2023 GSD Welfare Fund Calendar Competition

The festive period is all too rapidly approaching and so it's time to put together the calendar for next year. Following tradition, we want to feature your amazing photos of your beautiful and beloved German Shepherds.

This year, however, we’re trying something a little different. Each month will have a particular theme and the winning photos will be the ones that best match those themes. Here’s an opportunity to dig out an old favourite, or stage something for that perfect shot.

IMPORTANT UPDATE

Please note that the themes are intended as a guide to encourage a variety of fun images, we have no intention of them getting in the way of attracting great photos for the calendar. For example, a photo that relates to the theme anecdotally rather than as an explicit visual theme is fine - although please include the anecdote if that is the case.

To make sure that we also get your best and favourite photos we're adding a Wildcard option that doesn't relate to the listed themes and we'll pick from these if either we don't receive a suitable photo for a given theme, or we decide that a wildcard entry is better inclusion than the submitted theme photos. If you've already submitted your photos then we'll contact you to invite you to submit another wildcard entry if you wish for no extra fee.

The wildcard submissions will also be included in selecting the cover image for the calendar.

The themes for each of the months are as follows:

January	Quite naturally the New Year is the theme here, and that could take a multitude of forms, such as the Near Year celebrations, or a resolution for the coming year.
February	In the middle of February we have Valentine's Day, and who loves you more than your dogs do? 😃
March	March hopefully heralds the arrival of Spring, and also the entirety of nature preparing for a bit of action. This sends some animals a little crazy, and so the theme is ‘Mad as a March Hare’.
April	In April we celebrate Easter - how does your dog mark the occasion?
May	Through May, Spring assumes its golden mantle, preparing for Summer’s arrival. All around are the blooms of the Spring flowers - the theme for May.
June	Summer is here and we enjoy the warmer sun, and the theme of midsummer.
July	In July we appreciate the summer holidays, maybe as a memory from our youth, or anticipating a trip to somewhere special.
August	Throughout August we enjoy splendid days on the beach - often a firm favourite for our canine companions and days at the beach is our theme.
September	It’s Back to School in September, and that's our theme for the month.
October	As October fades we watch the lengthening shadows nervously as we prepare for Halloween - the theme for the month.
November	Within November we pause in solemn silence to honour the service dogs that constantly demonstrate their bravery in times of crisis and war.
December	Christmas and a festive theme draws 2023 to a close.

Entry to submit your photos is £3 - this covers a single photo submission for every month and a wildcard entry.. You don’t have to submit for all months, but any additional submissions for a month cost £1. All money raised from the competition and calendar sales will help fund the continuing upkeep and rehabilitation of the dogs in our care.

Submissions are via email to gsdwfonline@gmail.com, as well as the photos, please include the following information:

• Your name and a delivery address
• How you paid your entry fee (PayPal or Bank Transfer)
• For each photo you should include:the month (or wildcard) it's for, name, age, and sex of the dog, and (OPTIONALY) a brief description or anecdote to accompany the photo

There should only be one email per entry (an entry covers a single photo for each month and your wildcard photo), and submission must be before the 1st October. The entries will be judged by Debbie Hill, Frances Ring, and Michael Brookes and the successful entries announced for the end of October. Photos should be in a landscape format and at the highest resolution your camera or phone supports. Non-optical zoom should be avoided, and ideally the image won’t have any post-processing effects (although we can be flexible on the last point as long as the effects are applied at the same resolution as the base image).

Those whose submissions are selected for the 2023 calendar will receive a calendar once they are available. The selected photos will also be featured in our cover photo sets for our various online channels (where it is practical to do so).

All entries with automatically be entered into a draw to win 1 of 3 customised GSD Welfare Fund logos - more details on these coming very soon!

Good luck everyone, and we’re eager to see what amazing imagery you’ll all contribute!

If you have any questions then please ask them in the comments below, or via the submission email address gsdwfonline@gmail.com.