TOPE stands for: "Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition", and is an initiative of the members of the Olympus OM mailing list. Four times per year, people can send in pictures taken around a certain theme. The TOPE events were introduced as a special version of the ADITL (A Day in The Life) events, that were introduced by George Anderson, and which were held twice a year.

The full schedule of planned TOPE events can be found by clicking on the "Events" button in the top menu, or by clicking here.

The amount of submissions is limited to 1 per person, per event. Just make sure you pick the one you like best.

For each event, the same type of schedule is applied, the various steps are explained down below (with, as an example, the actual dates for TOPE 9):

• Shooting period:
  6 weeks starting from the opening of the shooting period.
  For TOPE 9: from (roughly) February 14th, until the end of March.
• Submission period for initial launch:
  All of the shooting period + 2 additional weeks.
  For TOPE 9: from February 14th, until April 14th.
• Initial launch:
  Two weeks after the end of the shooting period.
  For TOPE 9: around April 15th.
• Anonymity period:
  Lasts for two weeks after the initial launch, during this period, no names will be shown below the submissions, so people do not know yet who shot what shot, and may be less biased in their feedback. During all of this time further submissions are still welcome, and they will be posted on an ad-hoc basis, as soon as I can get around to doing so.
  For TOPE 9: the anonymity period will last until the end of April.
• Final two weeks:
  As the name suggests, after the anonymity period is lifted, the TOPE event goes into its last two weeks. Again, during these two weeks further submissions are still welcome, and they will be posted on an ad-hoc basis (though they will not be anonymous anymore). After those two weeks, the event officially closes, and only in the case that someone has explicitely asked me beforehand if they can send in a shot a bit later, will submissions after this deadline be allowed.
  For TOPE 9: the event closes roughly mid-May.

The picture should be a .jpg file, and the size should be maximally 800 pixels on the long side (be it the width, or the height).
Submissions which are bigger than this size will be resized by me, to fit the 800 pixel limitation. Smaller pictures will not be resized.
Note: For TOPE 1 through 16 the maximum size was 640 pixels.

All submissions are to be sent attached to an e-mail to: ogreve@millennics.com.
Please make sure not to forget to include the image information in the body of the message! The format of the descriptions is treated a bit further down below.

In the description, please type all the information (you want to be displayed on the page) about the photo. I.e.: camera, lens, film, aperture, shutter speed, etc. and a little description or story about the image.

On the pages a CGI script is being used that automatically picks up the pictures and comments. In order to make this script pick up the descriptions correctly, the (eventual) data must comply to a simple format.
An example (along with the explanation) of this format can be found a bit further ahead.

The descriptions should adhere to a simple format. An example will be most illustrative, so such an example follows now. Below the example you can find an explanation of the format:

	----begin of example (do not include this line in the file)----
	Submitter's name:
	Olaf Greve
	
	Title:
	Dutch pride.
	
	Gear used:
	OM-4Ti + 24/2.8 + F280 flash + tripod + cable release.
	
	Diaphragm:
	f16
	
	Shutter speed:
	1/125
	
	Film used:
	Kodakcolor Gold 200 ASA.
	
	Technical information:
	I used the 24mm to get a heavily distorted perspective. The F280 was 
	used for fill flash.
	
	Subject information: 
	Me on top of one of the Dutch dikes. Not only is The Netherlands famous 
	for its cheese, tulips, wind mills, etc., but also for civil engineering 
	works to keep the sea out. Below my feet, a fine example of this can be 
	found. 
	----end of example (do not include this line in the file)----
	

The example should already clarify a lot, but in case something is not clear, down below follows an explanation:

The format is:

	Header title (1 line, no more, no less)
	Actual data for the item (this can span multiple lines)
	<1 blank line before you type the next header title, this is a separator>
	Etc.
	

The way the script works, you can type whatever header names and descriptions you like (and add a few or leave a few out), and the script will pick them up. However, for "uniformness sake" I recommend to use the above example as a template and fill that out as desired.
To capitalise on the layout: the first line of each entry (i.e. the header title) is the actual text that will be printed in the left column of a table, and the second entry (i.e. the actual text matching the header) is what will be printed in the right column of the table.
The blank line is used as a separator, and should appear between each entry. The colons and punctuation marks are not used as separators, therefore they are not required and can be used as desired.

Sure!
You can perform simple HTML formatting of your own text, by directly inserting HTML tags in the decription, an example of this would be to type the following in the description file:

	Technical information:
	I used the <b>24mm</b> to get a heavily distorted perspective, 
	to get one of those cartoon like funny faces. 
	The F280 was used for <i>fill flash</i>.
	

Which will then be rendered as follows:

	Technical information:
	I used the 24mm to get a heavily distorted perspective, 
	to get one of those cartoon like funny faces. 
	The F280 was used for fill flash.
	

So by using simple tags, the word "24mm" will be rendered in bold face (i.e. 24mm), and the words "fill flash" in italics (i.e. fill flash). Don't knock yourselves out doing the HTML though :)

If someone wants to add some HTML and isn't certain about how to do it, please contact me at: ogreve@millennics.com.

No Worries!

I will personally check each submitted entry to make sure the eventual format is correct for the script.
It will be of great help to me if the submissions more or less fit the guidelines, so I don't have to do too much editing, but in case something goes wrong, I'll make the corrections. In case of doubt, I will send an e-mail to work towards a good resolution.