flickr Orchid Photo Contest!

Members of the Orchid Society of Southern California and members of the OSSC Flickr Group are formally invited to participate in a flickr orchid photo contest.  The primary goal of this contest is to promote Southern Californian Orchid Societies by displaying our orchid photos on the most popular photo sharing website.  The secondary goal is to share our orchid photos with each other.

Prizes

The top three winners will be able to select from among several quality orchids:

  • A specimen size Cattleya intermedia alba (donated by Charles Boco)
  • Cymbidium Lucky Shamrock 'Green Glenn' (large plant in a 2 gallon pot)
     (donated by Alfred Hockenmaier)
  • Cymbidium Formby Geyserland x Kirby Lesh 'Spots' (large plant in a 2
    gallon pot)  (donated by Alfred Hockenmaier)

The 1st place winner will have first choice, the 2nd place winner will have second choice and the 3rd place winner will have third choice.

Start Date

The contest will start on April 20, 2009.

End Date

The contest will end on June 20, 2009.

How to Enter

Create a free flickr account and upload your orchid related photos.  When you upload the photo, tag it with "OSSCSpring09".  Tags can also be added at any time after the photo has been uploaded.  To increase the amount of views your photos receive be sure to include as many other relevant tags that you can think of.  You can add up to 75 tags per photo.  Here are a few suggested tags...

  • 'OSSC'
  • 'orchidssc'
  • 'orchidaceae'
  • old genus (ie, 'Laelia')
  • new genus (ie, 'Sophronitis')
  • species  (ie, 'purpurata')
  • variety (ie, 'carnea')
  • where the photo was taken  (ie, 'Huntington')
  • where the orchid is grown (ie, 'outdoors')
  • colors in photo (ie, 'purple', 'pink', 'white')
  • type of camera used (ie, 'nikon')
  • 'society'
  • 'orchid'
  • 'epiphyte'
  • 'macro'
  • 'mounted'
  • 'flower'

With a free account you can upload 100 megabytes (mb) worth of photos per month.  A reasonably sized photo is half a megabyte...500 kilobytes (kb).  Your upload capacity is reset at the beginning of each month. 

Scoring

At the end of the contest, contest entry photos will be counted on this search result page for OSSCSpring09.  The participant with the most photos in the first 24 photos will be the first place winner.  The participant with the next most photos will be the second place winner and so on..  Any ties will be broken by comparing favorites followed by how many times the photos have been viewed. 

Judging

Participants are encouraged to favorite and comment on the best photos of other participants.  Doing so will influence the ranking of the photos.

Duration

This contest will run for 2 months which should hopefully provide participants sufficient time sort through archived photos and/or to take some new great photos of orchids. 

Here are a few good places to find orchids in bloom...the Huntington conservatory, the LA Arboretum greenhouses, Orchid Odyssey at the San Diego Zoo, etc.  For additional orchid related events please visit the OSSC's calendar page.

Rules and Regulations

  • To enter this contest you must either be a member of the OSSC or a member of the OSSC Flickr Group.
  • Only photos uploaded during the contest can be entered.
  • You can enter as many photos as you like.
  • You can only enter photos that you have taken.
  • Orchid photos do not have to be of your own orchid.
  • Photos should be relevant to orchids and/or the orchid society.
  • Contest winners will be responsible for paying any shipping cost of the orchids.

Questions and Discussion

Please visit the OSSC group on flickr to discuss this contest.  You may also contact me if you have any questions.