I. Introduction.
The primary objective of the club’s competition is the further education of those who compete, rather than for individuals to garner honors; however awards exist because they help measure progress. The Club has voted to become an Exhibition Type Club rather than a Competitive Type Club. To that end, images judged that receive tie scores will result in multiple 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. Example: If there are three images tied for first place, all three will receive the first place award but second and third place will be eliminated for that competition. The number of honorable mentions will be contingent on the number of entries received for that particular category of competition. Club competition will include friendly rivalry, but should never become a more serious contest, or the purpose will be defeated. Club competition will include digital and occasionally, print competitions. If a person shoots slide, he/she will convert the slide to a digital image for competition.
Competition can encourage photographers or it can stifle their ambition. Obviously, NCC wants its competitions to do the former. All competitions will operate with fairness and proper procedure, but also with a sense of humor and light-hearted fun. Not every photograph is a winner, but to the maker his or her photograph is very important. Each member can expect to and deserves to have his or her work impartially and constructively evaluated with respect.
II. Process of competition.
Digital entries should be submitted via the Naples Camera Club website - naplescameraclub.com. The site will be available to upload images for the 9 days between midnight after the Tuesday NCC meeting through the following Thursday at midnight before the next meeting. The system will automatically be closed down after the deadline for submission so it is imperative that images be submitted well in advance of the closing time. Judging will be conducted over the weekend and the final results and image critiques will be presented at the Tuesday meeting. An example of the timetable using the November 12 meeting date is as follows:
Oct 29 midnight - Nov 7 midnight Submission of images to the Naples Camera Club website.
Nov 8. Finalization of images for judging.
Nov 9 - Nov 10 Judging by 3 judges
Nov 11. Creation of presentation for the NCC meeting using Image Competition Manager (ICM)
Nov 12. Presentation of the competition results and critiques at the NCC meeting.
In the event of a print competition, prints will be judged using a print light box but an advanced digital image of the print will also be required to be submitted in accordance with the above timeline in order to facilitate judging. Members should submit their prints to the competition chairperson or his/her helpers 30 minutes before the meeting begins. The maker’s name must be covered if on the front, but the maker’s name, category, and title must appear on the back of the print in the lower left corner. Judges will study and score the digital version of the prints in advance of the meeting, but may amend their scores once the actual print is presented in order to consider print quality etc.
Each member is responsible to pick up his or her prints at the end of the meeting. Prints are not the responsibility of club officers or committee chairpersons.
III. Rules of competition.
Rule 1: Members may submit an image in each of the categories of competition (further defined in the Category Definition Document) each evening when listed on the schedule (1) Nature - Birds (Birds Only), (2) Nature - Other (No Birds), (3) Open – this is a general category where anything can be entered (except creative) including nature that has been altered or has the “hand of man” and cannot be entered into nature, (4) Photojournalism - (5) Creative-Altered must be obviously altered. (6) Assignment - subject matter listed on the website schedule. This is also an Open category as in (3) above.
Rule 2: Digital images must be sent using the instructions for submitting digital images available on the NCC website.
Rule 3: Prints must be mounted on foam core size 16 inches by 20 inches and cannot include mats or be framed. Prints (before mounting) must measure a minimum of 11 inches on the short side by 14 inches on the long size and a maximum of 16 inches on the short side, and 20 inches on the long side. Signatures must be covered, but maker's name should appear on the back of the print with their title and the category entered.
Rule 4: Members may submit print entries when they are not present at the meeting by sending them with a friend.
Rule 5: A digital image or print that has won a place in a Naples Camera Club competition once may not be submitted in an NCC competition a second time.
Rule 6: Stitching (joining multiple images with overlapping fields of view that are taken consecutively) – to compensate for the limited field of view that could be captured in a single image, is permitted.
A special note on stitching of images. The stitching that is permitted in Nature images involves combining two or more images that were taken consecutively and have overlapping content. Stitching is NOT allowed when the images being combined contain content that has changed in the time between the captures.
