Deanie and Boo (GA) and Scout
Member Since 2009
I'm going to be getting an early start this year. I have a new job that should allow me a lot more free time to work on it and get it done early. Anything that helps me to avoid going to the post office in December will be a big bonus. I should be ready to start accepting photo submissions in about a week.
In the meantime, start looking through your photos for suitable submissions. Here are a few of the rules and a few tips.
1. No people in the photo, not even a part of a person. It looks weird to suddenly see a hand or a head in the midst of all the cat photos.
2. Sugarcats only. They can be on insulin, OTJ or a GA. They just have to have been diagnosed with diabetes at one time. If you have a photo of your sugarcat with their best friend, the friend will have to be cropped out. Sorry but there's limited space and we can't fit everyone's civvie cats in.
3. No text on the photos, including date stamps. You will either need to edit them out or choose a different photo. It would look odd to have a date stamp that reads 2007 in the middle of a 2013 calendar. I find date stamps very distracting in photos and one day I will convince my sister to turn the date stamp off on her camera! She ruined a beautiful portrait of her daughter with a date stamp across her chin.
4. Keep in mind that Shutterfly calendar layouts are generally in the shape of a small square. Your photo will need to fit in the square box. For that reason, horizontal photos work better than vertical. Vertical shots will need to be cropped and that usually means kitty loses their ears. If you want your cat to keep their ears, try to find a horizontal photo.
5. Look for a photo that has a sharp focus and good lighting. Dark, fuzzy photos don't tend to reproduce well in a mass produced calendar. Shutterfly is just going to print these one after another. The photo that shows up in the calendar is only going to be as good as the photo that you submit. If you don't have a good sharp photo, please try to take another until you get one. Of course, if your kitty is a GA, we will do the best we can with whatever photos you have available.
6. Most photos will have a small amount of cropping based on the calendar layout so it works best if there is a small amount of space around your cat's face or body to leave room for the cropping.
7. High resolution photos are needed. Please do not worry about an excessively large photo. Those actually work better. Photos cropped down for avatar use are too small. Cell phone cameras have gotten better but unless you have a smartphone, most cell phone photos do not work well. Remember, you're sharing your kitty with pet owners and veterinarians around the world. You want them to shine.
8. I have had a few folks offer to help with the photo editing and I will probably take them up on that. It is the most time consuming aspect of the calendar. I do not need assistance with the layout. It's the part of this project that I enjoy the most and I'm not interested in farming it out. Also, in order to help with the layout, you would need access to my Shutterfly files, which includes all of my personal photos and even some financial information. I'm not interested in giving anyone that sort of access.
9. I'm going to try to include additional educational information in this year's calendar. For that reason, when you submit a photo, I would ask that you include the following information:
How long ago your cat was diagnosed/how many years have they been diabetic
what insulin types you have tried
if your cat is diet controlled
if your cat is a GA, what was the cause of death? (To point out that diabetes is not a death sentence)
Their birthdate and diagnosis date
Your name and your cat's name (seems obvious but that info gets left out a lot and sadly, no one registers that way
anymore)
That should cover it but I'm open to additional suggestions.
10. Along the way, there will be deadlines set for photo submissions, for ordering, etc. Please pay attention to those deadlines because there will be no exceptions made for folks who are late. I post updates frequently and always have a calendar sticky at the top of the page throughout the project. Anyone who wants to participate is responsible for getting their photos in on time. Also, there are a limited number of photos that will fit and the calendar fills on a first come, first serve basis so the deadline may change. If you want to participate, plan on submitting early. That's why I'm posting this now, so that folks can start to look through their files, choose a photo and be ready to submit in the next few weeks. I will post the official sticky when I am ready to start accepting photos. Right now I'm trying to organize my own photo files on my computer, complicated by the fact that I just added over 900 Paris photos. When I'm ready for photos, you will all know it.
Please keep in mind that this is a very time consuming process and that I volunteer to do this every year as a fundraiser for this site. I do it because Rebecca is my friend and I am grateful that this site was here when Boo and I needed it. That said, I do have a very busy life and spend very little time online. I have a full time job, am taking French and photography classes, spend time at the gym, have 5 cats to care for and friends that I like to see from time to time. Sometimes it may take a day or so for me to respond to an email simply because I am not at home or do not have internet access. (Message boards are blocked for me at work and I will still be working some 12 hour shifts). I will eventually respond to emails but I do ask that you be patient and not flood my inbox with messages. I try to keep an updated list of photos received posted on the board so check there first before emailing or sending a PM to ask if I have your photo. I try to post the list in alphabetical order to make it easy for everyone to find their name.
For those who are new to FDMB, this is our big annual fundraiser to help pay to keep this site running. 100% of the profit goes directly to FDMB. I get no payment from this. In past years, we have been able to send anywhere from $1000-$1500 to Rebecca. Calendars will be on sale throughout the fall, hopefully starting no later than September. In addition to spending the year looking at all of your new sugarcat friends, these make great gifts for your vet clinic.
The calendar will follow a similar format to last year's with some additional educational material included. I would also like to offer up the month of January once again to DCIN to showcase any diabetic cats who are available for adoption. If you would like to see last year's calendar, you can check it out here: http://share.shutterfly.com/share/recei ... Fm3atmLNzg
Let's plan on another successful sugarcat calendar and our highest fundraiser yet for 2013!
