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View Full Version : Hamster of the Month - July 2021


souffle
06-11-2021, 10:35 AM
Firstly sorry for the delay in posting this - I have been on holiday!
This month's theme has been chosen by member Fairycake winner of last month's competition.
THIS COMPETITION IS FOR A PICTURE of Hamsters ' Music theme' so the photo should be one that shows a hamster with a music themed prop eg an instrument, CD. record. sheet music etc. Please ensure any props are safe to use and your hamster is supervised closely NO PHOTOSHOPPED OR COMPOSITE PICTURES PLEASE.

The theme is for a picture of Hamsters and Music

Please do not post any comments about the picture. Please post THE HAMSTERS NAME ONLY. Any extra comments will be removed.

It's a new month so we have to choose the 'Hamster of the Month' for next month. The winning hamster will appear on the front page of the forum so when someone comes on to the forum they will see the picture.
PLEASE TRY AND RESIZE PHOTOS AS SOME ARE HUGE AND ARE STRETCHING THE FORUM. 600 pixels wide is a good standard size for the forum. Please try and do this as the huge pics are pixellated and do not do your entry justice. Please do not use photobucket for your entries.

1. This competition is for the July Hamster of the month. We would like a picture this month with a theme of 'Hamsters - music'

2. You may enter 1 picture.

3. The picture should be clear and as charming as possible

4. The picture must be of a hamster of any species and it must belong to you or your family. It may be with you now or have passed to the bridge.

5. Closing date for entries is 23rd June 2021 at 11.59pm GMT.

6. The voting will be posted and the new pic will be displayed in July. Each member will have 1 vote. The poll will be public and you may NOT vote for your own entry. Voting for another family member's entry is highly discouraged.

7. Please try and post a new photograph that you have not entered in a previous competition.

8. It must be pictures of hamsters 'Music'. If you post a picture that is not themed you will be asked to replace it with one that is. If you do not do this is will NOT be included in the competition.

9. Please do not post any comments on the thread until AFTER the poll has closed. PM me with questions. Comments will be removed.

10. The winner of the competition who chooses the theme for the next month is not allowed to enter the competition they chose the theme for. They may enter any thereafter.

PM me with any queries. If you cannot post pics then e mail me the pic and I will post it on your behalf.
If you decide to withdraw an entry please let me know
If your picture is not there when the poll is posted I will PM you to ask if there is a problem but there is only a limited time that the Poll posting can be held for so please respond as soon as possible thanks.

Pictures that are too large or too small do not do your entry justice and people may just skim over it. PLEASE RESIZE

Looking forward to seeing your entries :smile:

souffle
06-18-2021, 08:57 AM
surely we must have some entries?

souffle
06-24-2021, 06:58 AM
Sadly we have had no entries this month for this competition.
I will leave it a few more days - how sad we may have to stop these competitions

LunaTheHamster1
06-24-2021, 10:52 AM
Just a thought, but maybe some simpler themes, where we don't have to get props out.
e,g, hamster eating, cute hamster (aren't they all cute), your favourite picture of your hamster, syrian hamster, dwarf hamster, hamster drinking, hamster in their cage, hamster in their wheel etc
and yes I agree would be a shame to see this go, i like to see the photos people put forward each month.

Little Luna's Mum
06-24-2021, 11:27 AM
Agree, would be a shame for this to end.
Enjoyed it so much.
Please don't end it.
:(

VOESSY
06-24-2021, 11:34 AM
I'd be onboard for what Luna says, a tad bit simpler/casual themes. (:

Ria P
06-24-2021, 01:20 PM
Or, just simply enter the photo of a hamster doing whatever they are doing naturally and then people vote for the photo they'd like to see on the front page.

I never liked the shared photo when there was no clear winner because it doesn't do the individual entry justice. I think it would be better to share the time they are displayed for.

Well, that's my opinion anyway.

Chicleteer
06-24-2021, 02:45 PM
I hope it doesn’t end! I love seeing the pictures. I did have one of Chiclet “playing the piano” but it was definitely altered by my drawing of a keyboard (and not a good one at that). Too close to photoshopping. But I really enjoy the entries, and then seeing a new winner each month at the top of the front page each time I log in. Fingers crossed that we can keep the tradition!