IV. Judging the images in a competition.
Images may be judged using two methods: 1) by three members or two members and an outside judge, and 2) by a panel of three judges who are not club members. The judging method used each evening will be at the discretion of the Competition Chairperson.
Guest judges: From time to time it will be possible to recruit guest judges to judge our competitions. These judges and the Competition Chair will discuss the preferred methods prior to the actual judging, to make the guest judge comfortable with the process.
Panel of judges: When a panel of judges uses the Visual Pursuits website each judge will score the photograph 5 through 9. One of the judges will comment on each slide or print during the final showing with titles and results. In the event that a judge has an image entered in the competition and the panel is composed of only club members, an alternate judge will score the judging member's entry.
Club scoring: Each member can individually score the images for their own learning experiences but these scores will be solely to enhance their judging experience. Images are evaluated for photographic technique, quality of composition, interest and impact, and extra points are given for a truly outstanding and exceptional image.
V. Number of awards.
Each category exhibition (greater than 6 entries) will have a first, second and third place award. The number of honorable mentions will be determined by the number of entries in the particular category as listed below. If Class B has less than 6 entries, only a 1st Place will be awarded among those judged and critiqued.
Entries - Number of Places - Number of HM’s
Greater Than 30 - 1st, 2nd, 3rd - 8
29 to 30 - 1st, 2nd, 3rd - 7
27 to 28 - 1st, 2nd, 3rd - 6
24 to 26 - 1st, 2nd, 3rd - 5
20 to 23 - 1st, 2nd, 3rd - 4
17-19 - 1st, 2nd, 3rd -3
15 to 16 - 1st, 2nd, 3rd - 2
11 to 14 - 1st, 2nd, 3rd - 1
9 to 10 - 1st, 2nd, 3rd - 0
7 to 8 - 1st, 2nd, 3rd - 0
6 - 1st, 2nd, 3rd - 0
5 - 1st, 2nd - 0
Less Than 5 - 1st - 0
VI. In the case of ties.
If the scores of two or more placing entries are the same, both individuals will receive the number of points of the place, and the next place(s) will be eliminated. For example, if two people tie for 2nd, they both receive 7 points, and the 3rd place will be eliminated. When there are ties, the number of HM’s will be at the discretion of the competition chair.
VII. Points earned in competitions for club awards.
The award points secretary will record the points earned by each member each year to discern the “Photographer of the Year”. Cumulative plateau awards (at 25, 50, 100, 200, 300, 450, 600 and 750) will be awarded to individual members. Points earned for competitions will be:
Place - Points
1st - 8
2nd - 7
3rd - 6
HM - 2
All entries - 1
Disqualified entries - 0 - Can be entered again in other competitions.
VIII. Competition awards.
All awards for a specific fiscal year (November 1- October 31) will be made at the 'end of year' meeting in March.
Accumulated Points. Members may receive awards for their accumulated points in club competitions. Awards will be given for 25, 50, 100, 200, 300, 450, 600 and 750 points earned in NCC competitions. When a member has earned 750 points he or she will become a “Fellow” of the Club, and point records will no longer be kept. Awards may be certificates or plaques.
Photographer of the Year. One “Photographer of the Year” award will be made to the person receiving the most points in any given year in the A category. If there is a tie in points accumulated, two awards will be given.
End of Year (EOY) awards will consist of a First (1st) Place win in Open, Nature, Monochrome, Photojournalism and Creative and Open Print (if held). We will also have an overall image of the Year award. The only images eligible to be entered into the end of the year competition are images entered by the maker during the fiscal year.
IX. Representation
Entrants must submit their own original photography for any NCC competition and cannot incorporate images or image elements created by anyone else e.g. photoshop replacement skies or textures, clipart of stock images.
Images created by image creation software (AI images) are not allowed in NCC Competitions. AI functions such as denoise, healing, sharpening etc can be used (except for in the nature categories) as long as AI generated objects, people or other elements are not introduced in the image.
Photographers will retain the rights to their own photographs. All photographers submitting images for a competition agree to allowing their images to be published on the NCC website.