competition guidelines & rules

Morecambe Camera Club

Competition Guidelines & Rules

(Revised following the March 2018 AGM)

Competitions Overview

The club prides itself on being a friendly group of people all with a common interest in capturing and creating images.  Experienced members are more than willing to provide practical guidance to those less experienced.  We hold regular competitions throughout the year to give members an opportunity to put their skills into practice, and these are a great way to improve and get feedback on your photography.

There is a wide variety of different competitions, to cater for all interests and abilities. The details of which are outlined later in this document. We also have a number of inter-club competitions and participate in the L&CPU club competitions.

We use visiting judges who provide constructive feedback on all entries and allocate either 1st, 2nd, 3rd place then Commended or Highly Commended awards to about 10 – 15% in each award category. These awards help you to accumulate points.  We also have a number of competitions which are judged ‘in house’ by the camera club members themselves.

Don’t be put off by the long list of rules on the following pages! The main objectives of any camera club are to help members both improve and enjoy their photography. Competitions can help to further both of these. If you’re not sure about anything, – please see the Competition Secretary or any of the more long-standing members. Who will only be too pleased to help.

DPI (Digital Projected Image) Format:

In Order to facilitate digital projection on the presentation night, all entries should be submitted in “Digital Image” format.  The file to be JPEG and sRGB, with Max. Quality (12). The file dimensions should be a maximum of 1600 pixels wide x 1200 pixels high (the resolution is unimportant, for projection purposes). Any incorrectly sized images submitted may be withdrawn.

General Rules

Due to the number of entries we can receive we have developed, in consultation with our members some rules to help optimise your enjoyment of the competitions. Please check competition categories for any details specific to a competition.

• It will be assumed that all entries can be displayed on the club website, used for inter-club competitions and that winning entries can be submitted to local press unless the Competition Secretary is informed otherwise at the start of the season (or in an email if there are just specific image(s) that you don’t wish to be included).
• There’s no time limit on when an image was taken, although more recent work is encouraged.
• File names should be the image title (this will be displayed on the screen during the competition – please check spellings)
• The maximum number of images allowed to be entered for each section of each competition is listed in the specific rules. These limits are subject to revision by the competition secretary depending on the number of members in the club, or the number of anticipated entries. This is to ensure adequate time for the judge to give valuable feedback on individual images on the results night.
• Members are not permitted to submit entries for the Annual Competitions unless they have already entered into at least two Monthly Competitions. (Exceptions will be made for new members who have joined part way through the season.)
• Entries must be submitted by the dates specified in the programme.  Late entries may not be accepted.
• Images should be submitted by email to competitions.mcc@gmail.com (entries will be accepted on memory sticks handed in on the nights indicated in the programme – email entries have additional time (until midnight on the Sunday following entry date shown in programme). All email entries received will be acknowledged.
• Images that qualify for the Nature section may not be entered into the Open section of the monthly competitions, but they may be entered into the Set Subject section if appropriate for the topic. However, a nature image which has been manipulated and/or given an inappropriate title should be entered in the Open section and will be judged purely on pictorial merit.
• During ‘in house’ competitions, members should judge images on their individual merit and technical proficiency. In the interest of fairness and spirit of fun, please be objective when allocating scores.
• Manipulation of Images (applies to all classes except Nature): All types of creative in-camera and post-production editing and manipulation are allowed. This includes panoramic stitching, HDR, filters, multiple images or layers, artwork and computer graphics, as long as the original photographic content predominates and is the work solely of the photographer. No third party clip-art images, textures or overlays are permitted.

Restrictions on Resubmissions

• If an image has placed 1st, 2nd or 3rd in a Monthly Competition that image is not eligible for entry into any future Monthly Competition.  They will however still be eligible for entry into a future Annual Competition (this includes the Panel of 4). Unplaced Images (or close variations) should not be entered more than twice in Monthly Competitions.
• No image having been placed 1st, 2nd or 3rd in the Annual Competition shall be eligible for entry into any further Competition
• No image is eligible for entry into more than one section of the Annual Competition. Except, on the annual judging night, the winning image from each section of the annuals gets automatic entry into the ‘best in show’ section.

Competition Specific Rules

Monthly Competitions

There are a total of 5 monthly competitions. Four of which contain an open section, a nature section and a set subject which is suggested by, and voted for by the members of the club. The fifth monthly competition is made up of three set subjects. The set subjects are e-mailed to all members, and are listed in the program.

