The International Softball Federation (ISF) is reaching out to photographers and softball fans around the world to gather some compelling imagery to portray the action, emotion, and passion of softball for the Back Softball Campaign.

According to the official website of world softball governing body, the ISF is looking for photos that tell the story of the smiles, tears, wholesomeness, fair play, universality, and competitive rivalry that are all part of the essence of softball.

Being launched just prior to the Beijing 2008 Olympic softball competition (August 12-21), the contest's winning images will be used to illustrate the desire for reinstatement on the Olympic Programme.

The contest will be held from now until November 1, 2008 and cover a series of categories which includes pitching, hitting, miscellaneous player shots and so on.

ISF President Don Porter remarked it as "another positive and productive initiative in support of the Back Softball campaign, good photographs make good stories better."

Softball, introduced to the Atlanta Olympics 1996, was voted out of the 2012 Games along with baseball.

The ISF thus launched the "Back Softball Campaign", aiming to reinstate the sport in the 2016 Olympics with next year's vote at the 121st session of International Organising Committee (IOC).

(Xinhua News Agency August 1, 2008)