Club Monthly Competition
CLUB MONTHLY COMPETITION
While it can be daunting to see your images commented on, club competitions are also a fun and trusted way to learn along like-minded enthusiasts. The positives well outweigh the negatives:
- You gain immediate and detailed feedback from an independent judge. You will soon learn what common pitfalls to avoid and what to take on board to develop your own skills and style.
- The digital category makes it very easy to enter. However, seeing your photo printed and nestled in an elegant mount is a totally different experience from looking at it on a screen.
- You will develop your own photographic taste by looking at other members' images. See which style you like, which subjects pique your interest. If one of those images catches your attention, the photographer will only be too happy to share their knowledge and passion with you.
- With six categories over 11 months, you will hone your self-critical eye and get better at selecting your best photos.
- A Gold or a Silver means that the image is worthy of being entered at a higher level.
- You will gain the confidence to enter local or regional competitions. Maybe even an international one! The sky is the limit nowadays, and entering club competitions will give you a good start.
- The monthly set subject helps you try a new genre of photography and get you out of your comfort zone.
CATEGORIES
The monthly competition runs from January to November, and is judged by an independent judge each month.
We offer both print and digital (projected) categories as follow:
Projected Set Subject ; Projected Open; Projected Mono; Print Set Subject; Print Open; Print Mono
For the Set Subject, see the annual list here. The images can be mono or colour.
Mono: any subject in black & white or in tones of a single colour
Open: any subject in colour
SCORING
The Club follows the West Australian Photographic Judges Association's scoring system. Points are given to the awarded photos in each category as follow:
Gold Distinction 8 points
Gold 7 points
Silver 6 points
Bronze 5 points
Merit 4 points
To encourage participation, a Merit award is automatically given to any image entered in the competition (except for disqualified images).
The judge is encouraged to give detailed comments on each image on the night of the meeting. They reserve the right not to give any award above Merit in any category if the entries are deemed not to be of sufficient quality.
Members' choice: Club members vote anonymously for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each category on the night of the meeting. Voting slips are available here.
HOW TO ENTER
DIGITAL (PROJECTED) IMAGES
Projected images are digital photos which are projected on a screen on the meeting night.
- All photos must be saved as jpeg, sRGB.
- The size should not exceed 1080px in height and 1920px in width. Max resolution of 300px per inch. See here on how to resize your photos
- The name of the photo should be: Category Title
ex: Set Fireworks over the Swan; ex: Mono Retrievers- Please email your photos to the competition email by the first Tuesday of the month.
- All digital photos entered that month are displayed in the Monthly Gallery by the Friday preceeding the meeting night for members to view and vote.
PRINTED IMAGES
Matted prints are exhibited on boards on the night of the meeting.
- Prints must be securely mounted inside a matt, with a back. The mount cannot exceed 50cm by 40cm and 5mm thickness. Framed photographs are not allowed.- Prints must have a print label attached to the back of the mount in the top left hand corner to help with orientating the image when putting them on the board.
- Please bring your prints at the meeting night to the print table, prior to the judge starting their examination.
RULES
We trust members will follow those rules in good faith. Please note those rules might differ from other photography clubs' and WAPF's rules.
- Only financial members of the club can enter. - One entry per category per member per month.
- The same image can only be entered in one category. A mono version of a colour image is considered to be the same image.
- There is no time restriction on when the image or its elements were taken.
- All elements in the image must be 100% photographic in origin.
- All elements in the image must be the work of the photographer.
- The image's post-production treatment must be the work of the photographer. Printing can be done through a commercial printer.- If there are less than three entries in any category, that category will not be judged.
- Images awarded Bronze and above cannot be entered again in a monthly competition.
RESULTS
For the results of our monthly digital competition, please see our Facebook page.
The monthly Club newsletter includes the names of all winners in all categories, and the members' choices.