We are pleased to announce the 1st annual calendar contest at Basenji Forums. Now it's time for you to share with us those amazing Basenji photos that you have been collecting. Don't have one yet? There's still time for a last minute photo shoot! We want to see your BEST Basenji pictures. Starting today send us as many photo entries as you would like to enter to be considered for the contest voting.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reply below. Do not post your entries in this thread, they will need to be emailed to us (see more info below). You can enter as many photos as you'd like, but please make sure they meet our criteria before sending them in.
**1.** Photo must be high quality and digital. This means about 1612x1024 pixels or good enough for an 8" x 10" print. If you submit a photo and the resolution is too low, we won't be able to consider it. Here is a template from CafePress.com to help you decide about image size:
[http://www.cafepress.com/content/si/temp_11.5x9_print.zip](http://www.cafepress.com/content/si/temp_11.5x9_print.zip)
**2.** Photos must include at least one Basenji as the main subject. (no people in the photos, please!)
**3.** Photos should be visually stunning and horizontally oriented (the photo should be wider than it is tall). You've all seen plenty of calendars – photos should be clear and should have a great background (or at the very least, the background should be clear).
**4.** You must own the rights to the photo. The photo must be taken by you (or a family member). Winners for each month may be asked to sign a release form, giving us permission to use the photo in a commercial capacity. You will not have to sign over your rights to the photo, but you will need to agree that BasenjiForums.com can use any photo you submit in our promotional materials or in the Calendar.
**5.** If there is a photo on Basenji Forums which is not yours, but you feel that its a winner. Please kindly contact the owner of the photo and advise them to enter the contest.
**6.** To submit a photo, please email it to [basenjiforums.photos@gmail.com](basenjiforums.photos@gmail.com), we will accept the photo into the contest if it meets the above criteria. Please make sure to include your forum username, calendar month and dog name in the subject line of the email!
**Please remember, do NOT post your photos in this thread.**
You need to submit them by email to [basenjiforums.photos@gmail.com](basenjiforums.photos@gmail.com) with your forum username, calendar month and dog name in the title of the email.
After all entries that have been received through March 10, 2008 a public voting poll will be conducted to narrow the field of calendar contest entries down to the TOP 10 pictures for each month. The TOP 10 pictures will then be posted and another public voting poll will be held to narrow down the entries to the TOP 12 winning entries for the whole calendar year.
If no photos are entered in one of the month's contest, we will chose a photo from our own collection or from the photo gallery. The front of the calendar will feature our basenji Leeno, who inspired us to start this great forum community.
The proceeds from all sales will help pay for the costs associated with running Basenji Forums and the rest will be donated to Basenji Health Endowment as per our member requests.
**TIMELINE:**
Pictures accepted until March 10, 2008.
Round 1 voting March 15-20, 2008.
Final Voting March 21-30, 2008.
Calendars and screensaver will ready on April 1, 2008.
Good luck everyone!
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Update: Due to many member requests, any themed photos will be accepted for each month.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7. To submit a photo, please email it to basenjiforums.photos@gmail.com, we will accept the photo into the contest if it meets the above criteria. Please make sure to include your forum username, calendar month, dog name in the subject line of the email!
I would suggest submitting your pictures in a smaller format by email first, so it does not choke your Email server & computer, with these huge files, unless people know how to send a zip file or stuff it expander file. as long as they have the full size image that is for the final submissions?
just trying to save you from an Email log jam!
Thank you for looking out. We are using google mail for this and it can handle upto 20MB file attachments, so we should be ok, although zip files can help. We will keep you posted if our mail is not handling this too well.
Is there any way to have more than one photo used for each month? Like perhaps make a collage of 3 photos for each month so there are more than 12 dogs. That has always been a little pet peeve of mine when looking at regular calendars.
all my good pics are vertical… lol
and in black and white.. not too exciting for a calendar... lol
juuust my luck!
looking through my pictures I am surprised how many of them have people in them. They like to be with their people.
Getting some great submissions already! Keep them coming!
