Department of Entomology

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Entomological Photographic Competition

The Department of Entomology announces a photo competition to celebrate the beauty and diversity of insects and related arthropods, and the entomologists who study them.

Who is eligible?  The competition is open to all current faculty, staff, and students (graduate and undergraduate) in the Entomology Department.

When is the competition? Entries must be submitted during the month of September 2008. The deadline for submission is 30 September 2008.

What are the rules?

• All entries must be original works created by the submitter; i.e., the submitter must hold the copyrights.
• Photos can be from any year (not only 2008).
• A maximum of 5 entries per person may be submitted.
• Submissions in Group 1 and Group 2a, b, c (below) must be photographs of live insects. (Ideally, the subjects of Group  2g will also be alive.)
• Submitted images must be in near-original condition. That is, they must include the natural background and the original composition. Allowable minor editing (such as in Photoshop) can include cropping and color and light correction. There can be two exceptions to this. First, black and white photos (such as SEM generated) can be colorized. Second, the "Artistic" category is open to all submissions.
• Each submission must be accompanied by a single sentence of description which must include an identification of the subject and the location of the photograph. Provide as much taxonomic information as possible (e.g. order, family, genus, species). It is not necessary to identify the insect to genus and species if that information is not easily available.
• Also, please tell us the maximum available resolution of the original (if digital) or type of film and camera format (such as 2x2 negative or 35mm slide).  

NOTE that the primary purpose of the competition is to select photographs to be enlarged and printed for the new Entomology Photo Gallery, which will include some very large prints (see below). Very large prints must be made from high resolution originals, so keep this in mind when doing your photography.

• You must also stipulate an entry Group and category for each photograph (only one category per photograph). The categories are

Group 1: taxonomic categories - a single insect or tight grouping of the same species:

• Hemiptera (including Homoptera)
• Orthopteroid orders
• Other ametabolous and hemimetabolous orders; other hexapods
• Coleoptera
• Diptera
• Hymenoptera
• Lepidoptera
• Other holometabolous orders
• Arachnids and myriapods

Group 2: subject categories - a single insect or multiple insects as appropriate; other entomological subject matter:

• Insect action - e.g. predation, parasitism, feeding, flight, pollination, mating, etc.
• Insect portraits - tight close-ups of head or head and thorax - subject must be identifiable
• Very tiny creatures - creatures 2mm in length or less
• Microphotographs - extreme close-ups of insect structures (SEM photos allowable, internal organs, etc.) - subject need not be identifiable
• Insect leavings - the work of insects but without the critters, such as galls, leaf mines, skeletonized leaves, galleries, hives, webs, frass
• Artistic - a totally open and creative category
• Entomologists in action - capturing what entomologists do

Judging will be a 3-step process.

1. The Photo Competition Committee will make the first cut of acceptability, based upon overall quality and suitability of the images.
2. The members of the Department will rank each of the remaining photos at a special "Bugs 'n' Suds" photo screening in October. The photos will be screened anonymously.
3. The top 2-3 photos in each category will again be voted upon to achieve the overall winners.

Awards.

• Initially and most importantly, the "awards" will consist of the recognition of your outstanding photographic creativity by the department's exhibition of your work (see following section).
• However, the Photo Competition Committee is developing ideas for some more tangible rewards (to be announced).

How will the photos be used?

The primary purpose of the competition is to select attractive photos to adorn the Entomology walls of Russell Labs, to possibly include the department office, the second floor hallway, the first floor hallway, and other spots as appropriate. Indeed, every hallway in our department has space to exhibit a few examples of the beauty of insects and the creativity of entomologists. In some cases we will be making very large prints (from 24x24" to possibly as large as 3x4 ft); for these, high quality, high resolution photographs will be necessary. The department chair in consultation with the Photo Competition Committee will make the final decisions based upon available funding, and quality and subject matter of the photographs available.

We will consider making one or a series of departmental calendars from the entries. All entries that survive Step 1 of the judging process will be posted on the department website, with winning entries noted.

NOTE: Before using your photographs in any of these ways, we will first request your permission to do so. Entries will be judged based upon their quality only; you may enter and yet decline permission to allow the department to use your photos. Regardless, photographers retain the copyrights to their photographs.

Submission.

All entries must be submitted digitally, as jpeg files. If you are submitting images from film media, you are responsible for doing your own scanning. The department has a slide scanner that can be used - see Jim Hoey in the computer lab. Image size (quality) must be sufficient to give a good rendering of your subject when projected through a standard LCD projector at full size. Please do not send exceedingly large files.

Please submit all photographs simultaneously. The submission must include a Word file that has the following:

• your name
• email address
• departmental address (room number) and phone number (if you have such)
• home phone number

and, for each entry,

• category (give group and category code number, as well as category name)
• a one-sentence description of the subject
• maximum available file size, or film size and format.

            Email your entries to Dan Mahr: dmahr@entomology.wisc.edu .

            Remember the submission period: September 1-30, 2008.

Questions?

Contact the Photo Competition Committee: Claudio Gratton, Mike Hillstrom, Dan Mahr