What is it?
The Pictures of Cats Competition is a competition to find the best pictures of cats, domestic, feral or wild, submitted by visitors to PoC.
***Visitors from any country can apply. Prizes in currency of competitor’s country***
The pictures can be photographic in nature or some other visual art e.g. drawing, painting etc. Images created using software such as Brushes for Apple computers/iPad are also welcome. Also you can submit photographs that are edited in photoediting software.
All the entries are submitted as digital images. That means paintings etc. will need to be photographed or scanned. This is because all images are uploaded as digital images using the form below. Images created using software are already digital.
Start and End Date
Dates and times are GMT (British time). The Pictures of Cats Competition starts at 12:00 on 14th April 2012 and finishes at 12:00 on 15th September 2012.
Entry
Entry is free. Anyone can enter. All you have to do is submit the pictures using the form. Once the pictures of cats are published the entry is in the competition. There is no maximum number of pictures per competitor. The submission form limits the number of pictures to four. However you can simply use the form more than once, if you wish.
Each single entry (or one of a multiple entry) shall contain a short article of no less than 150 words which describes any topic associated with the picture. e.g. photo technique, the cat’s appearance/character, relationship with cat, drawing technique, painting technique, digital creation techniques etc. Prepare this away from the form and cut and paste it in. Use software like Windows Note Pad or Apple Text Edit.
Videos can also accompany the submitted images. Please either embed the video into your text using the code provided by YouTube or other host site or provide the URL (web address) of the video so that it can be embedded by me into the page of the submission.
Competitors can use an alias or pseudonym if they wish. However, you will need to provide personal details (name address etc. if you win!). “Anonymous” is not allowed for administration reasons.
Please ensure that you provide your email address when submitting to the Pictures of Cats Competition as I might need to contact you for whatever reason.
Image Preparation
If you can, it is a good idea to refine your pictures of cats as best as possible before uploading them to this site (although not essential). Cropping and resizing can be done online at this site: http://www.picresize.com/. There are others. The ideal size before uploading is 500 px width. Try and keep file size down to under 100,000 bytes. Use free picture editing software such as Paint.net (windows software) if you like. This is the site: http://www.getpaint.net/. Another good free image editing software is Picasa – a free Google download.
Adjustments to contrast and brightness can be important. Example (this is subjective, you might prefer the original!):
Original photo by David Reece
Published here under license.
Although professionally produced images are more likely to win, pictures of cats that are unsophisticated can still win as they are just as able to have a quality that places them above the ordinary. Don’t let a lack of technical knowledge stop you trying. I am looking for something that transcends the normal or ordinary.
Prizes
Ist Prize: $500 (United States dollars – USD) or £315 (GBP) or competitor’s currency equivalent. There will be one first prize.
2nd Prize: There will be 2 second prizes of $150 (USD) each or competitor’s currency equivalent.
3rd Prize: There will be 3 third prizes of $50 (USD) each or competitor’s currency equivalent.
Receiving the Prize
The only barrier is receiving the prize money! The best way to receive money internationally is through PayPal. You may decide to open an account. An alternative way to receive payment is to request a product for sale on Amazon at an equivalent price. The alternative is to make an international bank transfer. This method incurs charges that may be an obstacle. I am prepared to absorb bank charges provided they are reasonable. I’ll decide if they are reasonable.
If a winner in the Pictures of Cats Competition does not respond to an email notification of winning with 14 days the prize will go to the next placed individual.
Judging
Three factors will decide the winners in the Pictures of Cats Competition:
- The entry form for each person allows comments. One factor (15% value) in judging will be the number and quality of the comments accompanying the submission.
- The quality of the pictures submitted will be decided by me (70% value).
- The quality of the short article accompanying the pictures shall influence judging by a factor of 15% and be a means of deciding the winner in the event of a tie.
Rights
- PoC Pictures of Cats.org has the right to use the submitted images. This right does not stop the contestant using the images. The usual terms of making a submission apply.
- In order to protect this site, I reserve the right to discontinue the competition if there are not a reasonable number of entries considering the duration of the competition. I am hoping for at least one per two days on average over the duration of the competition but I reserve the right to exercise my discretion.
Update: July 2012 – Due to a number of factors beyond my control the competition is suspended as at 21st July 2012. Deeply sorry, Michael (Admin)
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What Other Visitors Have Said
Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page…
JOZEF DEMONSTRATES HOW TO RELAX
Jozef is the most laid back cat we have ever had the pleasure of having in our lives.
He came to us at 6 weeks of age because his very young mother …
A social climber
Here is Walter, our black and white DSH cat, when he was only a few months old. He loved to haul himself up the net curtains and, when he got to the top,…
Tulip the Cat
I found this poor baby kitten starving on my doorstep last year, she was approximately 8-10 weeks old at the time. I could not find an owner for her, as …
