Your photos are always welcome for use on the Cats site at About. Please observe the following guidelines to save us both time.
How to Send Photos
To submit a photo, please email me at cats.guide@about.com.
- Use "Photo Submittal" as the subject of your email
If you are submitting for a specific gallery, use something like "Tabby Cats Photo Submittal." NOTE: I do not consider photos submitted directly for the Cat Picture of the Week Gallery. Those are selected from pictures submitted for various other galleries.
- Use JPG Format
The photos should be saved as .jpg files, and should be a minimum of 500 pixels by 500 pixels. The optimum size for viewing in my galleries is 640x480. If you don't know how to resize photos, don't fret about it; I can do that for you, unless they're too small. As a general rule, it's better to send photos too large rather than too small (but not more than one MB, please, and "landscape" is preferable to "portrait" layout.)
- Send as an Attachment
Please do not embed your photo in the email, but send it as an attachment. Our Email Guide has instructions for attaching files to emails for most email clients.
- Please do not Use Special Photo-Share Programs
If you have a special program for saving photos on your hard drive or on the Web (a photo-share program, etc.), please do NOT use that program for sending photos. While they may be convenient for you and your friends and family for sharing photos, I do not have comparable programs for opening them, and the online photos may expire before I've even seen them.
- Script and Frames
While attractive at times, fancy frames and comments embedded into the photo may be wasted in the photo layouts. They don't show up well in the small thumbnails, and often distract from the natural beauty of the cat portrayed. So do automatic dates seen on some digi-cam pictures.
What to Include Along with Photos:Please copy and paste the form below and be sure to include all the information requested. (To C/P, just highlight the form with your cursor, then right click your mouse and choose "Copy". In your email right click again and choose "Paste.")
Sorry, but I cannot use photos submitted without the following information:
- Your full name (first and last)
- Alias, if applicable (such as your forum login name):
- Tell me if you want your full name shown in the photo credit/copyright, first name only, or an alias (delete the unwanted choices). Please note that you may jeopardize your copyright protection if you use anything other than your full name.
- Email address: (will not be displayed)
- Your cat's name and a little information about the cat. My galleries can accomodate up to 2400 characters of text, and three or four paragraphs are preferred. Avoid short descriptions like "My cat's name is Al and I love him a lot." And PLEASE, do not type in all caps or all lower case. Remember that people all over the world will be reading your message.
- Please insert this phrase:
"I certify that I am the author or sole owner of the material I am submitting to About.com. About.com and its licensees may reproduce, distribute, publish, display, edit, modify, create derivative works and otherwise use the material for any purpose in any form and on any media. I agree to indemnify About.com for all damages and expenses that may be incurred in connection with the material."
For more information, please see our user agreement .
Because of the large number of photo submittals, I will not be able to tell you in advance exactly when or where your photo will be used, or if in fact it has been used. Since many photos are used in the Cats Photo Calendar, and I usually work with the current month's pictures first, it may be several months before your picture may appear, e.g. a photo of a tortoiseshell kitty (November) sent in February, may not appear until November.
However, if you want to include a "read receipt" in your email's configuration, I will be happy to send a receipt back to acknowledge that I have seen it.
Thank you in advance for your patience, and I hope you enjoy seeing your kitty's photo online, as much as my readers do!
Franny Syufy
About Cats
http://cats.about.com
www.About.com
About.com is part of The New York Times Company
| 