Got a great photo of a fire in a national park setting, or of firefighters battling a blaze in a park? You might want to enter it in the National Park Service Fire and Aviation Photo Contest.

There's just one week remaining to enter your images. The contest started back in 2002 as a way for the Park Service to obtain photos for its annual fire report. It has evolved over time and now provides an opportunity to highlight the quality work happening in NPS Fire and Aviation Management and provide photos not only for reports, but for the NPS fire websites and more recently an NPS fire calendar.

The contest is intended to foster community interest and involvement in NPS fire and aviation management activities and encourages entries from not only the National Park Service, but other government employees and the public.

The contest is open to anyone with the only limitations being that photos were taken during the previous calendar year in an NPS area or of NPS employees engaging in fire or aviation management activities. All photos must portray proper safety practices (e.g. protective clothing and safety equipment, proper use of tools, etc.). Photos showing unsafe practices, too low of quality, or unrelated to the contest subject matter will be disqualified.

You can read the details and submit your photos at this site: http://www.nps.gov/fire/public/photocontest/about.cfm And you can see the winners from the 2008 contest at this site: http://www.nps.gov/fire/public/pub_photocontestfinalist.cfm?year=2008

The fine print:

* Do not resize or crop images you are submitting as you may reduce the quality in the process.
* Do not apply a digital filter for effect.
* You may submit a photo from another photographer, but please provide proper crediting to the original photographer.
* Try to fit your submission into one of the categories BEFORE considering the category "Other".

Anyone can take and enter a photo in the contest - NPS employees, employees of other agencies, as well as the public, etc. If someone enters a photo that someone else took, we do ask that they first get permission from the photographer. When they go to the entry form, they see this clause:

Please read the following information before you upload your photos:
By submitting my photo to the NPS Fire & Aviation photo contest, I grant to the National Park Service, its representatives and employees, the right to use the photograph I am submitting. I authorize the National Park Service, its representatives and employees, the right to use and publish the same in print and/or electronically without limitations.

IF YOU ARE SUBMITTING A PHOTO FOR WHICH YOU ARE NOT THE PHOTOGRAPHER:

Please verify that you have the photographer's permission to submit the photo. In doing so, the photographer grants agreement to the permission clause directly above.