The CameraPro 2011 Secondary Schools Photographic Competition: An Outline

This competition is an exciting opportunity for students with a budding interest in photography to improve their photographic skills, engage with their environment and win great prizes! The competition is focused around students within the photography/creative arts faculty, however it is open to all students in years 10-12.

The fun stuff first: Prizes!

CameraPro are giving away exciting prizes to reward the best entries into this year’s photographic competition.

Win your share in $10 000 of prizes in CameraPro’s exciting school photography competition for 2011!

• Over 40 category winner & runner-up prizes valued at $6000!
• Winning school will receive a Bowens Gemini lighting kit worth over $1500RRP, as well as a $1000 ILFORD voucher
• Grand prize-winning student will win a HDSLR & Cinema bundle worth over $1500, plus a $500 CameraPro voucher!

Overall Theme: Your Environment

The competition will be broken up into 2 rounds, each round with a limit of 3 entries total per round (6 entries total into the entire competition). The three entries from one round may make up a “series” or tell a story between them.

First round entries will be accepted between April 1st and June 17th 2011;

Second round entries will be accepted between July 18th and 30th Nov 2011.

First Round Theme: My World

Express what your world means to you using macro, portrait or landscape photography. Entries may be in colour or black & white.

Areas of focus may include a local social movement, event or culture, or indeed a local manifestation of a global movement. It could also include an environmental theme, focusing on a region, ecosystem even a particular species. You may include still life.

Perhaps your world may be expressed simply in the portrait of a single person, or up to 3 portraits to tell a story. Landscape photos may encompass an untouched landscape; a landscape marred by human impact, a landscape being transformed or even a streetscape or cityscape.

Second Round Theme: My World in Action

What does your world look like when it is in full flight?

What does your world mean to you when it is at its busiest, moving at its fastest, does it affect you negatively or positively? Is our fast-paced world really moving “forwards” at such a fast pace? Perhaps you would like to represent both the negatives and positives of such a lifestyle.

Examples include, but are not restricted to sports, animals or insects, fluid themes, water patterns, or water disappearing as a result of our high consumption lifestyle. 

Entries could even parody a social movement, a cultural event or a particular fad. An example could include parodying a social movement that is now far removed from its roots or a cultural event that has perhaps lost its original meaning.

In this section we encourage the use of Photoshop, this may include the use of special effects, including, but not limited to HDR photography, selective colour or otherworldly tones. In this theme, a weighting of up to 30% will be given for use of Photoshop, the remainder will be given as a result of creativity and technical skill in obtaining the shot. 

Submission of entries:

Entries for round 1 are accepted between 1st April and 17th June 2011;

Entries for round 2 are accepted between 18th July and 30^th Nov 2011.

Entry details:

• Photo size and format – Uploading of entries must be in jpeg format. They must have a minimum length of 1000pixels on one side and be no larger than 2.5mb in size.
• First Round entries are to be made by emailing photos to envircomp@camerapro.net.au, complete with a title, a 50 words description and author’s name.
• Second Round entries are to be submitted via our website www.CameraPro.net.au. Details to be provided prior to submission.
• A total of 6 entries [3 entries per part round of competition, in up to 3 themes] are permitted per person
• A description of 50 words or less is required to describe your photo and how it relates to the chosen theme.

Judging:

• The Judging is broken up into two rounds, with judging dates as follows:
• First Round: 20 of the best entries will be chosen and announced no later than Monday 4th July. 
• Second Round: 20 of the best entries will be chosen and announced no later than Friday 16^th Dec.
• Competition Grand Prize: 19^th Dec 2011, judges will announce their verdict on the overall competition winner, as well as the 1st runner-up, and the winning school will be notified.
• Additional prizes may be given out during the competition to randomly selected weekly winners.
• In judging the individual photos, particular value is given to works that can demonstrate a unique interpretation of either the sub-theme or the overall theme. The judging will be based on the criteria: Creativity (50%) and Photographic Quality (50%).
• For the competition judging, we are privileged to have the attendance of 3 great judges who will determine the best entries [20 winners of each part of the comp] as well as the two runner-ups
• Winners of all prizes will be contacted by phone and email. If a winner is unable to be contacted within 3 days, the runner up will be contacted and awarded the prize.

CameraPro’s decision on all competition matters will be final and no correspondence regarding competition judging or organization will be entered into.

The fine print:

Eligibility:

• Photos may be taken from within Australia or overseas.
• Entries will be considered from still photo-based digital and analogue based media. Analogue based media must be digitized and sent under the same criteria as digitized media.
• Works must have been produced in the 12 months prior to the end closing date of the competition.
• The competition is open to secondary school students of grades 10 to 12 attending an Australian Government or private secondary school.
• Entrants must be living in Australia during the competition and for 1 year after the end of the competition

Criteria:

The Criteria is different for round 1 and round 2, given that Round 2 makes special acceptance of significant use of Photoshop.

Round 1:

For round 1, the competition allows only basic adjustments to be applied to the entire image; helping to ensure that the winning image is selected based on photographic merit rather than computer skills. The faithful representation of a natural form, behavior or phenomenon must be maintained. Sandwich shots, double exposures, photographs, which in any way consist of more than one separate image, are not eligible for the competition. Images may be cropped before submission, and limited digital manipulation such as 'cleaning' sharpening, adjusting levels, burning, dodging, curves, colour and contrast is permissible where applied to the image as a whole. However, entries that have other wise been significantly enhanced or altered in whole or in part using programs such as Adobe Photoshop will not be admissible.

If cruel or unethical practices are suspected by any of the judges, the entry will be disqualified.

Round 2:

Round 2 allows much more liberal use of post-production techniques, with clever use of Photoshop encouraged should the candidate wish to enter as part of the Photoshop section of the competition. Uses of multiple exposures, either stitched or overlaid to achieve effects including HDR are allowed in this section of the comp. 

License, Media & Privacy:

• All images and, if called for, other materials are sent at the photographer’s own risk, although all possible care will be taken by CameraPro. The entrant releases CameraPro from liability for any damage to, or loss of, submitted material.
• All entrants must consent to CameraPro Pty Ltd reproducing the submitted work in publicity and promotions. This includes using images on our website, magazine articles, social media sites and media releases. NB: In the event that CameraPro wished to use any submitted images for purposes other than direct publicity and promotions - for example in Calendar, books or other materials where direct monetary gain may result - a written release would be required                                  
• All winners will have their photo featured on our blog, as well as facebook.
• Upon entering the competition, it is agreed that you will be available for at least one media interview if you are the winner or runner-up of the competition. 
• Entrants agree that personal data, especially names and addresses, may be processed, shared, and otherwise used for the purposes and within the context of the competition and any promotional activity relating to the competition. The data may also be used to verify the participant's identity, postal address, and telephone number or to otherwise verify the participant's eligibility to participate in the competition.
• Participants have the right to access, review, rectify, or cancel any personal data held by CameraPro by writing to: envirocomp@camerapro.net.au