Outdoors is slowly disappearing under a thick blanket of photos

Hey Gang, I need some help! I'm slowly but surely disappearing under a thick blanket of outdoor photos from all directions.

When the Outdoors page was re-formatted many, many months ago, one of its new features was to ask the readers to submit photos of their hunting and fishing accomplishments.

No one ever dreamt that your responses would be so overwhelming. It has truly been a very pleasant surprise.

The Outdoors page features two photos each week, one large and one small. However, your photos are coming much faster than two per week, and, therein, lies the problem:

The photos are: E-Mails at my home, E-Mails at the Nevada Appeal, being left at the front desk of the Nevada Appeal, being sent by U.S. mail to the Nevada Appeal, being sent by U.S. mail to my home, being left in the mailbox at my home, being left on my desk at the Nevada Appeal, being handed to me at meetings or functions, being given to friends to give to me, being given to relatives to give to me, etc.

To compound my problem, many of the photos have no information to go with them (Such as who, what, where, when, etc.) or the information is on a separate piece of paper that has either disappeared or has gotten hopelessly separated from the photo.

Many of the other photos in my collection are like that: There is no information to go with the photos or how to get in touch with whoever submitted it. I'm really stuck!

So, if you have submitted a photo and have wondered what happened to it, now you know part of the answer.

The other part of why those photos are not being run is the logistics of being able to only run two a week, while they are coming in at a much faster rate than that. I'm being buried.

There have been a couple of in-house suggestions on how to solve this problem:

1. To run a number of the backlogged photos on a weekly basis on the Internet website for the Nevada Appeal, or

2. Perhaps, three or four times a year, run an entire page of nothing but outdoor photos in the Nevada Appeal.

Both suggestions are very worthwhile and certainly worth looking into, but no matter how the problem is ultimately solved, there will still have to be some necessary changes made when submitting photos.

Here are some basic "Don Q" rules for information about future photos (preferably on the back of the photo if possible):

Make sure to send in your digital photos as large as possible. We need at least 5 inches wide or tall at 200 DPI.

And, use a flash, even in broad daylight.

Name of person, their hometown, and age, if a youngster.

When the photo was taken.

Where the photo was taken.

Who took or sent the photo.

The names and hometowns of whoever else in the photo.

If the photo is of a fish, what kind, how heavy, how long, and how it was caught.

If it is of an antlered or horned animal, size of rack or horns or other pertinent info.

More importantly, don't submit a photo of someone:

1. Holding a fish with blood running down the side, or holding a fish that has been out of the water for hours and hours (that is gross-looking).

2. Holding a fish with blood running down the side, while posing, barefoot, without a shirt, cigarette hanging out of the corner of your mouth, and standing in front of a garbage can (This actually happened).

3. With a fish or an animal, and then chop off the top of that person's head or feet or both (Frame your picture).

4. With a fish or an animal with the shadow of the photographer in the foreground.

And, don't submit more than one photo (Geez, if I can only run two photos once a week, what in the heck do you expect me to do with 5-6-7-8-9-10 photos. Pick the best shot and submit only that one).

Finally: If you have submitted a photo in the past and it never has been run, please get in touch with me. Your photos could be one of the many of which I have no information.

Contact me at 882-2111 at the Nevada Appeal or by E-Mail at dquilici@nevadaappeal.com.

I need your help.

• Bet Your Favorite Pigeon

Bet your favorite pigeon that he can't tell you which photos I really enjoy running.

If he grins and says, "Don's favorites are the photos of the young boys and young girls, because they are the future of hunting and fishing," he could be one of my regular hunting and fishing partners.

• Don Quilici is the Outdoors editor for the Nevada Appeal.