Big kudos to @MWSlingshot for submitting the first photo for consideration for the 2019 calendar!!!!!
I want to take this opportunity to remind you to submit photos to 2019slingshotcalendar@gmail.com
I also want to challenge you to only submit photos taken in December 2017 or in 2018 - it's not a hard and fast rule
Thanks @Ross, I hope to be able to get lots of great photos to submit for the 2019 edition as soon as the weather changes and @frostedorange and I get back out riding.
Display MoreSomeone asked that I share more of the technical aspects to what I look for when picking photos for the calendar.
Beyond that a lot of folks that submitted photos shared a story which lead to how and where I placed the photo I was looking for photos that could stand up to the requirements needed for the larger printing we were doing this year as compared to last year. Then, of course, I was looking to match themes of the holidays or occasions in the month itself ... red, white, and blue for July - race or movement photos for May for the start of racing season, etc.
Here's some of my knowledge and some stuff from the internet ....
Photos from your phone can often be as good or better than a professional camera (well except maybe flip phones ... LOL). You don't have to have a DSLR/fancy camera to get your photos into the calendar. When I had my own studio I was lucky enough to have a couple of younger kids that loved photography and tagged along on lots of photo shoots - like most kids they wanted the latest and greatest and saw no use in carrying around a pocket camera - but I am here to tell you just as I told them and is an old photography saying .... the best camera to have is the camera you have with you.
Smart phones can be better than a lot of older cameras (for the purpose of grabbing a quick pick) because they capture photos at a higher resolution and at a larger size - those are key if you want to print out that photo and get more important as you move up from a wallet size photo to a 24x36 or even larger.
For printing it is all about DPI (dots per inch) - the more DPI the cleaner the photo looks because there is more detail and sharpness. Printing at 300 DPI is standard. I aim for 320 DPI and use 300 DPI as my low end but some think that 150 is ok. But DPI doesn’t equate to digital because it’s a print measure.
Resolution is how we measure the number of pixels in a display/screen, expressed in measurements of width x height. For example my Samsung S8 has a 2960x1440 resolution which means it is 2960 pixels across and 1440 pixels down. Higher resolution means more detail. Higher DPI also means higher resolution but resolution itself is not “size” (it’s often mistaken with size because higher resolution images are often bigger (but not always)).
An image might look huge on your phone or even your computer but it still may print out quite small - that's because your screen resolution will also dictate how big the picture appears to you when viewing it. For example, a screen set to 1024x768 will show a 1024 pixel wide by 800-pixel tall image as a full-screen image but on a screen that is 1920x1080 the image will only take part of the screen. Long story short, the image will look much smaller on that screen even though the image is the same size because the screen has higher resolution.
Here are a couple of quick examples to show you the difference, no matter what your screen resolution. The standard DPI for many images on the internet is 72 DPI. The first example below on the left has a lot of detail and is at 300 DPI. The example on the right is at 72 DPI but scaled up to the same size so you can see the difference in detail. However, that actual image would be about 1/4 the size when you go from 300 DPI to 72 DPI, but at the same height and width is where you can actually see the difference.
This is why that digital camera with higher megapixels takes better pictures than one with lower megapixels ..... because it gives you more resolution to capture more detail. Here is how megapixels stack up to print size
Megapixels Image Size (pixels) Printed Size (inches) * 2.0 1224 x 1632 6.1 x 8.2 3.0 1536 x 2048 7.7 x 10.2 4.0 1704 x 2272 8.5 x 11.4 5.0 1944 x 2592 9.7 x 13.0 6.0 2048 x 3072 10.2 x 15.4 8.0 2236 x 3504 11.2 x 17.5
If you have spent a lot of time printing photos this is all easy for you and part of what you know and how you go about it. For folks that haven't had to worry about it, it can be a lot to take in - I will try to post more to make it easier for everyone to post high resolution photos that can be used to print larger photos ... like in the calendar
Im in the printing business and @StickerDick has been a great mentor at helping with what materials are best for what applications and different types of techniques but you my friend just shed a new light on how to better create quality prints! Thanks buddy!! Ill be using this info more in the future! 
Maybe we can get some snow plow SS pics this year
Sling is willing to help.....Lets go to Florida SOON.
Sling is willing to help.....Lets go to Florida SOON.
Looks like you need to mount a plow blade on there ... sounds like a business expense and a side job for winter!!!!!
Looks like you need to mount a plow blade on there ... sounds like a business expense and a side job for winter!!!!!
Im thinking a tax write-off in the making here!!
Im thinking a tax write-off in the making here!!
