C-BRATS 2025 Calendar: Requesting Photos!

[DayBreak]

We are looking for YOUR photos for the 2025 C-BRATS Calendar.
FYI, these may also be included in some social media productions for C-Dory promotion.

Last years calendar was a great success, so we want to do it again. Please join us!

• • We will be collecting images from now until October 31

• • Submission of pictures can be from any year, although more recent seasons, especially 2024, will have priority.

• • We desire high quality photos, but that can include many pictures taken with phones**.

• ** Note that my (Colleen/DayBreak) submissions in past years were taken with an iPhone. If you are unsure of the picture quality, simply enlarge it on your computer screen to see if the resolution remains clear.

Official Submission criteria:

• • Photos from past seasons accepted, but photos from the most recent season, 2024, have priority.

• • The photos may be either taken by you the boat owner or, of your boat if taken by someone else for you.

• • While High Def images will have priority, high quality phone images are acceptable.

• • All photos need to be Landscape (horizontal) format, or cropable to a 4x3 ratio.

• • Photos should be JPEG or JPG format, (PNG is usable also).

How to submit:

• 1. Gather 1 to 8 of your best photos as well as the following required information for each photo.
  • (1) Photographers name.
  • (2) Photographers C-BRAT username. (Makes it easier to find you on C-BRATS)
  • (3) Name of Boat owner. (Some Exceptions can be allowed.)
  • (4) Name of any C-Dory's in the picture (if it's not obvious), if possible.
  • (5) General location where the photo was taken.

• 2. Email the images AND above required information to julie@nmiboats.com. Please include:
  • (1) A Subject line with “2025 C-BRAT Cal submits” and also your C-BRAT user name.
  • (2) Up to 4 image files, each with a specific file name. NOTE: Please keep email size under 15 megabytes. If you must send more than one email, see instructions below.
  • (3) A separate document included in the same email that lists each of the image files by that specific file name, and the required 5 pieces of information about each image (see above).

• 3. Acceptance deadline will be Oct 31 at midnight. Nothing will be accepted after that date.

Calendar Details:

• • We hope to have the calendar ready for purchase late November.

• • There will be 13 photos in the calendar, 12 months and a bonus cover pix. It is highly unlikely that more than one photo from any one submitter will be on the calendar.

• • We want to include as many model variations as possible, so looking forward to photos of any/all models, C-Dory/Venture/Cape Cruiser/TomCat. And from across the continent; Canada, USA, and Mexico. Wherever you have been boating.

If sending more than one email with images, please read this:

• To submit more than 4 photos, you will need to send them in 2 emails sets. The second set must use numbers continued from the first email set. (IE: Set #1; 1,2,3,4 and then Set #2; 5,6,7,8. If the size of your photos requires a 3rd email set, continue to number the photos consecutively.)

A big thanks to Julie from NMI for her work on this project.

Thanks,
Colleen / DayBreak

 

[DayBreak]

While we are waiting for the calendar to come out, feel free to share pictures of your 2024 CDory adventures here!



Active Cove, Patos Island, San Juan Islands, looking NW toward the Gulf Islands. The heart shaped rock reflects how much we love our CDory!

Colleen / DayBreak

 

[colbysmith]

I have a number of photos I'd like to submit. But my theme this year will be "trailerable". Thus I will be submitting photos of the boat on a trailer while traveling. I also have a few from gatherings, and then a few more on the water. Are we restricted to 8, or can we submit more? Colby

 

[DayBreak]

Colby, we love your photos and great idea on photos of the boat on a trailer while traveling. You do a lot of that! To make Julie's job easier the photos were limited to 8. Feel free to contact her at NMI to see if you could send more. Thanks.

