The rules
The competition shall be known as The York Open Photography Competition 2013.
The competition and title is owned and administered by YorkMix.com (a trading division of Infinite Mix Ltd).
The competition’s official partners are York Photographic Society, East Coast (East Coast Main Line Company Ltd), York Digital Image Ltd, and Fulford Framing.
The end-of-competition winners’ exhibition will take place between January 18 and January 31, 2014, by kind permission of City Screen York.
Eligibility
The competition is open to amateur and professional photographers from the UK.
All submitted photographs must have been taken in York [within the area bounded by the city’s outer ring road A1237/A64].
All photographs must have been taken since September 7, 2012.
Closing date: The last date for submissions is noon, January 6, 2014.
All entries must never have been awarded a prize or commendation in any other Open Competition. Entries which have won prizes or commendations in closed competitions run by photographic clubs and societies are eligible for entry.
Photographs must never have been published in a newspaper, magazine, periodical or website, other than a publication or website(s) of a photography club or society or on the photographer’s personal website, Facebook page or Flickr account.
Judging criteria
Any subject is allowed, but the principal consideration of the judging panel will be whether a photograph captures the ‘spirit of York’.
The judges will also take into consideration composition, lighting, technical skill, flair and mood.
Photographs can be black and white or colour.
Entry fee / number of entries permitted
Up to three entries may be made in any one submission, using the official entry form here.
Entrants may make as many separate submissions (of one, two or three photographs) as they want.
The entry fee is £2 per submission of up to three photographs.
[For the avoidance of doubt: a submission containing one photograph will attract a single fee of £2; a submission of two photographs, likewise, will attract a single entry fee of £2 total; and, similarly, a submission containing three photographs will attract a single fee totalling £2.]
Age definition
Entrants aged under 18 on the closing date of January 6, 2014 will be eligible for any ‘Under-18’ prize.
York definition
For the purpose of this competition, a photographer will be deemed to be ‘York-based’ if his or her home address is within 10 miles of York Minster.
Prizes
Open Category
All entrants (any age), amateur or professional, will be considered for the overall Open Category 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes.
1st: Title of York Photographer Of The Year
£250 plus a pair of First Class return tickets (from York to any station served directly by East Coast or from any station served directly by East Coast to York).
2nd: £100 cash.
3rd: £50 cash.
The title of York Young Photographer Of The Year and a cash prize of £25 will be awarded to the best entry from a photographer aged under 18. If an Under-18 entrant wins one of the top three prizes, their higher cash prize will be instead of the £25 award.
In the event that the Open Category 1st prize winner is York-based, the other East Coast rail tickets prize will be awarded to the highest placed non-York entrant.
Other prizes:
York Prizes (for entrants from the city of York)
Over 18: East Coast Prize Rail Tickets for Two. [This prize is awarded only if the Open Category winner is not York-based]
Under 18: £25
Editor’s Award
Over 18: £25
Under 18: £25
Readers’ Award
At the discretion of the judges and the editor of YorkMix, if there are sufficient entries, a selection of up to 50 photographs will be chosen for YorkMix readers to vote on to select a winner.
These will be photographs deemed to have editorial merit, but which might not otherwise meet the technical standard of expertise required of a major prize-winning photograph.
All winners and commended photographers will receive a certificate.
Technical details
Picture manipulation
Images may be digitally enhanced to remove spots or scratches.
Techniques such as ‘dodging’ and ‘burning’ and adjustments to brightness and contrast are allowed.
Images can be made brighter or clearer, but the content may not be manipulated.
Judges reserve the right to disqualify any image they believe has been over-manipulated or excessively treated so as to alter its authenticity.
Image specifications
All images must be:
Submitted in RGB format;
High-quality jpeg files (Level 10 or above in Photoshop)
Lower resolution: 1400 x 1050 pixels. Shortlisted entrants will be contacted and given the opportunity to submit higher resolution images. But for the first phase of judging, please send lower resolution images only (max 1400 x 1050 pixels).
Filenames must be alpha-numeric and end in ‘.jpg’
Entry form
All entries must be made using the form < HERE> and include the following information to be provided in the relevant boxes on the form: Entrant’s forename and surname; Entrant’s Age (on January 6, 2014); Contact telephone number; email address.
Each submitted image must have a title.
Entrants may add technical details, location details or other relevant information, up to a maximum of 150 words.
All entry fees must be made using a PayPal account, or via PayPal using a credit or debit card.
No prints will be accepted.
No postal entries will be accepted.
No private correspondence will be entered into.
Any queries about the competition may be submitted to [email protected]. Where relevant, answers will be given online on this website.
Copyright
Copyright in all photographs is retained by the photographer.
Entry into this competition grants Infinite Mix Ltd the right to display the photograph on the YorkMix.com website indefinitely (free of charge, with a photo credit).
The competition co-sponsors and partners, York Photographic Society, East Coast (East Coast Main Line Company Ltd), York Digital Image Ltd, Fulford Framing, and City Screen, York also have the right to use winning and commended images free of charge on their websites or on any promotional material for up to five years. Photographer’s credits will appear alongside all pictures used in this way.
The entrant shall be deemed to warrant that they own the entire copyright in the work.
Data protection
YorkMix.com and the competition partners are allowed to use entrants’ email addresses for a mail-out or publicity communication. [Recipients will be able to opt out of future mail-outs.]
There will be no appeals against the decision of the judges, and correspondence cannot be entered into regarding the judging.
By registering and entering the York Open Photography Competition 2013 you agree to these rules and all other terms and conditions.
Entries will not necessarily be judged anonymously, as YorkMix reserves the right to publish entries during the competition, with captions identifying the photographer. YorkMix relies on the integrity and impartiality of the judging panel to ensure fairness.
The organisers, judges and editor of YorkMix reserve the right to add new award categories, or not award a prize in a sub-category, or amalgamate sub-categories, depending on the volume of entries. All such decisions will be announced on YorkMix.
The closing date of the competition is noon on January 6, 2014.
Short-listed entrants will be contacted by email and given the opportunity of submitting higher-resolution images.
The shortlist will be announced on YorkMix on or before Friday, January 10, 2014. Winners will be decided by Thursday January 9, and informed by email.
The winners’ exhibition will take place at York’s City Screen cinema for two weeks, starting on Saturday, January 18, and ending on Friday, January 31, 2014.
Competition sponsors
Click on the logo to find out more