Pet Calendar Contest: How Voting Works & How to Win

What the Pet Calendar Contest is and who runs it

The Pet Calendar Contest is a paid photo fundraiser run by CM Bryson Photography, the studio of award-winning Atlanta pet photographer Courtney Bryson. Unlike most Georgia public ballots, it is hosted by the studio itself at cmbryson.com rather than on a commercial poll service, and the ballot URL is https://cmbryson.com/pet-calendar-contest. Every dollar it raises flows to the Humane Society of Morgan County: the page states that 100% of proceeds go directly to HSMC, a shelter that has been dedicated to saving lives in Morgan County since 1994 and places over 400 pets in loving homes each year.

The prize ladder gives supporters a concrete reason to push. The top 13 pets win. The top winner takes the coveted cover photo for the 2026 calendar. Pets finishing 2nd through 13th are also featured, and winners receive a professional portrait session with Courtney Bryson plus one digital image. Travel to Madison, GA is required for that session, which ties the prize itself to the studio rather than to a mailed certificate.

The dated record for the CM Bryson calendar ballot

CM Bryson's calendar ballot has run in 2025 and again in 2026, and the 2026 calendar cover now being promoted belongs to that newest cycle. For the 2025 edition the window was printed in full on the contest page: "The Voting Period starts at 8:00 AM EST May 1st to 10:00 PM EST June 7th 2025!" The Submissions Period ran on the same dates, so photo entries and votes shared a single window rather than splitting into a nomination round followed by a separate voting round.

What the page does not print shapes expectations too. No roster of entry categories appears anywhere on the contest page, and no entrant eligibility terms are published alongside the fine print; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. Everything else a supporter needs, the $2 price, the unlimited frequency, the secure checkout and the prize ladder, is stated openly at the ballot, which is more transparency than many Georgia ballots offer on their own pages.

How a supporter votes today on the CM Bryson ballot

Voting here is deliberately simple and deliberately paid. Each vote costs $2, and the page tells supporters they can vote as often as they like, urging them to encourage friends and family to join in. That makes the mechanic unusual among Georgia public ballots, where support is typically a free click; at CM Bryson, the act of voting is itself the gift, and the shelter's work in Morgan County is what the money funds.

The path runs entirely through the contest page. Entries and donations must be made via the online contest page, and contest payments online are through a secure site, per the page's own wording. Entrants submit a pet photo during the Submissions Period, and the fine print attached to a photo entry includes a warranty the submitter makes about that image. The page's copyright line also rules out copyrighted or professional photos, so everyday snapshots are the material the calendar is built from.

Because voting never closes between rounds and no separate nomination phase exists, a supporter who arrives mid-window can act immediately: pick a pet, buy votes at $2 each, and repeat as often as intended without waiting for any shortlisting stage.

How this ballot sits beside its Georgia neighbours

Atlanta's pet-vote market is crowded, and the Pet Calendar Contest stands apart from all of it. Atlanta Magazine Cutest Pets Contest runs as a media property with a broad readership audience, and a second listing for the Cutest Pets Contest (Atlanta Magazine) circulates alongside it, as does a standalone Picture Your Pet Photo Contest. Those ballots answer to publishers; the CM Bryson contest answers to a single photography studio, and every vote is a direct gift to the Humane Society of Morgan County.

Georgia's wider public-vote slate confirms how distinct that shape is. The Falcons Girls Flag Football Coach of the Week is a sport media series, while the Athens Community's Choice Awards and Best of Augusta are best-of rounds run by their own local publishers. None of them pairs a paid vote with a shelter beneficiary and a printed calendar prize the way this contest does.

For a supporter choosing where to spend effort, the practical difference is simple: here, promoting a pet and funding a cause are the same action, and the calendar cover gives the campaign a visible endpoint.

Strengthening support for a pet on this ballot

Because each vote is also a donation, support for an entrant translates straight into shelter funding, which makes this one of the few Georgia ballots where promoting your pet does visible good. The contest page itself tells entrants to "rally your community to vote" and urges them to bring friends and family into the effort. What the organizer says about automated voting tools or bulk submissions is not spelled out on that page.

The practical play is the one the page suggests: share the entry link early in the window, ask the people closest to the pet to vote, and ask them to pass the link along. Since the frequency rule allows unlimited voting, a committed circle of supporters can carry an entrant further here than on a one-click-per-person ballot. Campaign ideas that fit paid, unlimited formats like this one are covered in how to get more votes online.