7/1-9/14 The Crosby Arboretum’s BugFest 2024 Photo Competition!

The Crosby Arboretum’s BugFest 2024 Photo Competition!

This competition is sponsored by

Wildlife Mississippi, The Crosby Arboretum Foundation, & Photo & Video Hunt's 

This project is supported by the MEMBERS of Coast Electric through Operation Round Up

and their community trust, in partnership with the

Gulf Coast Community Foundation.

BugFest 2024!

A celebration of insects and other arthropods!

Subjects for photos: Arthropods - insects, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, millipedes on land; crabs, crayfish, shrimp, lobsters, and barnacles in water.

This year, we have chosen to highlight the various Dragonfly species for our “Best of Show” Dragonfly photo award.

All decisions by our judges, Robert Smith and Donna Bush, are final.

There is no entry fee.

Registration begins at 9 am on July 1, 2024. Entries will be accepted up to 11 p.m. CT on Saturday, September 14, 2024. Here is the registration link: http://msuext.ms/24bugfest

This competition is available to anyone who is interested in participating, with the exception of employees from The Crosby Arboretum, The Crosby Arboretum Foundation, Wildlife Mississippi, and Hunt’s Photo & Video.

Participant categories and awards: (10 awards in all)

Ages 17 and under - (prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places)

Ages 18 and over – Beginners group (prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places)

Ages 18 and over – Advanced group (prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places)

One special award will be given to the top Dragonfly (Anisopteran) photo.

**Please note, though both are Odanates, Damselflies are not Dragonflies. Damselflies (Zygopterans) are flying insects and are similar to dragonflies but are usually smaller and have slimmer bodies. Most damselfly species fold the wings along the body when at rest, unlike dragonflies (Anisopterans) which hold the wings flat and away from the body. Damselflies are eligible for 9 out of the 10 awards. They are not eligible for the “Best Dragonfly” photo award.

Prizes for 1, 2, 3 in each category and for the top Dragonfly photo:
Each winning photo will be printed and mounted by the Arboretum at no charge to the photographer. These photos will be displayed at The Crosby Arboretum’s gallery from September 1, 2025, to the end of November 2025. After the gallery showing, each photographer may pick up his/her mounted photo (December 2025).

Each 2025 winning photographer will receive an individual award as well as a swag bag.

By entering a photo in this competition, you are granting The Crosby Arboretum the rights to use your competition images to recognize photographers, market Arboretum programs and events, use for education and outreach programs, and promote future events/competitions. This includes online, print and display images. All other image rights remain with the photographer.

Additional Rules:

· Each photographer may enter up to 3 photographs in total. Photographers can enter 2 and 3 photos at the same time or can enter up to 3 photos at different times. Should a photographer enter more than 3 images, only the first 3 images will be eligible for the competition.

· The person entering the photo into the competition must be the photographer. Our younger photographers may receive help from an adult regarding their entry/entries.

· There is no time restriction on when each photo was taken. There will be no geographical restriction. The date and place of the photo are to be submitted with the photograph for information purposes.

· The photographer of each photo needs to submit the photo along with a brief statement regarding the Arthropod(s) pictured. That brief statement should contain interesting information about the arthropod and what appealed to the photographer.

· The winners in the 18 and older “beginners” category must move to the “advanced” category for future photo competitions at The Crosby.

· The winning photos for the 2023 or 2024 Crosby competition cannot be entered in any future Crosby competitions.

· Photos must be entered in a JPEG format.

· All photographs should accurately reflect the subject matter and the scene as it appeared.

· Entrant’s submissions must not infringe on the rights of any other photographer or entity.

· Entrants must not submit images that involve the willful harassment of wildlife or damage to the environment by the photographer.

· No signatures, names, or watermarks on entries. It is important that our judges do not know the photographers.

· Minimum Photo Size is 2000 pixels by 4000 pixels (larger images accepted)!!

**Please be sure your photo meets this size criteria. Smaller photos will be disqualified. If you are working with a cell phone camera, you may need to change the settings in advance to accommodate this larger size requirement.

**Please make sure your photos are entered in a JPEG format.

Competition Timeline:

- Registration begins at 9 a.m. Central Time on July 1, 2024.

- Entries to be accepted up to 11 p.m. Central Time on Saturday, September 14, 2024.

- Judges to make their selections by midnight on Monday, September 16, 2024.

- The top 10 winning photographs will be announced on September 17, 2024.

The award ceremony will take place at BugFest 2024 at the Pinecote Pavilion on Saturday, September 21 at 1 p.m. Winners will find out their specific award at this time.

- Winners do not have to be present to win but must arrange to pick up their award at The Crosby Arboretum.

About Us

The Crosby Arboretum, Mississippi State University is operated by the MSU Extension Service and is a unit of the Coastal Research & Extension Center in Biloxi, MS. 64-acre public garden is located in Picayune adjacent to Interstate 59 and is dedicated to educating the public about their environment. Each season, the Arboretum offers a full schedule of educational programs and events for children and adults focused on celebrating the wonders of our natural world, and the history and culture of Mississippi’s Piney Woods region. One of the first, and still one of the only arboreta that functions as a celebration of local native flora, the Arboretum’s mission is to preserve, protect, and display plants native to the Pearl River Drainage Basin ecosystem. The plants are displayed in three basic exhibits: a Savanna exhibit, a Woodland exhibit, and an Aquatic exhibit.

The Crosby Arboretum features the award-winning Pinecote Pavilion designed by the noted architect E. Fay Jones, FAIA, of Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Pavilion received an Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1990 and is recognized by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History as a Mississippi Landmark. A membership to The Crosby Arboretum has many benefits, notably a membership in the American Horticultural Society's Reciprocal Admissions Program (RAP), allowing free or reduced admission to over 350 public gardens in North America.

Visit www.crosbyarboretum.msstate.edu for membership information and our current event calendar.

The Crosby Arboretum

370 Ridge Road

Picayune, MS 39525

601-799-2311 ext. 0

www.crosbyarboretum.msstate.edu

The Crosby Arboretum/MSU Extension will provide reasonable accommodations to persons with disabilities or special needs. Please contact our office at 601-799-2311 or barb.medlock@msstate.edu prior to a program or event to request an accommodation.

Mississippi State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, or veteran status.