Competition

No More Busing by Maria DeKoker

Table of Contents

Tacoma Photographic Society thrives on its competitions.

Each month, each division will usually host two competitions. One is the Division specific competition the other is the Society Assigned Topic Competition.

Print Media is accepted to both competitions at Print meetings, and Digital media is accepted to both competitions at Projection meetings.

General Rules

  • Each member may enter four images into Division Competition each month (two prints to Print Division, two files to Projection Division)
  • Each member may enter two prints and two files into the Society Assigned Topic Competitions each month. Prints will be presented at Print Division meetings, and digital files will be presented at Projection Division meetings.
  • All images must originate in a camera
  • Images may be self-developed, commercially developed (by a photo store) or produced digitally
  • Any enhancement other than overall color and contrast must be made by the photographer
  • You may not copy someone else’s artwork, including paintings, etchings or other photographs.
  • Images earning the member a photographic point may not be resubmitted
  • You may not enter the same image or a near duplicate image in both Print and Projection Divisions.
  • You may enter an image from Division Competition into Society Assigned Topic Competition
  • An Image should not have any watermarks or other markings on it that might be used to identify the photographer.

Division Specific Rules

Each division deals with very different media which are handled and presented differently. For this reason, you will find the rules of entry for each media type on their respective Division pages:

Judging

  1. Excellent
  2. Very Good
  3. Good
  1. Average
  2. Fair

The combined score of three of the judges will be used to determine the award of a photographic point as explained in Recognition

Competition Definition and Awards

To constitute a competition, there must be a minimum of three competing members.

Place winners are selected by popular vote. In popular vote competition each person present shall have a minimum of one vote. Ties shall stand unbroken and each image in a tie will receive full credit for Photographic Points. Members will not vote for his or her own entry.

The number of awards to be given and the minimum number of allowed popular votes shall be based on the number of entries as follows:

EntriesMinimum
Popular
Votes		Awards
3 thru 511st Place
6 thru 821st & 2nd Places
9 or more31st, 2nd, & 3rd Places

Monthly Society-Assigned Topic Competition

This competition is open to all members regardless of Division affiliation.

  • No more than two topics may be assigned per scheduled program
  • Rules of entry are as for the regular Division Competitions
  • Entries may be submitted only once in these competitions
  • No member may enter more than two entries per scheduled program
  • Judging for the Monthly Society-Assigned Topic Competition shall be by Popular Vote as described above

Note that photographic points earned in this competition do not contribute to the member’s Division Photographic Point Standing but do contribute to the member’s Society Photographic Points.

Annual Division Competition

The Annual Division Competition is usually held in May, at the end of The Society’s competition year. Winners are announced at The Society’s annual awards function.

  • Any work entered into Division competition during the competition year is eligible for entry to the Annual Division Competition
  • A panel of at least three judges shall be selected by the Awards Committee, none of whom may be Society members
  • Entries in each division are judged separately
  • Entries may be grouped into combinations as determined by the Awards Committee
  • For each group in each Division the panel shall determine clear winners of first, second and third place
  • There will be no ties
  • A minimum of three honorable mentions shall be declared

For each Division, the panel shall also select from among the group place and honorable mention winners, one recipient each for at least one and no more than seven of the following special citation awards:

  • Outstanding Photo Journalism
  • Outstanding Nature
  • Outstanding Pictorial
  • Outstanding Contemporary
  • Outstanding Use of Color (Projection or Print)
  • or Outstanding Use of Tonal Contrast (for Print)
  • Outstanding Portrait
  • Outstanding Creative

The meaning of these award designations shall conform to their PSA definition.

No entry may receive more than one group and one special citation award.

Recognition

All awards shall be selected by the Awards Committee and shall be in printed certificate format.
Ribbons, stickers or other similar evidence of awards may be provided at the discretion of the Awards Committee.

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