Photograph Requirements

• Definition: Photographs entered into this gallery of the natural beauty of the Barrington area may depict observations from any branch of natural history, except anthropology and archaeology, and must do so in a fashion that a well-informed person will be able to identify the subject matter and to certify to its honest presentation. Any view may be used, including micro, macro, and drone photographs.
• Nature photographs may include native animals, native birds, native plants and flowers, landscapes, geologic formations and weather phenomena as the primary subject matter. Ineligible are photographs of artificially produced hybrid plants (e.g., garden flowers), domesticated animals, people, or any form of photographic manipulation that creates a false or misleading impression of the natural history subject (e.g., infrared photography, fake backgrounds, altered seasons, etc.)
• The safety and well-being of the subject is more important than capturing the photo. This means no baiting of birds or other wildlife, no disturbing of bird nests or young, no disturbing of native wildflowers and surroundings, no handling of endangered species, etc. Photographers are expected to use the standards articulated in the Audubon Guide to Ethical Bird Photography. 
• Respect the land by not trespassing on private land.
• Obviously recognizable man-made elements (structures, cars, roads, paths, mail boxes, telephone poles, etc.) shall not be present except in the rare instances where they enhance the nature story (e.g., where wildlife adopts a man-made location. Even in these cases the man-made element should be the minor part of the image.). Scientific wildlife banding, scientific tags and radio collars are allowed. Tethering of animals is allowed, but tethering devices may not be seen in the image.
• No techniques that add, relocate, replace, or remove pictorial elements except by cropping are permitted. A minor exception is removing a small object, such as a leaf blocking a small part of the subject. Techniques that enhance the presentation of the photograph without changing the nature story or the pictorial content, or without altering the content of the original scene, are permitted, including HDR, focus stacking and dodging/burning. Techniques that remove elements added by the camera, such as dust spots, digital noise, and film scratches, are allowed. All allowed post processing adjustments must appear natural. The key is “natural.”
• Replacing or blurring the background, or adding textures to an image is not natural and not allowed. You can have an out of focus background by using a shallow depth of field when the image is taken, but you cannot do this in post processing.
• The resolution ought to be a minimum of 1600 pixels on the long side.