# 2nd Annual Calendar Photo Contest Commentary Thread



## Josh (Sep 21, 2009)

Please use this thread to comment on photos submitted to the 2010 Calendar Photo Contest!


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## tortoise_lover (Sep 22, 2009)

is it OK to follow this contest with 5 megapixels camera??


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## Josh (Sep 22, 2009)

We cannot print any photos that are less than 6 megapixels. Sorry but the image just will not turn out well when blown up to calendar size.


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## Maggie Cummings (Sep 23, 2009)

Where do we vote? I wasn't here last year for the contest so I don't know how it works...


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## Yvonne G (Sep 23, 2009)

voting hasn't been set up yet. There will be a separate thread once all the pictures have been submitted.

Yvonne


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## way2gfy (Sep 23, 2009)

Very cute pics so far. I like 'pumpkin face'.... Wish I could get some of those out of my DT!


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## Josh (Sep 23, 2009)

there are already some great submissions! keep 'em coming! i have a feeling this is going to be a really close contest!


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## Candy (Sep 23, 2009)

Terry I love Pio up on the rock he's so sweet looking. I was also so surprised to see Trevor it's been so long since I've seen a picture of him he's getting so big Kate and my son Noah just thought that the Spider Tortoise had such a great shell he couldn't get over looking at it (he's 10). I love seeing pictures of everyone's tortoises, but I'm waiting to post Dale's until I can hire Tim/Robyn to come take it for me with that great camera of theirs. I figure we'll have a better chance at the cover that way.  Oh and Josh there's no beating Costco's paper and prices they do great work for the money.


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## chadk (Sep 28, 2009)

Can the pic be of a tort + other animal or tort + human? Or is this just "tort" doing something "tortie"?


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## Stephanie Logan (Sep 30, 2009)

OK, what about the contest for Best Tortoise Name?

I mean really, how could Kevlar von Helm NOT win? And I hooted with laughter over Squirtel and Buckwheat...too funny! Some of you are so creative with names.


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## Maggie Cummings (Oct 4, 2009)

I simply don't think Terrypins picture should be allowed. It's just too cute. pretty and awesome!!! Bob doesn't stand a chance against a baby picture like that...


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## Stazz (Oct 4, 2009)

Lol I agree Maggs, Terry's pic of the egg baby is awesome !!! I still can't choose what pic to submit for Tallula, guess I'll have to take more!


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## Josh (Oct 4, 2009)

chadk said:


> Can the pic be of a tort + other animal or tort + human? Or is this just "tort" doing something "tortie"?



Any photo with a real live tortoise in it is admissible, but remember you have to appeal to the masses to win the votes!


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## gummybearpoop (Oct 8, 2009)

I haven't named my tortoises yet, is it ok to submit pictures of nameless tortoises?


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## Yvonne G (Oct 8, 2009)

gummybearpoop said:


> I haven't named my tortoises yet, is it ok to submit pictures of nameless tortoises?



Sure! A name isn't a requirement.

Yvonne


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## Stephanie Logan (Oct 8, 2009)

This photo contest thread is TERRIBLE. Absolutely terrible. How am I supposed to cook, clean or go to work when I am spending so much time perusing chelonian portraits? And those names...have mercy, please!

When do we get to vote?


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## Yvonne G (Oct 8, 2009)

Josh will put up the voting thread on October 21.

Yvonne


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## Candy (Oct 8, 2009)

GBtortoises, what a beautiful enclosure you have for your tortoise. I love it.


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## tortoisenerd (Oct 10, 2009)

Spring's picture is interesting...that totally got a second look! hehe


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## Josh (Oct 13, 2009)

*Please keep in mind that if your original photo was 6MP and then you crop it, it is no longer 6MP and will likely be thrown out should it win. We cannot print low resolution photos in the calendar because they will turn out pixelated and grainy. Sorry.*


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## Stephanie Logan (Oct 13, 2009)

Maybe people can re-submit the original (before they re-sized it on Photobucket)? Would that work, though? I thought pictures had to be made smaller to post them here, if one doesn't want to leave link.


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## Yvonne G (Oct 13, 2009)

Josh said:


> *Please keep in mind that if your original photo was 6MP and then you crop it, it is no longer 6MP and will likely be thrown out should it win. We cannot print low resolution photos in the calendar because they will turn out pixelated and grainy. Sorry.*



Because of what Josh has said about the size of the pictures, I had to remove my original submission because it was very small. I had to make it small to put on my website, and I didn't save it in its original size. When I tried to make it bigger it lost its clarity, so I knew it wouldn't be any good for the calendar. I substituted the baby desert tortoise picture. If you think I should be disqualified, that's ok, it won't hurt my feelings.

