PORTraits Photo Contest - rules & prizes

[Roy Hersh]

PORTraits PHOTO CONTEST 2008

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NO MATTER WHAT TYPE OF CAMERA YOU CHOOSE TO USE TO EXECUTE YOUR DIGITAL PHOTOS …NOW IS THE TIME TO GET BUSY!!!


* FTLOP’s PORTraits PHOTO CONTEST, IS DESIGNED TO ENCOURAGE THE USE OF OUR GALLERY DATABASE.
* WHAT’S REQUIRED? JUST UPLOAD YOUR NEW DIGITAL PHOTOS TO THE PORTraits DATABASE.
* PLEASE SEE THE OFFICIAL RULES & REGULATIONS IN ADDITION TO A DESCRIPTION OF PRIZES.

NOW HAVE A LOOK AT WHAT THE WINNERS WILL RECEIVE!!!

THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER - WILL JOIN US FOR AN EXCLUSIVE TOUR OF PORTUGAL’S WINE REGIONS - you choose any one of our 2009 or 2010 trips!

THE 2ND PLACE PRIZE - 1977 Vintage Port, one each: Fonseca and Taylor

THE 3RD PLACE PRIZE - 1952 Dalva Colheita

THE 4TH PLACE PRIZE - FTLOP Polo Shirt

THE 5TH PLACE PRIZE - FTLOP Cap
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SO … HOW DO I WIN ONE OF THESE PRIZES?


OFFICIAL PORTraits CONTEST RULES & REGULATIONS

DATES OF ENTRY:
• 5 weeks … NOVEMBER 10TH – DECEMBER 14th 2008 (11 p.m. EST is the deadline)

PARTICIPATION:
• You must be a minimum of 21 years of age to enter photos.
• No limitation to the number of photos that you can upload during the course of the contest.
• Entrants may reside in any country in the world.
• To be able to upload photos, you’ll need to be a current subscriber of the FTLOP newsletter.
• Judges may enter photos during the contest period, but do not qualify to win.

HOW DO I WIN?
• A caption must accompany every photo entered.
• We’re looking for: clarity and overall quality, composition, captivating, creative & extraordinary visuals with human interest or human beings, still life or scenery shots. Bottles & labels are less likely to win but still qualify. Your photos may be in color, black & white or even sepia tone … all are acceptable.
• The photos must be your own.
• FTLOP has increased the photo size capability for this contest, and you’re now able to submit images that are up to 800 pixels in height or width. We’ve improved the quality aspect ratio of PORTraits from 80 to 90% to deliver greater definition.
• Please resize the photos yourself, BEFORE uploading them for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the server resources which are used in adding larger images than 800 x 600 pixels. The viewing size can be increased when viewing the photos. Click on it once and thepicture gets bigger. Click on the photo a second time and it is exhibited in an even larger format.
• All photos must pertain to any of the sub-categories already defined in the PORTraits gallery database under the topics: Port, Madeira or Douro wines.
• It is certainly not a requirement that your photos have to be taken in Portugal, nor is that necessarily an advantage. Offlines, cellar photos, decanting etc… you can shoot photos in your own home, at a restaurant or wherever you’d like.
• Please do not upload photos that you wouldn’t want your grandmother or children to see ... in other words, no “indecent exposures.”
• Your digital photos may be new or old, but can’t be one’s previously uploaded to PORTraits.

DECISION OF JUDGES
• Roy & Dorene Hersh and Stewart Todd will be the panel of judges making the final decisions.
• There will be five distinct winners. This assures that no single entrant can win multiple prizes.
• Winners will be announced January 2nd 2009 in the FTLOP newsletter and the FTLOP Forum.
• The decision of the judges will be final and any disagreement should be taken up directly with Roy by email, not posted on the Forum.

WINNING PHOTOS & PRIZES
• The five winning photos chosen by the judging panel may be used in FTLOP promotional material in the newsletter, Forum or the FTLOP website homepage. A waiver will be sent by email to be filled out and returned, before prizes are delivered.
• Contestants may only win once during the course of the contest, which enables five individuals a chance to win.

DESCRIPTION & DELIVERY OF PRIZES

• The Grand Prize winner will receive the option to choose either 50% off for a couple, or one FREE trip for themselves on any one of our FTLOP Tours to Portugal during 2009 or 2010. This offer does not include airfare or gifts you purchase during the tour, however, virtually all other expenses (airport transfers, baggage handling, hotels, meals, wines, ALL tips and taxes etc.) are inclusive with your Grand Prize. The trip may not be redeemed for cash, and is not transferrable. You must use the Tour within the next two full calendar years (a minimum of
four trips to choose from), or you will forfeit the prize.

• The 2nd Place winner will receive a superb pair of well-aged, well-stored Vintage Ports from my personal cellar. One exemplary bottle of each: 1977 Fonseca and 1977 Taylor will be yours. Arrangements will be made to ship them to you anywhere in the world where it is legal to ship wine. If DHL, FedEx or UPS delivery is not possible, I will do my very best to find a way to get the bottles in your hands.

