http://urbanphotosafari.com/2009/

I’ll have more detail on voting and some background on the gallery around noon on Thursday. Until then, visit the gallery and take a look at your efforts. As I mentioned before, some pretty amazing shots. To get started on voting, grab a pen and some paper and write down what images you like. Once your are done, you’ll be sending me another email (email link on the right) with your 10 votes. It should look something like this:

Contestant 01 - photo 02
Contestant 32 - photo 08
etc.

Enjoy! I’m goin’ to bed. I’ll be back in a bit.

Looks like I’m going to be burning the midnight oil putting the final touches on the gallery. It’s all coming together nicely though. So, go to bed and get a good night’s rest. I’m on my second Red Bull so, if you don’t see the gallery posted here in the morning, send the paramedics.

That was a lot of fun. Enjoyed the event and all but, I’m a little confused as to what’s next. Sound like you? The friend you brought to the event? Not to worry, here’s what’s up next and what to expect during the week following Urban Photo Safari. Some are old veterans but, some are brand new. Regardless, we could all use a little clarification on what to do and when. In the hopes of answering most questions, here’s the most exhaustive list I can come up with.

1. What’s the deal with picking the top ten?
   I won’t be putting up contestant images on the site until I have your top ten picks from your shoot. You have until Monday night (let’s say 11:00 p.m. Monday night 6/15) to email me (see “Email” link in the side bar on the right) with the file names of your images. Make sure you have your full name and/or all the names of your team in the email. Some of the email addresses are hard to decipher. This is the main reason we download your images the day of the contest. You don’t have to send them to me, just take a look at what you shot and send me those file names in the email. Make sure to send the file name for your “self portrait” in addition to the top ten. If there is any confusion to the file names (in rare cases, computers will change file names and I’ll end up picking the wrong ones) I can make changes to what is eventually posted to the site. Again, this has happened in rare cases. I’ll do my best to post what you want up there for the top ten. If I don’t get your top ten by Monday night, I’ll assume you don’t want to participate for whatever reason and I won’t publish your images.
2. Self portrait? What self portrait!
   It’s all over the site and on the “About Urban” page but, inevitably, someone forgets about this part. Not to worry. It’s not a self portrait in the truest sense of the word. Can be but, doesn’t have to be. If you didn’t shoot one, just pick an image from your shoot that best represents you and have that be your self portrait. Take a look at past years and you’ll see people picking some rather weird images. Bowl of petunias, lamp post, whatever. Just pick one along with your top ten.
3. So, I sent you my top ten picks. What now. Why is is taking so long to get them up there?
   I gather and sort all of the ten picks from each contestant and put them together in a gallery online. Takes me a while to put together so, be patient. I’ll announce on the site when it’s up and also email everyone who sent in their votes. I’m thinking I should have it together by Wednesday, Thursday at the latest.
4. My mom loves my pictures, so does my cousin in Idaho. Can they vote?
   Nope. Have to be a contestant to vote. You really want to vote? Come out next year and hang out with us. But, do encourage them to visit the gallery once it’s live to view your images No reason they can’t get a little inspired as well.
5. So, you put up my pics along with everyone elses. What’s next?
   You have two days (from the time I make them live on the site) to vote on the top ten pics of everyone else. You have only 10 votes, and you can’t vote on your own. Only one vote per photo. The names will be hidden during voting and revealed once it’s over. Send your votes to the same email address (see “Email” link in the side bar on the right). The email should look something like this:
   Contestant 01 - photo 02
   Contestant 16 - photo 07
   etc.
6. What do you win?
   As mentioned in a post earlier, this is the “recession version” of Urban Photo Safari. No t-shirts, no badges, no posters or banners. And, no prize other than the satisfaction of winning the coolest photo contest in the Kansas City metro area. If it’s any consolation, past prizes have been gift certificates to Amazon.com so, don’t think your missing out on a new iPhone.