In the meantime, start looking through your photos for suitable submissions. Here are a few of the rules and a few tips.
1. No people in the photo, not even a part of a person. It looks weird to suddenly see a hand or a head in the midst of all the cat photos.
2. Sugarcats only. They can be on insulin, OTJ or a GA. They just have to have been diagnosed with diabetes at one time. If you have a photo of your sugarcat with their best friend, the friend will have to be cropped out. Sorry but there's limited space and we can't fit everyone's civvie cats in.
3. No text on the photos, including date stamps. You will either need to edit them out or choose a different photo. It would look odd to have a date stamp that reads 2007 in the middle of a 2013 calendar. I find date stamps very distracting in photos and one day I will convince my sister to turn the date stamp off on her camera! She ruined a beautiful portrait of her daughter with a date stamp across her chin.
4. Keep in mind that Shutterfly calendar layouts are generally in the shape of a small square. Your photo will need to fit in the square box. For that reason, horizontal photos work better than vertical. Vertical shots will need to be cropped and that usually means kitty loses their ears. If you want your cat to keep their ears, try to find a horizontal photo.
5. Look for a photo that has a sharp focus and good lighting. Dark, fuzzy photos don't tend to reproduce well in a mass produced calendar. Shutterfly is just going to print these one after another. The photo that shows up in the calendar is only going to be as good as the photo that you submit. If you don't have a good sharp photo, please try to take another until you get one. Of course, if your kitty is a GA, we will do the best we can with whatever photos you have available.
6. Most photos will have a small amount of cropping based on the calendar layout so it works best if there is a small amount of space around your cat's face or body to leave room for the cropping.
7. High resolution photos are needed. Please do not worry about an excessively large photo. Those actually work better. Photos cropped down for avatar use are too small. Cell phone cameras have gotten better but unless you have a smartphone, most cell phone photos do not work well. Remember, you're sharing your kitty with pet owners and veterinarians around the world. You want them to shine.
8. I have had a few folks offer to help with the photo editing and I will probably take them up on that. It is the most time consuming aspect of the calendar. I do not need assistance with the layout. It's the part of this project that I enjoy the most and I'm not interested in farming it out. Also, in order to help with the layout, you would need access to my Shutterfly files, which includes all of my personal photos and even some financial information. I'm not interested in giving anyone that sort of access.
9. I'm going to try to include additional educational information in this year's calendar. For that reason, when you submit a photo, I would ask that you include the following information:
How long ago your cat was diagnosed/how many years have they been diabetic
what insulin types you have tried
if your cat is diet controlled
if your cat is a GA, what was the cause of death? (To point out that diabetes is not a death sentence)
Their birthdate and diagnosis date
Your name and your cat's name (seems obvious but that info gets left out a lot and sadly, no one registers that way
anymore)
That should cover it but I'm open to additional suggestions.
10. Along the way, there will be deadlines set for photo submissions, for ordering, etc. Please pay attention to those deadlines because there will be no exceptions made for folks who are late. I post updates frequently and always have a calendar sticky at the top of the page throughout the project. Anyone who wants to participate is responsible for getting their photos in on time. Also, there are a limited number of photos that will fit and the calendar fills on a first come, first serve basis so the deadline may change. If you want to participate, plan on submitting early. That's why I'm posting this now, so that folks can start to look through their files, choose a photo and be ready to submit in the next few weeks. I will post the official sticky when I am ready to start accepting photos. Right now I'm trying to organize my own photo files on my computer, complicated by the fact that I just added over 900 Paris photos. When I'm ready for photos, you will all know it.
Please keep in mind that this is a very time consuming process and that I volunteer to do this every year as a fundraiser for this site. I do it because Rebecca is my friend and I am grateful that this site was here when Boo and I needed it. That said, I do have a very busy life and spend very little time online. I have a full time job, am taking French and photography classes, spend time at the gym, have 5 cats to care for and friends that I like to see from time to time. Sometimes it may take a day or so for me to respond to an email simply because I am not at home or do not have internet access. (Message boards are blocked for me at work and I will still be working some 12 hour shifts). I will eventually respond to emails but I do ask that you be patient and not flood my inbox with messages. I try to keep an updated list of photos received posted on the board so check there first before emailing or sending a PM to ask if I have your photo. I try to post the list in alphabetical order to make it easy for everyone to find their name.
For those who are new to FDMB, this is our big annual fundraiser to help pay to keep this site running. 100% of the profit goes directly to FDMB. I get no payment from this. In past years, we have been able to send anywhere from $1000-$1500 to Rebecca. Calendars will be on sale throughout the fall, hopefully starting no later than September. In addition to spending the year looking at all of your new sugarcat friends, these make great gifts for your vet clinic.
The calendar will follow a similar format to last year's with some additional educational material included. I would also like to offer up the month of January once again to DCIN to showcase any diabetic cats who are available for adoption. If you would like to see last year's calendar, you can check it out here: http://share.shutterfly.com/share/recei ... Fm3atmLNzg
Let's plan on another successful sugarcat calendar and our highest fundraiser yet for 2013!