Yvonne


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## Josh (Oct 13, 2009)

Making the photo smaller to post on the website is fine, but we will need the original photo to have it printed in the calendar. Note the differences between _cropping_ and _resizing_...


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## Yvonne G (Oct 13, 2009)

Josh said:


> Making the photo smaller to post on the website is fine, but we will need the original photo to have it printed in the calendar. Note the differences between _cropping_ and _resizing_...



That's just it, Josh. I didn't save the original picture, and I entered the picture from my web site, which was very small and not able to enlarge it.

I resized the picture to be less pixels then put it on the website. When I open it from the website in my picture program (Irfanview) and re-size it back up to more pixels, it turns out fuzzy. Can't be made bigger.

YVonne


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## Crazy1 (Oct 14, 2009)

Yvonne, If you had to delete your original pic and post a different one before judging I think that should be fine. No disqualifications needed at this point. 
Maggie I am glad to see you got Bob in the contest.  
I agree Stephanie how am I suppose to get anything done looking at the great pics here and trying to pick one to submit?v


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## Stephanie Logan (Oct 14, 2009)

I continue to be intrigued by the charismatic Bob, of water-dish-high-centering and furniture-dragging fame. I feel like Maggie caught him at just the right moment in her photo entry. I can almost hear him thinking, "Hey, Food Goddess, look at me! Watch what I can do!"

[I must cite Yvonne for the Food Goddess term; I read it on one of her threads and it is just so appropriate for tortoise keepers :-]


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## Josh (Oct 18, 2009)

Only a few days left for submissions! Spread the word!!


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## mctlong (Oct 18, 2009)

I've posted my resized photo, but how do I submit the original, 8MP photo?


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## Josh (Oct 18, 2009)

Good question, Shelly... If your photo is among the most voted, I will send you an email requesting the full-size original photo.


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## Candy (Oct 18, 2009)

Wow Dale's got some heavy competition for the calendar this year.


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## mctlong (Oct 19, 2009)

This is going to be a great calender! I'm totally going to buy one. It doesn't matter if my little JoJo makes it in or not. I love the way people are bringing out the personalities of their torts.


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## reptylefreek (Oct 19, 2009)

I LOVE the name butters... like south park. "Gee guys I dont know about this" LOL. LOVE SOUTH PARK!


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## sarthak (Oct 20, 2009)

nice pics!


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## Yvonne G (Oct 20, 2009)

There was one post on the submissions thread by Zekie that didn't have a picture in it. I sent Zekie a PM letting them know I would post the picture for them if they would send it to me, and I've deleted that post from the submissions thread. Also, there were two posts with no picture, but comments. I deleted them also. Remember, the submissions thread is only for submissions, not for comments.

Yvonne


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## Yvonne G (Oct 20, 2009)

mctlong said:


> This is going to be a great calender! I'm totally going to buy one. It doesn't matter if my little JoJo makes it in or not. I love the way people are bringing out the personalities of their torts.



I totally agree! The pictures are wonderful. Too bad Gummybearpoop didn't enter a picture of one of his radiated's or stars. Too bad we can't enter more than one picture! Or how about a Bob calendar!!!

I'm really surprised at the eagerness of folks to participate in the calendar contest. No prize, only the fact that their tortoise will be immortalized in 2010! 

Yvonne


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## terryo (Oct 20, 2009)

A Bob calendar??????? YES..I'm in. Who doesn't love Bob!


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## Stazz (Oct 20, 2009)

I will buy TWO Bob calendars


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## Crazy1 (Oct 20, 2009)

OK I'm in on a Bob calendar.  
Now I must get this off my chest. I think we should be able to post one pic of each species we have. (Don't panic Josh, I know that many pics might crash the site  ) But what great pics we all have. I had such a hard time choosing one. I really love the pic of Bixby a DT. But I guess I will have to save it for next year. 

Good Luck Everyone. All the pics are great this year.


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## Meg90 (Oct 20, 2009)

I finally submitted one!

ARRGHSSHH It was like they KNEW that I wanted to take a nice picture of them. All three! Uncooperative as all get out. I got lots of "mom" pictures---lighting off, composition iffy, blurry. But very few great shots. (to me they are all great, I mean calender great )

Those goofs. I hope I make the cut. I need a calender. And a tortforum calender would ROCK.


