Wild Desert Calendar Submissions

Bruce Couch

Calling all photographers! Use your creativity and talent to support conservation! Submit your best shots of Oregon’s high desert for a chance to have your photos featured in our iconic Wild Desert Calendar.

ONDA’s Wild Desert Calendar

  • Features the stunning landscapes of Oregon’s high desert
  • Inspires action to protect and restore public lands and waters and protect wildlife habitat
  • Is a unique all-volunteer effort — it’s the only published collection of images devoted exclusively to Oregon’s high desert
  • Reaches a broad audience — the Wild Desert Calendar is mailed to all ONDA members and is sold by 40+ retail vendors statewide

The submission window for ONDA’s 2022 Wild Desert Calendar closed on June 12, 2021.

For more opportunities to share photos that capture the natural beauty of central and eastern Oregon’s high desert with ONDA, sign up for our volunteer photographers list.

Everyone who enters will entered into a drawing for a stay at Summer Lake Hot Springs. Featured photographers will receive gear and goods to help them keep up their great work, including ONDA-logo coffee mugs by MiiR and MicroBiome Bars.

voices

Helen Harbin, ONDA Board Member

Helen Harbin, ONDA Board Member

“I connect with Oregon’s high desert through my feet, my eyes, my sense of smell, and all the things I hear. Getting out there is a whole body experience.” Supporting ONDA, Helen says, not only connects her with wild landscapes, but is also a good investment. “I felt like if I gave them $20, they might squeeze $23 out of it.”

voices

Taylor Goforth, Sage Sustainers member

Taylor Goforth, Sage Sustainers member

“I support ONDA on a monthly basis as a way I can keep in touch with the root of my conservation ethic and allow for their strong advocacy work to keep going. I count on them!”

listen

Greater Sage Grouse and Sparrows at Hart Mountain

Greater Sage Grouse and Sparrows at Hart Mountain

Submission guidelines – The 2022 calendar selection process is closed. Please watch for our next submission period, next summer. 

  • Photographers must read and acknowledge the image use agreement
  • Only images from public lands and of native species in Oregon’s high desert will be selected
  • Photo submission format requirements:
    • Send JPEG files less than 5 MB in size, but please note that if your image(s) are selected, print quality 300 dpi TIFF files must be available.
    • Filename must include photographer’s name, location, season, and subject (e.g. Joe-Smith_Middle-Deschutes-River-Spring-wildflowers.jpg)
  • Submit no more than ten (10) photographs
  • Both professional and amateur photographers are encouraged to submit
  • Deadline: June 12, 2021 
  • Questions? Email Communications Manager Lace Thornberg at lace@onda.org.

For the best chance of being featured

  • Include a variety of shots. We need large-scale landscape images and also small-scale shots that focus on feature plants, animals, inspects of landscape details, petroglyphs, and other desert wonders.
  • Show us desert-loving people. There are many ways to enjoy the desert — birding, hiking, camping, fishing, biking and more — and all sorts of people who appreciate this landscape. While we don’t need all your family photos, we’d love to see some shots capturing people’s enthusiasm and love for the high desert!  
  • Think natural and public. Photos of roads, power lines or other signs of permanent human development are unlikely to be selected. Photos of private lands and non-native species will not be considered.
  • Focus on ONDA priorities. We love to feature the places we are focused on protecting and restoring. Learn about our priority regions or check out our Featured Projects for specific ideas. (As beautiful as Smith Rock State Park is, we don’t work there!)
  • Look to the past. Scroll through our Wild Desert Calendar gallery for a good sense of the kinds of photos we’ve loved before.

Submit your photos

By submitting photos, I agree to the following: I have full rights to the photograph(s) submitted. I grant permission for ONDA to use the images submitted for its communications purposes at ONDA’s discretion. ONDA, and others with ONDA’s consent, have non-exclusive rights to use and publish the photograph(s) submitted for Wild Desert Calendar consideration on […]

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Author: Lace Thornberg  |  Published: March 9, 2018  | Updated: April 13, 2021  |  Categories: How-to   Five landscape photographers share their advice: knowledge, persistence, patience The arid landscape that covers 27.6 million acres of Oregon is packed with opportunities to make interesting photographs. You can fill your frame with impressive canyons, alkali flats that tend […]

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