 

[colbysmith]

Sent her 8 today. I'll check with her later if she'd like more. The lock tender at Watts Bar lock took some nice photos of us in the lock and leaving. It's on their facebook page. Colby

 

[DayBreak]

Sorry guys, but Julie from NMI has notified us that she doesn’t have enough photo entries to make a 2025 C-Brats calendar. Thank you for those that have taken the time to enter some wonderful photos for a calendar but we needed more entries. Hopefully we can try again next year for 2026. We can keep this year’s submissions and add to them next year. :evil:

 

[colbysmith]

Sorry guys, but Julie from NMI has notified us that she doesn’t have enough photo entries to make a 2025 C-Brats calendar. Thank you for those that have taken the time to enter some wonderful photos for a calendar but we needed more entries. Hopefully we can try again next year for 2026. We can keep this year’s submissions and add to them next year. :evil:

Well, that's a bummer. I mean I submitted 15 or 16 photos myself. But I don't expect them all to be in the calender! :roll: And I know the calendar was mentioned in the Facebook group as well. Where did all our photographers go? Oh well, I've already enjoyed seeing some of my photos on C-Dory's Facebook posts. And happy to provide NMI with them. (No good just having them sit in my computer files...) Maybe next year... Colby

 

[DayBreak]

Thanks for your understanding Colby. I was looking forward to seeing a couple of your photos in the calendar. We advertised with the formal request early enough. Don’t know why there wasn’t more interest.

 

[Donald Tyson]

I haven't figured out how to post photos. Seems kind of archaic in this world of drag and drop. I sure enjoy everyones photos when I see them. IMO, other than photos this is a nice site.

 

[JamesTXSD]

I was reading recently about how the interest in photography is waning. Only around 32% of households have a camera other than their cell phone. Seems that people aren't taking photos for the pleasure of creating a nice image as much these days.

25-30 years ago, you could see the interest in sailing dropping off. The sales of C-Dorys are significantly less than in the peak sales days of the brand from around 2007. From what I can see, current owners aren't any less passionate about their boats. Too bad about the factory backed calendar. Easy enough to make your own, though.

 

[Donald Tyson]

I think that 'drag and drop' has ruined high quality photography. I just retired from the tulip and daffodil business and for the last 20 yrs I used my phone or internet to document or sell flowers with every other email...you can't go back. We no longer have a dedicated camera. My iPhone is okay but my Wife Galaxy is freaking incredible the way it handles light. Only hobbyists and pro's can justify real camera's and they're likely to be digital these days.

 

[Molly Brown]

Hey Colby!


Since C-Brats isn’t the manufacturer, and we’ve had a few over the years, and that you are the top serial photo submitter, I nominate you as lead for a yearly calendar! It would save you the time to submit them and you could use any of your many photos. I’d buy one every year.


James

 

[colbysmith]

Hey Colby!
Since C-Brats isn’t the manufacturer, and we’ve had a few over the years, and that you are the top serial photo submitter, I nominate you as lead for a yearly calendar! It would save you the time to submit them and you could use any of your many photos. I’d buy one every year.
James

Hey James,
Thanks. But I think I'll pass. Too many other irons in the fire... But just for you, I'll upload all my submissions for next year's calendar below. Yeah, I submitted a few more than was allowed, so I know they had enough photos, but it was suppose to be a C-Brat calendar, as opposed to Colby's Calendar. Enjoy. And some of these may even look a tad bit familiar to you while on your Great Loop cruise. Colby



Cave Rock Ferry


Boaterhoming at Peninsula State Park, Door County, WI


Fish Creek, Door County, WI


Fayette Historic State Park, MI


Rio Vista Marina, Ca


Peggys Sues 50's Diner. Somewhere out west in California.


Wheeler Island on the Sacramento Delta Cruise


Radio Island, N. Carolina ICW


Devils Island in the Apostle Islands National Park. I'm tied up against the rocks.


Two Harbors marina on Catalina Island, Ca.


Watts Bar Lock on the Tennessee River


St. Martin Lighthouse Dock, Lake Michigan. Another rock face (cement) tie up.


Little Joe in Newville Bay


Old Hickory Lock, Cumberland River


West end of the Cumberland River at the Tennessee/Kentucky Border


Coming through a tunnel on the Little Tennessee River. (Lake name escapes me. But this is on the south side of the Fort at Fort Loudoun.)


Lenoir City Park, Tennessee River


Foggy morning on the Tennessee River at Lenoir City Park


Fort Loudoun Lock on the Tennessee river


Sea Spray in the Fog on the Tennessee River. or maybe the Clinch River.

