All photos must be submitted as jpeg digital images in e-mail attachments to ppphotos@wsobirds.org. They will be stored in secure digital files until recommended for a given quarterly issue of The Passenger Pigeon.
Although we would prefer to print all images chosen for The Passenger Pigeon in color, many will be printed in black & white due to the prohibitive cost of printing everything in color. One image per issue will be selected as a color cover photo. Every effort will be made to use the best photos submitted by as many contributors as possible. Final selections will be made by the editors.
Following are the criteria for submitted work:
- Jpeg digital images of photos, drawings, paintings, sculptures, wood carvings, quilts or other artistic works featuring birds seen or photographed in Wisconsin should be sent as email attachments and should be in as large a size as possible, with resolution of at least 300 d.p.i. (1.2 megabytes for black-and-white and 1.5 megabytes for color). Lower resolution simply does not print well and pixel-dense images make the best candidates for printing since they often need to be cropped. All photos of birds submitted must have been taken in Wisconsin.
- Please note: since the seasonal reports are for the year previous to the current issue, any photographs for a given issue should also be from the same period. For example, photographs for the Winter issue should have been taken between 1 December and February 28; between 1 March and 31 May for the Spring issue, between 1 June and 31 July for the Summer issue; and between 1 August and 30 November for the Fall issue.
- All images submitted must be material not previously published in The Passenger Pigeon.
- All images must include the bird species name and name of the artist. Date and location are also necessary in the case of photographs. Images of works other than photographs should have a title if one has been selected.
- The most useful images are those in “portrait” format, rather than “land-scape” format. A cropped photo 4” horizontal by 5” vertical is ideal for consideration for a cover photo. The “fill page” images are also best done in portrait format and might run as large as 4.75”X7”. The editors may do some additional cropping of images for publication.
- Since no images will be returned, the submission must be high-resolution copy of the original. In most cases, contributors will have cropped the images for the best effect. Cropping the images too tightly should be avoided since the editors may choose to do more cropping. All unused or unusable digital images will be destroyed after a certain time period.
- It is the policy of Wisconsin Society for Ornithology not to offer monetary compensation to contributing artists for use of their images in The Passenger Pigeon. The Society is grateful for those who have contributed limited use of their images for publication in The Passenger Pigeon in the past and to those who will do so in the future.
- When images have been selected and approved for each quarterly issue, a short biography from each contributing artist will be requested. It is tradition to publish these artist biographies in the “About the Artists” pages of each issue. As a result, the Editors request that contributors include a short biographical statement along with their artwork.
Updated September 2020