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## stells (Oct 21, 2009)

Crazy1 said:


> OK I'm in on a Bob calendar.
> Now I must get this off my chest. I think we should be able to post one pic of each species we have. (Don't panic Josh, I know that many pics might crash the site  ) But what great pics we all have. I had such a hard time choosing one. I really love the pic of Bixby a DT. But I guess I will have to save it for next year.
> 
> Good Luck Everyone. All the pics are great this year.



Agreed... i had a hell of a time picking... there were so many of each of my tortoises i could have used... had to go for the Moroccan baby though as they don't seem to be seen all that often


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## laurun3 (Oct 21, 2009)

There's soooo many pictures. I don't know who I'm going to vote for yet! Did we set a record this year?


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## Yvonne G (Oct 21, 2009)

I'm hoping the voting turns out so that we have a different type of tortoise for each month. 

Maybe next year we can have categories so that we can have a different kind of tortoise for each month. That way we could submit more than one photo, but only one photo per category.

Yvonne


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## Maggie Cummings (Oct 21, 2009)

I've taken great pictures of Bob and showed you all. But in order to get a photo in the calendar I had to borrow a camera because of sizing and I only had it for one day, so I don't like the picture of Bob I submitted. I realize he was indeed catching a strawberry that was thrown at him, but I think his squash pics are better,I'm just hoping he gets some votes at all with that lousy picture. There are so many really good pictures...


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## Stazz (Oct 21, 2009)

Maggie, Bob will have his own calendar for sure ! i don't know one person that wouldn't agree  We all love Bob !
The pic I eventually chose absolutely 100% depicts our little Tallula girl  Nick made me choose it, in a way, but I actually love it. There are too many really great pics of her ! Sigh.


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## Alireza (Oct 21, 2009)

so...you will sell these calenders?


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## Crazy1 (Oct 21, 2009)

Yes Alireza here is how it will work. Josh correct me if I am wrong. 
Josh will place the pic next to a vote button. you vote on as many pics as Josh states one person can vote on. Then the winners are picked by the amount of votes they receive. Once the 13 pics are chosen the original pics are sent to Josh if need be and they are printed as a calendar. The price is set and You can order as many calendars as you want. When they are finished being printed they are sent to you.

No offence to anyone intended but hopefully this year the calendars will be of better quality paper than last and bound better. (Costco does a great job and the price is pretty good-theres my pitch ).

I think this year we have many more pics than last entered.


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## Alireza (Oct 21, 2009)

How can I buy one? (it doesn't matter if it cantains Jared or not) I live in Iran.can you mail it here?


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## Crazy1 (Oct 21, 2009)

I'm sure it can be since we all pay for shipping. Josh will let you know in a post how you can order one an how it will be shipped.

Voting should start after today so Good luck to everyone who submitted a pictue.


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## Yvonne G (Oct 21, 2009)

That picture of Stagger Lee is just too precious! I was wondering why you didn't post one, Rebecca. Waited for the LAST MINUTE!!

Yvonne


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## Stephanie Logan (Oct 21, 2009)

Here's an idea to solve the Bob problem. Maybe we could take multiple pictures per calendar page--a Bob montage, or a Stagger series. That would require more technical skills of how to merge the best shots onto one page, or maximum size, and maybe the rules could limit the number of images so they're not too small to be fully appreciated. Some of you could even do menagerie mosaics with your various reptiles, or we could keep it limited to tortoises, but not necessarily all of the same tortoise!

I'd be even more eager to buy a calendar that reflects many of my favorite chelonian celebrities, instead of merely 13...


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## Josh (Oct 21, 2009)

Last year we had 66 entries! only 3.5 more hours to beat that record!


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## Mochii (Oct 22, 2009)

Whew. I made it right?? I almost didn't make it! haha. 

How long do we vote for? 

- M&M


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## spring pace (Oct 22, 2009)

tortoisenerd said:


> Spring's picture is interesting...that totally got a second look! hehe



thanks kate, i worked really hard getting that pic, so many got thrown out because of shadows and angles.  i cant remember if i enlarged the pic or not, so im not sure its going to work for the calendar because of the new pixel size. fingers crossed he get the votes anyway. smiles, spring


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## Alireza (Oct 22, 2009)

when will the voting start?


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## Stephanie Logan (Oct 22, 2009)

Yes, when and where do we vote? I have my keyboard in hand, ready to cast my ballot!


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## Jacqui (Oct 23, 2009)

To all of you who have entered, you have done an outstanding job. Every shot and tortoise in them is so special. Makes trying to narrow down my choices almost impossible. I think we need to have a calendar with each week having it's own page...then maybe, just maybe I could have all my favorites.

