Phoenix Camera Club

2009 Monthly Themes

January	Cactus/ Succulent	From close-ups to scenics, find the art in these plants.  Flowers may be present but must not dominate the image, this should be about the plant not the flower (see Flower theme in June 2007!)
February	Essence of AZ (ACCC*)	This is the spring ACCC theme.  Stay tuned for their definition, which will be posted when it is published by ACCC.
March	Bridges	A man-made structure that spans two points.  No natural bridges for this one.
April	Field Trips
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

*ACCC - these themes are also ACCC Roundup themes

2008 Monthly Themes

January	Two colors	The image must be predominately (i.e. >95%) two different colors. Black or white may be one of the colors but may not be the only two colors. Two distinctly different shades of the same color (i.e. pink and red, turquoise and green) are allowed.
February	Clouds (ACCC*)	Images must have clouds that are a major element of the picture. The clouds should occupy half of the area of the image or more. The image must be substantially enhanced by the clouds. The clouds can not be part of a sunset or sunrise scene.
March	Cityscapes	This can be a dramatic skyline, or a more intimate look at life in the city.
April	Field trips
May	Sunrise / Sunset	Arizona has some spectacular ones, show us your favorites!
June	Flowers	Any kind of flowers, wild or “captive”, as long as they are real, no silk or other artificial varieties please.   Dried real flowers (that started life on a plant) are permitted.
July	Winter Weather	Winter in July!! We’ll take a brief break from the summer heat with by looking at winter weather scenes.  This can be weather happening or evidence of it such as ice and snow.
August	Waterfalls	From Niagra Falls to ephemeral wisps, waterfalls show the forces of nature at work.   These should be in a natural setting and not the manmade cement type.
September	Doors and Windows (ACCC*)	This is the fall ACCC theme.  Stay tuned for their definition, which will be posted when it is published by ACCC.
October	Abstract	A “non-representational” artwork,  such as portions of a whole thing.  This must be done in-camera and not in the computer post-processing.
November	Grand Canyon	With 2 field trips this year, let’s see your best images from this Arizona icon.
December	Portrait	This must be a photo of a person, and they must be the majority of the picture, not a figure in a scene.

*ACCC - these themes are also ACCC Roundup themes

2007 Monthly Themes

January	Fashion
February	Reflections (ACCC*)
March	Shades of blue
April	Field trips
May	Motion
June	At work	Think broadly on this one. This could be people, animals, or even tools, but must show the subject in the process of performing work.
July	Repetition	A familiar challenge to find patterns of repetition. Note, this must be "as found" and NOT a computer-generated repetition.
August	Horses	Rodeos, races, parades, trail riding, or portraits - let's see these beautiful animals at their finest.
September	Celebrations (ACCC*)
October	Insects	Insects are a broad family that includes dragonflys, praying mantis, grasshoppers, butterflies and moths, beetles, and ants, as well as your garden variety "bugs".
November	Sports	From organized leagues to pick-up games, show us people engaged in sports. This can also include individual outdoor sports such as kayaking, skiing, snowboarding, and rodeo. If you find it in the Sports Section it's sports
December	Seascape	Here's your excuse to take that trip to the beach.

*ACCC - these themes are also ACCC Roundup themes

 

2006 Monthly Themes

January	Zoo animals
February	Backlit subjects (ACCC*)
March	Flowing water
April	Field trips
May	Barns
June	One human face
July	Phoenix at night
August	Animal tracks (no human)
September	Places of worship (ACCC*)
October	Doors and windows
November	Autumn colors
December	Castles

*ACCC - these themes are also ACCC Roundup themes

 

2005 Monthly Themes

January	Texture abstracts
February	Close-ups (ACCC*)
March	Religious buildings
April	PCC field trips
May	Musical instruments
June	Fruit(s) and/or vegetable(s)
July	Water fun
August	High key/low key
September	Native American culture, past and present (ACCC*)
October	Cemeteries
November	Multiple exposures
December	Travel

*ACCC - these themes are also ACCC Roundup themes

 

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Competition Rules for May 2008 – April 2009

Phoenix Camera Club offers competition in the following Categories:

Prints
Black and White;  Color ("B" or "A" class*); Theme of the month
Creative Print (color or monochrome, every other month**)

Virgin Slides
35mm (every other month**); Medium Format (every other month**)

Digital Projection
Open ("B" or "A" class*); Theme of the month ; Creative (every other month**)
* "B" class is for beginning to intermediate photographers, "A" class is for advanced photographers
** The Virgin Slides, Creative Digital, and Creative Print categories compete every other month. See the latest CLIX for the current schedule.

