Deadline to enter and vote in the Cotton Carriers Fall Photo Contest is just over two weeks away.
This is a contest in which visitors to the site vote for their favorite fall color photo. The winner receives a canvas print of their photo, a Cotton Carrier G3 camera holder and recognition as a photographer.
To vote or enter the contest (Deadline Nov. 15), go to CottonCarrier.com.
Here are two more from our readers. To see all photos submitted by CaliforniaFallColor.com contributors, search “Photo Contest” on this site. We encourage all readers to vote for their favorite.
When we receive photographs too late to be posted as a current report or perhaps so artistic that they do not tell the story of what was seen, we set them aside for later use as a collection of gallimauphry.
Here’s one on Monitor Pass by Steven Crowley. Click to enlarge.
CaliforniaFallColor.com previously posted a report on Cotton Carrier’s Fall Photo Contest.
This is a contest in which visitors to the site vote for their favorite fall color photo. The winner receives a canvas print of their photo, a Cotton Carrier G3 camera holder and recognition as a photographer.
To vote or enter the contest (Deadline Nov. 15), go to CottonCarrier.com. Following are additional photographs submitted by CaliforniaFallColor.com contributors. To see all photos entered, search “Photo Contest”.
We encourage all readers to vote for their favorite.
Cook’s Meadow, Yosemite Valley – James Forbes
The Fall of My Life, Red Lake, CA – (2016) Robert Kermen
S. Yuba River, Cisco Grove, CA (2016) Robert Kermen
North Lake, Bishop Creek Canyon, CA (2014) Jay Huang
English Walnut Orchard, Durham, CA (2015) Robert Kerman
Note: The contest’s official rules have been changed since first reported, to reassure entrants that they will retain rights to submitted photographs.
Cotton Carrier had originally used boilerplate language in its official rules – provided within the contest template – that allowed Cotton Carrier to use the photographs, but that was never their intent and contradicted what they had communicated to us.
A revised rule now states, “Acceptance of prize constitutes permission for Cotton Carrier LTD to use winner’s name, likeness, and entry for purposes of advertising and trade without further compensation, unless prohibited by law.”
This limits exposure only to the winner and allows the winner to not accept the prize and thus not interfere with any rights it may have assigned to a stock agency, removes language of which some photographers were concerned and removes our concern about the original language which allowed Cotton Carrier to use all photographs submitted.
The object lesson learned from this instance is to always read contest rules carefully, as entering could give away your rights to your work.
Photo contests should never result in diminishing ownership or commercial rights to images for photographers. Instead, they should only seek to recognize excellent work, which is what Cotton Carrier intended.
We are indebted to those photographers who alerted us that Cotton Carrier’s initial promise to photographers that they would retain rights to their submissions was not supported by the contest rules, and to Cotton Carrier for being a stand-up company that supports photographers, recognizing the problem and quickly changing the official rules to assure that entrants are treated fairly.
CaliforniaFallColor.com has become a go-to site for publications and designers looking for fall color photography.
Photographs contributed to this site this autumn by color spotters Dylan Ren and Daniel Stas were selected by a calendar publisher.
And, San Bernardino County color spotter Alena Nicholas had several of her images chosen to decorate the interiors of San Bernardino County government buildings, because the designer found them on CaliforniaFallColor.com.
Lake Arrowhead (11/7/15) Alena Nicholas
That’s not saying we promise contributors that they’ll be published, though that does happen fairly often, because of the visibility of the site.
There seems to be no set pattern why a photograph is chosen, other than that it is colorful, nicely composed and has a subject that the medium, designer or publisher wants.
The calendar designer was looking for fresh water and an autumn scene. San Bernardino County was looking for images of their county that could be enlarged and hung inside county office buildings.
What is common is that the photos were seen here, and they were strong candidates.
http://www.californiafallcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/logo-1.png00John Poimiroohttp://www.californiafallcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/logo-1.pngJohn Poimiroo2017-10-17 20:35:392017-10-17 20:37:45Contributors Get Published
Silver Lake sunrise, Mono County (10/14/17) Jennifer Franklin
McGee Creek day’s end, Mono County (10/14/17) Jennifer Franklin
Photographers are both story-tellers and artists, as these photographs by Jennifer Franklin show.
There is a moodiness to each image, caused by the early or late afternoon light and by the shutter speed she chose for the latter, which accentuates both motion and emotion.
Jennifer (@msnightfall) stopped at Silver Lake (June Lake Loop) at sunrise on Saturday, and ended the day in McGee Creek Canyon in the late afternoon.
Photographers call the hour shortly after sunrise or before sunset, “the golden hour,” because then, sunlight is warmer than when the sun is high in the sky.
