Contributors wanted

BIKE,CAR — We want to show your bike,hot rod or kustom in our website. Email us GOOD pictures of your bike or car and a bit of a story behind it, what you’ve done to it, etc.

MUSIC – Are you a local band, and want to promote yourself? Send us your band bio and we’ll put it in our website! ( No boring music allowed!! )

ART — Are you an artist/photographer? send in your submissions so we can showcase your work!

Contributors’ Guidelines:

EL BONESHAKER welcome contributions from everyone, we depend on contributors to supply us with some good event and coverage. We try to get to as many events and places as possible but we cannot be everywhere!

In all cases,don’t waste your time writing about or photographing events or vehicles that don’t fit our site. We love bobbers,choppers,hot rods,and kustoms. We have no interest in fat-tired motorcycles or boring cars.

Text Guidelines:

• Get your facts right. That includes spelling of names and places. Facts and spellings are easy to check in this age of instant information availability on the internet. Run a Google check and make sure you have it right. When interviewing a car owner about his car, make sure you get the correct spelling of his name and anyone else that helped on the car.

• Most word processing programs have built-in spell check and grammar check. Use it. It won’t always be right, because it won’t recognize some of the words and names you’ll use until you enter them into your own personal dictionary. At least the program will flag a possible discrepancy and give you the opportunity to fix it. Spell check also will not catch the wrong word spelled correctly (right, write, rite; to, too, two).

• Give your story some variety of words. Get a thesaurus if you need to.

• Keep to the subject. If you’re writing an article about Chris’s ’52 Panhead, there should be no more than a passing reference, if any at all, to other bikes he has owned or built. Those can be the subjects of other stories. Likewise, if you are writing about a run, the readers are more interested in the run itself and what happened there than in what time you left home to get there, how late your mate was, or how much green mold was on the walls in the Hell Motel you stayed in during your journey.

Photo Guidelines:

• High resolution digitals are the preferred format. usually means you’ll need a camera in the 6MP (mega pixel) range at a minimum.

• Pay attention to the details of your photograph. Watch out for reflections on shiny surfaces like chrome and paint. We don’t need any pictures of you reflecting in a fender or spotlight.

• Pay attention to details of the photo subject, too. On a bike or car feature, shoot pictures from every conceivable angle and of every detail of the bike or car. If text mentions a certain feature of the bike or car, there should be at least one picture of it.

• Include people in your shots. At events, get greasers and pretty girls. YES WE LOVE PRETTY GIRLS!!!

• Shoot cars from several different perspectives. At a car show, don’t shoot every car from the same angle. Get down on your knees and shoot a few. Watch backgrounds, too.

• People look better photographed at a slight angle. Such a view gives perspective. Have you ever seen a good driver’s license photo? No one has. It’s because the pictures are taken with harsh light and straight from the front. Even supermodels have lousy DL photos.

• Speaking of light, late afternoon/early evening light makes the best photographs. It’s warmer (more yellowish) and has fewer harsh shadows. Slightly overcast days are good too, because the light is diffused. Again, it’s better for shadow avoidance. A little bit of fill flash helps with the shadows if nature isn’t cooperating.

• Watch the focus. Make sure the camera is focused on the right thing. If you’re not careful to place your focusing grid in the right place, auto-focus cameras will sometimes focus on something other than the intended subject, such as on a firewall when you wanted a sharp picture of the valve cover. Sometimes it’s best to turn off the automatic focus and dial it in manually.

Last but not least, enjoy yourself. it’s all about having some fun, so don’t take yourself or us too seriously. Include some humor and a little irreverence in your words and pictures. Keep ‘em comin’. EBMF!!

Send them to: contribution@elboneshaker.co.nz