Pet Portraits Challenge #15 in the Prime Subjects of Photography series. Hosted by Mark Scott Abeln. Challenge has finished Submit a photograph of a domestic or pet animal. Show full rules Announced: Thursday, 11th August, 2011 (GMT) Submissions: Thursday, 18th August, 2011 – Wednesday, 24th August, 2011 (GMT) Voting: Thursday, 25th August, 2011 – Wednesday, 31st August, 2011 (GMT) Processing rules: Little post-processing acceptable. This is mainly an exercise in straight photography. Capture date rules: No restrictions. Additional rules: Photographing animals is like photographing children - they can move fast and don't follow directions. Avoid using the camera's flash. Direct sunlight or skylight may provide the best results. Like human portraits, having sharp focus on the eyes is usually desirable, while having the background out of focus often helps isolate the subject. DSLRs with fast lenses may get better results than typical compact cameras, due to lower high-ISO noise, faster autofocus, and wide apertures. Lower-performance cameras will get better results if you photograph in direct sunlight, but try to avoid overexposing your subject. You might get more interesting results if you select an image which best represents the nature of the animal -- the catness of a cat, or the doggieness of a dog. Be prepared to take a lot of photos with few keepers. You might want to use burst mode to capture the animal in motion. Maximum number of entries per user: 4 Maximum number of entries in challenge: Not restricted

submission phase has ended 508 entries voting phase has ended 4741 votes