To kick off a monthly contest, the PVT wants to see your Independence Day photos.

Members of the staff here will choose the top three winners and publish their submissions and a selection of others following the holiday. Prizes will be $35, $25 and $15 gift cards from local businesses of choice.

All photos chosen for publication will become the property of the PVT.

Photos may be from digital or film cameras.

If from film, they must be printed on glossy paper but may be either color or black and white. Digital photos must not have date or time stamps -- please turn off that function.

For digital photos, PVT photographer Horace Langford recommends setting camera resolution at higher than 72 dpi but less than 200 dpi.

As one more bit of advice, well-lit photos are far more likely to be chosen than those that are underexposed, which usually print poorly and without definition.

In the future, we'll be looking for a variety of photos, both contemporary and historical. We will especially be looking for images that help preserve the history of Pahrump, the surrounding valley, Beatty, Amargosa Valley, etc. -- old buildings, schools and other public facilities, family events, private homes (if they remain in the photographer's family), whatever can show us how we were and how we are.

As noted above, remember that submission is no guarantee of publication; only the staff here will make the final decisions about publication.