Photo Contest - Please read

[Second Hand Pat]

Dear SimplyDiscus Membership,

We've some cool news here on a new series of Photo Contests. We have been asked this many time and are at a point now where we can give it a try. Each Month we will have a Photo Contest opened to all SimplyDiscus members,sponsors, and moderators. The contest will be a different theme each month. For example one month may focus on Pairs with Fry, another may focus on Planted tanks and Biotopes. Photos will be submitted by email and we will then post them in a poll on the forum where you, the membership, will vote. A prize will be awarded each month (to be decided based on our resources)

Rules for submissions:

1) You must be the person that took the picture and has permission to use it.

2) You must email a high resolution image to us at the provided email address. Your submission gives us permission to use the photo for this contest, host it on an offsite location and post it in a poll on Simply Discus

3) IF a photo is required you will provide a single image, no videos will be allowed unless the theme for that month is "videos". Please only submit one photo or video for any theme.

4) Images may be cropped and have routine Post Production carried out, for example white balance adjustment, exposure adjustments, lens corrections and general tone adjustments. Unless otherwise specified images may not be significantly modified by excessive cloning or compositing.

5) Ideally 10 Mbs as an image size maximum should be the goal. Images that are too large will be returned to the submitter for resizing.

6) No watermarks or names can be shown on the picture.

7) Images that are submitted can not have been posted here on Simply or anywhere else.


How to submission:

Once you are ready to submit your photos; email them to photo@simplydiscus.com for submission. Submissions will be accepted the first ten days of the month. A member of the SimplyDiscus team will receive the photos and upload them to a hosting website. The poll thread with the months submissions will be posted around of 15th of the month and open for voting until the 25th of the month after which the winner will be announced. Since winners are determined by poll, all registered members of SimplyDiscus including Admins, Moderators, Sponsors, and Subscription holders are eligible to participate.

We have tried to anticipate all issues and make the rules clear and concise, but should an issue or problem arise we maintain all rights to resolve it as we see fit. You agree to this by your submission.


Themes

The theme for the month of May is "Discus in Motion". Some examples of this are eating, spawning, fighting, swimming actively (fins blurred, body not) etc.

The themes for the upcoming months are

1) Discus In Motion (May)
2) Planted Tanks (June)
3) Biotopes (July)
4) Coolest Group Shots (August)

Here is an example of a Discus in Motion Theme


Tefe Fight Night

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad95/Second_Hand_Pat/DSC_0350.jpg


The winner of May's photo contest will receive a $20 Gift Certificate to KensFish.com one of our awesome Sponsors here on SimplyDiscus. Thanks Ken for your donation! Don't forget to visit THE HOME OF QUALITY TROPICAL FISH FOOD AND SUPPLIES! Click Here (http://www.kensfish.com/index.html)

[jmf3460]

might be a dumb question, but for the month of june/july, does it have to be a planted discus tank or a discus biotope??

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Jacklyn,

A fair question but yes, the expectation is for all photos to feature discus in the photo based on the theme for the month. The one exception is if the theme of the month calls for something different.

Pat

[jmf3460]

ok Pat, I cant wait for the theme of the month to be something different

[ZX10R]

The one exception is if the theme of the month calls for something different.

Pat

Any thoughts on doing a non-discus month?

[brewmaster15]

Any thoughts on doing a non-discus month?
Its a possibility....would have to be something fairly broad

some things we kicked around as possibles...
Pictures
1) Discus in motion
2) Planted Tanks
3) Biotopes
4) Wild Discus
5) Domestics Discus
6) Miscellaneous
7) Pairs
8) Pairs with fry.
8) Funniest Photoshop-ed Discus
9) Discus keepers in action
10) Other tropicals

Videos
1) Discus Courtship
2) Discus Spawning
3) Fishrooms

so as you can see we have alot of possibles...we will try to let you guys know months in advance what the topic will be for a certain month so you can start collecting pics and vids.

thanks,
SD Team

[Second Hand Pat]

Any thoughts on doing a non-discus month?

Yes Sean and please fill free to suggest themes :D

[brewmaster15]

Just so no one gets confused...these are the themes coming up...

Themes

The theme for the month of May is "Discus in Motion". Some examples of this are eating, spawning, fighting, swimming actively (fins blurred, body not) etc.

