Rules
Digital Camera Photographer of the Year 2011
1. The organiser
The organiser of the Digital Camera Photographer of the Year competition is Future Publishing Limited ("Future"). Employees of Future and its group companies, and any of the official partners, sponsors, or associates of Future relating to the competition and their families are not eligible to enter this competition.
2. Eligibility
By entering the competition, you agree to be bound by the following rules, and also Future's terms and conditions of website use and its privacy policy. The competition is open to amateur and professional photographers of all nationalities who are over 18 years of age at the closing date of the competition and who have access to the internet. Entries must be submitted by an individual (not via any agency or similar). Entries must have been taken no more than five years prior to the category submission closing date.
Your photos must have been taken with a digital camera. Images uploaded to the competition website should not exceed the maximum size of 5MB, in JPEG format. If your image is being considered for the shortlist, you will be asked to submit a high-resolution version.
The following images are not eligible for entry:
a) an image that has won a prize in a major national or international competition (one receiving more than 500 images) or that has been entered in such a competition where the results are still pending; and
b) an image which has already been published in a print photography publication other than Digital Camera magazine.
All entrants agree to participate in any publicity in connection with this competition as required and to the use of your name and likeness for the purpose of promotion and publicity.
3. Legal requirements
By submitting an entry into the competition, you warrant to Future that the entry is wholly original to you and not wholly or substantially copied from any other material and that the entry does not defame, cause injury to or invade the privacy of or otherwise infringe or violate any statutory, common law, regulatory or intellectual property rights of any third party. You agree to fully indemnify Future and any of the official partners, sponsors or associates of Future relating to the competition in respect of all royalties, fees and other monies owing to any person by reason of your breaching this rule.
4. Entering your photographs
Entries must be submitted in accordance with the instructions set out on the Enter page.
There is an entrance fee of £10 to enter up to 50 images into the competitions, with a maximum of five (5) images per category. Payment will need to be made via PayPal before you are able to begin uploading your images. Additional PayPal terms and conditions will apply. Please note that we are only accepting payment via PayPal; however, you do not need a PayPal account in order to pay using this service. The entrance fee is inclusive of VAT (VAT no. GB 713 111 493).
In the event of any technical failure, interruption of service or any delay in payment, your only remedy is to request that your transaction be completed at a later time.
5. Image editing
You should use image enhancement and digital darkroom techniques to optimise an entry into the competition, such as touching up a portrait, building a panorama or creating an HDR image from multiple exposures. Adding or removing significant elements of a composition is discouraged in all but the Creative License category. Where appropriate, original files may be requested if a photograph reaches the shortlist of photographs selected by the independent panel of judges.
6. Categories and closing dates
The categories in the Digital Camera Photographer of the Year 2011 competition are:
Action & Movement
Creative Licence
Documentary
Family & Friendshop
Fashion
Garden & Plants
Landscapes
Portraits
Travel
Wildlife
All categories close at 2pm BST (1pm GMT), 30 September 2011.
7. Judging
Photographers may be contacted by email for high-resolution files of their image(s) for potential shortlisting purposes during the competition. Failure to produce a high resolution file within 14 days will eliminate an entrant from the shortlisting process. A final shortlist of images will be announced following the closing date of the competition. Future will appoint a judging panel to determine the winning and commended images in each category, based on the final shortlist. The decision of the judges in determining the shortlist and deciding the winners in each category is final and Future will not enter into any correspondence regarding the judging or organisation of the competition.
8. Notification
Winners, runners-up, highly commended and commended entrants within each category will be announced on the competition website on 13th December 2011 and in issue 121 of Digital Camera magazine in January 2011.
9. Prizes
On offer this year are prizes worth more than £20,000, and prize money this year has been spread amongst all 10 categories of Photographer of the Year, rather than one, single cash prize for the overall winner.
Each of the 10 first place category prizes have increased this year, with each category winner receiving £1,500 plus a one-year subscription to Digital Camera magazine, while second-place winners in their category will receive £400 and a one-year subscription. Third-place winners will get a one-year subscription to Digital Camera and a 1-year membership to the Royal Photographic Society.
The overall winner of the Photographer of the Year title will take home an additional kit prize worth £1,000.
9.1 Commended entries
A selection of entries which are not selected to receive 1st,2nd or 3rd place may also be showcased as examples of excellent work in the category. These entries will not receive a prize.
Future reserves the right to change or add to the prizes and substitute with a comparable alternative due to unforeseen circumstances. Any changes will be posted on the competition website at www.poty2011.com . Prizes are non transferable. If the quality of entry falls below the required standard, Future reserves the right not to award a prize/prizes.
At the point of notification of winning entries, the winners must supply full postal address information and such other information Future may require (including, without limitation, bank transfer details) for the purpose of sending out the category prizes. Once address details have been supplied, winners should allow 28 days for receipt of their category prizes.
10. Copyright
The entrant must be the sole author and owner of copyright, intellectual property, and all other proprietary rights in all pictures entered. It is the legal responsibility of the entrant, and not Future, to ensure they comply with these ownership and copyright requirements and own the rights to reproduce their images. Entries that do not fulfil these criteria will be deemed ineligible and disqualified. Future does not make any claim on the copyright of your images. The photographer will retain copyright and where an image or images are reproduced, the photographer will be credited.
11. Reproduction of entries
By entering your images into the competition, you grant to Future and any of the official partners, sponsors or associates of Future relating to the competition a worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable licence throughout the world for a period of three years from the date on which the results are announced in all media to reproduce any of the images for any purposes in connection with promoting the competition including, but not limited to, the following purposes:
a) judging the competition
b) voting by registered members of www.photoradar.com and www.poty2011.com
c) inclusion within the website, Digital Camera magazine, Photographer of the Year book, supplements or similar print or digital media (including apps) published by Future Publishing
d) displaying the winning and commended entries at public exhibitions promoting the competition
e) inclusion of shortlisted, winning and commended entries in television coverage connected with the competition and / or any exhibition
f) inclusion within marketing and promotional materials (including emails, websites and press packs) for the competition and / or any exhibition
g) sub-licensing the entries to the press for reproduction in connection with the competition and any exhibition
h) allowing viewers of the Website to view images on a computer screen, PDA or mobile telephone and store such pages in electronic form for their personal, non-commercial use
i) reproduction on Digital Camera Photographer of the Year merchandise
j) being chosen and entered into promotional competitions by Future for marketing and promotional purposes
We do not claim unlimited licence for Future or any of the official partners, sponsors or associates of Future relating to the competition to reproduce your images outside of the terms set out above. Where image reproduction is unrelated to the promotion of the competition then permission and royalties will be discussed and negotiated with the photographer concerned.
All entrants must be able to supply a high-resolution image suitable for printing in media. Please note that your real name, rather than your username, will be used where your image is reproduced.
12. General
12.1 These competition rules and competition are governed by English law. Any disputes arising between Future and any third party in relation to these competition rules and/or a competition shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales (save that Future shall be entitled to take action against a third party in any other jurisdiction).
12.2 If there is any inconsistency between any of the provisions of these rules, Future's terms and conditions of website use or Future's privacy policy, the provisions of these rules shall prevail.
