Rossmoor Camera Club at Leisure World Competition Rules
Adopted April 17, 2018-Revised June 4, 2019-Revised May 11, 2021-Revised April 5, 2022
Article I – Definitions
Section A – Classes
There are two skill levels or “classes” recognized by the club—General and Advanced. Rules for promotion from the General to the Advance class are provided in Article X. Members must compete in the same class in both media.
Section B—Categories
A competition category is a combination of a class and a medium. There are four possible
categories:
- General Print
- General Digital [Projected Image]
- Advanced Print
- Advanced Digital [Projected Image]
Section C—Competition Subjects
The expected sequence of competition subjects is as follows:
- September: Open
- October & November: Specific Subjects
- January: Open [use of liberal post processing permitted and inclusion of new elements, etc.] Every item of the image must be from the submitting photographer.
- February & March: Specific Subjects
- April: Year-End [See Article III, Section B]
Each September, the Board of Directors shall solicit possible subjects from the membership for future competitions and set a date for the closure of these submissions at least 21 days after the notification of the membership by email. The Board of Directors shall narrow the list to not less than eight possible subjects with definitions for each. The Board of Directors shall mail (email or postal) to all members of the Club. Members may vote by email for no more than four subjects commencing with their receipt and ceasing three days prior to the annual membership meeting in May. The four receiving the greatest numbers of votes shall be the subjects of competition three years hence. Voting shall be conducted by the Board of Directors.
No subject shall be competed more frequently than every third season.
The competition subjects will be listed and defined as soon as feasible on the website and in appropriate written materials, thereby giving members an opportunity to work on these subjects for the following three years.
Article II—Member Eligibility
Members of the Rossmoor Camera Club must have paid their annual dues on or before the date of a competition and agree to the following:
- by the act of submitting images for judging, acknowledge that they have read and will abide by all Rossmoor Camera Club Competition Rules;
- to hold the Club free from any claim for loss or damage to any print or projected image;
- to keep silent during the judging; and
- to allow the Rossmoor Camera Club to reproduce that entry, with credit, in Club produced material, e.g. LW News, the End-of-Year computer generated program booklet and RCC website.
Article III—Competitions
Section A – Monthly
A scheduled monthly competition will be held in every category in which three or more members have submitted at least one entry. One-third (rounded to the nearest whole number) of the entries in each category shall receive awards: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Honorable Mentions. The judge will recognize 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place images in each category if sufficient entries have been made and the judge may recognize deserving images for Honorable Mention placement up to a total of one-third of the images submitted (rounded to the nearest whole number).
In the event there are insufficient entries within a category, that category will be combined with the other for the same medium and scored as one class of competition. Winning images will be scored under the individual member’s class.
A non-winning image may be submitted twice in future monthly competitions. When an image has been recognized (1st, 2nd, 3rd or Honorable Mention), it may not be resubmitted in any form other than at the End-of-Year Competition event in the year in which it was recognized. A similar photograph shot at approximately the same location and time may not be submitted in any future competition.
Each member may submit up to two entries in each medium in a monthly competition.
Section B – Year-End
Any competition entry that placed 1st, 2nd, 3rd or Honorable Mention during the competition year is eligible to be entered in the End-of-Year competition for the same medium and in the class of the member. The same schedule of awards as monthly competitions will be used, except 1st place in each category will additionally be recognized as “Photograph of the Year”. Those photographs will have their images included in the banquet program and published on the Club’s website.
Each member may submit up to three original unaltered entries in each eligible category in the year-end competition—a maximum of six images. Members with four or more images in a given category must choose which three shall be entered in the End-of-Year competition.
Section C – Copyright
A member’s copyright to their photograph does not require formal registration and is in effect for the life of the photographer plus 70 years. Granting permission for a photograph to be published does not infringe on this protection.
Article IV—Images
Section A – Composition
All entries must be the original work of the member-photographer and an honest depiction using only acceptable digital adjustments listed in Article IV Section B. Photographs taken by the competitor with a digital camera may be entered in either medium as long as they meet all criteria. Film images and negatives that are printed may be scanned and entered in either category.
