Spyderco Forums

Enter the 2020 Spyderco Forum Calendar Contest today! Please read this entire announcement prior to entering.

Contest Overview:
We are again making a 12-month wall calendar using images created by you, our forum members (this will be our 9th year). We want to see your best VERTICAL shot.

We’re again asking that you post your entry in this thread AND upload it along with your information through the link provided below.

Contest starts today, 16-Jul-2019 and ends at 16:00 MDT Friday, 30-Aug-2019. Winners will be selected by Spyderco and will be posted on the forum by Friday, 13-Sep-2019.

Calendars will be available for purchase this fall through the Spyderco Factory Outlet Store (in person or online at https://spyderco.com).


The Prizes:
If your image is chosen as the Grand Prize Winner, you will receive a Spyderco Drunken (C235CFTIP - MSRP $630.00). Your image will be featured on the cover AND on a calendar month page.

Artists who have their image chosen to represent a specific calendar month (a total of 11 winners) will each receive a Spyderco Para 3 Lightweight (C2223PBK - MSRP $140.00).

Each member who enters the contest (and uploads their high-res image file along with their contact information) will receive a 2020 calendar at no charge when the calendar becomes available.

Please enter to WIN - don’t enter just to receive the calendar. We appreciate everyone’s interest and support and look forward to another fantastic calendar!

Please read ALL the information below before posting. We know it’s a lot of words, but it’s important!


Submission Guidelines:
Please include a 2-5 sentence description of your entry - why you chose the product(s) featured, the history of the image, etc.; something to give us a better understanding of your submission.

Please include the product name (if you know it) in your post.

Entry must include a Spyderco product (at least one, but multiple are welcome). Any product Spyderco has ever made is fair game. Your chosen product can be pristine, used or radically modified.

We encourage you to use your imagination and show us your creativity. Just remember, family-friendly!

Themed images are welcome. Have a favorite season or holiday? Showcase it in your image.

If your camera or image software can manipulate it – we’ll consider it. Be creative!

Entries must be in a digital format and meet the formatting requirements below.

Only ONE image submission per person. You are permitted to modify your submission after posting. If you decide to modify your entry, you must edit your original submission and re-submit the new image before the contest deadline. Having multiple photo submissions in THIS thread at the end date of the contest will invalidate all your submissions.

If you upload an image that is not in this thread, it will be disqualified.

Posting your image in this thread: It is not necessary or recommended that you post a 300 ppi image to our Forums (heck, it’s not even possible!). Keeping up with web standards, a 72 ppi image preview that does not exceed 960 px in width for the forum will be just fine. You may use a photo-sharing site to provide a link to your image so long as all other requirements are met within your post. If you use a photo-sharing site, the image must remain publicly available online until 13-Sep-2019.

When you post your submission in this thread please ALSO upload your hi-res image and contact information by visiting https://www.spyderco.com/contests/calendar/. Maximum file size for uploading is 15MB. If your final submission is not uploaded (hi-res) AND posted in this thread by the close of the contest, your submission will be forfeited. If you upload (through the link) more than one image, the image last posted in this thread is what will be considered.

FORMATTING Requirements:
The Spyderco 2020 Calendar will be printed in an 11” by 8 ½” VERTICAL format. Only VERTICALLY formatted images will be considered, and significant cropping/resizing may occur to winning images. All landscape formatted images will be disqualified.

Final Print Image Guidelines (ABSOLUTE MINIMUM – Images should be no smaller than this):
Width: 2700 px
Height: 3450 px
Resolution: 300 ppi
(This translates to 9” x 11.5” to account for a ¼ inch bleed)

Image Preview (for posting on the forum)
Width: 960 px
Resolution: 72 ppi

Content Restrictions:
The submission must not contain any copyrighted material (unless you own the copyright).

Your submission must be entirely original and created by you.

Images may not contain any kind of promotional material - this includes trademarks and logos for non-Spyderco businesses, even those for your own personal endeavors.

Only family-friendly, tasteful submissions will be considered. Remember this calendar will be hanging in someone’s home or office.

NOTE: If you upload an image that we feel might violate our content restrictions, we will do our best to contact you and let you know that your image might be disqualified prior to the end of the contest. However, we cannot guarantee this so be sure to meet all requirements and review the content restrictions carefully prior to posting.


