Marine Mammal Contest 2011

Marine Mammal Photography and Art Competition



As many of you may have gathered, I love marine mammals, have studied them for the past three years and will continue to study them for at least the next three years. I also love the art and photos that these creatures inspire, and yet marine mammals are notorious for being extremely difficult to photograph or illustrate.
Therefore this contest is to celebrate all types of marine mammals all over the world, and the skill of photographers and artists who have managed to capture their beauty. There is almost 1 year's worth of premium memberships up for grabs as prizes to encourage people to enter, and the contest will run all fall while I am away so even if you don't feel like any of your current work are up to scratch there is plenty of time to go out and grab some new shots or make some new art.

I want to see a huge variety of species, locations and behaviours, to make a real showcase of these creatures here on DA. I ran a photography only contest last year an it was a huge success, with over 100 entries and 21 different species depicted!

Check out last year's competition winners here: shadow-and-flame-86.deviantart… and all the entries here: shadow-and-flame-86.deviantart… and here: shadow-and-flame-86.deviantart…

Competition Opens: 13th September 2011

Cometition Closes: 7th December 2011 (or whenever I get back from the seal colonies!)

Judges
I will be judging the competition along with some of my friends and collegues at the Sea Mammal Research Unit (If you want to read more about this organisation, a world leader in marine mammal research, this is their website: www.smru.st-andrews.ac.uk/). We all have spent many years working with marine mammals in both the wild and captivity, and all of us have tried to get good photos of our subjects or doodled them whilst in the field.
This also means that as many people here on DA can enter as possible, there aren't that many marine mammal photographers or artists here and I don't want to deprive anyone of the chance to enter by asking them to be a judge

Rules
You must be a member of Exp-Marine-Mammals to enter.
If you entered a photo in my marine mammal photo competition last year, you cannot enter the same shot in this contest.
Only photographs and artwork can be entered. Both traditional and digital mediums are allowed. Photo-manipulations are not eligible for this competition.
Deviations do not have to be new to be entered but they must be your own work.
There are two catagories, Photography and Artwork. You can enter up to two pieces in each, a total of four entries per person.
Photos and art can be of wild or captive animals.
People cannot be the main focus of the photograph. This includes animals with trainers, being rescued on a beach or interacting with people in any way. If people are in the backround of a shot, rather than part of the main focus of it, then it can be entered. Below are some examples of what is acceptable and what is not.

Allowed: :thumb156562480: Not Allowed: :thumb93938008:

Only marine mammals allowed! The following species are acceptable subjects to enter into this competition: Mysticetes (baleen whales), Odontocetes (toothed whales, dolphins and porpoises), Pinnipeds (seals, sea lions and walrus), Sirenians (dugongs and manatees), polar bears and sea otters. A full list of acceptable species is given on the right side of our blog page. A note on the sea otters, no other type of otter is allowed (not even the 'marine otters' of south america, sorry but you can't tell them apart from the fresh water species by photo like the true sea otters from the pacific). Examples of a real sea otter and a fresh water otter are given below.

Sea Otter: :thumb213799764: Fresh Water Otter:

Categories and Prizes!

All winners will be featured by me, and I am hoping others will be willing to donate features in their journals! If you are willing to do this then please comment on this journal entry and I will add your name to this entry (see the end of this entry). If you would like to donate additional prizes that would also be very welcome! There must be at least 10 entries in both of the two categories for the contest to go ahead however, and at least 5 per 'Best of...'

1st Place of both the Photo and Artwork groups will win a 3 month premium membership from me.

2nd Place of both the Photo and Artwork groups will win a 1 month premium membership from me.

Instead of third places, there will be four 'Best of...' categories that the judges will select from both the photo and artwork entries. Each winner will win 200 points from me.

Best Mysticete:Best OdontoceteBest PinnipedBest Other (includes the Sirenians, polar bears and sea otters)

How to enter
Comment on THIS exp-marine-mammals.deviantart.… journal with links to your entries (NOT thumbs). Choose carefully, you cannot change your entries once you have posted them!
Please add a link to this competition to the photos caption to help spread the word, and keep an eye on the Exp-Marine-Mammals blog and my account Shadow-and-Flame-86 for any news!

As the top of this journal says, I will be away for about three months working with my seals so don't expect any kind of response from me at all unless you submit before I go away (in the next 2 weeks) or until I get back in several months time. I will sort all the entries I have received during this time once I am home.

Entries
Can be seen here:
Photos: exp-marine-mammals.deviantart.…
Artwork: exp-marine-mammals.deviantart.…

If you have any questions feel free to note me. Other than that have a great fall coming up with some ace entries!

Good Luck!

Winning Features given by...


Last Year's Winners and Judge's favourites
:thumb125988306:
:thumb170915737:
:thumb175102021: :thumb170536766:
thumb175601226: :thumb158731151: :thumb149401693:



Can I use your images as stock or for photo-manipulation, web design, web blog, or other personal/school/work projects?
No, this gallery contains no stock images. All my photographs are copyrighted and may not be altered, printed or published in any media and/or format.

I'm a painter/sketch artist, may I use your photo(s) as reference?
Feel free to use my non-stock photos as reference to your traditional and/or digital Drawings/Paintings/Artisan Crafts and Sculptures. Please send me a link to your finished work and credit me in the comment and link to the original deviation photo. I love seeing people's interpretations of my photos and have a fav gallery just for them!

Please respect the rules! Thanks!