The themes for the upcoming months are

1) Discus In Motion (May)
2) Planted Tanks (June)
3) Biotopes (July)
4) Coolest Group Shots (August)

and to be super clear...
Mays will be "Discus In Motion" try and catch a pic of your fish doing something...fighting, spawning, eating...etc.. The image needs to depict motion or action.. Just a pic of the discus hanging around the tank won't cut it.

[treemanone2003]

Sounds super cool and looking forward to it !!!

[DiscusLoverJeff]

Any thoughts on doing a non-discus month?

Would sure love to see some pictures of all them Rays Sean. And that new discus tank you need to get up and running.

[jmf3460]

I HAVE A SUGGESTION!! "manzanita centerpieces" tanks revolving around an epic piece of manzanita

[brewmaster15]

oh and everyone, Please please please read what we have posted. Only send in submissions for the currents months contest. We do not want pics for June,July, and August's themes now... we will ask for the submissions when each months contest start... You may start collecting pics now...and just hold on to them.

thanks,
al

[brewmaster15]

I HAVE A SUGGESTION!! "manzanita centerpieces" tanks revolving around an epic piece of manzanita That can go under the biotope submission.:)

-al

[jmf3460]

That can go under the biotope submission.:)

-al

but what if someone has a non discus biotope with an epic manzanita piece???

[rickztahone]

Cool idea. I love photo assigments. I need to get my discus in soon! Does the deadline coincide with the end of the month for each theme?

[brewmaster15]

Cool idea. I love photo assigments. I need to get my discus in soon! Does the deadline coincide with the end of the month for each theme? Hi Ricardo, we are looking to have submissions for the first 10 days of the month and then we will close the submission period so we can set up the poll.

-al

[brewmaster15]

but what if someone has a non discus biotope with an epic manzanita piece??? miscellaneous? then or non-discus.

Lets play it by ear and see how the first few months go contest wise.

-al

[judijetson]

Exciting! Looking forward to the pictures.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 3

[jmf3460]

10-4 I shall refrain from entering my non discus tanks until I am told to...lol

[rickztahone]

Hi Ricardo, we are looking to have submissions for the first 10 days of the month and then we will close the submission period so we can set up the poll.

-al
Good to know. May I suggest 2 weeks of entry (1-15) and second half for polling? (16-31) just to make it easier on you guys? Just a suggestion. To me, it doesn't matter one way or the other.

[rdiscus]

Good to know. May I suggest 2 weeks of entry (1-15) and second half for polling? (16-31) just to make it easier on you guys? Just a suggestion. To me, it doesn't matter one way or the other.



announced? on 32?

[OC Discus]

Looking forward to the pics

[Second Hand Pat]

Good to know. May I suggest 2 weeks of entry (1-15) and second half for polling? (16-31) just to make it easier on you guys? Just a suggestion. To me, it doesn't matter one way or the other.

Thanks Rick, lets see how the first couple of months go with the timeline defined in the first post. :D It can always be tweaked a bit if needed.

[Chicago Discus]

What a cool idea :)....Cant wait to see all the great photos.....Josie

[Kal-El]

Nice... anyway to keep Matt out of this? He will just win every-time with his photography skills... lol JK... this will be fun...

[beastroy]

MAN... I really need a DSLR camera now.

I hate my smartphone camera.

[rickztahone]

For all of those kicking themselves about not having a DSLR camera, I will tell you that right now is one of the best times to buy an entry level camera. You have hundreds of models out there currently that are so underpriced because of the competitiveness that is going on with all the major brand names.

For instance, I shoot with a lot of Sony gear. I have an Nex6, a55, a77, and a99. When I purchased the a77 and a lens I bought it for $1700. At that time, this was a steal! That camera is not that old, it was released in 2011. Now, you can pick up that camera for roughly $400-$600! That is a significant mark down.

So, if you are currently in the market for gear, just do your research and you can definitely pick something up for cheap that isn't such a "cheap" camera. Last years bells and whistles cameras are selling for less than half of the cost this year.

Additionally, the top 3 brands are Canon, Nikon, and Sony, however, Pentax, Olympus Fuji and Panasonic also have great cameras. I have shot with almost all brands and I will tell you that they all have pros and cons. For an entry level person, every single camera on the market will have what they need and more. If you start getting to the hobbyist, or semi-pro, or even pro level, you start noticing some companies flaws and strenghths.

If anyone has questions please feel free to contact me, or we can start a thread here on SD.