• The 3rd Place winner will receive a pristine bottle of the rare and delicious 1952 Dalva Colheita that everyone who comes along on our tours to Portugal has the opportunity to try along the way. Arrangements will be made to ship this to you anywhere in the world where it is legal to ship wine. If DHL, FedEx or UPS delivery is not possible, I will do my very best to find a way to get the bottles in your hands.

• The 4th Place winner will receive a smart looking FTLOP polo shirt. It is a 6.2-ounce, 100% Pima cotton honeycomb pique; double-needle stitching throughout, flat knit collar and cuffs, locker patch, side vents, pearl buttons. Traditional 3-button placket. Available Sizes: Medium, Large, X-Large. This shirt is manufactured by Port Authority and embroidered with the FTLOP logo. It will be delivered to your door, anywhere in the world.

• The 5th Place winner will receive a black embroidered FTLOP baseball cap. A great classic design black accented by contrasting Khaki on the underbill. 100% cotton, 6-panel construction, unstructured, low profile; self-fabric closure with grommet, stitched eyelets and a fashion-curved bill. One size fits all and the cap will be delivered to your door, anywhere in the world.

SO ... THE QUESTION IS ... ARE YOU READY TO WIN?

[Frederick Blais]

How about those who seriously thought that the contest would start in October and did submit many quality photos for it? Can I just remove them and submit them again with the new resolution? Took me quite some time to run around the folders and resize them. Let me know

[Glenn E.]

I can't wait, this is going to be fun!

I'll continue to hold off on uploading until the 10th, hard as that is. Hey, I only took 300 pictures in Portugal on this trip... it was 500 in 2007!

[Roy Hersh]

Glenn,

That gives you 800 to choose from ... or 800 to upload.



Fred,

I'll email you.

[Glenn E.]

Oh don't worry, most of 'em aren't worth uploading.

I think I have a few good ones, though, and I can't wait to see what everyone else uploads!

[Roy Hersh]

I am hoping that this really begins to generate far more traffic on PORTraits as it would be great to have this component as THE place on the web (especially for bottle and label shots) for Port photos (Madeira and Douro wines too).

[Erik Wiechers]

Will be hard to beat the portugal tour pics but i will do my best (after i have renewed my subscription).

[Jeffrey Karp]

WOW! What a wonderful and generous contest! I'm in! Good luck to everyone!

JKK

[Roy Hersh]

There is no need for you folks to post any photos until the contest begins. That way anything worthy, can be judged against its peers and possibly provide you with a nice reward.

[Ronald Wortel]

With this set of prizes it would be silly not to join the competition, wouldn't it?

Is there also a maximum to the resolution of the pictures?

[Todd Pettinger]

Now where is my camera????

[Roy Hersh]

THE CONTEST BEGINS ON MONDAY.

I wish you all the best of luck. The rules and regulations and prizes are all above. Any questions, please email me ... prefer not PMs.

Thanks!

My question is ... who is coming to Portugal?

[Glenn E.]

Has the contest officially started? Just checking... if we're officially underway I'll start uploading some photos!

[Roy Hersh]

Ronald,

See the first post in this thread where it talks about resolution size in very specific terms.



Glenn,

The official start day is also listed above ... and I've posted another thread to let everyone know that it was Monday. Did you notice this in the newsletter?

[Glenn E.]

Yeah, I saw it above and in the newsletter, but just wanted to make sure before I started uploading. Most of my best pictures from last year's trip to Portugal are already uploaded, so I wanted to make sure that I didn't "waste" any of this year's by uploading too soon.

I have most of them already resized and sitting on my desktop at home, so I'll start uploading tonight!

[Roy Hersh]

Excellent, what type of Port consumption will accompany your uploading of your photos?

[Glenn E.]

I will be having some Ramos Pinto 20-yr old tawny tonight! I opened the bottle last week, but it seemed a bit off for some reason. I figured that leaving it sit for a week would help, and voila! It did, and it's drinking very nicely this week. :lick:

[Roy Hersh]

Feel free to post your photos on bottles and labels even if they might not be prize winners, as one of the cool things as PORTraits grows, will be to create an even better searchable database for these shots. But for now you can always click on a specific category that will provide all the photos in that particular sub-gallery.

Have you tried looking through a specific gallery while sipping a glass of Port, Madeira or Douro wine? It makes for a fun peek. Hopefully over the years, this continues to gain popularity and becomes the largest compendium of Port/Madeira and Douro wine photos anywhere on the web.

I thank you all and at the same time urge you to continue to put in bottle and label shots as you open and consume new bottles ... or just some of your prized bottles in your cellar or trophy shelf.




I am very pleased to see how many new pics have rolled in and hope that there are more to come. The contest finishes off its 5 week run:
• DECEMBER 14th 2008 (11 p.m. EST is the deadline)

[Ray Barnes]

I have at least one photo ready to upload and officially enter the contest - with no anticipation of winning anything, just for the sake of participating - if I can figure out how to do it, since this would be the first time, period.

[Andy Velebil]

Ray
the easiest is to save it to your desktop first. Then click upload a file from the main home page. Select the photo, upload. You MUST enter the appropriate class of photo from the drop down list, put in a title and a description of the photo. It is quite easy once you get the hang of it.

If you have problems let us know,