Photography Competition 2008

Terms & Conditons

1. The Owner of the competition is Reef Check Foundation Limited (A. C. N. 108 200 933). The annual competition is open to anyone except those involved in its organisation and other employees of Reef Check Foundation Limited and the competition Sponsors.
   
   
2. All Entries must be original digital images, scans of transparencies or scanned prints with sufficient native resolution to be printed at >A3 size at exhibition quality.  One digital image may be entered in each category. Images may not be entered in more than one category. Black and White images are acceptable for any category. Images may be cropped before submission to either a 4:3 or square format. Digital images must not be adjusted beyond rule 4 prior to submission. Prints, mounted transparencies and CD based entries are not permitted. All entries must be submitted as digital files via the membership pages on the www.reefcheckaustralia.org website. It is a condition of entry that all entrants sign up to become members of the Reef Check Australia website and maintain their contact details for the duration of the competition.
   
   
3. Digital format guidelines: You will be required to upload two version of your photograph. The first is a small preview sized photograph no bigger thenn 800x600 @ 72DPI. This image will then be automatically resized and optimised for screen viewing on the integrated Macromedia flash picture viewer. The second image is a high resolution image and must be of sufficient native resolution that if shortlisted for the Reef Check exhibition it can be printed or viewed at A3 size or greater. As a guide this will require images with a native resolution of 6 million pixels or above. For upload purposes images must not exceed 1 Megabyte (MB) in size. Contact will be made via your Reef Check Australia membership contact email address supplied on sign up. The original image capture EXIF data as it was recorded by the camera with no manipulation applied will be requested if your image reaches the final stages of the competition and must be supplied to RCA by 30th September 08. File labelling should include your name, the category number or title and the key subject (eg JBrown.Cat2reef2020.jpg or JbrownCreativeVisions.reef2020.jpg). Please label all images using the same format. Full contact and picture details should also be inserted into the pull-down-file information box (eg from File>File Info in Photoshop).
   
   
4. Digital adjustments: are acceptable in all categories if limited to cleaning, noise reduction, levels, curves, colour, saturation, contrast, sharpening and cropping. Compositing and multiple exposures are only permissible in categories 2 and 4. Sharpening is allowed. Please note the intention is for images to remain photorealistic whilst capturing the overall competition theme and encouraging creativity, originality and vision in the appropriate categories.
   
   
5. Copyright: You warrant and assure us that you are sole author and owner of the copyright for all images entered. Where photomontage / multiple exposures techniques are used to generate images the copyright in each image is solely owned by you. By entering your images into the competition you confirm that you have the right to grant the Owner the usage rights outlined below and you agree to indemnify the Owner in respect to any losses or damages that maybe suffered arising out of or in connection with the use, reproduction or exploitation of the images as a result of the infringement of any third party rights. By entering your images into the competition, you grant to the Owner and Reef Check Foundation (International) a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual non-exclusive licence to reproduce the images for any purpose including, but not limited to, the following purposes:
   
   
1. Judging the competition,
2. Exhibition displays,
3. Inclusion within the Reef Check Australia and Reef Check Foundation online gallery, publications or similar (www.reefcheckaustralia.org and www.reefcheck.org)
4. Inclusion within promotion of the competition and exhibition organised by the Owner or Reef Check Foundation.
5. Inclusion (if selected as one of the promotional images) within the Owner’s marketing and promotional materials (including press packs) for the competition, exhibitions and the International Year of the Reef activities.
6. Use on competition and exhibition-related merchandise or other promotional material to be sold by the Owner to generate not-for-profit revenue.
7. You grant the Owner the right to sub-licence images to the press for reproduction in connection with the competition and exhibition.
8. You grant the Owner the right to sub-licence images for use by the International Reef Check Foundation which operates Reef Check programs on an international scale.
   
   Winning entries are defined as those for which a prize is awarded by the competition judges. By entering your images into the competition, competition prize winners grant to the Owner and Reef Check Foundation (International) a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual non-exclusive licence to reproduce the images for any of Reef Check’s non-profit activities including and not limited to use on merchandise or other promotional material to be sold by the Owner and Reef Check Foundation (International), you also grant this licence to use the images for all the purposes outlined above. The Owner will use its best endeavours to acknowledge the copyright bearer on any material on which the image is used unless agreed otherwise.
   
   
6. Ethics: If manipulated behaviour, cruel or unethical practices are suspected by the Owner and or the judges, the entry will be disqualified.
   
   
7. Legal requirements: Entries must not contravene relevant Environment Protection legislation and be compliant with relevant permits where images are taken in designated marine parks.
   
   
8. Previous competitions: Images that have already won a prize (winner, runner up or commended) in a major competition (one receiving more than 500 images) are not eligible for entry.
   
   
9. Online gallery: the Owner reserves the right to remove any entry from the online photo gallery if it contravenes the rules, entry requirements or is not deemed to be of sufficient standard for the competition. Any entry that at the sole discretion of the Owner and or judges is deemed to be indecent, obscene, discriminatory or offensive will be immediately disqualified from the competition and will be removed from the online gallery and appropriate action will be taken. Entries that include images of children (<18 years of age) must comply with all federal and state government rules and requirements. In general written permission must be sought from the child’s parent on guardian for their participation.
   
   
10. Online voting and shortlisting: only registered members of the Reef Check Australia website are eligible to use the online gallery voting system. Entrants are not eligible to vote for their own entries. Only one vote per entry is permissible per member. Members are encouraged to vote for each entry in a category to provide a fair representation of their opinion across all the entries. The votes cast through this system will be used to guide the shortlisting process however the judges decision on category winners will be final.
    
    
11. Judges: will be appointed by the Owners to choose the winners. The Owners' decision on all matters relating to the competition is final, and no correspondence will be entered into concerning the competition's judging and organisation. Should the quality of entries fall below the standard required, the Owner reserves the right to remove these entries from the online photo gallery and not to award prizes.
    
12. Notification: Winners and commended photographers will be notified in September 2008.
    
    
13. Reproduction: The Owner and sponsors are entitled further to rule 5 above to reproduce and exhibit in all media (now known or hereafter created) prize-winning and commended entries, but only in connection with the promotion of and publicity for this competition, the exhibition and tour.
    
    
14. Merchandise: The Owner is entitled further to rule 5 above to reproduce the prize-winning and commended images on or in relation to competition merchandise.
    
    
15. Entry conditions: this is a free to enter competition. However as previously noted the Owner is a not for profit organisation hence a membership donation of $10 AUD is encouraged from all competition entrants and new members. These monies will help support the development and national promotion of this competition and other Reef Check programs. Donations can be made through the secure link on the www.reefcheckaustralia.org website.
    
    To be awarded a prize, entrants must have a valid Australian residential address listed in their contact details in our membership database. Photographers with residential addresses listed as outside of Australia are welcome to join Reef Check Australia’s membership, participate and vote in the competition but will not be awarded a prize or title by the judges.
    
    
16. Closing date: for digital submissions to the online gallery is 30th June 2008.