Photography Contest!

Yup, this is what you'll get if you win.

Horsephotos.com puts out a racing calendar every year, and as I am one of their photographers, I get a complimentary calendar for my contributions. This year I have an extra, and thought it might be fun to hold a photography contest and give it to the winning entrant.

To put things on a level playing field, I decided to make the subject matter limited not just to racing, but to all animals. (I wasn't able to journey to my first horse racing track until I was a senior in high school, after all--how would 17-year-old me feel?) Even though technically, humans are animals, please no people shots. (Though if you sent me a fantastic picture of Bono, I would possibly make an exception. He sort of roars like a lion, right?)



Also, this photography contest is limited to pictures taken with a camera phone. I know what you're thinking--but you're a professional photographer, why would you hold a contest taken with the most basic and dinky of cameras? Because I want this to be a fair fight, that's why! Now I know not all camera phones are created equal, so just try to do your best.

In short, THE RULES:

• Photo must be taken with a camera phone. Please be honorable about this and DON'T CHEAT. I will more than likely be able to tell if you are fibbing and I will throw out your entry.
• Photo must be of an animal. It doesn't matter who owns the animal, just as long as I don't get any pictures of your Uncle Ted sleeping after Thanksgiving or something. Pictures of people will be tossed. This probably goes without saying, but if you send me any pictures of animal abuse, I'll  retaliate by sending you a virus that will explode your computer and cause your house to burn down.
• Pictures must be submitted in high-resolution. A tiny cropped photo is simply hard to see and probably means you're trying to hide the fact it's of poor quality. 
• Pictures may be edited using Instagram, etc. But, in all honesty, the less Photoshopped the picture is, the better chance it has of winning. I'm not crazy about excessive use of photo editing.
• You must be following me on Twitter or be a fan of my photography on Facebook. I don't know how you would find out about this contest if you aren't already doing one of these, anyway...
• Only one entry per person. Make it count!
  
• Entries must be sent to me at wowhorse@gmail.com by midnight Central Time on January 27, 2012. Please include your first and last name in your email and put PHOTO CALENDAR CONTEST in the subject of the email.
• Contest is open strictly to the United States and Canada. I'm really sorry to all of my friends down in Oz, but you're basically a whole planet away. Then again, if you're willing to pony up the shipping cost, sure, go crazy.  

Pictures inside this 12-month calendar include Zenyatta, Victoire Pisa, Animal Kingdom, Shackleford, Ruler on Ice, First Dude, Game on Dude, Stay Thirsty, Cape Blanco, Havre de Grace, and Drosselmeyer. If you're into that kind of thing, I'll sign it for you. My favorite photo of Zenyatta I took happens to be on my birth month.

I'll post the winning photo here on my blog. Good luck to all the entrants! May the Horse be with You!