Competition Rules
 

Who? What? When?

• Contests are held every fourth Monday of the month.
• All HPS members are eligible to enter the monthly contests. All entries that place during the year are then eligible for competing in the end-of-year competition held on the second Monday of the December.

Rules of Competition

Basic Rules

1. Only current, dues-paying, members in good standing may enter competition.
2. A total of six entries per competition are allowed but only four in any one category are allowed.
3. Entries must be submitted no later than five minutes after the time the meeting is scheduled to begin. (e.g. Entries must be "in the hands" of the competition secretary by 7:05PM)
4. Once an image has placed in a monthly competition (1st, 2nd, 3rd or Honorable Mention), that image, or one nearly identical, may not be re-entered in a monthly HPS contest unless the image is significantly modified.  Significant modification could include things like major cropping of the image or changing the image from color to monochrome or vice versa.  Other modifications could also qualify.  The competition secretary will be the judge if an image has been significantly modified.
5. The author of an entry is to remain anonymous as far as possible until judging is completed.
6. There should be no comments during initial viewing.

Categories

Color Prints

• Minimum print size is 5x7 inches.
• Print must be mounted and may be matted. Color matts are welcome. Absolutely no frames!  
• Mounted print along with mat, must fit within the light box (currently 30" wide x 22" tall) 
• Print your name on the back.
• Indicate the top of your print on the back.  
• All prints must be two dimensional.  Prints that have been intentionally folded to stand out will not be allowed.
• Entries must be a single print.  Mats with multiple openings will not be allowed unless explicitly stated for a particular topic. 

 Monochrome Prints

• Follow the same rules as for color prints.
• Monochrome prints can be Black and White or Sepia or any other single color along with white.  If a print has two or more colors (i.e. hand tinted or colorized ) it is considered a color print.

    Digital Entries

• Click HERE for detailed rules.

Monthly Awards

• First place: 5 points
• Second place: 4 points
• Third place: 3 points
• Honorable mentions : 1 point
  ^* The judge is usually from outside the HPS.

Annual Competition

• Entries which "placed" during the year are eligible for the year-end judging.
• Entries for annual judging must be resubmitted no later than the 4th Monday in November.

Annual Awards

In December of each year, an annual banquet is held in lieu of regular meetings. At that time, new officers are installed and year-end competition is held. All entries that have placed in the monthly competitions for that year are re-judged and exhibited.

• Best of Year: presented to the best photograph in each category.
  • Best of Year  Monochrome Print
  • Best of Year Color Print
  • Best of Year Slide
  • Best of Year Digital
• Presidents Award: presented to the HPS member who has accumulated the most competition points during the year.

Lifetime Awards Program

The following motion was passed unanimously by the HPS Board at its regular session on August 10, 1987 and accepted by vote of the membership the same date.

1. Fellow of HPS : An HPS member who has had twenty (20) entries that have placed during monthly competition shall attain the status of Fellow of HPS and receive a certificate so attesting.
   
2. Fellow - Stars : Once a member is a Fellow of HPS, additional earned competition points shall result in the following merit star awards:
   • 20 points - Bronze Star
   • 40 points - Silver Star
   • 60 points - Gold Star
3. Master of Photography : This is awarded after a Fellow of HPS has won one hundred (100) additional competition points and has had at least one public exhibition of his or her work.

Regarding the exhibition; you must meet the following stipulations:

A. The exhibition may be with a group of other exhibitors or a single showing.

B. The member must display a minimum of six (6) matted or framed prints.

C. The exhibition must last a minimum of 5 days.

[The Huntsville Art League has a standing offer of Gallery space to any HPS member nearing the "Masters" level.]

Time limit:

A. You must inform the Competition Secretary of a showing no later than one year after the point accumulation for Master status, so they may verify it.

- OR --

B. You must provide the.Competition Secretary verifiable evidence of a showing prior to the point accumulation.

C. It is the member's responsibility to notify the Competition Secretary of the details of the public exhibition, and the HPS Competition Secretary must certify both the points and exhibition requirement.

New Novice Competition Class

Starting in January 2009, there will be two classes of competition, Novice and Accomplished. Each class will have it’s own judge. Novice is defined as an individual who is new to the basic principles of photography. Accomplished is defined as “all others”. Members decide at their own discretion which class they will enter, however, they can only compete in one class. Members may change classes only once during the year, and must notify the VP of Competition upon doing so.

The purpose of the new novice class is to provide the opportunity for an introductory experience to competition and to provide increased feedback and mentoring instruction as they learn competitive photography. The judging of novice entrants is on a point system, with a range of 0 - 5 stars awarded to each entry, at the discretion of the judge. The judge will be asked to provide comments on all novice entries. Entries will be displayed at full size/resolution (the size the judge views), instead of being resized to a smaller file (due to the technological requirements of the digital competition website). Pictures will be displayed for approximately one month or until the next competition.

At this time there is only one category: Digital. A print category (color & monochrome     combined) may be added in the future. The Novice class will be judged by an HPS member who has attained Fellow level. If you are interested in being a judge, please contact the competition secretary (contact information is at the end of each months newsletter)

Entries for the Novice class should be submitted to the same e-mail address with the same “Subject” line under the current rules, i.e. , send to HPSContest@knology.net, subject: “HPS Contest”, however, the file names are slightly different. Entries for novice must begin with a “N” followed by a dash. Example: N-YY-MM-#-YourName.jpg. All other submission requirements are the same, including maximum # of entries per person is 4.