Meet your neighbors project
I learned about this from Paul Marcellini, a photographer out of Miami and a contributor to the project. Its an interesting project and sounds like a lot of fun.
From their website at http://meetyourneighbours.net/
Founded in 2009, Meet Your Neighbours is a worldwide photographic initiative created by Niall Benvie and Clay Bolt. The project is dedicated to reconnecting people with the wildlife on their own doorsteps – and enriching their lives in the process. These creatures and plants are vital to people: they represent the first, and for some, the only contact with wild nature we have. Yet too often they are overlooked, undervalued.
All the MYN photographers shoot to the same protocol as we want a uniform “look” to the pictures: the subjects are the stars in this project, rather than any particular photographer, so we level the technical playing field for everyone.
The protocol requires that:
• All the images are shot in the field, on location and no subject is collected to photograph indoors – unless it’s there in the first place!
• The background of each image must be uniformly 255 in each channel and backlit. This gives the characteristic brilliance and translucence seen in MYN photos and facilitates design and compositing. Photoshop cut outs can’t match this look, especially in respect of how out of focus edges are rendered.
• Front lighting must be diffused and near shadowless to render maximum detail.
• Any subjects that require to be handled must be returned as soon as possible to the spot from which they were collected. Photographers are expect to observe the normal ethical standards of their discipline.