[treemanone2003]

For all of those kicking themselves about not having a DSLR camera, I will tell you that right now is one of the best times to buy an entry level camera. You have hundreds of models out there currently that are so underpriced because of the competitiveness that is going on with all the major brand names.

For instance, I shoot with a lot of Sony gear. I have an Nex6, a55, a77, and a99. When I purchased the a77 and a lens I bought it for $1700. At that time, this was a steal! That camera is not that old, it was released in 2011. Now, you can pick up that camera for roughly $400-$600! That is a significant mark down.

So, if you are currently in the market for gear, just do your research and you can definitely pick something up for cheap that isn't such a "cheap" camera. Last years bells and whistles cameras are selling for less than half of the cost this year.

Additionally, the top 3 brands are Canon, Nikon, and Sony, however, Pentax, Olympus Fuji and Panasonic also have great cameras. I have shot with almost all brands and I will tell you that they all have pros and cons. For an entry level person, every single camera on the market will have what they need and more. If you start getting to the hobbyist, or semi-pro, or even pro level, you start noticing some companies flaws and strenghths.

If anyone has questions please feel free to contact me, or we can start a thread here on SD.

This is great info you have made available to the rest of the members !! Something I wouldn't have thought of to express, but I couldn't agree more. I'm still on the learning side of the amateur level of the photography hobby, but I chose a higher end entry level piece as my first investment. And as stated, the more involved one becomes, the more you learn off all the +/- things that make each one different.

I've always been a Nikon fan, and my choice when they were new was the d5100. After all the gadgets etc, I was right around the $1800 area as well. Now you can get that same model around $800-$900. I couldn't tell anyone about fstop or shutter speed but I know why the flash doesn't work in certain modes.

All the entry level "point, click, and shoot" cameras still take awesome photos. No doubt about that. And most of them have quite a bit of the same functions and editing software available as the pricier units do so don't be discourage about giving it your best "shot". Thanks again for sharing.

[Keith Perkins]

I think this is a horrible idea, clearly very biased toward people with the ability to take pictures, LOL. How about best discus in crayon freestyle by a grandchild?

[Discus-n00b]

Nice... anyway to keep Matt out of this? He will just win every-time with his photography skills... lol JK... this will be fun...

Haha hey now, there are a good number of people posting now that could give me a run for my money. Pat, Josie, and many others have since really improved and are taking beautiful photos now! Plus with only a single discus tank running right now I won't be entering many categories. ;)

I like the idea. Always good to see the pictures!

[Second Hand Pat]

Keith, perhaps one of the themes should be cell phone pictures. Puts many of us on a level playing field.
Pat

[jaykne]

Tomorrow it starts you may start submitting your photos to photo@simplydiscus.com

[rickztahone]

For all of those kicking themselves about not having a DSLR camera, I will tell you that right now is one of the best times to buy an entry level camera. You have hundreds of models out there currently that are so underpriced because of the competitiveness that is going on with all the major brand names.

For instance, I shoot with a lot of Sony gear. I have an Nex6, a55, a77, and a99. When I purchased the a77 and a lens I bought it for $1700. At that time, this was a steal! That camera is not that old, it was released in 2011. Now, you can pick up that camera for roughly $400-$600! That is a significant mark down.

So, if you are currently in the market for gear, just do your research and you can definitely pick something up for cheap that isn't such a "cheap" camera. Last years bells and whistles cameras are selling for less than half of the cost this year.

Additionally, the top 3 brands are Canon, Nikon, and Sony, however, Pentax, Olympus Fuji and Panasonic also have great cameras. I have shot with almost all brands and I will tell you that they all have pros and cons. For an entry level person, every single camera on the market will have what they need and more. If you start getting to the hobbyist, or semi-pro, or even pro level, you start noticing some companies flaws and strenghths.

If anyone has questions please feel free to contact me, or we can start a thread here on SD.


This is great info you have made available to the rest of the members !! Something I wouldn't have thought of to express, but I couldn't agree more. I'm still on the learning side of the amateur level of the photography hobby, but I chose a higher end entry level piece as my first investment. And as stated, the more involved one becomes, the more you learn off all the +/- things that make each one different.

I've always been a Nikon fan, and my choice when they were new was the d5100. After all the gadgets etc, I was right around the $1800 area as well. Now you can get that same model around $800-$900. I couldn't tell anyone about fstop or shutter speed but I know why the flash doesn't work in certain modes.