Once more, thanks to all of you for entering...and good luck. May all my favorites win!


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## sammi (Oct 23, 2009)

That WOULD be awesome if there was a way to incorporate ALL the photos..


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## Alireza (Oct 23, 2009)

why the voting doesnt start?


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## spikethebest (Oct 23, 2009)

Josh needs to put all the photos into one thread and set it up properly. that takes a little bit of time. please be patient, the voting WILL start SOON!!


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## Alireza (Oct 23, 2009)

I think if you just do some edits and put pictures togather,you can use more photos.


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## Jacqui (Oct 23, 2009)

Alireza said:


> I think if you just do some edits and put pictures togather,you can use more photos.


Maybe have the top ones be for the months and have those not picked (can't call them losers, because none of them are) be used for the back page or two as a soild sheet of smaller images? Something to consider for the future maybe. I know I would be willing to pay more for more of them being used.


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## terryo (Oct 23, 2009)

Jacqui said:


> Alireza said:
> 
> 
> > I think if you just do some edits and put pictures togather,you can use more photos.
> ...



Oh...I think that's a great idea...Then everyone would be in the calendar.


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## gummybearpoop (Oct 23, 2009)

That would be cool to use the pictures not picked as a collage for a backdrop on the last page. I am sure everyone wouldn't mind paying the extra buck it would probably cost....plus it might push calendar sales.

BTW, how much are the calendars going to cost?


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## Jacqui (Oct 23, 2009)

gummybearpoop said:


> That would be cool to use the pictures not picked as a collage for a backdrop on the last page. I am sure everyone wouldn't mind paying the extra buck it would probably cost....plus it might push calendar sales.
> 
> BTW, how much are the calendars going to cost?



I would agree with it causing more sales. Everybody would want one (or more likely several) if their tortoise was on it. Sorta bragging rights maybe?


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## spring pace (Oct 23, 2009)

i havent seen that link yet, wanst it to be set up for the 21st of this month?


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## tortoisenerd (Oct 23, 2009)

I would also love to have a collage of everyone's photos on the back! Then, I could say Trevor was on a calendar, regardless. Get it, "on", not "in"? hehe


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## Candy (Oct 23, 2009)

I agree with Robyn Costco has the best calendars for the price. I don't like cheap calendars they rip. I also think it's a great idea to put everyones tortoise picture who don't make the calendar on a back page or even have them printed on selected days of a certain month. I think they can do that. Great idea whoever had it. I do think it would sell a lot more calendars that way. Just my input.


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## Alireza (Oct 24, 2009)

Higher Price = Everyone's Tortoise's Pictures on the Calender!!
I agree with this.


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## Isa (Oct 24, 2009)

I loveee the idea


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## mctlong (Oct 24, 2009)

Those are great ideas - the remaining photos all posted on the last page and some individual photos posted on selected days. Can Cosco do that?


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## sammi (Oct 24, 2009)

I would definitely be willing to pay more for the calendar if there were a few extra torts in it..what could be better? =]


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## Chewbecca (Oct 24, 2009)

I think the multi-pic calendar is a great idea, too!

I may own a redfoot tortoise, but I love ALL tortoises, and I would LOVE to see ALL of them in the calendar.


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## Alireza (Oct 24, 2009)

so...I think that everyone agree with this idea...let's see what is the opinion of the moderator.


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## sammi (Oct 26, 2009)

Voting? Anyone heard anything?


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## shesdisarming (Oct 26, 2009)

sammi said:


> Voting? Anyone heard anything?



Hopefully some news soon! :]


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## mctlong (Oct 27, 2009)

..... ?


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## gummybearpoop (Oct 27, 2009)

Did Tim & Robin submit any pictures? I don't recall seeing any of their Pyxis pics in the submissions.


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## Crazy1 (Oct 27, 2009)

I heard that Josh is finializing the voting system and it will be posted soon.


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## Josh (Oct 27, 2009)

Voting will begin tonight!


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## sammi (Oct 27, 2009)

YAY!


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## Isa (Oct 27, 2009)

yyaayy I can't wait to vote


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## Yvonne G (Oct 27, 2009)

gummybearpoop said:


> Did Tim & Robin submit any pictures? I don't recall seeing any of their Pyxis pics in the submissions.



Now that you mention it, I don't remember seeing any of their tortoise pictures in the contest either. Too bad, they have some beauts.

Yvonne


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## Anfi (Nov 6, 2009)

Thank you for the beautiful photos!


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