Section B – Acceptable Digital Adjustments
- Each image entered must consist solely of a photograph captured by the member using a camera, iPod, smartphone, or other devices.
- The image may not be modified by someone other than the member.
- Photographs of two-dimensional works of art (art works, etc.) such as prints and paintings are not eligible except when the prints or paintings are a minor part of the member’s composition.
- Image elements not of photographic origin including text are not eligible.
- Standard commercial printing may be performed by an outside service.
- Manipulation is neither required nor prohibited.
- Any custom processing, manual optimization, and image manipulation must be performed by the club member submitting the photograph.
- Techniques that add new image elements not in the original image photographed by the member are prohibited, including applying textures or incorporating components (such as skies or a moon), except for the January Open Competition.
Article V—Prints
Section A – Size
The size of a print and its mounting shall not exceed 16×20 inches.
Section B – Print Mounting
All prints must be mounted, but the mounting need not be done by the member. Mats or over-mats, if used, must be white, off-white or black and must be securely attached (top and bottom) to the back mount board in a manner that will not damage other entries. Prints may not be framed. The competitor’s name or photograph’s title may not appear on the front.
Section C – Print Marking
All prints must have only one title and the competitor’s name AND NO OTHER INFORMATION clearly printed on the back of the mat with an arrow (pointed in the upward direction) indicating the direction in which the print shall be displayed. PRINTS WILL BE SHOWN AS MARKED AND UNMARKED PRINTS WILL NOT BE SHOWN. The title of the print shall contain no more than 30 characters (including spaces). Nothing may be on the back of any mounted print which would damage another print, e.g. Post-Its, wires, hooks, or loose tape.
Section D – Displaying of Prints and Print Scorekeeping
Two designated people (under the direction of the First Vice President) will display the prints in the light box for judging.
A designated person (under the direction of the First Vice President) will record the print winners.
Section E – Preparation
Printing and processing of digital images may be done commercially or by the competitor.
Article VI—Projected Images (Digital Images)
Section A – Format
All images must be provided as .jpg files—all other formats are prohibited. Image resolution will be sized by the computer operators (under the direction of the First Vice-President). (The optimum size for a submitted image by a competitor is 1024 x 768 ppi.)
Section B – Image Source
While most images submitted in the digital medium are expected to have been taken with a digital camera, scanned images that have been converted to a digital format are also acceptable.
Section C – File Naming
To work with the computer program that we use for competitions, the file name on a digital image MUST consist of the class in which the image is to compete (General or Advanced), followed by a comma, the entrant’s name (first and last), followed by a comma and the title of the image (in no more than 30 characters and spaces). The identifier .jpg assigned by the computer must also be present, but ONLY ONCE on the image title. No other periods or commas may be present, as they will confuse the computer program.
EXAMPLE of digital file name:
General, Jennifer Dough, See You Later Alligator.jpg
Note: Make sure your digital file name looks like the example!!!
Article VII – Submitting Images
Based on the established deadline published by email to all members, each competitor should send an email to RossmoorLW@gmail.com. The email should contain the member’s class, name and titles of the images being submitted. Attached to the email should be the digital image with the title as specified in Article VI, Section C. (DO NOT USE A NAME FOR THE IMAGE SUCH AS IMG_47925, which may be how it is assigned by the camera and stored in a computer file).
The short title of the image can contain up to 30 characters, to include spaces. No punctuation marks or apostrophes may be used, as the computer program cannot handle such characters in the short title.
An appropriate email might look like:
Jennifer Dough is submitting the following photographs in the General category for the August competition, Reptiles.
Print: General, Jennifer Dough, Turtles in the Pond
Print: General, Jennifer Dough, Moroccan Lizards
Digital: General, Jennifer Dough, See You Later Alligator
Digital: General, Jennifer Dough, Snakes on a Plane
Thanks, Jennifer Dough
Article VIII—Judging Procedure
Section A—Selection and Instruction of Judges
The First Vice-President shall select judges who are neither residents of Leisure World nor non-resident members of the club. The First Vice-President, when writing to the judge confirming the time of the competition, shall include a copy of:
- Categories (Article I Section B)
- Definition of competition subject
- Acceptable Digital Adjustments (Article IV Section B)
- Judging Procedure (Article VIII Section C)
The First Vice-President shall also review the system with the judge immediately before judging.
