High Sierra Topix

what's the calendar layout going to be? landscape, square, vertical?

There is a LOT more to putting together a quality calendar. For HST, you'd want important dates on the thing. It's not just pictures. My Ducks Unlimited calendar tells me when duck broods are expected, and when migrations happen. We would have to include (or attempt to include) Yarts opening/closing, HSC opening/closing, other such dates of interest...

An example from Ducks unlimited May:
Just saying it's more than just pictures. If you zoom on the picture you can see what they have added in terms of helpful text in various dates. Ignore that its a Bufflehead. They don't eat well.

fishmonger wrote:what's the calendar layout going to be? landscape, square, vertical?

Dunno yet. Assuming landscape since that seems to be the most common, but open to suggestions/advice from those with any experience creating these things. SSSdave?

rlown wrote:well.. this pic absolutely has to be in the calendar then!!

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=101&p=2116&hilit=durkee#p2116

I think, according to the HST TOS, that photo falls in the category of self-promotion. Probably illegal in at least a few states, too. SMH, George..

ERIC wrote:It's been mentioned before but never went anywhere. Participation was pretty low in our latest photo contest so I'm not sure how much interest there is out there. Many of the photographers also sell their work and may not be willing to "donate" a photo or two to the cause. But if I'm wrong, and there is interest, I'd be willing to compile photos and produce the calendars at cost.

Eric is willing to do the layout and printing. That's a generous offer, that is a LOT of work.

Could someone else volunteer to compile and send Eric all the relevant dates (when to make reservations, when HST meetups will happen in 2017, etc)

Proposed timeline:

Photos submitted by 7/1
Voting concluded by 8/1
Mockup and cost estimates completed by 10/1 (is 2 months enough time to produce the calendar?)
Orders due by 11/1
Calenders delivered on 12/1 (in time to send them as gifts or sell a few extras in shops)

We could agree on something regarding usage rights

I think the photos should be landscape only. That will make it much more simple. Eric, you could also specify the aspect ratio they need to be cropped to, and a minimum resolution for printing.

Snag. Most 2017 dates are TBD based upon access conditions, interest in another HST meet-up, etc. and will be for quite some time. My offer is to create a basic calendar with photos contributed by members. From what I've seen online, that's not that difficult to do although some editing will be required for each photo contributed since I want to be sure credit is given to each contributor.

It's so easy to get calendars made on an individual basis (through Costco or the like). I've seen some great photos on this site I could do that with, but wouldn't download and use them without knowing it was okay with the person who took the picture(s). Moreover, many of the pics likely wouldn't be big enough for decent resolution. So, how about this simplification... Just have a thread (this thread?) that is for pictures that are okay for members to download for personal use, and is intended for the making of calendars. Could specify/recommend minimum pixels. I wouldn't be bringing it up, but I worked pretty hard to find a 2016 calendar with inspiring Sierra scenery a while back on the internet and (surprisingly) couldn't. Thoughts?

ERIC wrote:

fishmonger wrote:what's the calendar layout going to be? landscape, square, vertical?

Dunno yet. Assuming landscape since that seems to be the most common, but open to suggestions/advice from those with any experience creating these things. SSSdave?

I was asking because I was recently checking out the layouts at Bayphoto - of all the press printed versions they offer, the "CM10" looked like you get the most photo for your money. Calendar numbers and all that other stuff that makes it a calendar are always secondary to me. See their layouts for some ideas

https://www.bayphoto.com/calendars/pres ... calendars/

More expensive than I was expecting. But those look really nice. Lots of options.

I had some calendars printed up this year and I first had one calendar printed by three different companies to see which did the best job before ordering 30 of them. I ended up going with Bay Photo. One thing to keep in mind if printing an 11x17 calendar is how you will mail them. Mailers for that size run around $4-$5 each and it cost around $15/calendar to mail them across the country (it was cheaper when mailing them locally in California).

It would be more economical to use a service that lets you create a calendar on their site that others can then go to and order the calendar from them. That way you don't have to pay to be out of pocket for the cost of the calendars or worry about shipping them.