Pimp-a-licious, yeah, that's the word I was looking for!

I think Bill is going to send me an 80 gig hard drive full of pictures next year! Bill definitely send me the most pics. A lot of them were professional pics from meets, which was great. But I want to talk to those "professional" photographers! They really need to put more elbow room around the car in the image. So many of them were so closely cropped, I couldn't adjust them to the format of the calendar, or I was afraid I'd cut off part of the car with the 1/2" bleed the CafePress uses. I'm still flabbergasted over that 1/2" bleed - most printers I know use 1/16" or 1/32" bleed. I wonder why CafePress is so "generous"?

I'm still kinda mad that the names got cut off by the spiral binding on the Member's Choice calendar. I thought I had put them high enough to avoid that. But that darn bleed bit me in the a$$.

Oh well. More time for planning next year. I figure we'll get started in October next time. That should make the next calendar good for stocking stuffers.

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Side note for photo submissions:
Here's a couple tips that will help people taking photos get a photo that works in the calendar.
1) Frame up your intended picture before you take it. Get it nice and centered. Leave AMPLE room around the car so that it can be cropped and adjusted.
2) Take the HIGHEST resolution possible!!! CafePress wants 3500 by 2300 for the large calendar - minimum! 5250x3450 would be ideal, but I doubt too many people carry around cameras capable of that (it would be equivalent of 18 megapixel) The higher the resolution the better, as that gives the photoshop person more to work with and still be able to crop the image and frame it up nice.
3) Look beyond the car. I know that's tough. Crossfires naturally attract the eye, but you want to look at the backdrop of what's around and behind the car before taking the photo. I think the winners from this year's shootout show that backdrop is the key to the winner's circle.
4) Watch your reflection. I got some pics that you could see the person taking the photo reflected in the car's finish. Most times, we don't want a set of disembodied legs (unless they're really nice legs) showing up on the car door or hood.
5) Watch out for backlighting. If the light is coming from behind the car, the background will look great, and the car will not. It is very difficult to fix that in photoshop - if it can be done at all.

OK, that's all I can think of right now. Back to work, lunch is over!