As the world of Magic writing has expanded greatly through blogs, new sites, and general interest - one area has been left nearly untouched. That is: photography of events. Sure we have more iPhone photos hitting the web than ever, but that is not what I'm talking about.

Wizards of the Coast has a professional photographer, Craig Gibson, who covers the Pro Tour snapping thousands of photos of each event. He's a super nice guy and does a great job - but we see only get to see a very small number of these photos and they are not made available to us in any use beyond what Wizards publishes of them and in limited forms.

I want to change this.

ManaNation wants to change this.

We want to see an upsurge in photographers at events. Providing a grassroots photography movement. We know there are many Magic fans who are also amateur (or professional) photographers. We will offer to pay for photos from any premier Magic events.

Here are some details:

• On the whole, we're interested in "major" events like Grand Prixes, Pro Tours, SCG Opens, and other comparable events.
• Pay rate will be variable (median expected is $20) based on quantity of photos, resolution, quality, and other such variables. It will be negotiated on a case by case basis.
• Photos should have a minimum resolution of 2560x1920. This is the resolution of a 5 megapixel camera. By using higher resolution you increase the flexibility and future uses of the photos.
• When we purchase the photos, we would purchase complete rights to the photos to be able to reuse them in any way and medium we choose. This allows us to then turn the majority (if not all of them) back to the community by releasing them under a Creative Commons license.

You don't need a fancy camera, just a general point and click should be enough. What you do need is patience, a steady hand, and an understanding of how to maximize your camera's capability.

Now admittedly, photography of a static sort of game is quite a challenge. Everything begins looking the same. Players at a table are players at a table. But the focus here should be the people and the cards. Don't be afraid to be artistic with unusual cropping, close-ups, and interesting compositions. We provide a suggested shot list as a basis below.

Here is a suggested shot list to help you get going, this is a complete suggestion, do not think of this as a basis for photo sets to be submitted.

• Crowd shots, the more people the better
• Vendor booths and their displays
• Player "action shots" - Action being a relative term
• Profile photos of big name photos (you may need to name who they are for us)
• Table shots of cards
• Exterior Venue photos
• Table closeups of hands, shuffling, cards, etc.

There you have it Photographers, the gauntlet has been thrown, will you pick it up?

-- Trick