All the entry level "point, click, and shoot" cameras still take awesome photos. No doubt about that. And most of them have quite a bit of the same functions and editing software available as the pricier units do so don't be discourage about giving it your best "shot". Thanks again for sharing.

George, I hope you don't mind that I used your quote to start off This thread (http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?113844-Camera-gear-tips-and-tricks-tutorials). Let me know if that is fine.

[Keith Perkins]

Keith, perhaps one of the themes should be cell phone pictures. Puts many of us on a level playing field.
Pat

Would there be a flip phone subcategory? :D

[treemanone2003]

George, I hope you don't mind that I used your quote to start off This thread (http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?113844-Camera-gear-tips-and-tricks-tutorials). Let me know if that is fine.

Not at all my friend. I'm honored and appreciate that you're willing to teach/help all of us learn.

[Second Hand Pat]

Would there be a flip phone subcategory? :D

Time to upgrade Keith :D

[rickztahone]

For all of those kicking themselves about not having a DSLR camera, I will tell you that right now is one of the best times to buy an entry level camera. You have hundreds of models out there currently that are so underpriced because of the competitiveness that is going on with all the major brand names.

For instance, I shoot with a lot of Sony gear. I have an Nex6, a55, a77, and a99. When I purchased the a77 and a lens I bought it for $1700. At that time, this was a steal! That camera is not that old, it was released in 2011. Now, you can pick up that camera for roughly $400-$600! That is a significant mark down.

So, if you are currently in the market for gear, just do your research and you can definitely pick something up for cheap that isn't such a "cheap" camera. Last years bells and whistles cameras are selling for less than half of the cost this year.

Additionally, the top 3 brands are Canon, Nikon, and Sony, however, Pentax, Olympus Fuji and Panasonic also have great cameras. I have shot with almost all brands and I will tell you that they all have pros and cons. For an entry level person, every single camera on the market will have what they need and more. If you start getting to the hobbyist, or semi-pro, or even pro level, you start noticing some companies flaws and strenghths.

If anyone has questions please feel free to contact me, or we can start a thread here on SD.


Time to upgrade Keith :D

:laugh:

[jaykne]

Time to upgrade Keith :D

I loved my flip phone lol still don't use 90% of the things on my new smart phone.

[Keith Perkins]

For all of those kicking themselves about not having a DSLR camera, I will tell you that right now is one of the best times to buy an entry level camera. You have hundreds of models out there currently that are so underpriced because of the competitiveness that is going on with all the major brand names.

For instance, I shoot with a lot of Sony gear. I have an Nex6, a55, a77, and a99. When I purchased the a77 and a lens I bought it for $1700. At that time, this was a steal! That camera is not that old, it was released in 2011. Now, you can pick up that camera for roughly $400-$600! That is a significant mark down.

So, if you are currently in the market for gear, just do your research and you can definitely pick something up for cheap that isn't such a "cheap" camera. Last years bells and whistles cameras are selling for less than half of the cost this year.

Additionally, the top 3 brands are Canon, Nikon, and Sony, however, Pentax, Olympus Fuji and Panasonic also have great cameras. I have shot with almost all brands and I will tell you that they all have pros and cons. For an entry level person, every single camera on the market will have what they need and more. If you start getting to the hobbyist, or semi-pro, or even pro level, you start noticing some companies flaws and strenghths.

If anyone has questions please feel free to contact me, or we can start a thread here on SD.

"Dear, what would you think of me buying a good camera to take pictures of the grandkids?" :D

[Second Hand Pat]

"Dear, what would you think of me buying a good camera to take pictures of the grandkids?" :D

That's the ticket Keith :)

[Kal-El]

Haha hey now, there are a good number of people posting now that could give me a run for my money. Pat, Josie, and many others have since really improved and are taking beautiful photos now! Plus with only a single discus tank running right now I won't be entering many categories. ;)

I like the idea. Always good to see the pictures!

Regardless if you have one tank or not... I look forward to seeing your work posted here with all the contestant. Hopefully I can get a better camera to also enter in what little I have left.

[beastroy]

For all of those kicking themselves about not having a DSLR camera, I will tell you that right now is one of the best times to buy an entry level camera. You have hundreds of models out there currently that are so underpriced because of the competitiveness that is going on with all the major brand names.

For instance, I shoot with a lot of Sony gear. I have an Nex6, a55, a77, and a99. When I purchased the a77 and a lens I bought it for $1700. At that time, this was a steal! That camera is not that old, it was released in 2011. Now, you can pick up that camera for roughly $400-$600! That is a significant mark down.