 

[DayBreak]

Colby, you have such nice photos in your travels and with the boat/boats on the trailer. What a shame that we cannot see one or a couple of them in a C-Dory/C-Brats calendar for next year. I don't know what to do. It takes much time and effort for one person to gather the photos and make a choice on selection for the Calendar. Julie at NMI is happy to do this for us each year but with so few entries, she did not want to make a calendar this year with so few boats in representation. Also, Julie did say that many of the photos were not of good quality (not yours Colby!) and so maybe less quality photos should be considered with selection. Colleen and I will see her in May at the Friday Harbor gathering and will talk with her about what can be done differently. Maybe photo entries should be made as early as September and I make continual bumps on the 'Topics' column to get more interest with submitted photos. I feel responsible for the calendar not happening this year and so I apologize to you and to everyone who submitted photos. Thank you Colby and everyone else who submitted photos and I hope things will go better next year.

 

[colbysmith]

Colby, you have such nice photos in your travels and with the boat/boats on the trailer. What a shame that we cannot see one or a couple of them in a C-Dory/C-Brats calendar for next year. I don't know what to do. It takes much time and effort for one person to gather the photos and make a choice on selection for the Calendar. Julie at NMI is happy to do this for us each year but with so few entries, she did not want to make a calendar this year with so few boats in representation. Also, Julie did say that many of the photos were not of good quality (not yours Colby!) and so maybe less quality photos should be considered with selection. Colleen and I will see her in May at the Friday Harbor gathering and will talk with her about what can be done differently. Maybe photo entries should be made as early as September and I make continual bumps on the 'Topics' column to get more interest with submitted photos. I feel responsible for the calendar not happening this year and so I apologize to you and to everyone who submitted photos. Thank you Colby and everyone else who submitted photos and I hope things will go better next year.

Hey Gary,
Don't know if my photos are any better than any of the others I've seen in the calendars in the past, but thanks. BTW, some of the photos of C-Traveler with me at the helm, were taken by Bill on Mystery Girl. He does a pretty good job of photography as well. I'm just happy to submit the photos, and have told Julie to feel free using them however she'd like. I don't know how she picks the photos out for publication in a calendar. I have a lot more pictures, but always tough to choose the best ones, especially when you are only allowed a small number. I mean, it was going to be tough to thin those 20 down to 8. I chose some trailered photos, because these are trailerable boats! :wink: I will miss having a C-Brat calendar for 2025. Making my own calendar wouldn't be the same, as I also enjoy the photos from others. I'm not sure how to get others more involved with submissions either. Maybe it was just a slow year. I did make mention of it at least once on the C-Dory Owners FB group. It is kind of nice seeing my photo(s) in the calendar, but it's nice seeing them on Facebook too, posted on the NMI FB page. Maybe other's aren't as enticed by that... No need to apologize. You got it rolling. Kind of up to the rest of us to make it happen. Kind of like the Burgee thing. I'm hoping there are folks out there ordering the new burgee, since Kathy Wilson set up her machine to make them again... :wink: Colby

 

[JamesTXSD]

The problem is perception - we are all partial to images of our own boat... and it's hard to get a photo of your boat when you are running the boat. So, we wind up with photos of the boat at the dock or on the trailer.

We used to do calendars of our boat even back in our sailing days. These days, we are more inclined to do a "cat calendar," a small desk calendar that you can order online from the Walgreens photo service.

Some of you may know that we had a commercial/portrait photography studio for 30 years... and I am right there with everyone with some mundane boat photos, that still mean a lot to us. I think the hardest part of creating a calendar is going through a year of your own photos to find 13 (one for the cover) that are special. Folks here were doing that "hard part" of the work for Julie. The issue isn't having enough photos for the calendar, but rather: having 13 really special images. Keep in mind, from the factory perspective, they want images that "pop" and have universal appeal. You don't often see images from a trailerable boat manufacturer with their boat on a trailer in their ads... and an ad is what a C-Dory sponsored calendar should be. With a variety of boat models from different owners to show off the range of use of these boats.

While discussion of "lesser quality" images might be fine here on this forum, in a printed format, especially one where you expect people to pay for it, you need a minimum resolution (significantly more for print than what you see on the screen here), sharp focus, good color and contrast. And all that in a unique setting for some eye appeal.

With everyone having "a camera in their pocket" (phone), people want to see something really eye-appealing if they are going to spend money on it. Colby had a couple "calendar worthy" images in what he shared, but it takes more participation that to get the variety that NMI would like to share.