When a judge has not arrived at the time of competition, the First Vice-President shall choose three experienced General and three experienced Advanced members to judge and assign scores. Each judge (in rotation) shall comment on an image—one judge per photograph. The judges selected will judge in the class in which they do not compete.
Section B—Sign-In Procedure
Images should be submitted as described in Article V (print) and Article VII (digital). In an effort to accommodate late print submissions, the First Vice-President will provide forms to be used by entrants to record names and print titles. To the extent possible, these forms will be pre-printed with previously submitted competitor names/titles and adequate space provided for new entries. Acceptance of late print submissions is wholly at the discretion of the First Vice-President.
Section C—Judging Procedure
- There will be no comments made by the audience.
- There will be a run-through of each category prior to any commentary by the judge.
- When the images are shown for a second time, the judge will make comments and rule the image to be either “IN” or “OUT” for further consideration. The “IN-OUT” ruling shall continue for as many cycles as needed to produce the quantities of awards specified in Article III. NOTE: In the interest of saving time, the judge may make comments at the first showing and the “IN”s and “OUT”s at the second run-through.
- The judge will notify the images placing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd with the remainder being awarded Honorable Mention. All winning images will be acknowledged by the presentation of a certificate at a later date.
Section D—Image Titles
The names of the photographers and titles of the images will not be made known to the judge prior to the rendering of a decision. Titles will be announced at the time of placement. Place winners are encouraged to state when, where and under what circumstance the photograph was taken.
Article IX—Scoring
Section A—Monthly and Year-End Events
Points will be awarded in each competition category as follows:
Placement – Points Awarded
- First – 10
- Second – 9
- Third – 8
- Honorable Mention – 6
Section B—Record Keeping
The Database Manager (under the direction of the First Vice-President) shall be responsible for record keeping. A worksheet shall be maintained for each competitor. The scores awarded for every image submitted by each competitor shall be posted to the worksheet and published monthly. Records are kept only for the year in progress. Cumulative Overall Records are not maintained.
Article X—Determination of Class
Section A – Voluntary Assignment
Any member who requests classification as Advanced will be granted it.
Section B – Season Winners
Any General class competitor who places 1st or 2nd in the final year-end standings in either medium (but not necessarily the same category) two or more times within any three consecutive years shall be promoted to the Advanced class for the next and subsequent years. Promotion will occur only at season-end.
Promotion will occur only at the end of the season.
Section C—Reclassification
Any Advanced competitor who feels unable to compete at that level may appeal to the Board of Directors for reclassification to General after a minimum of two years as an Advanced competitor. The Board of Directors will determine if the reclassification is granted.
Article XI—Annual Awards
Section A – Annual Awards
Annual Awards are given at the end of each competition year and are based on the total points accumulated during that year. A minimum of thirty (30) points is required for each award. The point leader in each category will be named “Photographer of the Year” for that category. A 2nd and 3rd place will also be awarded in all categories, provided the minimum number of points (30) has been earned.
XII—Miscellaneous
Section A – Supplies
The First Vice President shall be in charge of all competitions and be responsible for providing all necessary materials, personnel and equipment needed to conduct the competitions (forms, screen, computer, projector, photo box, etc.).
Section B—Training and Competition Conduct
The First Vice President shall select and train a support cadre needed to conduct the competitions and shall establish guidelines for assuring the competition proceeds without undue delay or error.
Section C – Final Authority
Decisions of the First Vice President and two other Advanced members (named by the President) shall be final in any matter related to the competitions that are not specifically covered by the competition rules, the Club Constitution, By-Laws or Board action. These persons may disqualify any entry that does not meet a specific subject description, or whose maker fails to comply with club rules.
Section D – Designees
Any task assigned to the First Vice-President may be reassigned to a designee by either the First Vice-President or President.
