CONTEST INFORMATION                       Revised: February, 2009

 

You must be a CCC member in good standing to compete in the contests or judge.

You will only be competing with the other members in your division:  Novice, Regular or Master.

Six contests are scheduled each year.  Three are open (any subject) and three are assigned subjects.  Points will be deducted if your photograph does not meet the criteria for the assigned subjects. (Check the website (  www.cookevillecameraclub.com )  News and Calendar for details pertaining to this years assigned subjects.

There are two categories:  Prints and Projected Images.

There will be a first, second and third place winner in each division (Novice, Regular and Master) for each category (Prints and Projected Images).  We will not break ties. 
Judges are looking for technically correct images, interesting subjects presented in interesting ways, with either high key or low key impact, with good compositional elements.  (You should have received more detailed information on this subject.) Basically they use the T. I. C. system as a basis for judging.  You should think about this when you are choosing your entries.

Entries should be no older than three years.  (We want to keep you out there taking photographs).  We will make an exception to this if you are currently unable to get out and take photographs due to age or health issues.

You may re-enter photographs unless they have taken a first, second or third place in any division.  If they place you must retire them from our competitions.

You may enter a total of two photographs in either of the categories or any combination of the two categories.  In other words…two prints OR two projected digital images OR one print and one projected image.

Each entry is judged on its own merit by three judges, on a scale of 1 to 10.  The three judge’s scores are averaged for your final score.  After both photographs have been scored, the totals are added together and multiplied by 1.5 for your total score.  Those points accumulate throughout the year.  We have changed the number of entries from three to two this year (2010), beginning with the March competition, therefore each point accumulated for the evening will be multiplied by 1.5 to maintain the same ratio for accumulated points.

Points for the current year are totaled.  First, second and third place photographers are identified at each level (Master, Regular and Novice).  These presentations are made at the December Awards/Christmas dinner.  Members who have achieved the required points to move up within their division or to another division are awarded with patches. Plaques are awarded to the first place “Photographer of the Year”, and certificates are presented to the second and third place photographers.

Points earned for contest accumulate over the lifetime of your membership determining which division you are in: Novice, Regular or Master.

Divisions:  Novice:                                                          0  to  150 points

Regular:

Senior Photographer                   151  to   350 points

Expert Photographer                   351  to   650 points

Master:

Master Photographer                   651 to 1000 points

Grand Master Photographer      1001 +

 

(The maximum number of points you can make a year will be 180.  (10X2=20X6=120X1.5=180).  Of course you can not miss a contest, must enter three photos in each, and would have to get perfect scores all year to accumulate 180 points!)

There is an exception to moving through the ranks. If you come into the club and are already an experienced photographer, you have the option of competing in whichever division you wish.   You can move right into the Regular or Master Division but you will want to be sure that is where you belong before you make the choice because if you find you are not winning contest there is no going back.  We encourage you to move up to your comfort level so that true Novice members are not competing with experienced photographers.  If at the end of the year a Novice has accumulated more points than the top three Regular photographers, he or she will be asked to move up.  If someone in the Regular Division has accumulated more points than the top three Masters, he or she will be asked to move up.

If you have a winning print in a contest we request that when you get home you forward it digitally via email to the Web Editor (webeditor@cookevillecameraclub.com ) so that he can get all the winning photographs on the website.  If you are not able to do this, please allow him to take the print home to be scanned.  It will be returned to you at the next meeting.  He already has the Projected Images and the projectionist will keep the winners of this category in a separate file to be used at the end of the year for “Projected Image of the Year”..

You are responsible to keep track of your first, second and third place winning prints  These will be re-entered and judged at the end of the year for ”Print of the Year” during the year. (We suggest you put them in a special place so you can find them later)

Good luck!