$1,000.00 Pumpkin Carving / Photo Contest

Submit your photos for a chance to have your work featured in the Jack-O-Lantern.com Gallery, and included in the Jack-O-Lantern.com version 2008 screen saver. One overall winner will be selected to receive a cash prize of $1,000.00 USD. Here's how it works:

Step 1:

Download and carve any Jack-O-Lantern.com pumpkin pattern. Only Jack-O-Lantern.com patterns will be considered.

Step 2:

Using your best carving techniques, and a real pumpkin, carve your masterpiece(s). Please note that only photographs of real pumpkins will be accepted. No artificial / foam pumpkins allowed.

Step 3:

Take a digital photograph of your Jack-O-Lantern(s). Get creative! Experiment with one or more carvings, try different lighting and backgrounds... surprise us!

Photographs need to be of sufficient resolution. All photographs will be resized to 1024 x 768 pixels for inclusion in the screen saver. If a small, low resolution photograph can not be adequately sized, it may be included in the Gallery, but not the screen saver.

Tips:

• Turn off your camera's flash, or cover it with your hand or a piece of tape if you don't know how. Then ignore any warning lights or beeps as you hold your camera extra steady and focus. Use a tripod for extra sturdiness. Try taking the picture outside around dusk to take advantage of natural and artificial light. Remember, we want to see your pumpkin, not just the light shinning through.
• Make sure to adjust your angle so you don't see any of the light directly through the pumpkin's eyes or mouth.
• The glow from the pumpkin has its limits, so play around with room or porch lights. Try dimming the room lights or turning on lamps in adjacent rooms. You can also ask a helper or two to shine a light from the side of your pumpkin to give it highlights.

Step 4:

Fill out the Photo Contest Registration Form at the bottom of this page.

Step 5:

After registration, you will be connected to a page with further instructions for uploading your digital photograph. You can submit as many photos as you wish, but only one per pattern. By submitting your photograph, you grant us permission to use the photograph on the Jack-O-Lantern.com web site and all future versions of the Jack-O-Lantern.com screen saver.

Winners:

We will choose one photograph for each of our patterns as our favorite. (We reserve the right to not choose a winner for a particular pattern if we do not receive a suitable entry.) These will be added to our Gallery, with the winning carver and photographer's names. These photos will also be included in future versions of the Jack-O-Lantern.com Screen Saver. In addition to the winners each receiving a fully registered copy of the screen saver, we will also select an overall winner to receive a cash prize of $1,000.00 USD. The decision of the judges is final.

Contest deadline is November 30, 2007. Winners will be notified by January 15, 2008.