• Learn from experienced photographers and meet new friends!
• Enjoy Photography outings, guest speakers, & presentations.
• Improve your skills through the club's educational website pages!
• Improve your photography skills with optional photo critiques.
• Monthly print and projection competitions in-person & on Zoom.
• Participate in PSA and NWCCC interclub & individual competitions.
  
• Meetings are open to the public. All ages & skills are welcome!
  
• TPS Annual Spring Fair Print Photo Contest is open to PNW photographers.
  
• TPS Annual Division Competition & Award Banquet--members only.

To join TPS or read more about a membership click here

2024 Competition Dates And Theme Assignments

Monthly Themes are chosen to encourage people to explore outside of their comfort zone and try photographing something specific that is different from what you normally photograph.  They stimulate your imagination, creativity, and resourcefulness. They encourage you to look around and pay more attention to something you might not consider photographing.  It takes just a little effort to look for these specific subjects which, surprisingly, can be fun and interesting.  Some photography clubs call it a “Club Challenge”.  Are you up to these monthly challenges? Don’t just search through your image library for something that will make do.  Go out, explore, try something new, and have fun!

The more accurately the main subject in your photograph expresses the theme, while achieving high-quality photographic and technical standards, the more likely your photo will receive more votes. The Theme subject must be the main subject of interest.

TPS Field Trips

Email messages will be sent to all members with details through the website email system. Dates are subject to change due to unforeseeable circumstances such as weather, event location closures, illnesses, etc. Members are encouraged to bring their family and friends as their guests (unless there is a participation limit stated in the event details). Please share your photos on the Galleries Pages for each field trip event/location. You do not have to attend on the date the event is scheduled to post your photos to the Gallery page for that event. Please feel free to always share your photos with everyone on the specific gallery page.  Click on the  Galleries  link at the top of this page.

All club members and their guests are responsible for paying any parking and entrance fees for themselves. You do not have to stick together as a group unless the event consists of a guided tour provided by the facility's staff. Please read the event details carefully to see if there are any restrictions such as no tripods, monopods, flash attachments, handicapped accessibility limitations, strollers, pets, etc. Please RSVP to the contact member for all of these field trips.

Thursday, January 9 Projection Competition
January's Theme Is "Contrast/Opposites"

Please note the change in the day from Wednesday to Thursday due to the holidays.  Meetings are open to the public on the first Wednesday of the month; however, you must be a club member to compete in monthly and annual print and projection competitions.

We are pleased to offer TWO ways to attend the monthly Projection Competition meetings--either in person or via Zoom! The Zoom link will be emailed to everyone before the meeting date and will be posted on the Calendar and this webpage. 

Starting with the September 2024 monthly competitions, Theme images will now be eligible to be entered into the Annual Division Competition to be held in the Fall of 2025.  Please note, the current competition year has changed to September 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.

Submit Images - Thursday, January 2 through Monday, January 6 at 11:30 pm

Judging & Voting - Tuesday, December 31 until Saturday, January 4 at 9 pm.

Review Meeting - Thursday, January 9 - The image review meeting will be held in-person with social time and optional critiques starting at 6:30-9 pm as well as, through Zoom with this link: TBA

Meeting Location - Curtis High School, 8425 40th Street, University Place, WA  98466.  Google map

Directions:  Turn into the small parking lot (by the reader board sign and the big rock).  There are also flagpoles by the main entrance.  Go to the outside door marked "Staff Development Room".

Submission Requirements:          

• Export/Save
  your images in JPEG, sRGB, 80% quality, no larger than 1920 px wide x 1080 px high, and a 1.5 MB file size limit.     
  
• Submit your images on the website at:  Competitions > Submit Images For Print or Projection  OR  click here   
  
• Please capitalize each word in your image titles & check your spelling.  The public will see your mistakes and we can’t correct them for you. 
  
• DO NOT include your name or the file name in the photo titles.  The automated features of this new website will automatically insert your name into the proper place.
• DO NOT include "For Comment" or "Not For Comment" in the title of your photos. The website will keep track of the options you choose.

Your images will be automatically placed into your private Image Library for future reference and use including submitting them to the Annual Division Competition, and PSA competitions! You will also be able to read all the helpful, educational critiques from our members.

