Happy February, readers! This month’s photo contest celebrates stripes in every size and color. Any photo showing stripes—from zebra stripes to candy stripers—is fair game. Of course, technical skill and composition are important, but so is creativity. So go find some stripes and get snapping!

For newcomers, here’s how the contest works: Send submissions by noon on Tuesday, February 17, and our judges will pick the best shots to advance to the reader-voting round. Then we’ll open it up to you to select a favorite. The winner will be published in the April issue of The Washingtonian.

Photos—one per e-mail—should be sent to photocontest@washingtonian.com. Be sure to include the photographer’s name, phone number, e-mail address, and place of residence, along with a sentence or two describing the photo and explaining why it fits the theme. Photos should be 300 dpi and at least four by six inches. And remember, both the photographer and the photo’s subject need to be from the Washington area, which includes the Maryland and Virginia suburbs.

Good luck!

Need inspiration? Check out our past winners here.

Our policy on photo rights: The photographer retains the copyright. However, because the photographer has submitted his or her photo to the contest, the magazine has the right to print the winning photograph in the current issue of the magazine and online as well as in any future issues as long as usage is related to the photo contest. The magazine also has the right to use the finalists online in relation to the photo contest.

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