I am extremely excited to announce our first official Highland Outdoors photo contest! This is something I've been wanting to do for quite some time. The big idea is to eventually run a big photo contest through our print magazine, complete with prizes and publication of the winners in print. But for now, I'm beyond stoked to test the waters by running our first contest exclusively through our email newsletter.

Let's get into the nitty gritty!

This initial contest is open only to our newsletter subscribers. This means that if someone you know might want to submit an entry, they'll have to subscribe to our newsletter prior to submitting their photos. Which, let's be honest, isn't that horrible of an ask, eh?

Each entrant is limited to two entries. There are three categories: landscape, wildlife, and adventure. The landscape category is pretty self-explanatory: send us your most fantastical photos showing off West Virginia's spectacular beauty. There are only two rules here: locations must be in West Virginia, and there can't be any people in your images (animals are OK but photos with a wild animal as the main subject should be submitted under the wildlife category).

The wildlife category is for, you guessed it, photos of our amazing flora and fauna. Plants, bugs, and bears - it doesn't matter. If it's wild and it's living, it's fair game for your submission! Please don't send photos of domesticated animals or wild animals feeding at manmade food sources. And just like the landscape category, no humans!

So, what about us crazy hominids that like to do radical activities in the great outdoors? We're certainly worthy of being in photos, right? Cue the adventure category! This is for any photo that shows human-powered adventure. Whether it's a high-speed capture of a skier or biker, a photo of an angler casting in an idyllic mountain stream, or of adventurous souls being dwarfed by our big landscapes, we want to see it!

How to submit

Please submit all entries directly to me via email: dylan@highland-outdoors.com. Please send our entry as a JPEG file. This will be a purely digital contest with the winners announced and published in a future edition of this newsletter, so please send photos sized for web use (close to but no larger than 1600px horizontal and 1000px vertical preferred). If you don't have a small version of the photo, that's OK - just send it to me attached as a Google Drive or Dropbox link and I can shrink it down if it's a winner. All entries must be submitted by August 1, 2021.

You are allowed to submit one photo per category for a total of three photos. Please do not submit multiple photos for a single entry. I know this is tough, but I promise you'll enjoy scouring your collection and choosing your top photo!

Winner winner, chicken dinner!

No, the overall winner won't get a chicken dinner. But they will get a one-year subscription to the print magazine, our radical Floral Laurel t-shirt, and a sticker pack! The winner of each category gets their choice of a one-year subscription to the print mag or a t-shirt. The runner-up in each category gets our custom sticker pack. All winners and runners-up will be announced and published in a future edition of the newsletter as well as in a special feature article on our website!

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The summer mag is on a shelf near you!

Nikki and I spent the last two weeks movin' and shakin' around the Mountain State distributing our new summer issue and had a great time along the way. It's going fast so make sure to get our grab one soon!

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Help us hit 100 subscribers

We are currently at 91 subscribers (thanks, folks!) and want to hit our goal of 100 by the end the month! If you've been putting it off, subscribe now to help us keep the magazine going and growing strong. If you know someone who might be interested in subscribing, send them the link from the button below. Big thanks in advance to those who sign up to support independent adventure journalism!

Subscribe Here

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Come bike with us!

We've got two bike-centric events coming, and boy-oh-boy are we excited to get out there and ride bikes with our friends.

Gravel Race Up Spruce Knob - July 10

Endearingly called the GRUSK, this grueling gravel grinder is not to be missed! Registration for this event is full, but the general public is welcome to come up and be part of the festivities at The Mountain Institute on Spruce Knob. Nikki and I are racing, and we'll have some special friends stationed at the HO tent slangin' mags and merch until the live music starts.

Big Bear Bike Bash - July 16 - 18

Craig Reger, owner of Range Finder Coffee in Fayetteville, once famously quipped, "There's nothing like cruising with your homies and having a bike party." As it turns out, the Big Bear Bike Bash is the place to have a bike party with your homies, so come on over to Big Bear Lake Trail Center in Preston County and cruise with us. We'll be doing group rides, and slangin' mags and merch at our vendor tent. Special contest with prizes TBA at the event.

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Have you seen these yet?

To Build a Board

Fayetteville-based river surfer and paddleboarder Meghan Fisher filled her freetime during the pandemic by researching and constructing a hand-made, custom river surfboard. Hang ten minutes of your time and enjoy this read!

Home Grown Art

Rosalie Hazlett and Octavia Spriggs are two of West Virginia's leading artists. Laura Johnston introduces them in this great writeup on their stories and what inspires them to keep creating.

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Stay tuned for our next installment, coming straight to your inbox in mid-July.

Enjoy, and thanks for reading #westvirginiasoutdoormagazine!

Dylan Jones

Editor-in-Chief

Highland-Outdoors.com