For our personal calendars, I have a folder on my computer desktop that I will drop what I consider an exceptional image into (maybe 1 out of hundreds of images I shoot each month)... it makes that end of the year selection process much easier. But in reality, it would take at least 25 people doing that with submissions of their C-Dory images to get the makings of a calendar. And, it seems there isn't that kind of interest here these days.

And one other consideration: no one likes to submit images and have them rejected. When we had the studio, I had some degrees from the Professional Photographers of America, one of which was an International Affiliated Juror - the qualification to judge professional images at the international level. In a typical year, there would be a panel of approximately 40 jurors brought together to judge around 8,000 images submitted by professional photographers. The coveted selection of around 100 images would go into the PPA Loan Collection and be printed in a table-top book. Consider that the ultimate "calendar selection"... and a .0125% chance of being accepted. I would come home after a week of judging, my mind numb from seeing so many spectacular images.

All that to say: it takes a lot of submissions. From a variety of people submitting. And the resolution: if the exposure is good, with decent color and contrast, an 8x10 size image that would be used on an 8.5x11 printed page would need to be at least a 20mg file (300 ppi - pixels per inch, a width of 3000 pixels, height of 2400 pixels). Most certainly, a calendar printed by Lulu could be less resolution than that, but the printed image quality will suffer. And, ideally, NMI would like to see an image that a non-boating person would look at and think: "Oh, that looks like something I would enjoy!"

Think about every boating ad you've seen over the years: a boat gliding along on plane with glassy smooth water, an idyllic anchorage (with only that specific boat brand shown), boat owners smiling and toasting a sunset... perfect weather, a dramatic location, inviting colors. There are enough enthusiastic owners here - it just takes more participation. Next time you're out with another C-Dory owner, take images of each other's boats under way. Try to come up with one unique image each time you're out in the boat. Pick a unique vantage point, from right at the water level to a drone image. Yes, it will take some time and effort, but the calendar options will expand.

 

[thataway]

To take Jim's post about professional landscape / news photography one step further. I had a patient who was a National Geographic Photographer. He submitted only one of every 3,000 photos to the editors, and far less that that were used. This is shooting with expensive color film and in large format. He happened to be in Anchorage when the 1964 earthquake occurred and many of the color photos of the devastation were his. He had gone to AK for many years to get "the" one photo he wanted--using a view Camera, with just the clouds and mountain, with the right light.

Another friend is a current sports clothing and accessories photographer--travels all over the world, lots of "set up", as well as event photos to get that one published image.

 

[colbysmith]

I think James makes a lot of good points. I guess I'm not to bothered by rejection, and can understand if the photos used are noticeably better than mine. And I've seen a lot of really good pictures. I just take note of what gets published and aim for the same quality. I have been fortunate to have a shot or two used in the last couple years of calendars, but I always submit the maximum allowed. (Ok, this year I kind of took exception, but figured Julie could just cut me off when she received enough. :wink: ) I do think we also need to remember, this is not a C-Dory Calendar, as much as it is a C-Brat calendar. At least that's my belief. Might even be kind of nice to see some shots of C-Brats doing what C-Brats do, as long as the photo is view worthy. We many times hang out with Ranger Tugs or other Yachts, and I think it would be ok to see them in our calendar as well, as long as there is still a C-Dory in the view. Colby

 

[ssobol]

I'd add that usually if you want really good pictures of your boat for a calendar or whatever, you need to go out planning to do that. This involves straightening up and cleaning the boat, getting to a good location, planning how to shoot it, and waiting for the right conditions. Even then it may not work out. Yes, serendipity can occur and you get a very good image by chance when you are out and about, but prior planning can improve the odds of a calendar worthy image a lot.

 

[DayBreak]

In my latest E-mail with Julie at NMI, she says, "I am happy to do things for the C- Brats and I have really come to enjoy doing the calendar." She is excited to make a calendar for us next year and thinks it will be an "epic 2026 C-Brats Calendar!"
Colleen's and my thought is, if we want this to happen, it will take all of us working together to make it happen. Julie plans to be at the Friday Harbor C-Brats gathering next May 15 to 18 if you would like to meet her and discuss the calendar or have questions about the factory. She is really a nice person and represents the factor well at NMI. Gary