Photographers, See Your Work in the Next Eureka Reference Guide

Photograph of I. 'Poem Of Ecstasy' submitted by Heidi Willet.

See Your Work Published in Eureka

Submit 24 - 48 Photographs
Digital Images, Slides or Prints from Negatives

Each year Eureka Reference Guides publishes contributing photographers who, like you, love their subject matter.

Whether you've taken photographs of plants from your own garden, at botanical gardens or on garden tours, submit your work to Eureka for possible publication.

DAYLILY Photography Submission Deadline, September 1
IRIS Photography Submission Deadline, January 1

It's Simple To Submit Your Digital Cultivar Images
1. Take your digital images in any format: raw, jpg or tif at your camera's highest resolution (7 - 14 megabytes for each image) keeping good records of cultivar names.
2. Select your best two to four dozen images, place on a CD, run a proof sheet with 12 -18 images per page and prepare a log sheet.
3. Complete this photo application and submit.

During the peak garden display, grab your camera and capture the most stunning clump or individual daylily, hosta or iris portraits. Look at the plant with your unique eye. Think beyond the single bloom or hosta leaf that looks flat-faced into the camera. Look for a couple or more blooms or hosta leaves where one photo can show off the plant from different angles.

Remember to note the registered name of the daylily, iris or hosta for photo identification upon submission. Eureka strongly supports cultivar registration and we feature those plants that are part of the societies' registration process - American Hemerocallis Society, American Hosta Society and the American Iris Society.

Link to our Photo Design article and see how your photos will be better composed and more likely selected for publication by Eureka.

Learn about designing effective and beautiful photos. Start with the basic elements of design and move through to achieving a good sense of compositional unity as you plan your photos.

Finally, understand good composition and photographic technique and why some photos "work" and some don't.

With your photography, showcase a daylily, iris or hosta garden in Eureka Reference Guides. We'll choose the most beautiful landscapes for publication.

As you are walking through the tour gardens, feature the plantings but don't leave out the landscape designs or the other people. The other folks on the tour not only add interest to your photographs, they also add scale to the scene and provide that most important element, human interest.

This is probably the most difficult area for effective plant photography. Too often, we receive garden shots that are just snapshots, no compositional unity nor drama. Or, the photo is just too busy to be selected. This composition by Denton of irises simplifies the image by concentrating on two cultivars with a clear emphasis on one. It works and was a cover.

Eureka Submission Deadlines and Information

DAYLILY Photography, September 1
IRIS and HOSTA Photography, January 1

Label each photo or slide submitted with photographer's name, the garden name where photo taken and the registered iris, hosta or daylily name of the plant pictured. Sorry, no seedlings will be featured -- only registered plants.

Submit photographic prints. Do not damage the photo with the identification when marking with felt markers on the backs of photos by stacking them before the writing is dry. Do not emboss the image with a heavy ballpoint pen pressing through to the front. Keep your photographs clean with no fingerprints or scratches. We return photographs and slides after we finish printing and shipping all the Guides for a given year. Again, we do not accept digital prints nor return them.

Submit slides in notebook-size, three-ring, clear, slide sleeves. Be sure and indicate what type of slide film is used for the submissions. You may submit either 35 mm. or larger slides up to 2 1/4" x 2 3/4". Be sure and identify each slide with your name, cultivar name and garden in which the photo was taken. Take good care of your slides avoiding fingerprints and scratches. We return slides after we finish producing and shipping all the Guides for a given year.

Submit electronic/digital images with the highest resolution possible (at least five megapixal cameras with each image at 7 to 20 megabytes minimum for our use. Digital photos are now making up the majority of contributing photography published by Eureka and we love it! You must submit a photo log sheet plus proof sheets (12 to 18 images per sheet) of your images as well as the digital file(s) on a CD. Be sure that your image files are named with the cultivar name on the CD and not your camera's default name such as CZyy34. For many cameras, taking your photos in the .TIF setting uses the camera's highest quality resolution. We do not return digital images or the CDs.

Submit 24 to 48 images. Too often we reject a photographer's submission because he or she sends in one or two images. We try to feature a photographer over two to four pages. We need several of your photos to choose from because of different layout needs, selections of a given cultivar from another photographer already chosen and past publishing frequency of popular but overexposed cultivars. Also, narrow down your selection to no more than 48 submissions.

Don't crop your photos too tightly as you take the image with your camera. This prevents us from using the photo for a variety of layout options. We can't bleed the photo off the page if your framing has placed the flower petals on the edge of the photo.

Don't set your digital camera to frame the image with a rounded or squared border. We would have to take it out and that takes too much time.

Don't date stamp or title your digital images with numbers or lettering overlaying the photograph. Again, for us to remove the lettering takes too much time.

Don't submit dirty or scratched images. Handle your photos and slides very carefully keeping them clean and undamaged. Pack your photos carefully and send along with your Photo Release (below) to Eureka Gardening Collection, 416 Webb Cove Rd, Asheville, NC 28804 by the deadline.

If you own a daylily, iris or hosta nursery and want to see your photograph on one of the covers of the next Eureka Reference Guide, click here and get the details on placing your cultivars in an upcoming Eureka.

Selected photograpers and their images will be featured in an upcoming Eureka. Those withfour or more images published in one edition will be provided with a copy of the Guide. These same selected photographers may also purchase the same edition's CD Supplement and/or DVD at a 20% discount off the costs of the discs.

Print, complete and submit the following statement for each photographer submitting photos (photographs, slides or digital images):

"I agree that, if selected, my photos may be published by Eureka Gardening Collection and editor/publisher Ken Gregory (Eureka), and I release all publication rights of these photographs to Eureka.

I agree that I am submitting new photography that has not previously been submitted to Eureka for possible publication and that these images have not be submitted to other publications or online sources for publication.

I also understand that all submissions are accepted for possible publication in Eureka Reference Guides and may also be used in associated marketing by Eureka.

With Eureka's acceptance of such submissions for publication, I indemnify and save Eureka harmless from and against any and all losses for expense, including without limitation, those resulting from claims or suits involving copyright, intellectual property, trademark, plagiarism, libel, violations of rights of privacy and from loss of actual submitted material.

I agree that I have accurately identified each cultivar photograph, slide or digital image with its complete and official registered name and I have provided named proof prints for ALL digital images.

I agree that I have obtained written permission from any individual photographed and interviewed except those persons randomly taking part in a public event."

Photographer's Daytime or Cell Phone: _______________________ Email: _____________________

Digital Image Files, Number Submitted on CD ______ plus Proof Sheet submitted with CD plus Photo Log list of digital images with the complete cultivar names

$25 Daylily Photo Submission Fee for photographers submitting images to the Eureka Daylily Reference Guide. (Note, daylily nurseries submitting a paid advertisement for the Daylily Guide pay ONLY the advertising fee submitted with the nursery application and not an additional photo fee.)

Complete, date and sign this Photo Release which attests to the accuracy and truthfulness of all of the above.

Send this photo release along with your photos, log sheet and proof sheet to Eureka Gardening Collection, 416 Webb Cove Rd, Asheville, NC 28804 prior to the deadline.