Photo Contribution Guidelines
All of the photographs on this website were donated by our volunteers and
supporters. The website does not own the photographs. Those who
donate photographs retain the copyrights to them. Our hope is to have
images of as many species as possible and you have an opportunity to make a difference. If you would like to help build this library of images, here are a few suggestions:
Library Image Scope: We will accept images of any butterfly whose range is
from Panama to Alaska and Canada and including the Caribbean and Hawaii.
We hope to expand the website in the future to include all of South America.
Image Types:
Pinned specimens: More than anything else, we need high quality photographs of pinned specimens. If possible, please use a 5 megapixel or higher resolution with fill flash to retain accurate image color.
Live adults: 5 megapixel or higher resolution images of male and female, dorsal and ventral if possible, as well as photos of mating pairs.
High quality photos of eggs, larvae of any instar, food plants and
habitats are welcomed.
It is important to include the exact date and location where the specimen was vouchered or the photo was taken, but if not available, general area and month
might be acceptable. When naming your images for submission, please include the place (city or town, road name, county and state if possible) and date the photo or specimen was taken in the name of the JPEG. You can have 100 characters or more in your file name so detailed location and date are possible. Please do not embed the location and date information in the Windows properties of your photos for us, as our Macintosh computers cannot read this information. The identity of the butterfly is not necessary, as all images are reviewed by the authors and identified prior to posting on the website.
Photo Format: We are not able to convert your slides, negatives or printed photographs to digital format. If you scan slides, negatives or prints please do so at as high a resolution as possible. Many photo finishing shops can arrange to have this done for you.
Digital Images: We prefer to have your uncropped, unprocessed, full resolution original digital images in JPEG format. Having unedited digital images will allow us to crop and process each image to match the format of the website. Each image you donate will have your name and copyright embedded into the JPEG, so that when it is downloaded, the
copyright stays with the image. Each image will be added to the site at approximately 800x600 pixels and 72 dpi. This allows good screen resolution and small file size. If you have already cropped your images and resized them, please send them anyway, as we may still be able to use them.
Sending images: If you just have a few images, you may attach them to an email one at a time or in groups making sure the total attachment size in one email does not exceed
10 megabytes. You can send multiple emails with attachments to this email
address: (photo-bank AT butterfliesofamerica.com). If your images are very large, or you have many images to send
and you don't want to email them, please burn them to CD or DVD and contact Mike Stangeland (mike AT butterfliesofamerica.com) for mailing instructions.
When you contribute photographs to this website, your name will be added to the Photo Credits page along with any contact information you want on that page. If someone wants to purchase one of your photos, they will be directed to the Photo Credits page for information about how to contact you.