So, if you are currently in the market for gear, just do your research and you can definitely pick something up for cheap that isn't such a "cheap" camera. Last years bells and whistles cameras are selling for less than half of the cost this year.

Additionally, the top 3 brands are Canon, Nikon, and Sony, however, Pentax, Olympus Fuji and Panasonic also have great cameras. I have shot with almost all brands and I will tell you that they all have pros and cons. For an entry level person, every single camera on the market will have what they need and more. If you start getting to the hobbyist, or semi-pro, or even pro level, you start noticing some companies flaws and strenghths.

If anyone has questions please feel free to contact me, or we can start a thread here on SD.



I will get a Canon camera soon after I finish building my small discus hatchery.

$600 is my budget since I am a noob with camera.

[rickztahone]

I will get a Canon camera soon after I finish building my small discus hatchery.

$600 is my budget since I am a noob with camera.

Please visit This thread (http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?113844-Camera-gear-tips-and-tricks-tutorials)

[ZX10R]

Would sure love to see some pictures of all them Rays Sean. And that new discus tank you need to get up and running.

I can get plenty of pics of rays as for the discus tank that might disappoint you

[brewmaster15]

LOL. How about best discus in crayon freestyle by a grandchild?


Hey Keith,
Thats actually not a bad idea for another thread...something I will think about.. a Thread where members can submit the pics their kids draw of discus etc.. submissions with first name and age. I like it alot... I will give it some serious thought.

-al

[jaykne]

The winner of May's photo contest will receive a $20 Gift Certificate to KensFish.com one of our awesome Sponsors here on SimplyDiscus. Thanks Ken for your donation! Don't forget to visit THE HOME OF QUALITY TROPICAL FISH FOOD AND SUPPLIES! Click Here (http://www.kensfish.com/index.html)

[jaykne]

7 day left to get your photos in, so far I know who the winner will be since there has only been on photo submitted.

[treemanone2003]

We're all learning how to get the best pic from Ricardo's thread so I'm sure there'll be a flurry just before the deadline lol !!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[OC Discus]

Will you start a thread of pics of each months contest?


7 day left to get your photos in, so far I know who the winner will be since there has only been on photo submitted.

[rdiscus]

Will you start a thread of pics of each months contest?

The poll thread with the months submissions will be posted around of 15th of the month

[Second Hand Pat]

Two more days for photo submission for May. Get those photos in :D

[Second Hand Pat]

And guys, one photo per member per month please. We have had some folks sending more then one photo and had to ask the member to choose one for the contest.
Thanks,
Pat

[jaykne]

OK guys this is the last day please get you photo's in. You have to do nothing but send us your photo and the winner gets a $20 gift certificate to KensFish.com. So far we have very few photos so your chance of winning is very good. So get those photos in to us by the end of the day.

[jaykne]

Just so everyone knows the submission time for photos is over, we will be posting a poll with the pictures soon please vote.

[CraigJ]

Did I win? ; > )

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa75/manteone/IMG_9231_zps75332211.jpg (http://s196.photobucket.com/user/manteone/media/IMG_9231_zps75332211.jpg.html)

[Second Hand Pat]

Maybe in the future Craig :D

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi guys, the May Photo Contest will close out tomorrow evening at 11:59pm. The voting is close on a couple of the entries so get those votes in while you can.

[Keith Perkins]

Hey Keith,
Thats actually not a bad idea for another thread...something I will think about.. a Thread where members can submit the pics their kids draw of discus etc.. submissions with first name and age. I like it alot... I will give it some serious thought.

-al

Thanks Al

[Second Hand Pat]

We are going to make a few changes for Photo Contest which will be implemented starting in August. Currently the window for submitting pictures is the first ten days of the month. We are expanding the window to include the entire month. This will hopefully allow members time to get that perfect picture for the theme of the month. The second change is the voting window, instead of the 15th through the 25th of the month, the voting will move to the first ten days of the next month. So the voting for the August Photo Contest will take place the first ten days of September. So for the month of August photo submission opens August 1st and continues until August 31th and voting for the August Photo Contest starts September 1st and continues until September 10th. The theme for August is Coolest Group Shots.

[rickztahone]

I'm sure you meant 'coolest group shots'. I think the new arrangment with the dates is better. It is a larger window which should theoretically allow more people to join in on the fun.

[Second Hand Pat]

I did Rick, thanks :)