Annual Wall Calendar
The Bolsa Chica Conservancy proudly produces a twelve-month annual wall calendar every year showcasing the vibrant and diverse flora, fauna, and landscapes within the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. All photos are taken by the many skilled photographers that visit Bolsa Chica – including you! If you’re interested in submitting any amazing photos you’ve taken during your time at Bolsa Chica, please read the photo submission guidelines below:
- Photos must be taken in the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve! Exceptions can be made for Harriett Wieder Regional Park photos on a case-by-case basis.
- Photos submitted must fall within the below categories:
Fish (ie. Striped Mullet, Round Stingray, Leopard Shark)
Gulls & Terns (ie. Ring-billed Gull, Least Tern, Black Skimmer)
Insects & Spiders (ie. Silver Argiope Spider, Thread-waisted Wasp, Painted Lady Butterfly)
Landscapes (ie. Rabbit Island, Heron Nesting Trees, Sunrise/Sunset)
Mammals (ie. Coyote, Audubon’s Cottontail, California Ground Squirrel)
Marine Animals (ie. Lined Shore Crab, California Two-spot Octopus, California Brown Seahare)
Other (ie. extra photos from other categories, hikers, graffiti)
Plants (ie. Pink Sand Verbena, Bladderpod, Coastal Sagebrush)
Raptors & Vultures (ie. Osprey, Burrowing Owl, Turkey Vulture)
Reptiles (ie. Western Side-blotch Lizard, Western Fence Lizard, San Diego Gopher Snake)
Restoration & Education Events (ie. BCC Earth Day Festival, Public Service Day, Coastal Cleanup Day)
Shorebirds (ie. Marbled Godwit, Willet, Least Sandpiper)
Upland Birds (ie. Allen’s Hummingbird, Common Yellowthroat, Cassin’s Kingbird)
Wading Birds (ie. Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Western Snowy Plover)
Waterfowl (ie. Bufflehead, Brant Goose, California Brown Pelican)
- Only three (3) photos can be submitted to each category – and you can submit to as many categories as you would like.
- Photo files submitted must be named using the following format: Category-[Your Last Name]-[Submission #]. There is no file type (ie. jpg, png) restriction. A sample of a photo file submission would look like:
Raptors&Vultures-Thompson-01.jpg
Raptors&Vultures-Thompson-02.jpg
Reptiles-Thompson-01.jpg
Shorebirds-Thompson-01.jpg
Shorebirds-Thompson-02.jpg
Shorebirds-Thompson-03.jpg
- Photos submitted should be at 300dpi resolution or higher. This is so photos are printed crisply and look great when printed (lower resolution images will not print as well and look grainy).
- Photo orientation should be in landscape, as the is the layout of the calendar. The largest printed photos are 9”Hx12”W, while other photos may be printed in smaller sizes, keep in mind that smaller images might not be chosen because of their size.
The submission deadline for the 2023 annual calendar is Monday, 29 August 2022, at 11:59pm. Submissions can be emailed to Whitney Thompson at whitney@bolsachica.org or dropped off/mailed in on a flash drive to the Bolsa Chica Interpretive Center (3842 Warner Ave., Huntington Beach, CA 92649).
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Yes you can! We receive a few hundred submissions each year, and many times we are limited in selecting photos because there are only so many months in a year.
Yes you can! So long as they are taken in Bolsa Chica, you can submit them regardless of the year they were taken in.
Yes, but please use restraint when doing so. Do not overuse a filter to the point that it looks shopped. Keep vignetting and saturation uses to a minimum! If your photo is a contender for the calendar, but it has too much filter use, we may ask you for the original file or have you make adjustments.
Photos can be submitted as jpegs, pngs, or even tiffs! If the photo can be opened on Photoshop (CS6), we can take it. Jpegs are the usual though.
If you have further questions regarding the guidelines or would like more information on the calendar, please contact Whitney Thompson at (714) 846-1114 or whitney@bolsachica.org.