Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2022 in Zambia/Step by step instructions
These instructions explain step by step how you can use your photos to enter the Wiki Loves Earth photo competition. If you've been with Wikipedia or Commons for a while, work from step 2.
1. Create a user account
[edit]If you do not have a user account for the Wikimedia projects, you can create one via Create account. It is possible to do this without specifying an email address. However, email addresses are needed for notifying winners, and allowing us to contact you to ensure that your photo is eligible Email addresses are not visible to WLE organizers nor to others.
2. Find a theme
[edit]In Wiki Loves Earth, only photos that were taken in a protected area or show a close-up of a species (plant or animal) found in that area. An (incomplete) list of protected areas is found at List of protected places.Wiki loves earth
3. Photos
[edit]Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, we ask that you adhere to any travel restrictions that may apply. Otherwise you can also search your private photo archives or digitize the old slides.
Behavior in the protected area
[edit]With this competition we want to capture the beauty of nature without endangering it.
So please ensure that you adhere to the rules of behavior in the protected area. Do not destroy plants, for example to have a clearer view, and try to disturb animals as little as possible. If you want to take photos with a drone, you must know the local regulations and adhere to them.
If you have received special permission for your photos, for example, to enter otherwise prohibited areas or to use a drone, you should indicate this in your description.
Coordinates
[edit]The specification of coordinates is voluntary. If your camera offers the option to save the coordinates for the photos, please use this function. This allows the photos to be clearly assigned. If your camera does not offer this option, you can record your locations with your smartphone or a navigation device and add them later. Alternatively, you can estimate the approximate location on a map afterwards.
If the exact location of the image is not disclosed for reasons of species protection, take the coordinates of a point in the area or simply give the center of the protected area and write a note in the description. Alternatively, notify User:Icem4k using {{ping|Icem4k}} on your talk page.
4. Upload
[edit]Photos can be uploaded for the competition from 1 July until 31 July 2022. It does not matter when the photos were taken.
To upload the photo go to Wiki Loves Earth 2023 in Zambia and use the green Upload button at the top right, or the long green central button saying Upload: This contest runs from 1 May to 31 May 2022.
Select the license
[edit]You can choose different licenses for your photos. If you don't want to bother with it, use the standard license CC-BY-SA 4.0 (which means that anyone reusing it must acknowledge the photo as yours).
Add information to the image
[edit]The filenames should clearly describe what can be seen in the picture. Additions such as "WLE" or "Wiki Loves Earth" should not be included in the name. The names should be unique among millions of images on Wikimedia Commons, otherwise the organizers will have to rename them.
The description of the picture should always contain the information giving the protected area in which the photo was taken. If this information is missing, we may exclude the photo from the competition (if we cannot work it out).
Also select the category on Wikimedia Commons for the protected area. If this category does not yet exist, use the category for the type of protected area in the region. For example, Category:Lusaka Indigenous Protected Area does not yet exist, give the image that category, and one of our team members will create it or recategorise it appropriately. It can be helpful to take a look at existing pictures from the same protected area.
In addition, categories for the subject of the photo are useful, such as the plant or animal species. Here the categories mostly correspond to the scientific name of the species. For example, the image of a coastal banksia should be categorised as Category:Banksia integrifolia.
5. Done
[edit]Your photos will be part of the competition and you may also win a prize.