Hopefully that should cover the bulk of your questions. If it doesn’t, hit the link on the right side of the sidebar titled “Email” and send me an email or, hit me up on twitter. I’d be happy to answer any questions you have. To go over it again, here’s a shortened version:

1. Email your top ten image (+1 self portrait) names by Monday 6/15 11 p.m.
2. Site ready for voting by Wednesday 6/17 (or, Thursday 6/18 at the latest)
3. You have two days to email your votes (specific deadline will be announced here depending on when the gallery is live)
4. Winner is announced and contestant names are revealed

What a blast. It was great seeing the turnout this year. A lot of people and it sounds like everyone enjoyed themselves. I’ll have more tomorrow but, wanted to write a quick note to the contestants on next steps.

Look through your images and pick your 10 best (+1 self portrait). You have until Monday night to send me an email to deanolufson [at] yahoo [dot] com with the names of those images. Please include your name in the email along with the filenames of the images you would like me to include (i.e. DSC00675, DSC00687 etc.). More tomorrow and again, thanks for coming out. It was great seeing old friends and meeting a bunch of new ones.

With only one day to go, I thought I’d tip my hat and fill you in on a few slight changes to how we’ve done the Safari in the past. Most of you have read the “About Urban” page and should have a good feel for what to expect. This year is a little different. I’ve been joking that it should be called “Urban Photo Safari 2009 - the recession edition”. But, all joking aside, I’ve just made it a little simpler with less fanfare. No t-shirts, no badges, no maps. Just show up, sign in and shoot.

As you can imagine putting this on every year can be quite a production. I thought I’d concentrate this year on the core of what Urban is about and make it as simple and bare bones as possible. Doesn’t mean we won’t have huge shin-digs in the future though. One major twist this year will be no map. What!? No map? No boundaries? Here’s the jist. All the same rules still apply. You still have 4 hours and need to show up at 1 to download your images. Instead of having a boundary map this year, you can shoot wherever you wish as long as you show back up at 1. Want to go to Lawrence? Great, just get back in time. Be interesting to see where everyone ends up going and what they capture.

I’ll have a checklist later in the evening to help you make sure you have all your gear checked and ready to go on Saturday. In the mean time, here’s a run down of some of the basic rules. You can also see these on the “About Urban” page.

1) You have 4 hours to shoot as many images as you wish
2) You must shoot at least 11 images. One of them must be a self portrait of some kind. Want a bowl of petunias to be your self portrait? fine, just let me know which image it is.
3) This is a digital camera only competition. No film.
4) Images must be at least 640×480 in size. A tad small by today’s standards but, can have some interesting results. Camera phones, iPhones etc can all be used. As long as you can get me your images by the deadline.

Stay tuned. They’ll be several posts between now and Saturday morning.

For those of you new to the safari, the event is scheduled once a year sometime in the spring. For 2009, we are looking at the first or second Saturday in May. We’ll post more info as the event develops. Feel free to drop us a line in the comments if you have any questions or, browse through the site to get an idea of what the event is all about.

To the right is a photo of the Indicia Design building. Wanted to let everyone know there will be free parking near the back of the building. Take a look at the map pdf in the post below to get an idea of where the parking lot is in relation to Indicia.

Looks like the weather is shaping up to be rather nice (great, I just jinxed it). but Gary promises me it will be 82 and sunny. He hasn’t let me down yet. Also, take a look at the checklist tonight to make sure you have everything to head out and meet up at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. I know, a little bit of a stretch for the college crowd but, it’s only once a year so it’ll be worth it.

I was going to write a post a couple days ago asking what kind of cameras everyone was going to be using. But, I may as well let you know now that we’ll be using Flickr to post the contestant images this year. Quite a few benefits in doing so.