However, in autumn the golden hour lasts much longer because the lower angle of the sun causes light to warm each scene. That is particularly noticeable when such light touches warm colors, as in these scenes (click on photo to enlarge).
Using digital darkrooms like Adobe Lightroom, photographers have many tools today that make it possible to emphasize vibrance, highlights, shadows and contrast. Years ago, we would spend endless hours in the dark working to express what we saw, experienced or imagined. Now, it happens in the light.
http://www.californiafallcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/logo-1.png00John Poimiroohttp://www.californiafallcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/logo-1.pngJohn Poimiroo2017-10-17 14:57:012017-10-18 08:55:31Golden Hour and Fall Photography
The following photographs, submitted by CaliforniaFallColor.com readers, have been entered in Cotton Carrier’s Fall Photo Contest. Vote for your favorites at www.CottonCarrier.com.
The photograph with the most votes wins an 18 x 24″ canvas wrapped print of the photograph and a $149 Cotton Carrier G3 Harness.
One photo may be entered per week, per photographer. Deadline Nov. 15. Photographers retain the rights to their work.
To enter, you must post them at www.CottonCarrier.com. Once you enter, send a .jpg of your shot, where it was taken and your name to: editor@californiafallcolor.com. We’ll post all photographs here and encourage readers to vote for them. Photos do not need to have been taken recently, so past photographs are eligible.
North Lake, Bishop Creek Canyon (10/7/17) Xin Wang
Autumn in the Sierra, Parker Lake – Alena Nicholas
Gingko, Lingyan Temple, Yandang Mountain National Park (10/27/15) John Poimiroo
Gingko, Yandang Mountain NP (10/27/16) John Poimiroo
Yandang Mountain NP (10/27/16) John Poimiroo
This past week, my attendance at the annual meeting of the Society of American Travel Writers took me to Wenzhou.
It’s an inviting, industrial city in eastern China, along the Ou River between Shanghai and Hong Kong. Near Wenzhou are several mountain parks, which provided the opportunity to see a Chinese autumn emerging.
Yandang Mountain National Park, an hour north of Wenzhou by superhighway, is a World Geological Park and one of China’s top-rated mountain areas. It is like Yosemite, but with temples.
Yandang Mountain NP (10/27/16) John Poimiroo
Copper-blue stream, goldfish, Yandang Mountain NP (10/27/16) John Poimiroo
Within the national park are soaring rock monoliths, rock climbers, waterfalls, copper blue mountain streams, wildlife areas, caves, and ancient Buddhist temples and shrines, many of which are framed by fall color in late autumn.
Maple trees are prolific in eastern China and forested areas like Yandang Mountain National Park are full of them. Japanese maples are a common choice of horticulturists in the United States, though there are more varieties of Chinese maples, according to MrMaple.com, a cultivar of Asian maples.
Surrounding ancient Lingyan Temple (over 1,000 years old and listed as one of the 18 oldest temples in China) are stands of golden to orange maple and towering, venerable gingko trees, whose bright yellow leaves were transitioning from green to yellow.
Gingko leaves, Lingyan Temple (10/27/16) John Poimiroo
Guidebooks show bright yellow to orange stands of maple filling the forest with color. Though on our visit, even the tea was green.
Only the gingkos were near peak. Guides blamed unseasonably warm weather as keeping the forest from turning, though it’s more likely that, due to the area’s low elevations and latitude, peak does not usually arrive until mid to late November.
Wenzhou Ecological Park near the city, contains Daluo Mountain and a network of stone paths that climb to geologic features, streams, pools and pagodas at points of rest and scenic inspiration.
Green tea, Yandang Mountain NP (10/27/16) John Poimiroo
Daluo Mountain (10/26/16) John Poimiroo
Hiking, Daluo Mountain, Wenzhou (10/26/16) John Poimiroo
Daluo Mountain’s trails pass through lush bamboo corridors and past a variety of deciduous plants that were just starting to show color.
Yandang Mountain National Park (3,635′), Yandangshan,China – Just Starting (0-10%)
Daluo Mountain (2,300′), Wenzhou Ecological Park – Just Starting (0-10%)
One of the most colorful autumn scenes in Wenzhou was found on Jiangxin Islet in the middle of the Ou River where, at dusk, brides gathered in front of the decaying Victorian-era (1890) British Embassy to pose for wedding pictures.
As golden Gingko leaves fluttered past the posing brides, I saw the following image developing and moved into position to frame a shot that eventually won the Society of American Travel Writers’ Bronze Award in the 2018 Bill Muster Photo Competition Culture Category.
Wenzhou Brides, Jiangxin Islet (10/28/16) John Poimiroo
