About E-Flora BC

THE PHOTOGRAPHY PAGE

Mountain monkey-flower (Mimulus tilingii), photo © by Virginia Skilton

Photo Editor: Gary Lewis

GENERAL INFORMATION

Donations of photos to E-Flora BC are very welcome. If you are interested in donating photos for use on the E-Flora site, details on how to submit them, the types of photos we are looking for, copyrights and permissions, and how photos will be selected are provided below. Basically, to submit photos, you will need to register with us. The link for this is found in the right hand column of the home page. Registering allows our computers to automatically attach your information to your photos.

All photos published in the E-Flora photo galleries are reviewed by experts who check identifications.

For permissions to use any photograph on E-Flora BC, please contact the photographers directly. We do not provide permissions for copyrighted works.  Use the contact form attached to each photo to email the photographers.

Nootka rose (Rosa nutkana), photo © by Bill Jex

THE PHOTO PROCESS ON E-FLORA

There are several steps to processing photos on E-Flora.

1) Register as a photographer so we can provide you with a password for uploading, and your information can be automatically attached to your photo(s) by our computers.

2) Upload your photo(s) to our photo database. You can upload any time, and upload any number of photos.

3) Your photo(s) is reviewed for identification accuracy by an expert.

4) Your photo is published in our photo gallery, or, if it can't be identified to species it may be removed.

Note that our reviewers are volunteers, and, for some groups there are very few expert reviewers. This means it can sometimes take a while for your photo to be reviewed/published.

Click here to register as an E-Flora BC Photographer.
Click here to upload and review photographs.
Click here to visit our photos wanted page.
Click here to visit the photo gallery

HOW TO SUBMIT PHOTOS

Once you are registered with us, you will be given a user name and password. This will allow you to upload photographs to our photo database.  The link for uploading photos is found at the bottom of our home page. When you upload photos, the more specific information you can provide about the photo, the better.  If you can provide any or all of the following information, this would be helpful:

• Date photograph was taken (this will allow us to determine specific flowering periods for vascular plants).
• Plant name (scientific name or English common name).
• The closest town to where the photograph was taken will provide a general location for your photo.
• A habitat description.
• General comments you may have about the photograph.
• Specific location information, such as UTM or latitutde/longitude information, is important. If you can include this, we will eventually be able to map your photo record. This information can also be added to a photo after uploading.

Note that using our "My photo" link in the photo upload page allows you to edit or add to your photo details at any time.

WILL YOUR PHOTOS BE ACCEPTED?

Because we aim to illustrate BC plant and fungi species from many angles, including showing as many key features as possible, we do accept many photos that are sent to us. If you have a photo that is "not so great", but that you feel illustrates a key character, don't hesitate to upload it into our database. We may or may not use it, but sometimes those not so good photos are valuable. Once your photo has been reviewed by an expert, we will publish it in our photo gallery. We are looking for photos that illustrate a species, but also for photos that are 'good shots'.

Western pasque-flower (Anemone occidentalis), photo © by Mary Sanseverino

SPECIFICATIONS FOR SUBMITTING PHOTOS

Any size photo may be submitted to E-Flora BC. Our software will automatically resize and store your image in our database with a maximum resolution of 600 by 600 pixels. Using low resolution photos in our galleries is an aid to help discourage photo theft.

Image file formats that we currently accept include .jpg, .jpe, .jpeg, .bmp, .gif, .img and .png.

Note that large files may take some time to upload, depending on your computer and modem. For example, uploading photos from a dial-up connection will take longer. Sometimes the upload time is too long for your upload 'session'. If this happens, and the upload times out, you can fix the problem by reducing the size of your mage. Smaller images will upload more easily on a dial-up connection.

WHAT TYPES OF PHOTOS ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

We are interested in photos of BC species that are part of our flora, native or naturalized, including photos of species habitat, whole plant shots (habit), close-up shots of flowers, flower parts, seeds and fruits, twigs, buds, etc. Photos do not need to be taken in BC, but should represent species, suspecies and varieties that are found in BC. We can only accommodate digital photos in our photo galleries.

We do not accept photos of garden plants unless they are of species that have naturalized, or 'gone wild', in BC and have been included in the official BC flora.

TIPS: Note that identifying a plant or fungus can require more than just the flower or other fruiting part. It would be helpful to submit supporting photos of the whole plant, the leaves, a spore print, etc., even if you do not feel these are publishable. That could help in putting a name to your photo. It is also helpful to inidicate if a specimen was taken to confirm the identification for difficult species that may require microscope work, and to indicate if assistance was provided in the identification.

COPYRIGHT AND OTHER SPECIFIC DETAILS FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

1. As the photographer, you retain copyright of any image that you submit to the E-Flora BC Image Bank.

2. E-Flora BC will not provide permissions to use your photos, we direct all contact to the photographer.

3. By submitting your photographs to the database, you agree to allow E-Flora BC to use the photograph as part of E-Flora BC, an online atlas and associated database that is openly accessible to the public on the wold wide web.

4. E-Flora BC will display the following information with respect to your photo(s):

• Your name will be displayed next to the photograph in the photo gallery.
• Copyright information will be displayed on each photo gallery page.
• Your name will be included in the scrolling list of photographers that is provided in the seach section of each page in the photo gallery. Users will be able to view all of your photos by clicking on your name.
• The URL to your home page, or other site, will be displayed in the photo details for each photo, if you provide it.

5. Note that a blind contact form is attached to each photo in the E-Flora photo gallery that allows people to contact you without revealing your email address. Your email address will not be displayed in the photo gallery. Photos used in our introduction pages provide email address links only with permission.

6. Note that any photos that are published on the web are open to photo theft, and this includes photos on E-Flora BC. We aim to protect your photos through automatic reduction of the resolution of each photo submitted to our photo gallery in order to render them unusable.

7. We clearly designate that all photos in our site are protected by Canadian copyright, and provide a link to the Canadian Copyright Act.

8. Note that we do not use photos blocks to prevent copying, simply because these are so easy to work around using screen captures. There are many articles on the web about protecting photos, and how this is very difficult, if not impossible, to do. But if you would like to consider them, then please read more here.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

A Photographers Frequently Asked Questions page, and an Image Bank FAQ are now available on the E-Flora BC site.  Please view these for further information that applies directly to E-Flora BC.  Please note that these pages will be subject to change as the photo submission process and our Image Bank display pages evolve over time.