Pebbles82
06-24-2021, 03:19 PM
I've only just seen this! Maybe we could just skip a month and do next month! I'd hate to see the photo comp go - there have been some lovely photos this year. Could it be stickied so it comes up every time anyone logs in?

souffle
06-25-2021, 03:10 AM
Some good ideas.
The winner gets to choose the theme though so I don't really feel we can take that privilege away. There is seldom a draw Ria where we have a shared front page pic.
We cannot do shared time as it does take the owner of the forum some effort to change it. It's an admin task that the moderators cannot do. We are all volunteers and do not own the forum. Fluffy is the owner and he is in Canada and he has a family and work which takes priority.
I'm going to leave Pumpkin on the front page for now and I will choose the theme next month and encourage people to choose a more open theme in future. Some of the more common themes have been done so many times it is always nice to see people trying to do a slightly different theme now and again I think.
If we want it to continue please enter people and please vote too.

souffle
06-25-2021, 03:35 AM
I thought I would just show the winner of the first ever competition which was in May 2005.
That's 16 years ago! Her name is Susan and the theme was Playtime. In honour of that I will make this the cover photo in July. (sorry about the photobucket logo!)
Lets make a new start for the next competition.
52402

Pebbles82
06-25-2021, 08:21 AM
Ooh that’s a lovely photo. I personally think the more unusual or creative themes are great but it’s possible that during the pandemic that kind of thing has been a bit more difficult to achieve - either in terms of time, resources or just the effect of life being different. The seasons are always nice ones and have a lot of scope. A summer season one would be nice! Also the theme above on playtime is great!

Ria P
06-25-2021, 11:15 AM
The first ever winner! That's a great idea.

My problem is resizing because my old laptop gave up the ghost and the phone won't do it. I do actually have a number of musical instruments in the house i could have used as props but the resizing stops me from taking part. I will keep voting though.

Imogen
06-25-2021, 01:06 PM
I wanted to comment my thought on the photo of the months - I wanted to enter this month but honestly as others said it would be nice to have a simple theme.

New owners of new hamsters would love to enter (such as myself) but our hams are just not tame enough to be picked up or still and it's hard to get a good photo. I really wanted to have Remy participate but he seems to be a keep hands off only look kinda guy and been trying to tame him for the last month and still really no progress.

I have some very cute pictures but none of them have been able to fit with the theme as they're more simple based.

Pebbles82
06-25-2021, 06:06 PM
Imogen there are various threads with lots of tips on photographing hamsters :-) I know what you mean. But it sometimes means taking a lot of photos to get one where they are not moving! Food is useful for that. Set up what you want (eg a backdrop). Let the hamster explore the area and find a bit of cucumber. I have a lot of out-takes each time!

Lighting is the other thing. You need enough light so you can have a fast shutter speed to capture them if they move - rather than just get a blur. I sometimes just have an anglepoise lamp on if the light isn't very good. Not pointing right at them obviously. Or I hang a t shirt over it so it's not too bright but a lot lighter (be careful with that though and don't leave it on there or it could be a fire hazard.

Half the fun is thinking up a background or theme. Even a musical instrument could be a cardboard made one.

souffle
06-26-2021, 03:46 AM
Ria if you just post your pic as a link I can take it and resize it for you and reload. Please don't let that stop you entering!

Little Luna's Mum
06-26-2021, 03:57 AM
Great ideas.
Love to see this carry on.
:)

Petite
06-26-2021, 05:47 AM
As others have said, I really enjoy seeing the innovative pictures people come up with, and hope the competition carries on. The "Hamsters - music" topic would be perfect for me (I'm a music teacher with a houseful of instruments and sheet music) but sadly lost my hamster last month, or I would have entered for the first time ever.

Linda 123
06-26-2021, 07:12 AM
Hi, I really enjoy looking at the pictures, and I would love to enter, but I am too scared that my hammie might not get any votes, which would make me rather sad and paranoid! Perhaps if you just named the winner, rather than all of the votes, then if my hammie didn't win I could just tell her she must have come second!

Pebbles82
06-26-2021, 08:47 AM
Don't worry about that Linda :-) I know I felt like that at first but it's just a bit of fun to look at cute pictures of hammies. Sometimes a picture does get 0 points but that's usually when not many people are voting. I've entered some terrible ones in the past lol! But they fitted the theme and had something about them even if blurred!

Pebbles82
06-26-2021, 08:49 AM
The first ever winner! That's a great idea.

My problem is resizing because my old laptop gave up the ghost and the phone won't do it. I do actually have a number of musical instruments in the house i could have used as props but the resizing stops me from taking part. I will keep voting though.

Ria - I upgrade and fix old netbooks with Windows 10 on them (all legally done by the way!) - they are cheap as chips. If you want one! Most of them don't need fixing, they're just sold because people have upgraded and the software is out of date. Takes me a couple of hours to get it up to speed. Not particularly fast but perfectly useable and Paint is really easy and quick for resizing photos.

Ria P
06-27-2021, 10:34 AM
Ria - I upgrade and fix old netbooks with Windows 10 on them (all legally done by the way!) - they are cheap as chips. If you want one! Most of them don't need fixing, they're just sold because people have upgraded and the software is out of date. Takes me a couple of hours to get it up to speed. Not particularly fast but perfectly useable and Paint is really easy and quick for resizing photos.

I need to look into that. Is Paint a programme that's already on a notebook? Does the notebook take photos or would i need to use a phone or camera and then email them over to resize them? As you can see i'm clueless when it comes to anything to do with computing hence the probably quite daft questions.