Rules

We understand that what is “good” depends upon each individual’s philosophical opinion. You might think bagels are “good”. So do we. But, we don’t think photographing them is “shooting for good”. However, local restaurants donating bagels to a church’s homeless shelter…that’s good. We are looking for acts of kindness, so focus on action. And as the above statement says, we reserve the right to make judgment calls and take down posts that are outside of the scope of this.

The spirit of Shoot For Good is to go out in to the community and photograph the simple acts of kindness that happen every day. Honest photographs are ones where the photographer doesn’t set anything up, doesn’t ask his/her subjects to do anything special for the photograph and doesn’t use photo editing software to distort the reality of what actually was taking place at the moment the photo was taken. It’s fine to “tone” your photographs — i.e. adjusting exposure, contrast, color balance, cropping — so that the picture looks the way you saw it in the camera. But, do not sharpen your images. If it’s out of focus, tough! Don’t send it in.

Simply put: Take pictures of what you see in front of you. Find good things happening in the community and show them to us as they happened.

For an in-depth discussion on ethics and photojournalism, feel free to read the National Press Photographers Association’s Code of Ethics.

On this same note, we only want pictures that you made on SFG Day. By uploading a picture you are telling us that you made that picture yourself on the designated day.

You can call this the Bummer Clause, if you must. This rule seems obvious, but sometimes holding a camera in our hands makes us feel, well, invincible. We are here to correct you of that feeling, you aren’t (invincible). Sorry. We cannot – nor would we if we could – give you special privileges under the law or super powers. So, do not trespass, speed, invade people’s personal privacy/property, do anything to endanger yourself or others, etc. while participating in Shoot For Good. Continue to be a respectful, law-abiding citizen, who just happens to have a camera in his/her hands.

On a similar note, we request that you be kind, courteous and respectful to all persons you may interact with while participating in the SFG Day. Also, by partaking in this project, you should not purport yourself to represent the organization – just as participating in “Clean the Bay Day” does not mean you speak for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. We suggest that you explain to people you meet that you are making pictures for a community project called “Shoot For Good” in order to document good deeds. Assure your subjects, that the pictures taken of them will only be used to shed light on the everyday benevolent acts happening in the community.

The pictures shared on ShootForGood.org or on social media will be used to serve as an example to others. Shoot For Good participating photographers are only documenting the community, not exploiting it.

It’s important to us that Shoot For Good is associated with… good things. So, table manners everyone! You’ll be pleasantly surprised who will let you take their picture if you smile, listen to them and show genuine interest in their lives. Holding a camera gives you an excuse to meet new people, so take advantage of it. Photography opens doors, so give it a shot.

We believe that the power of Shoot For Good will rest in the tenet that all the pictures are being made in a 24-hour time period. That means anytime between midnight and midnight on SFG Day. No exceptions, so please don’t ask. We understand that there may be something “good” that you know about that happens almost every day, just not this one particular day and it kills you to not be able to get it in. That’s just an excuse to go out and look for something else good happening in your community. Please don’t try and sneak a picture in that you’ve taken before the day and please don’t ask anyone to go out and “perform” or “re-enact” for you on SFG Day. Even if it’s something they do every other day of the year, and it doesn’t feel like “lying”, but more like “fibbing for a good cause,” it’s important to the objectives of Shoot For Good that all pictures that you upload or post are documents of naturally-occurring events on SFG Day. Preparation goes a long way.

We also reserve the right to remove images we feel are violating this. We have ways of finding out…

• You may upload one photo at a time through our “Upload” form.
• Each image should be less than 2MB and we will only accept .jpg format pictures.
• Give us the highest quality file you can that is less than 2MB. Image dimensions don’t need to be longer than 3000×2000 pixels. Be sure to read your camera manual and set it to the highest quality setting that your camera has. You paid for those pixels, so don’t throw them away!
• When you upload, we will want to know some basic info about you (name and email address). This is only so we can get in contact with you regarding your pictures if we need to. Please give us accurate information. If “RadGamerChic1986″ is the name on your birth certificate, then by all means, put that in, otherwise we want to know your real name, not your e-persona. We will not make your contact information public or give out your information to anyone for any reason. You can read below in our Privacy section of this page or contact us if you have any concerns about this.
• You will need to tell us where your picture was taken and at about what time it was made. It is very important that you set your cameras date/time settings to the proper time/date. However, DO NOT set your camera settings so that the date and time show up on the image itself.
• In our upload form, we ask you for some basic caption information about your picture so that we can put the picture into context. In the description, please include the 5 W’s. We want names – first and last of each person in the image. And yes, spelling counts. There is more than one way to spell Brian and Sarah and Sean, so do not assume anything. We want where the image was taken, when it was taken and a general description of what the person or people are doing. The why is the wild-card. Just don’t wax too poetic, this is about visuals after all. Here’s an example of what we’re looking for: “Doris McNally walks her neighbor’s dog, Skippy, on Saturday morning, at 6:30, through the Colonial Place neighborhood in Norfolk. McNally’s neighbor has been bedridden for a month following back surgery.” Do not make stuff up! Talking to the person you’re photographing, listening to their story, is perhaps the greatest gift photographers are given. Don’t cheat yourself out of that and don’t mislead those who will enjoy your image.
• The description field supports hypertext links, so you can enter web addresses of organizations related to the picture that you think people should know about. It should be appropriate and within the context of the picture. After all, the spirit of Shoot For Good is to promote community volunteerism.