San Joaquin Valley Camera Club Council Rules Pictorial Anything goes as long as all images are your own! You can enter two images each competition in this category.
Nature Nature photography is restricted to the use of the photographic process to depict observations from all branches of natural history, except anthropology and archeology, in such a fashion that a well informed person will be able to identify the subject material and to certify as to its honest presentation. The story telling value of a photograph must be weighed more than the pictorial quality while maintaining a high technical quality. Human elements shall not be present, except where those human elements enhance the nature story. The presence of scientific bands, scientific tags or radio collars on wild animals is permissible. Photographs of artificially produced hybrid plants or animals, mounted specimens, or obviously set arrangements, are ineligible, as is any form of manipulation that alters the truth of the photographic statement. No techniques that add to, relocate, replace, or remove pictorial elements except by cropping are permitted. Techniques that enhance the presentation of the photograph without changing the nature story or the pictorial content are permitted. All adjustments must appear natural. You can enter one image per competition to this category.
This new definition means we have new freedom to use digital techniques to enhance our nature images. In two recent communications Dan Charbonnet added the following clarifying comments which help to understand the new rules:
For most people, this means that the various HDR techniques are now allowed and it means blurring the background is now allowed, provided the results look natural.
All images must be considered "Digital Realism," where a photographer may perform any enhancements and modifications that improve the presentation of the image to make it more closely represent the original scene photographed but that does not change the truth of the original nature story. Cropping and horizontal flipping (equivalent to reversing a slide) are acceptable modifications. Removing spots due to dust on your sensors is allowed. Removing rounded slide mount corners on scanned images is allowed. Adding elements to your images, removing pictorial elements from your image other than by cropping, combining separate images or rearranging and/or cloning and/or copying elements in your image are not still acceptable and can lead to disqualification of your image in the competition. Since HDR techniques and Helicon Focus techniques are techniques that enhance the presentation without changing the pictorial content, they are now considered allowable techniques. Please note that all adjustments must still look natural. Just because a technique is legitimate does not guarantee the image it was used on will get a good score.
Effective with the Winter competition this new definition will apply to the NECCC Nature Interclub. Keep in mind that we do not require images to meet the requirements of the PSA definition of Wildlife. Zoo shots and game farm shots are eligible provided the artificial habitat is not apparent in the image.
Challenge Each Competition night we have a category called "challenge." At our yearly business meeting we decide what the challenge category for each month of competition will be. For example, "Reflections" or "Monotone" or "Abstract" might be typical challenge possibilities. You can alway know what the challenge is because it will be in the calendar here on the website and in Screen, our monthly newsletter.
Additional competition info:
There is a Photo Competition the first meeting of every month. The categories for the monthly competitions are:
Prints (2) (Discontinued temporality due to Covid.) Nature(1) Pictorial(2) Challenge Category(1)
Every member is allowed to present one entry for each category except Prints and Pictorial, for which they may enter 2 entries. They may enter 1, 2 3, all 4 categories or none.
Any image which is entered into one category may not be entered into another category in the same year. Near duplicate entries may not be entered in the same year
The guidelines for what is allowed in these categories are elsewhere on the web site.
The challenge categories change every month and are usually under "Next Meeting Details" and on the newsletter. Each year has a new set of Challenge categories, although there may be one or more repeats year to year. The categories are chosen by the members at the annual Business Meeting.
YEAR END
At the end of the year (usually by the first or second week of November), each member submits their two best from each category for a “Best of the Year” award in each category. These are to be chosen from photos that you entered in that year's competition and is awarded regardless of class. The challenge category is Humor and two entries allowed for that as well. Also, for the year end, in addition to the two images allowed for the year end competition, another print or digital image may be entered for the “Presidents Award”. If it is a print, the print needs to be submitted at the November Competition meeting and a digital copy of the print or the digital image being submitted needs to be submitted by the end of the first week of November. The image may be an image submitted during the year, or a completely new image
Participants in the competition are encouraged to arrive early (usually by 7 p.m.) for the competition night meeting so that they can get their entries written on an entry form and so that the forms can be sorted into order for the showing/judging.
If a member is unable to attend the meeting, but can submit entries, they should fill out an entry form for each image and mail it to a club member or officer so that it is not necessary for someone else to fill out their form.
All entries are viewed and critiqued and assigned a score by a judge who is not a club member. The score will be between 7 & 10.
Sometimes an image will be disqualified because it did not meet the criteria for the Category in which it was entered. A disqualified image receives 5 points, except for the first instance for a member in the A division. For that one time only, the member may submit a makeup image the following month.
Members who join after the beginning of the year are allowed to enter Make-up entries so that they have an equal chance at the awards.
Members who are unable to get their entries in on time MAY be allowed to submit make-up entries, but no more than twice.
Awards are given at year’s end for
Highest cumulative score in Class
Highest Score in each Category for each class
First Prize in each of the categories
Certificates will be awarded to 2nd or 3rd place.
And other awards at the discretion of the Board
Additionally, there is a (non-competitive) Photo Essay and a “just for fun” Photo Treasure Hunt. The Treasurer Hunt usually has twenty categories, and these categories change year to year, although some categories may be repeated.
It is possible for a member to enter only 1 or 2 or 5 or all 20 categories in the Treasure Hunt, and risk taking is encouraged since these images are not judged.