As many of you will know, we LOVE receiving photos of your birds enjoying our products, and when we get a really good one we attach them to that product on our website so others may get a good visual size comparison of bird vs product. Well, we’ve come up with a dastardly plan to get our grubby hands on more of these awesome photos. We’re going to pay you for them!

Any product on our website that you find the promotional "Fill this Gap" image is an image we want from you! We will provide you with a coupon worth $5 for every photo we use. The coupon/s can be redeemed in any future purchase you make with us.

Now, before you rush off to get your camera, there are some rules that apply…

The Rules

I.	We will only pay for the photo if we attach it to the product listing. How do you make this happen? Take a great photo! Read our tips below for doing this.
II.	Landscape images preferred! You may not have noticed specifically but nearly all our product photos are in Landscape rather than Portrait orientation. This keeps the website looking tidy. Every now and then, when it’s really worth the effort, we’ll get clever in Photoshop to adjust a portrait photo to fit the landscape format but it is much easier if the photo simply arrives in landscape format. You will find this challenging at times, especially if you have a parrot with a long tail, but persevere!
III.	Your bird has to be in the photo! Your bird doesn’t necessarily have to be playing with the product (though it would be nice), but it does need to be next to the product. These images are for letting people get a visual idea of how big the toy is after all.
IV.	Appropriate bird size There is lee-way with some toys as to which bird would normally play with it, but please refrain from the extreme. A Blue & Gold photographed with the Starry Night toy will give us a laugh, but a budgie is more likely to make it into that product listing! This holds particularly true for products like the concrete safety perches, where the correct size (feet on the smooth part and nails resting against the rough part) is essential.
V.	No plagiarism We are familiar with the various images that can be found online. No cheating cheeky!
VI.	Authority to use Whilst the image might not make it into our product listings (earning you the $5 coupon) and customer gallery, we may wish to use it for other purposes, such as in advertising material, information pamphlets, in articles, you must let us know if you do not provide us permission to do this. We will automatically assume we have full permission to use any image we receive UNLESS there is accompanying note saying otherwise.
VII.	Full size images Many email programs will offer to reduce your image size to make for a more ‘sendable’ photo, but we like our images big - it gives us much more room for editing and publishing. We are happy when images are around the 2Mb size.
VIII.	Send images to photos@myparrotshop.com In optimistic anticipation of receiving a glut of emails with lots of big photographs in them, we have created a separate email account to send your photos to. That way those of you putting orders in won’t be crowded out of the regular inbox :)

How does it work?

Have a browse through our website. You will see a whole load of products with the accompanying image:

If you own that product (we don’t mind if you didn’t purchase it from us) then get your camera out, take a photo and send it in! We don’t mind if the product has seen better days (in fact those sorts of photos can be quite informative), just so long as it’s clean and still in a recognisable state.

If you take 10 photos and can’t decide which is best, send them all, we love having lots to choose from!

When we receive a photo we wish to use, we will immediately go onto the website and remove the “Fill this gap” image from the product so everyone else knows that that particular voucher is no longer up for grabs. We will send you your coupon/s by email soon after. It may take a little time before the image you sent is actually added to the product listing (and maybe the customer gallery) though, as we will still need to resize, edit, add borders and the like, which takes time.

Taking a Great Photo

Parrots are difficult photographic subjects. They move quickly, frequently want to chew the camera, and tend to hang out in cages which make really AWFUL backdrops for photographs. So without further ado:

1) Use as much light as possible!

Take your photos on a bright sunny day. If you are able to take your photos outdoors (e.g. if you have an aviary) do so! Otherwise try to get as close to a window as possible. Good lighting simplifies things immensely.

2) Angle of light

Having the light coming from behind the bird can sometimes make for a great artistic shot, but in most cases it just ends up looking dreadful. Be sure that the light is coming from behind the camera or sideways to the camera.

3) Location

Avoid the cage. It is very difficult to take a good photo of a bird in its cage, even worse if you are trying to take the photo through the cage bars. If you do need to use the cage, stick the camera through one of the doors, so no bars are in the way, and if you have good sunlight keep the flash off, but if the lighting isn’t so good, wait till the evening and your lights have gone on. Then use the flash. The flash will force the cage bars into the background of the image where they belong, and it will also aid in taking quick photographs, which is usually a must when getting your camera that close to your parrot’s curious beak! For products that need the cage in order to function (eg bolt on perches), it is worthwhile attaching the product to the outside of the cage and then taking the photo.

4) Backdrop

An uncluttered background helps us focus on what’s important (the bird!). Greenery or dark bricks (ie the wall) often help bring out the lovely colouring in most parrots, but any reasonably plain curtains or walls will improve the composition. Cage wires generally reflect the light too much and end up being a a prominent distraction in the photograph.

5) Flash

Don’t be afraid of using the flash. Whilst not the normal photographic advice, using the flash solves many low lighting issues (low light, when photographing a quick moving object, usually results in a blurry photo When using the flash try not to stand too close to your subject, and also try to keep your subject a fair distance from reflective surfaces (like painted walls).

6) Getting the bird on task!

Every now and then there is a bird that likes being photographed and will pose for you but more frequently your bird is way more keen on playing with you and the object you’re holding (the camera), than the toy you’re trying to photograph it with. Usually you have to manipulate the situation to your advantage.

• Get everything set up before you take your photo;  the background, the perch, the bird… give your bird the toy last and bring the camera out at the same time– you can usually squeeze in a few really nice photographs before the bird notices the juicy camera you’re playing with.
• If getting close distracts your bird from the task at hand it’s ok to take a photo from a distance. With the wonders of high megapixel cameras we can simply crop the excess background away in Photoshop.
• It isn’t ‘cheating’ to hold the toy next to the bird with one hand and take the photo with the other; whilst its fiddly to do and usually means a bunch more photos need to be taken in order to get an image that isn’t blurry, it gives you plenty more control over angle and location. And of course you can get someone else to hold the toy. Try to minimise fingers in the picture though, a little bit of fingertip is usually easy enough to crop away or to cover up with some cut & pasted backround but a lot of finger or other body parts is usually to the detriment of the image.
• Having the parrot on someone’s hand or forearm (or your own if you can manage it) often helps the bird focus on the toy (its that whole ‘doing things together’ that they’re enjoying), but sometimes you have to contort yourself a little to minimise getting your own body in the picture.
• Hiding seeds and other fruit treats (as you would to encourage natural foraging behaviour) can keep your bird’s attention on the toy for long enough to get a few snaps off.
• If you’ve got lots of things you could photograph your bird with, do them all in quick succession. Doing a photoshoot with your parrot is a great bonding exercise, and all the toys one after the other can get pretty exciting for your parrot, creating awesome photo opportunities.

7) Take loads of photos and edit out the duds later

The more you take the more likely it is you’ll get one where a finger isn’t halfway over the lens, the image isn’t blurry and your bird looks totally adorable. Take advantage of the digital age! Edit out the duds on your computer  -  a nice big screen for viewing makes deleting and refining your bird’s portfolio a pleasure.

This promotion will last for as long as we need photos – i.e. forever! But right now there is a glut of images needed, so get on the website and have a look around – we await your photos in gleeful anticipation!

P.S. Videos accepted too!