Eligibility:
The 2020 Spyderco Calendar Contest is open to all members of the Spyderco.com Forum who are at least 18 years of age. Proof of age may be required.

Employees, relatives of employees of Spyderco, its partner companies, and manufacturers are not eligible to enter or win.


Obligatory Fine Print:
Submitted images become the exclusive property of Spyderco Inc. By posting your photo in this thread, user grants unencumbered, free usage and printing use solely to Spyderco Inc.

This contest is subject to all laws and void where prohibited.

Please keep in mind that there are various laws and regulations regarding knives throughout the world. If you are selected as a winner and you live in a region that prohibits us from sending the intended prize we have the right to substitute your prize as we see fit.

We reserve the right to substitute prizes if any unforeseen issues arise with availability.

Hints for success:
If this is the first year that you’ve seen this contest, please take a moment and look at past calendar contests to get an idea of what has been submitted and what has won. Here are a few links to get you started.

2016 Submissions: https://tinyurl.com/2016CalendarSub
2016 Winners: https://tinyurl.com/2016CalendarWin

2017 Submissions: https://tinyurl.com/2017CalendarSub
2017 Winners: https://tinyurl.com/2017CalendarWin

2018 Submissions: https://tinyurl.com/2018CalendarSub
2018 Winners: https://tinyurl.com/2018CalendarWin

2019 Submissions: https://tinyurl.com/2019CalendarSub
2019 Winners: https://tinyurl.com/2019CalendarWin

Be mindful of the placement of the Spyderco product. Items that are too close the edges can be cut off when we format for printing. We also like to easily see the Spyderco product so close-up shots are welcome and encouraged (as opposed to an item being really small within a large scene – no matter how beautiful that scene is).

We are consistently in awe of the talent that our forum members have, and we’ve seen the level of talent and creativity increase every year. Give us your best! We can’t wait to see this year’s submissions! Good luck to everyone!!

Woo! This year is going to be good!

Best time of the (Spyderco) year! Besides Reveals and the Discontinued List :D

Woohoo!!!!!!

Do knives that are dirty or show signs of wear (patina), or with custom scales/pocket clips or even swapped blades/scales ever place in the calendar? Or just factory models?

TkoK83Spy wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 16, 2019 8:36 am

Do knives that are dirty or show signs of wear (patina), or with custom scales/pocket clips or even swapped blades/scales ever place in the calendar? Or just factory models?

I only saw 1 knife with a patina in the list of previous winners

Awesome! One of my favorite threads of the year! :D

Excited to see that it will be vertical format again!

I get way too excited for these every year! :D

Wow, what a great opportunity. Time to get to the drawing board!

Sweet!
I'll take the (un?)lucky first spot....
Made a great and colorful shot imho of the Mantra 2 during a day hike with an outdoor lunch. Taken on the bank of the River Dommel in the Netherlands. Typical dutch landscape in the back. Fruit for desert after some spicy noodles. :D
Bring on the patina on my Mantra 2 :) A great knife that carries light on hikes and slices food like no other.
The M4 seems to stay sharp forever.



Love this thread every year.
Goodluck everyone.

*Edited submission*
Model: Maxamet Native5 Fluted Carbon Fiber
This submission is of my favorite knife. The lightweight combined with the high performance of Maxamet makes this the perfect edc. And the carbon fiber handles add a touch of class that make it suitable for any occasion. I took this photo for 4th of July, but like it so much I wanted to submit it for this years calendar. Thank you for the opportunity to show it off! :spyder:


Good luck all! Can’t wait to see more!
*Edited my submission*

TkoK83Spy wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 16, 2019 8:36 am

Do knives that are dirty or show signs of wear (patina), or with custom scales/pocket clips or even swapped blades/scales ever place in the calendar? Or just factory models?

Looks like that's a yes.

Your chosen product can be pristine, used or radically modified.

I absolutely love this this contest, but one thing that irks me about it is there always seems to be people who never post and only submit a photo in hopes of winning a prize. Only post they'll make for an entire year. Some have been "members" for 5-15 years. Some of those people are great photographers with amazing skills, equipment and eye for a shot. I just feel like it's a slap in the face to all of us who contribute here on a daily, weekly, even monthly basis :confused:

Regardless, I look forward to everyone's submissions and am pulling for a avid, contributing member to take home the grand prize! :D

NEED MINOR HELP?