The maximum number of pictures entered into any monthly competition is 4 images, which may be entered in any section. An entry form is available – but not essential. If emailing entries, indicate which image is to go in which section in the body of the email. If entering on memory stick, please put images in appropriate folders.

These images are scored by an external judge and scores contribute towards a final total. The highest scoring member attains the honor of photographer of the year.

Accumulator Competition

Alongside the entries for the first monthly competition, an additional single image may be entered. This image is scored by a minimum of 5 different external judges and the results announced towards the end of the season. This image may also be entered into other competitions in the same year.

Knockout Competition

This is usually held during one of the first meetings of the season. Members can submit upto 4 images, which are brought on a pen drive on the night. Images are projected side by side, two at a time, and members who are present vote for the best image.  The image with the most votes goes through to the next round. This process is completed until there is a final winning image.

Folio Competition

This competition recognises a consistently high standard of images. It allows members to submit up to 5 images, 3 colour and two monochrome (entries of less than 5 are allowed, although this will disadvantage the entrant as final scores include all images entered).

Any image can be entered unless awarded 1st, 2nd or 3rd in  a club competition (one which has been externally judged).

Authors are required to submit entries on a Pen Drive.

A master disc, containing all these entries, will then be produced by the co-ordinator and distributed to just the participants, for commenting on and marking each image out of ten (with the exception of their own).  This will take place over a four week period.

The winner is the entrant who scores the highest total marks from all 5 of their images.

5 New Members Images

This competition is usually held mid-way through the season and is a chance for members to submit previously unseen images.  It is judged ‘in house’ on the night, then the scores are added together, and the overall winner is announced at a later date.

Members can submit up to 5 open images, however NO NATURE images to be entered. Entries to be given on a pen drive or disc (or via e-mail) to the co-ordinator at least two weeks prior to the competition night. However, the images must not have been entered into any previous competitions. Marks between 4 and 10 to be awarded, and the winner is the image with the highest score.

One Print Competition

This competition includes three separate sections, open colour, open monochrome and nature. Members may enter one print in each section. Not all sections must be entered.

Members are permitted to submit a previously unshown print which must have been taken in the last 12 months.

The print size must be A4.

All members present on the night will be eligible for judging all the prints (except their own), and allocating 1st, 2nd and 3rd places.

Panel of 4 Competition

Four images with a common story or theme. A summary image showing all four originals should also be provided.

Annual Digital Image Competitions

This is the final competition of the season, and it is assumed that members will enter their most successful images from throughout the year. Categories include;

• Nature  (may be colour or mono) max. of 2 images
• Colour Digital Image of the Year max. of 2 images

• Best Monochrome Image (may be any subject but will be judged on pictorial merit and not eligible for other sections) max. of 2 images
• Portraiture (Mono. or Colour Images – Animal portraits are not eligible for this award) max. of 2 images
• Table Top Image (Mono or Colour) max. of 2 images

• Best in show – The winning image from each section in the Annuals to go forward to be judged and the overall winner is awarded “Best in Show”

Inter-Club Competitions

A competition sub-committee select DPI’s from the last 2 years to be entered

We make a point of ensuring no one person contributes more than 3 or 4 images so that the entry is a fair representation of our club.

It is assumed that members are happy for their images to be used in this way. If you do not wish for this to happen, please inform a member of the committee immediately.

Awards

• Photographer of the Year Award – awarded for maximum cumulative points from all externally judged competitions.

Points awarded for Monthly Competitions, and relevant Annual Competitions contributing towards the “Photographer of the Year” will be as follows:

1st, 2nd and 3rd places to be allocated 5, 4 and 3 points respectively. If desired, the judge may also award up to 2 ‘Highly Commended’ and any number of ‘Commended’ in each category, which will be allocated 2 points and 1 point respectively.

• All competitions which do not count for the photographer of the year award have individual awards or trophies associated with them.

Definitions

Portraiture

A portrait may consist of a photograph of an individual, or a group of individuals, for the purpose of reproducing characteristic likeness.

NB Animal portraits may not be entered into the annual portrait category.

Nature   

The club definition for nature is the same as the current L&CPU definition. Please see current L&CPU rules for a full description.

Table Top

The Book “Your A to Z Guide to Colour Photography” by E. Bomback: Fountain Press 1961 defines Table Top as  “An artistic branch of photography which makes use of small models, dolls, glass figures, and objects, all of which can be arranged on the top of a table to give pictorial impressions of an amusing or appealing nature”. However the principal ingredient is a vivid imagination!