Competitions

PLEASE NOTE: All competitions have an Open category in addition to the Theme shown in the competition title.

Please remember to read the image preparation instructions and competition rules (below) before entering, and good luck.

This season’s competitions:

Digital Competition Instructions

All Competitions will have a Theme and an Open category.

Unless otherwise announced, you may enter up to a total of 3 digital images per competition – e.g. 2 in the Themed category and 1 in the Open, or any permutation of this.

All entries should be handed to the Digital Competition Secretary on a USB stick, or emailed to them by the Closing date shown in the Programme.

Digital images must be resized to the standard Competition sizes adopted by most professional clubs. So they must be a maximum of 1200 pixels high, by a maximum of 1600 pixels wide. Images can be smaller than this, they do not necessarily have to be rectangular, but to maximise projection space, either their height or width should be 1600 or 1200 pixels. For best colour rendition, the images should be in the sRGB colour space.

Again, do ask any Member if you need assistance with this.

The images need to be clearly numbered and sent as an attachment to an email which has your Membership Number (available from the Treasurer), the image number, the Category in which that image is to be entered (Theme or Open) and its Title.

All entries received by email will be acknowledged, although not necessarily on the same day that they are received.

Should there be a large number of entries, the Competition Secretary reserves the right to withdraw images if necessary.

Print Competition Instructions

All Competitions will have a Theme and an Open category.

Unless otherwise announced, you may enter up to a total of 3 prints per competition – e.g. 2 in the Themed category and 1 in the Open, or any permutation of this.

All entries should be handed to the Print Competition Secretary by the Closing date shown in the Programme.

All reasonable care will be taken of entries but Taunton Camera Club cannot accept liability for damage to, or loss of, any entry.

Prints should be presented framed in cardboard mounts, of any colour, that measure 50 x 40cm, either portrait or landscape. The prints can be any size up to the size of the mounting board. Do ask any Member in the club for assistance with this if necessary.

The images you’re entering then also need to be given (on a USB stick) or emailed to the Competition Secretary in digital form so that they can be projected on the night of the Competition for all to see clearly, including those on Zoom. These images for projection should be resized to be a maximum of 1200 pixels high, by a maximum of 1600 pixels wide. Again, do ask any Member if you need assistance with this.

The labelling of your images is very important and must be consistent between the print you’re submitting and its corresponding digital image.

The back of the mount board should have your: Membership Number (available from the Treasurer if unsure), the Category in which it’s to be entered (Theme or Open) and its Title. Do not include your name for obvious reasons!

The corresponding digital image should be numbered and attached to an email that contains your membership number, the image’s number, the category and its title.

Do ask if unsure about any of this.

Should there be a large number of entries, the Competition Secretary reserves the right to withdraw images if necessary.

Club rules for all competitions

1. Entries can only be accepted from fully paid-up members who regularly attend club meetings.
   
2. Entries must be the original work of the entrant. Photographs of paintings or illustrations by other people will not be accepted. Composite images (provided all the images used were taken by the photographer) are permitted, as is the use of cloning to remove content in an image entered in the Open category. Images or elements created using Generative AI are not permitted. More guidance on the use of AI can be found on the WCPF website. There are also specific rules for Nature Photography if you would like your image to be considered for external competitions. The current rules can be found on the WCPF website. Nature images entered into the club’s Open competition category do not need to conform to these rules.
   
3. By entering a competition, members grant to the club the right to publish their photographs in the club programme, display them on the club website, and to enter them into external competitions in the name of the club. The copyright to images remains with the photographer.
   
4. 1st, 2nd, 3rd and an appropriate number of Highly Commended and Commended places will be awarded for each competition. The judge’s decision will be final. Images gaining these places will be ineligible for further internal competitions save for the Images of the Year competition.
   
5. The Club will award marks as follows: 1st 10, 2nd 8, 3rd 6, Highly Commended 4 and Commended 2. In addition one mark will be awarded for each non-scoring entry. The marks will be totalled and aggregate trophies awarded appropriately.
   
6. It is your responsibility to make sure images have been received by the submission date.
   
7. With reasonable notice the committee reserves the right to alter any of the competition rules.

Tritych (Panel Competition) Rules

A tryptic is a set of three images which comprises a body of work. This can either be three separate images which tell a story, illustrate a theme or one single image split into three equal parts either vertically or horizontally.

The tryptic (panel) can be a set of three prints or three digitally projected images (DPI).

• Only fully paid up members of the club may enter club competitions.
• Images which have previously been placed or highly commended in club competitions may not be used, however images which are placed or highly commended in the Panels Competition may be used in other competitions except the Images of the Year competition.
• A club member may enter up to three panels.
• If three panels are entered at least one must be DPIs (digital images) and another prints.
• Each panel must have a title, a short descriptive statement/statement of intent can be useful, but is not obligatory and panels can be entered without a statement if preferred.
• Each image to be numbered in the order they are to be displayed i.e. 1, 2, 3. Individual images may be given titles.
• DPIs should conform to the normal club competition requirements. In the DPI competition a forth image should also be presented at the start and end of the panel which shows all three images together – side-by-side – as one panel. i.e Number 1 image showing the complete panel, Number 2 the descriptive statement if being used, followed by the three images Numbers 3,4,and 5 and number six the complete panel again.
• Print images should be a minimum size of A4 on 40cm x 25cms mounts and a maximum size of A3 on 40cm x 50cm mounts.
• Judges will be asked to judge panels as a whole.
• To be certain that your images will be accepted for the competition, you must submit them by the closing date that is shown in the programme.

Hints:
Try for a uniformity of presentation and theme or subject matter. The value of a tryptic/panel is the fact that its strength lies in a connection between each image and that hopefully ‘the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts’. An opening statement of intent is useful to the viewer to explain the idea behind the body of work.

Please note:
All reasonable care will be taken of entries but Taunton Camera Club cannot accept liability for damage to, or loss of any entry.