Photo contest info

[Scoot]

In the interest of encouraging bowhunters in learning to take better hunting photos and in sharing them, I would like to start a 2012 HSO photo contest. This contest will not be judged on how large a critter one takes, but rather on the quality of the photo they submit. Such things as composition, tastefulness, focus, background, lack of blood, etc. will weigh much heavier than will the size of the animal. All things being close to equal, then size may play a small part.

Photos will be submitted simply by posting on the photo thread, which will be posted as “2012 HSO Photo Contest”. That thread will start at some future date. Please don't post your pics in this thread.

It will be open to any HSOer, as long as the photo/photos they submit were:

(1) Taken while hunting with a bow and arrow. (2) Taken in the calendar year of 2012. (3) Taken on the North American Continent (4) Taken within a State, Country, or Province that requires a hunting license or a carcass tag for that species. (5) taken using fair chase practices.

Each entrant can submit three photos in each of the two categories. Category 1 will be the “Hero Shot” category- this is just as it sounds. Pictures in this category will be of a hunter and an animal he’s successfully taken with is bow and arrow. This can be a “classic hero shot” or something different, but pics of hunters and their harvested game animals will go in this category. Category 2 will be “Non-Hero Shot” and these pictures will include everything that’s not included in the Hero Shot category. Importantly, these pictures must be taken while in the process of archery hunting. They can be anything from sunsets, live deer, live bears, flowers, an old oak tree, a blood trail, etc. You get the idea…

Both of these categories are included in hopes of getting people to carry their cameras in the field with them. The non-hero shot category especially was included to get people to carry their cameras with them and hopefully to get people to take those cameras out and use them frequently.

Down the line, I would like three HSOers who are no entered in the contest and who have some photography knowledge, to volunteer to be the judges and untimely select the winner/winners. I will not name the people who judge the photos and I will not be one of the judges (so don’t blame me if you don’t win and think you should have!)

I’m in the process of rounding up prizes for this contest. My goal is to have a 1st – 3rd place prize for each division. As of now several HSO staff members have generously offered to donate prizes to help run the contest. If anyone else would like to offer something up for a prize for the contest, please PM me. Some of the prizes are really nice (e.g., a new trail camera) and some of them are more modest (e.g., the two prize packages I put together). Hopefully a few more people will contact me and offer something- if anyone does this, I’ll gladly include information about the person who offered the prize as a sort of advertising for the kind person who donates it (if they’d like this).

The contest will close at the end of legal shooting light on Dec. 31st. Any photos entered after that will not be considered. If anyone needs help getting a picture loaded for the contest, please let me know and I’ll gladly take care of it for you if you can e-mail me the photo.

Good luck to all who enter!!!

[sticknstring]

Sounds like fun! I always appreciate a thought-out quality hunting pic. I may be able to work on a few donations for winners.

[Boar]

Neato! Just a fuzzy question, I have a bumm shoulder an have a cross bow permit, is that excluded. im ok with if not, just curious.

[MUSKY18]

Awesome idea Scoot! Count me in, prizes or no prizes!

[Scoot]

Neato! Just a fuzzy question, I have a bumm shoulder an have a cross bow permit, is that excluded. im ok with if not, just curious.

Hi Boar! I have to admit, I'm very hesitant to include cross bows in this. However, I'm pretty confident you didn't ask for a bum shoulder and it stinks you can't draw your bow like you wish you could. Let's handle it just like the state of MN does-- if you can legally hunt with a crossbow because you aren't physically able to shoot a recurve or compound bow, you're hunting during the archery season so we'll happily accept you and your pics with open arms!

[Cheetah]

Sounds fun, thanks for organizing it Scoot. My time hunting this fall will probably be more limited than usual, but the camera always comes with me so hopefully I will get lucky with a few nice photos.

[Boar]

Cool beans Scoot, Thanks for the invite!

[Scoot]

This should be fun! I've got a number of prizes now and even had a volunteer to judge the contest, which is great! The ND season starts a week from tomorrow, so I'll get the photo thread up soon so it's ready for any early season guys who are fortunate enough to score early or smart enough to bring their camera along to take pics of anything and everything. There's a good chance that people won't submit their pics until later in the year given that they only get three per category, but if you get a real gem I'm sure it'll get posted early.

[bigbucks]

I'm assuming we just enter by posting a photograph at whatever point we think we have a worthy one?

[Boar]

Scoot. got an idea for a prize, I'll pm ya later after work om or do ya got a email

[Scoot]

I'm assuming we just enter by posting a photograph at whatever point we think we have a worthy one?

Yep. You can post them whenever you get a keeper or you can wait until you've got your season's lot of pics all stored up, then pick the top three. However you'd like...

[Scoot]

Scoot. got an idea for a prize, I'll pm ya later after work om or do ya got a email

Sounds great, boar. Shoot me a PM and we'll go from there. Thanks much!