The Creative Category - includes images that abstract reality using the materials at hand to interpret the subject in a unique way. It should convey more than the ordinary photograph, and the creativity should be readily apparent to the viewer. All significant elements in the image must originate as a photograph (captured on film or digitally) by the person making the entry.   In the creative category, graphic elements may be a part of the composition as long as the image started life as a photograph and the photograph remains a dominant feature of the image.

Theme Categories - are designed to test your ability to shoot within the confines of the announced subject. Prints (color or monochrome) will compete in one class.

1. Members in good standing (Associate Members are not eligible to compete) may submit up to two entries per category (see the list, above), with a limit of eight total entries per month. You choose to enter in either the A or B Classes at the beginning of the competition year and once selected, there you remain for the rest of the year. You do not have to choose the same level for both prints and digital.

2. Entries in all categories must originate as photographic images (either film or digitally captured) taken by the person making the entry. Print and Digital entries may be digitally enhanced and prints may be digitally printed.  See also the rules about Image Integrity below.  Virgin Slide entries must be as produced by the camera, and not transferred to slide from another media.  The only modification allowed in virgin slide entries is cropping, although filters may be used on the camera. 

3. Any entry that has received an award (First Place, Second Place, Third Place, or Honorable Mention) in a Phoenix Camera Club competition is ineligible for any future entry in the same category, except for the Year End Competition. No entry may be submitted more than 2 times in any one competition Category.

4. Any entry that has received an award, including Honorable Mention, outside of the Phoenix Camera Club is ineligible for entry.  Acceptances are not considered an award here, so, images that have received acceptances are permissible.
5.  Entry forms (supplied by the club) must be properly completed with the name, title, and competition category for all Print and Virgin Slide entries.

6. Photographs that are merely copies of other peoples paintings, photographs, etc. (e.g. magazines, calendars, etc.) are not eligible unless they are manipulated in such a manner as to create an original work. Photographs that were taken at any photographic workshop where the subject was either posed, arranged, or lit by others is not eligible.

7. Black and White prints that are hand tinted with only one color may be entered in the Black and White Category (PSA rules). Black and White Prints that are tinted with more than one color are to be entered in the Color Print Category. Tinting must be transparent rather than replace the image.

8. Color Prints and black and white prints in the Theme Category will be judged together. Portrayal of the theme must be readily evident and represent a significant part of the image in the opinion of the judges or the Competition Committee.

9. Prints must be securely mounted on a stiff mount board of any size between 11" X 14" and 16" X 20". Image size is at the discretion of the maker but may not be larger than 16" X 20". Prints may be matted but may not be submitted in a frame or with glass.  Print entries must be properly labeled (labels supplied by the club) on the back of the entry. The label should be in the top left corner to ensure the print is displayed correctly.  Any previous labels on the print should be crossed out or removed.

10. Slide entries must be spotted in the lower left-hand corner of the slide as the maker wishes it to be projected. Slides must be titled and show the makers name. ("Untitled" must appear if it is not titled.) Slides may be mounted in either paper, plastic, or glass mounts. (Note: 35mm glass mounts are discouraged, as they may jam the projector.)

11. Entries may be submitted in either an Open Category or a Creative Category at the discretion of the maker. The creativity of entries (either prints or digital) in the Creative Category must be readily evident to the judges.

12.  For all categories except Creative:  Digital images will be allowed to put a single toned, black, white or gray, straight-edged border of any width (not another color) around the entries.  For Prints the rule applies to the printed border but does not apply to mats or board backs.  Creative categories may have borders of any color (Digital and Print).

 

Image Integrity
Background:  George Lepp spoke about “image integrity” at his recent workshop in Scottsdale. He distinguished between optimization, which is generally considered acceptable, and manipulation, which is generally considered a photo illustration.

George shared definitions of manipulate:
1) to control or influence somebody or something in an ingenious or devious way;
2) to change or present something in a way that is false but personally advantageous.

Optimization is just making the best of an image that was captured.  This means nothing was added, so no one is being deceived. It is simply using technology to enhance an image much like filters have been used for years. Manipulation involves adding images or elements into an image that were not in the original image capture, so it’s not truthful to what the camera originally recorded.

For PCC competition in categories other than Creative:
Composite images of different subjects are not allowed in any competition category except creative. Multiple images of the same subject for purposes of exposure latitude or depth of field enhancement or stitched panoramics are allowed. Manipulation involving adding elements from different images such as an animal or sky into a scene that was not in the original image capture is considered a photo illustration and not allowed in the competition except in the creative categories. Adding photographic elements from multiple images is allowed in the creative categories. Deleting an objectionable element in an image such as a piece of debris is allowed.