As in years past, if anybody needs help with formatting the resolution, aspect ratio and DPI to meet the requirements, I'm happy to help. I'll even help with minor things, such as if you took a picture that's awesome and only noticed later that there's a tiny piece of garbage or something in the corner that needs removing. Or if your color balance is slightly off. What I won't do is take your blurry landscape oriented picture of a knife in some water and make it sharp and vertically oriented while adding sharks with laser beams in the background as an F-15 flies overhead. So "yes" to minor technical help, "no" to creative help or fixing major technical problems, as that would be unfair to those that put the work into their own pictures.

TkoK83Spy wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 16, 2019 6:33 pm

I absolutely love this this contest, but one thing that irks me about it is there always seems to be people who never post and only submit a photo in hopes of winning a prize. Only post they'll make for an entire year. Some have been "members" for 5-15 years. Some of those people are great photographers with amazing skills, equipment and eye for a shot. I just feel like it's a slap in the face to all of us who contribute here on a daily, weekly, even monthly basis :confused:

Perhaps for someone English is not a native language, and it can be difficult to contribute here on a daily, weekly, even monthly basis. But the forum is the most important source of information about Spyderco, and posting photos is one of the few ways to participate in the forum. Understand it please.

DerRock wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 17, 2019 8:48 am

TkoK83Spy wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 16, 2019 6:33 pm

I absolutely love this this contest, but one thing that irks me about it is there always seems to be people who never post and only submit a photo in hopes of winning a prize. Only post they'll make for an entire year. Some have been "members" for 5-15 years. Some of those people are great photographers with amazing skills, equipment and eye for a shot. I just feel like it's a slap in the face to all of us who contribute here on a daily, weekly, even monthly basis :confused:

Perhaps for someone English is not a native language, and it can be difficult to contribute here on a daily, weekly, even monthly basis. But the forum is the most important source of information about Spyderco, and posting photos is one of the few ways to participate in the forum.

You couldn't contribute photos on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis? I post photos all the time and dont say anything about them. I do agree this is the best source of information out there for spyderco products. I've learned so much just sifting through old posts. Thank you spyderco for the forum and the opportunity to participate in this contest

Yay!!!! Good luck to everyone this year as always we are going to see some beautiful photos. Happy shooting everyone

I love these contests! Just to see everybody's pics, I'm no photographer myself lol. But that's so cool that Spyderco does this!

The SpydieChef is the personification of beautiful lines and thoughtful utility. This rust-proof knife is perfectly at home among coconut trees in the tropics, or in my case, a pecan tree in Texas. The SpydieChef doesn't sweat the small things like lime juice, fish guts, or envelopes. :)
Thank you Spyderco for this contest. Highlight of this forum.

Since it came out, I loved the Dragonfly G-10, but was hesitating to buy due to the relative high price here in Germany. Until now I already had both FRN Dragonflies in black with VG-10, BRG in ZDP-189, yellow in H-1 and the Nishijin model.
Last week I discovered a Dragonfly G-10 offered by an Austrian collector in "new condition, unused, never sharpened..." for a very good price, nearly half of the normal. After short consideration and checking my financial situation I finally pulled the trigger.
It arrived last Monday. To make it short: Perfect deal! Produced September 2009, blade absolutely dead centered, action being a little bit stiff like a new one, no scratches, symmetrical grind, perfectly matching scales, in original box with all papers! It only needed a little bit oiling.
Today I was sitting at my station desk (I am a radio amateur), enjoying the summer and playing with my new knife. Suddenly I noticed a big dragonfly flying through the open balkony door and landing on the inside windowsill.
What a beauty! Here in the city you have not often the chance to see one.. I quickly took a snapshot with my mobile phone camera (sorry for the low pic quality...). Then I got the idea :rolleyes:... I took my new Dragonfly G-10, opened it and slowly and carefully placed it near the resting dragonfly. Shortly later I succeeded: It began crawling onto the knife and rested for about half a minute! Then it started again and flew out.



Now you got it...: A dragonfly sitting on a Dragonfly! :spyder: :D