Is there any way to have more than one photo used for each month? Like perhaps make a collage of 3 photos for each month so there are more than 12 dogs. That has always been a little pet peeve of mine when looking at regular calendars.
This might be possible. Let us see how many submissions we get and what the voters decide.
sooo.. it says no people.. but what about like… parts of a person.. haha like someones legs? i would guess not, but just making sure. and do they HAVE to have a month they represent..?
Also [sorry to be a pest] but do you think that instead of having each months theme be that specific month we could designate themes to each month. Like for example, for March do something like "caught in the act" so people would supply photos of their B doing something sneaky [not hard with a B I'm sure] then like…June could be "How do they sleep like that?!?" so people submit photos of their pup sleeping in odd positions [also not difficult to get with a B]. Then maybe certain months could have a more month-theme. For example, November's theme could be Thanksgiving or Autumn since those are typically what is thought of in Nov anyway. Just another suggestions 
I think it might be best to just let pics be submitted, and then after the voting, decide what might be most appropriate for each month. Otherwise, it really limits what people might submit?
Hey Admin, ball park, how much does it cost to run the forums, and where does the bulk of the cost come from? I only ask so that I know what kind of money we are talking about going to the Forums, and what might go to fundraising.
I like the 2 ideas above me, that we should just submit pics then firgure out the months later, and i like the idea of months that dont really have a theme with them (obviously nov is thanksgiving-ish, dec is christmas-ish, but what about less popular months) for funny things like how do they sleep like that, etc.. i think more fun pictures would get submitted if they dont all have to associate with a month..
Thanks Admin..I'm loving this idea 
all my good pics are vertical… lol
and in black and white.. not too exciting for a calendar... loljuuust my luck!
If we are able to do a collage vs. a single photo per month calendar than B&W & also vertical photos should be able to be used & look nice.
Also [sorry to be a pest] but do you think that instead of having each months theme be that specific month we could designate themes to each month. Like for example, for March do something like "caught in the act" so people would supply photos of their B doing something sneaky [not hard with a B I'm sure] then like…June could be "How do they sleep like that?!?" so people submit photos of their pup sleeping in odd positions [also not difficult to get with a B]. Then maybe certain months could have a more month-theme. For example, November's theme could be Thanksgiving or Autumn since those are typically what is thought of in Nov anyway. Just another suggestions
Sure, submit any theme you like. In the end it will be upto our community to decide which photo goes into the calendar.
Hey Admin, ball park, how much does it cost to run the forums, and where does the bulk of the cost come from? I only ask so that I know what kind of money we are talking about going to the Forums, and what might go to fundraising.
Well, finally someone asked about the costs (money and time) associated with running Basenji Forums.
Running something like this costs pretty penny and quite a bit of effort if you want to keep it free, especially when it starts growing. These costs include but are not limited to servers, bandwidth, software, programming, upgrades, advertising and maintenance.
Luckly I have quite a bit of experience in some of those area and thats why we felt comfortable starting and running this forum.
I will not go into exact figures but lets just say it already cost us a lot and is costing several hunder per month. Yes, it comes out of our own pocket, but we are looking into some venues through which we can make it a community supported resource.
Basenji Forums became a large part of our life and we do everything we can to keep it running smooth every day. If you have anymore questions or want to simply help feel free to PM me privately, this topic if for our fun calendar questions!
Most forums I belong has supporting memberships, like $30-$40 a year for supporting, then silver & gold memberships.
All the pictures that we upload to this site cost the site $$$$ in storage, but it is a nice feature.
Luckily we have not been bombarded with adds like on other free sites MySpace etc. Since there are no adds here, I doubt the owners are actually making any money here.
If it comes down to it what is this site worth to it's users?
It's a great place. I have learned a lot here and made a few friends along the way.
Honestly, it never occurred to me that it cost much money. I guess I figured it was something like yahoo groups, which are free. I was just curious.
I'm sure someone has a picture of one of their basenjis table surfing among the Thanksgiving goodies! Rose is a table surfer, although I'm always in too much of a hurry to get her off the table to ever take a picture!