The basic rule of thumb is using technology to optimize or enhance images is acceptable as long as it does not involve adding something into the original image that was not in the original image capture.

Note: Some clubs and competitions actually require RAW files to be submitted with entries to ensure compliance with the above rule. The board believes that PCC members will be honest in following the new image integrity rule and does not feel it’s necessary to go that far to prove images are not composites.

Year End Competition:
At the end of the competition year, we hold a Year End competition.  The entries are the monthly winners in each category.  All images which won (HM and above) in monthly competition are to be brought to the April general meeting and a separate Year End judging will take place (offsite at a later date) to award top honors in each category.  (Note Digital entries will be handled automatically and do not need to be resubmitted.)  Images submitted for Year End must be the same entry that won, i.e. they cannot be duplicates of the winning image.  
We also award Top 5 points and Top points in each category at Year End.  If you missed one or more competition nights, you may still make up entries in the last month of the Competition year, April, to count toward the Top points honors.  You can enter up to 2 make-up entries for each category, however there is no make up for themes.  You cannot exceed the maximum entries for the year in any category.  Make-up entries are not eligible for honors or for the year-end competition.  The entries must be clearly marked on the entry form or digital title as make-ups.

Year End awards are announced at the annual banquet in late May or early June.

Digital Entry Submission Rules:

Beginning in May of 2007, the method for submitting images for Digital Projection competition will be as follows.
The images must be in jpg format. The maximum width is 1024 pixels, and the maximum height is 768 pixels. Your images must fit inside this rectangle. These numbers are set by the digital projector capabilities.

If you know how, make sure that the image's color space is set to sRGB. Since most digital equipment uses this color space by default, it should be safe to use the images as they come out of the camera or scanner, and/or output by your image editing software. If a different color space is used, some of the image's colors will probably be affected.

The image files can be supplied on a flash memory card, floppy disk or CD. The permissible flash card types are:
1) Compact Flash,
2) Smart Media,
3) Secure Digital,
4) Memory Stick,
5) Flash Drives.

Compact Flash is the preferred media. Since we will be using a Windows PC to run the competition, the media must be readable on a PC.
The file name should have the following format (lower case preferred):

category,class,lastname,firstname,title.jpg

The "category" is the first letter of the image's category i.e. c, o, t representing the creative, open and theme categories.

The "class" is a or b.  The class field must be included in the file name for ALL entries in ALL categories, even though PCC distinguishes experience levels in the open category only.

Therefore all creative entries will be judged together and all theme entries will be judged together, ignoring the “a” or “b” class.

Last Name is the last name of the images submitter. The name should not include commas.

First Name is the first name of the images submitter. The name should not include commas.

Title is the title of the image. The title can include letters, numbers, and spaces, but should not include commas.

For example:
o,a,cobeen,charles,this is my open shot.jpg
t,b,brun,stephanie,this is my theme shot.jpg

Simply put your properly named images (as shown above) on one of the media types listed above and bring them to the club on meeting night, or you can email them to:
charlie@cobeen.com

If you email them, please do so by noon on the Saturday of the meeting.

Judging Criteria

Each monthly competition has three judges.

Images entered in competition are judged using a set criteria of (1) Technical Merit, (2) Composition, and (3) Impact. Each judge has up to 3 points to award (whole integers only) in each of those areas per image. This allows a judge to award a high total of 9 points. If scoring is done correctly, there will never be an entry with fewer than 9 nor more than 27 points.

Technical Merit is defined as the quality image. Is the exposure correct? Does the image have the proper color balance (are the whites white and the blacks black)? Are those cactus needles well defined or the models eyes in focus? How well did the photographer handle the equipment to create the image.

Composition is how the image was constructed. Does the viewer's eye flow naturally to the center of interest? Was the rule of thirds followed (or is this one of the exceptions that works)? Are there distractions in the foreground or background? This part concerns the photographer's thought on how the image was created.

Impact is probably the most controversial area for judgement. Each judge has emotional triggers that come into play when certain images are seen, and can be a bias that a given judge will rate higher or lower. That is why PCC tries to have 3 judges of different photographic backgrounds for the competition, and the judges have always do their best to be impartial.

In the theme categories, impact is replaced by the portrayal of the theme subject. In the creative category, impact is replaced by creativity of the photographer. In reality, it is always impact that is judged. Instead of just the visual impact, it is the impact in connection with the theme or creative imagination that is used in the non-open competitions.

Good Luck To All!

 

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This page last updated August 6, 2008