Competition

At meetings members are encouraged to share their favorite printed photos or digital images for a monthly competition. You must be a dues paying member to enter the competitions.

There are three member divisions:

Beginner (A)
Intermediate (AA)
Advanced (AAA)

All new members start out in the beginner division. The members with the highest total scores in each division have the opportunity to advance to the next level at the end of the competition year.

For each meeting members submit up to
(4) four photos total for judging.

(3) three in the Open category
and
(1) one in the Special Subject category.

The Special Subject changes each month and might be: Trees, Portraits, Transportation, Pets, Flowers, etc.

The four total images may be submitted in any combination of digital and/or print format. That is,

four digital
or
four prints
or

three digital and one print
or
two digital and two prints
or
one digital and three prints

Images receiving top scores will be added the the Club's newsletter, the Shutter Tripper, and posted here on the Club's website. The Members with the highest total scores for the year in their division are recognized at the Annual Banquet.

2017 Special Subjects

February: Humor
March: Series of 3 (Telling a Story)
May: Movie Titles
June: Print Only Month (No Special Subject)
July: Action/Sports
September: Environmental Trash
October: Black and White/Monochrome
November: Print Only Month (No Special Subject)
December: Roadscapes

2018 Special Subjects

February: Neon Signs
March: Arches
May: Travel (PSA/SJVCCC Rules)
June: Print Only Month (No Special Subject)
July: Flowers
September: TBA
October: TBA
November: Print Only Month (No Special Subject)
December: TBA

Judging

There is a different guest judge for each competition month. Judges critique what they like and what they feel can be improved upon in each of the images submitted. The judge then gives each image a score from 6 to 10. (The old scoring system was 6-12 and changed to 6-10 starting in 2017.) This kind of feedback is immensely helpful in the growth of an artist. The makers of each image are unknown during judging. The maker of an image receiving a score of 9 is announced to the group after receiving the score. Images receiving a score of 10 are set aside and at the end of the night the judge picks the Digital and Print Images of the Month for each member division. Judges generally hail from the Central California region and may be photojournalists, editors, professors, professional photographers, or long-standing members of the camera club community with years of expertise with both photography and judging. Judges often also share presentations of their photographic work with the club during the meeting.

To Enter the Monthly Print Competition

Simply bring your dues and print(s) to the monthly meeting.
Prints should be matted and/or board mounted.
Prints should be no smaller than 8" x 10."

At the meeting you will be required to provide the following information:

Image Title
Photographer's Name
Category: A, AA, or AAA
Subject: Open or Special Subject

The Print Scoring Sheet is available at meetings. You can also download and print your own before hand. The Sheet is designed for use with 4"x3.3" Avery labels 8164 or 5164. Fill a label out and adhere it to the back of the mounting for each of your prints.

To Enter the Digital Image Competition

To enter the Digital Image Competition, you must email your entries as attachments to:
Sharon McLemore, our Vice President of Competitions, at sccsubmit@gmail.com.

All entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. on the Friday prior to the Monthly meeting. If you are a new member, bring your dues to the meeting you plan to compete at or make other arrangements with Sharon prior to the meeting.

Formatting Digital Image Submissions

The key thing to keep in mind is that images must be in a format compatible with the projector.

The projector and laptop combination we use in the competition has a maximum resolution of 1400 x 1050 pixels--that's 1400 wide by 1050 high.

This means that any photo that exceeds this size in either dimension could end-up being cropped by the projector. In other words, the image width cannot be more than 1400 pixels and the image height cannot be more than 1050 pixels. A resloution (PPI/DPI) of 72 or 100 is sufficient for the projector, but we ask that you use 300 PPI so that high scoring images can be included in our news letter, the Shutter Tripper.

Click Here for Instructions on How to Resize an Image in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

If you do not have the ability to re-size a picture via a photo editing program, there is an easy web based program you can use at: http://www.picresize.com/.

Saving Your Images & Naming the File for Competition

When you save your images for competition, Save As as a .jpg or .jpeg

The maker’s name, title of image, date entered and division (Open or Special Subject) must be included as the title of the file. When you have finished re-sizing your image save your image with a new file name.

Name the file like so:

Your Last Name_Image Title_Competition Month(MM)_Year(YY)_Category(O or SS).jpg

Note: O=open, SS=special subject.

For example, for the open category the file name would look like this:

Smith_Bridal Veil Falls in Winter_02_13_O.jpg

For the special subject category the file name would look like this:

Smith_Fire and Ice_02_13_SS.jpg

If you have the same last name as another member, then add the initial of your first name like this:

Smith, J_Fire and Ice_02_13_SS.jpg

The very last portion of the file name must have the file extension of .jpg. If you end up with .jpg twice in the file name, i.e., .jpg.jpg, then you can always remove one of the .jpgs. It only needs to be there once.

Sending Your Images Via Email for Competition

When you email your images to Sharon, send your image .jpg files as email attachments and. . .

Please include in the email Subject line:

Your name.
The month and year of the competition you are sending the photos in for.

Example Subject Line: Sharon McLemore's SCC March 2014 Digital Entries

Note: we have put this formatting in place to not miss photos as Gmail likes to combine and hide multiple emails with the same subject line.

Please include in the email message text:

Your name
Whether you are in the Beginner (A), Intermediate (AA), or Advanced (AAA) class.
It is also helpful to include in the email message text your image titles and what category they are submitted under in case there is a problem with the file name.

Sharon will send a confirmation of receipt with how many photos she received and that they've been compiled. If you do not hear from her a day before the competition, please follow up with her to verify she received your images.

If you have any questions please email Sharon.