Winning images will be placed in the Home Page slideshow with permission of the owner.  If you do NOT want your winning photos included in the slideshow, please contact Cheryl Thielhorn through the website email message system.  For more projection information and competition rules, click here.

Some Rules to Keep In Mind:

• You may submit a photo only once to either a Projection Competition or to a Print Competition--not to both competitions. If you make substantial changes, you must re-submit the photo to the same competition it was submitted to the first time.  You can't submit a photo to a Projection Competition, make substantial changes, and then submit it to a Print Competition, and vice versa. No crossing over from one competition to the other. This applies to both the Open (subject) competitions and the Theme (specific subject) competitions.  Check your Image Library or Image History so you don't accidentally re-submit images: Membership > My Account > My Image History or My Image Library.  You will see all of the photos you have submitted to all competitions since September 2022.
  
• The TPS is a club member of PSA; however, we do NOT compete according to PSA rules such as no signs of "hand of man" in nature/wildlife photos.  You are allowed/expected to remove distracting objects from nature/wildlife photos. It's your choice to delete distracting objects in photojournalism photos or not (sports, events, rodeos, etc.).

If you are not a member of the TPS and would like to start competing in Print and Projection Competitions, join the TPS by clicking here.  We hope to see your photos in our competitions and meet you at our two Projection and Print meetings.

January 16, 2024 Print Competition
January's Theme Is "Contrast/Opposites"

Meetings are open to the public on the third Thursday of the month; however, you must be a club member to compete in monthly and annual print and projection competitions.

Starting with the September 2024 monthly competitions, Theme images will now be eligible to be entered into the Annual Division Competition to be held in the Fall of 2025.  Please note, the current competition year has changed to September 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.

Submit Images - Sunday, January 12 at 12 am until Wednesday, January 15 at 11:30 pm - You must submit your images online before the meeting.  Please note that we no longer accept walk-in print registrations on the night of the meeting.  Therefore, please make sure you have pre-registered your prints on the website with a digital image of your print, before the cut-off date/time.  This change will allow the meeting to proceed on time, make the scorekeeping a smooth process, and creates less work for all of our volunteers.  Plus your photos will be stored in your private Image Library for future reference and use including submitting them to the Annual Division Competition, and PSA competitions.  Yes, our website is connected to the PSA organization!

Judge & Vote - Judging and voting are done in person at the review meeting.

Review Meeting - Thursday, January 16 - The meeting is at 6:30 pm to 9 pm with judging, voting, photo review, and optional critiques.  These meetings are in-person only (no Zoom meetings).

Location - Waller Road Grange, 2708 64th Street East, Tacoma Google map

Submission Requirements:

• Commercially
  made color prints shall be accepted in the Print Division competition.
• As stated in the Bylaws, Print Division entries shall be a minimum of 35 square inches (e.g., 5″ x 7″) not including mounting. Maximum combined print and mount size shall be no larger than 320 square inches (e.g., 16″ x 20″).
• Submit your images on the website: Competitions > Submit Images For Print or Projection  OR  click here.
• Please capitalize each word in your image titles and use proper word spacing. Please check your spelling! Everyone will see your mistakes which we can't correct for you.
  
• DO NOT include your name, the word "copy", or numbers in the image titles.  The automated features of the website will automatically insert your name into the proper place.
• DO NOT include "For Comment" or "Not For Comment" in the title of your photos. The website will keep track of the options you choose.

Award-winning photos will be placed in the Home Page slideshow.  If you do NOT want your photos included in the slideshow, please contact Cheryl Thielhorn through the website email message system.  For more print information and competition rules, click here.

Some Rules to Keep In Mind:

If you are not a member of the TPS and would like to start competing in Print and Projection Competitions, join the TPS by clicking here.  We hope to see your photos in our competitions and meet you at our two Projection and Print meetings.

The TPS extends our sincere thanks to these local companies for helping make our TPS Annual Spring Fair Photo Competition a great success for us, and especially for all of the PNW photographer entrants! All photo entries are displayed at the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup each April.

Copyright © 2024 Tacoma Photographic Society - Pierce County, Washington

All photos on this website are the artistic and intellectual property of club members and are copy-protected. By law, they can't be copied, saved, reproduced, distributed, or shared in any form or for any reason without written permission from the photographer who created the photo(s).  Photography is protected under the same copyright laws as fine art, books, poetry, and music.