• We’ll be able to view the meta data so we can see what kind of camera was used.
• You won’t need a Flickr account to view the images but, if you sign up for a free account, you can order pictures, posters, you name it. If it can have an image on it, you can order it.
• WAY easier for us to manage. In the past it was a lot of Photoshop actions and manual uploading to create the galleries. Seen a cool Flash and/or html gallery? I’ve probably tried it out and made a few of my own. I can’t think of a better way to manage and archive our images.
• You can email and share the images alot easier. You can even grab the images and post to your own blog directly from Flickr.

This is pretty last minute but, in case you still don’t have a camera, they sell some pretty cheap disposal digital cameras (oxymoron?) at places like Walgreen’s. If the only limitations are 1) has to be digital and 2) has to be at least 640×480, the kinds of cameras are pretty limitless. Most phone cameras are now way above that limit. If you were thinking of entering as a group (one camera, several people), break it up and enter individually. Grab a cheap one-time camera and you are good to go. Believe it or not, the the images you get off these things can be pretty amazing. Friend of mine brought a credit card sized camera a couple years ago and the images turned out really cool. Over saturated, kinda blurry but, really interesting. May even want to leave the bad-ass DSLR you have at home and experiment a little with a cheap camera.

Okay, that’s it. I’m heading over to Indicia to set things up. If you’d like to follow my actions tomorrow, subscribe to my twitter feed (link to the right). I also have several friends using twitter going to the event so, could be an interesting twitter mash-up. Twitter + Flickr + Safari. Hmmm, someone market that.

See you tomorrow!

With the help of the crew at Indicia Design (thanks Kelly!), the 2008 map is complete. Click here to download a pdf version to get a sneak peek. No need to bring it with you, it will be part of the lanyard you get during sign in. With the possible exception of last year, this has to be the largest map we’ve done to date. We’ve extended the boundaries a little further east and south.

Remember, the map is part of the competition. You may only take images within the boundaries of the map. If you take a closer look, it isn’t street level so, use your best guess. We won’t shoot you if you are off by a block or two.

Take a look and start planning the places you’d like to visit. The 4 hours will fly by so plan about 4 areas. In the past that’s the most I can do without rushing through it. If you run in, take some shots and run out, you could probably visit 4, maybe 5 areas. If you tend to explore a little more like I do, 3 will probably work.

Wallet. Check. Keys. Check. Batteries. Batteries. Dang! Forgot to charge the batteries! Yep, I’ve done it. Chalk it up to being a right brain creative (a.k.a. forgetful dufus). To make sure you don’t forget anything, here’s a list that may help.

1. Batteries.
   Seems obvious but, make sure you have fully charged batteries. Might even help to bring one or two extra.
2. Camera.
   Okay, way too obvious but, it’s a checklist.
3. Good walking shoes.
4. Sunscreen.
5. Cell Phone.
   I could date myself and say bring a dime for the pay phone but, I digress.
   
6. Extra memory cards.
   Pretty cheap these days. Head over to Target or Wal-mart and get an extra one if you can.
7. Gas up the car.
8. USB cable or card reader.
   As mentioned elsewhere on this blog, we will have alot of different card readers to download images. There has however been a few cases where we didn’t have the latest. If your camera came with a USB cable or you have a specific card reader, bring it with you just in case.
9. Water & something to munch on.
   We’ll have water and sodas at the event to take with you but, it’s always a good idea to have some extra. You’ll be getting a little parched walking all over the city. Heck, lot’s of great restaurants in town. Take a break and have some lunch.
10. Your friends, family etc.
    Don’t leave them at home, bring them along! In fact, if you didn’t “sign up” using the evite, don’t worry about it. Just show up. The more the merrier.
11. $10
    For the Official Urban Photo Safari t-shirts! The photo safari is free but, if you’d like to buy a shirt, bring cash or check.

Have anything to add to the list? Let us know in the comments.

On another note, one thing I’ve been missing over the past couple of years are event photos. Photos of people signing in, taking photos while on the safari, goofing around while on the safari etc. Be cool if you could fit some of those in while you are taking the other images as well. Be great to have more images to show people what the event is like for next year.