Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2024 in Scotland

From 1^st June to 31^st July 2024

Wiki Loves Earth Scotland 2024

Wiki Loves Earth Scotland 2024 is the first edition of Wiki Loves Earth in Scotland.

Take part by taking photos or videos of natural protected areas in Scotland and uploading them to Wikimedia Commons. The aim is to highlight Scottish natural heritage.

Join us contribute free-licensed photograph and videos of Scottish natural heritage!

How can I take part?

Create a user account: If you do not have a user account for the Wikimedia projects, you can create one here: Create account

It is possible to do this without including 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 organisers nor to others.

Find a subject: In Wiki Loves Earth, only photos that were taken within a protected area, including close-ups of a species (plant or animal) found in that area, are eligible.

Find your local protected areas. These are lists of National Parks, Special Areas of Conservation, and Sites of Special Scientific Interest amongst others. Please check that these areas are open to the public before visiting and avoid disturbing local wildlife.

Go out and photograph! With this competition we want to capture the beauty of nature without endangering it. So please ensure that you adhere to the rules of behaviour 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 to enter an otherwise prohibited area or to use a drone, you should indicate this in the descriptions of the photographs you upload.

Adding 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.

Upload: Photos can be uploaded for the competition from 1 June until 31 July 2024. It does not matter when the photos were taken.

To upload the photo go to relevant list for protected areas, find the site you have photographs of, and press the camera icon in the table. Using these buttons means the image is correctly categorised and others can easily find, reuse, and otherwise admire your work! You can also use this button: Upload photos

Done: Well done, you've taken part in Wiki Loves Earth 2024 in Scotland!

Good luck, and remember you can upload as many eligible pictures as you like.

N.B.: All pictures have to be uploaded from the 1^st June to 31^st July 2024. You can also upload images that you may already have taken in the past, for example during one of your travels to the country, but you can upload them only during the indicated period.

Rules

The full WLE rules can be read at Wiki Loves Earth - rules. In short, to be eligible for a prize each image must be:

at least two megapixels
taken by the person uploading the file
of a protected area in Scotland – that can include flora and fauna of the area
described with details such as name of mountain / species and co-ordinates if possible
uploaded between 1 June and 31 July 2024

Statistics

Total images uploaded so far in
Wiki Loves Earth Scotland 2024
‎733

Statistics

Judging criteria

The jury will determine the winners of the contest by taking into consideration the following criteria (in no particular order):

Technical quality (sharpness, use of light, perspective etc.);
Originality;
Usefulness of the image for Wikipedia.

Images that reach a top ranking of the final evaluation phase, will typically at least fulfil the technical criteria of the ‘Featured Image’ process at Wikimedia Commons. But feel free to submit many images, and let the jury be concerned if they are good enough.

Find protected natural areas

There are thousands, from Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty to Sites of Special Scientific Interest

Take photos

Take as many as you like. Try different angles, and take time to capture different aspects of an area: its wildlife, the plants, the landscape. Even if a photo doesn't win a prize, it helps Wikipedia!

Describe them

Write down what you photographed: record the site's name, description, coordinates and date of photo. The more information you share, the easier it is for people to reuse images.

Upload to Commons

Upload your images to Wikimedia Commons between 1 June and 31 July. Create an account, if you don't have one already.

Local organizer

infowikimedia.org.uk