Can always tell the guys who have a little business going --- TAX write-off...
reminder bump
Great day in Northern Indiana 18 Mar 2018
Looks like you need to mount a plow blade on there ... sounds like a business expense and a side job for winter!!!!!
Don't need the snow shovel today --- 18 Mar 2018
Ross, I sent you many pictures and more will come post Kerrville!
If I can make it to sstakeover in Houston, you'll get some from there too, but I'm sure @DKF Texas will take care of us...
Right Danna? 
Ross, I sent you many pictures and more will come post Kerrville!
If I can make it to sstakeover in Houston, you'll get some from there too, but I'm sure @DKF Texas will take care of us...
Right Danna?
got them - thank you
Looking forward to lots of photos .... thank you all in advance
From the NYTimes .... Sending Highest Possible Resolutions from an iPhone
Q. How do I make sure I am sending a photo at the highest possible resolution when I attach it to an email message on my phone?
A. Before you send the photo, check the image-size settings when you attach the image to the message so you know you have selected a high-resolution picture. If you pick a low-resolution photo from the start, that is what your recipient will get.
To help those with slow connections, limited-data plans or internet provider limits on attachment size, some mobile email apps can reduce the size of a photo attached to a message that’s going out. Choosing the “small” or “medium” size scales the image down, but also reduces the resolution when it arrives at its destination. Smartphone apps vary, but some can automatically resize photos, so check your default settings.
The “large,” “original” or “actual” sizes you may see on the menu create a larger file attachment and take longer to send. However, the recipient gets the photo at a higher resolution. Once the photo is attached to the message, you should see the file size displayed.
As for images attached to text messages, some wireless carriers might compress photos sent by SMS or with certain messaging apps. Some software, like iOS 11 for the iPhone, have an optional setting to automatically reduce the size of images sent with the iMessage service to lower bandwidth consumption.
Desktop email programs like Microsoft Outlook and Apple Mail can also resize photos attached to messages you send. For images that exceed your mail server’s size limits, you can also share links to the high-resolution files with tools like Apple’s MailDrop, Gmail using Google Driveor Microsoft OneDrive — services that are often integrated into your mail program to do the heavy lifting anyway. Third-party file-sharing services like Box, Dropbox and iDrive have a similar function.
A version of this article appears in print on January 17, 2018, on Page B6 of the New York edition with the headline: Sending Photographs At High Resolution
Ok guys and gals - a quick reminder that the calendar will only be as great as YOU make it
We're about half way through the year and I only have 60 emails of submitted photos and only about 120 photos
I need more More MORE MORE MORE. I really thought we would have a couple hundred photos by now
Come on guys and gals on those super hot days when you can't ride or when it is raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock - bust open those photos and get some submitted now rather than waiting until the last minute when you can't find them all
If you trying to get a spot on the calendar don't forget that photos with themes (fireworks or flags for 4th of July and Veterans Day) with a leprechaun driving for March etc etc etc.
PPPPPLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSEEEE
Dude.
Don't go give away all that extra space.... I'm hoping we get a good picture or two in Sundre!
Based on everything you took at Maggie Valley... You've got the bulk of the photos already @Ross...
NOPE NO WAY NADA - this calendar is about you guys and gals and the photos you take of your awesome rides and crazy adventures .... not my photos (other than of my own ride)
NOPE NO WAY NADA - this calendar is about you guys and gals and the photos you take of your awesome rides and crazy adventures .... not my photos (other than of my own ride)
Ummm....hey, buddy? Hate to break it to you...most of us (I think) would be happy to buy a calendar of your photos. Don't sell yourself short. And don't use that thinking to exclude some of your awesome shots from this calendar, therefore depriving us of your art!
Seriously, though, you're gonna have to figure out how to cram in twice as many pictures this year.
I'll be a very happy man to have to add pages but I want this to be about you guys not me because there is no way I can meet everyone on the forum each year and I wanna see all the awesome rides folks have
Alright gang photo submissions for the annual calendar are due to the 2019slingshotcalendar@gmail.com account by midnight on October 31, 2018 - the goal will be to have the photos retouched and the layout complete by the 3rd week of November with printing happening in late November/early December so that they will be in your hands by Christmas
This should give time for those attending Slingshots in the Ozarks, Slingshot Booze & Blues 2018 ,and Wanna Go Fast 1/2mi Shootout a chance to get event photos submitted
I regret to report that at this time we do not have enough quality photos submitted to produce a 2019 calendar - hopefully that will change and we can have a forum members calendar again this year but if interest is not there, I totally understand
A couple of quick things
My printer retired shortly after we did the 2018 calendar so I'm going to do a few meetings with other local printers to get an idea on prince. The general layout at this time will be the same unless you have other ideas but the photos and backgrounds will be all new
