Subject: Call for photo for a new China photoguide [Print This Page] Author: HFCheung Time: 25/10/2013 17:15 Subject: Call for photo for a new China photoguide
Call for photos for the book series “A photo identification guide to the Birds of China”
Background and objectives
The field guide for watching birds in China: “A Field Guide to the Bird of China” by Mackinnon, Phillip and He has been around for more than 10 years. The authors have no intention to revise that book. On the other hand, information for field identification and distribution have greatly increased since then, mostly because of the rapid increase in number of birdwatchers (including photographers) in China. Taxonomy changes also create the needs for birdwatchers to update identification of newly split species. With this background, we are working to produce a new identification guide on birds of China.
Our objective is to use photos to produce an affortable identification guide for birdwatchers in China, covering the following:
1. Describe all genus and species in China
2. Describe all subspecies that are separable in the field
3. Revise distribution map with seasonal information
4. Describe relevant calls and songs
5. Describe basic birdwatching information such as size of bird, abundance, and habitat
6. Suggested sites to watch difficult species
With these objectives, I am calling for photographers in the world to submit photographs to us for this purpose.
Nature of the book and editorial team
1. A series of about 20 books will produced, the series will be called “A photo identification guide to the Birds of China”.
2. Each of the books will be about 300 pages, size roughly 27cm x 18cm, and cover about 60-90 species. Each species will have on the average 10 photos trying to cover all important field marks and relevant plumage types.
3. The books will be bilingual (Chinese and English), and with an ISBN.
4. The books will be high quality but reasonably low-priced. The cost of each will be controlled within Reminbi ￥50 (US$8.3) in China.
5. We will print 2000+ copies, and about 1000 copies will be complimentary copies to production team and photographers. The rest will be for sale to recover the cost. After we recover the production cost (mainly printing), an electronic version will be available for downloaded on internet, free. If the book is popular, we will continue to produce version for sale.
6. If a suitable publisher cannot be found, the book will be jointly published by birdwatching societies of China. An editorial team will be formed from people recommended by the major birdwatching societies. I am a member of this team. The credit and honour of producing these books belongs to the birdwatching societies. Every person working in the production team will be properly acknowledged. Photos will be printed with name of photographers on the side.
7. The publication of this book is not for profit. All people working for the production will be volunteers and so will not get paid. The main cost is the production, printing and mailing cost, which will be roughly 1.0 million Reminbi for the whole series. Depending on how much sale there are, it is likely that not all the cost can be recovered. I will absorb the lose myself. In case there is a profit, it will go to the birdwatching societies in China for education and conservation purpose.
Terms of submitting bird photos
1. People who submit photos must be the original photographer and own the rights of the photo for publication purpose. Do not submit photos from unknown or unauthorized sources.
2. Photos selected will be used for publication of this book only, not for any other publication. Photographers still own the full rights of the photo. If we are going to publish this book in electronic form for computer or mobile phone, we will ask for permission again.
3. Please submit the photos in digital form, in common format for publication such as JPEG, TIFF, BMP, etc. File size need not be very big. Cropped photo of size 800 x 600 pixels are perfectly acceptable.
4. Please allow us to crop your photos and adjust color if necessary.
5. The first round of submission is 31st Jan (for non-Passerine), and 30th Apr in 2014 (for Passerine). Please submit it to me (on a CD by traditional mail or attached in an email).
6. No money will be paid for the photos. If your photos were chosen for publication, we will mail you a complimentary copy per photo.
7. We need your real name, email and telephone if you submit photos. You can choose to have nickname or web name in the book.
8. It would be best to include in the filename of the photo information such as species and subspecies, site and date, but that is not required. You can simply copy what you have to us, and we will ask you for further details if we decide to select your photo.
Guidelines for selecting photos
1. We need photos of species and subspecies of birds that are relevant to China. Photos taken outside China are fine. Caged birds or fleggings are not acceptable. Juveniles that already left nest are fine.
2. Photos should be taken with minimum disturbances to the birds.
3. Photos should not be artificially edited to change the composition. Minor adjustments of contrast and brightness are acceptable.
4. Photos are selected primarily based on quality and useful field marks for identification purpose. Efforts will be made to publish all relevant plumage types.
5. There will be no prejudice favoring or against any photographers.
6. The final decision lies within the editorial team.
