Rules, Terms, And Conditions
Georgia Lakes Society invites photographers to enter its Lake Photography Contest. You must read the following rules, terms and legal conditions before submitting any photos! Click here to read the legal conditions.
The Georgia Lakes Society Lake Photography Contest (the “Contest”) is open to ALL photographers at least 18 years of age. The contest is open to all participants regardless of residence or citizenship, so long as the laws of their jurisdiction allow participation. There is no fee to enter the Contest.
WHAT TO ENTER:
Georgia Lakes Society (GLS) is looking for striking digital images to celebrate nature and people – and their important connection to each other. Your images should highlight the diversity of life on and around our lakes, including portraits of wildlife in natural habitat, animal behavior, the relationship between people and nature, plant life, weather, and seasons.
Some of the things we’re looking for:
- Beautiful shorelines, landscapes, and habitats
- People enjoying Georgia lakes
- Cultural and historic features
- Close-up macro photography
- Mammals, Birds, and lake wildlife
- Lake protection or restoration activities
Please do not include photographs of pets or domestic animals. Images of captive animals photographed in zoos and commercial game farms are also prohibited, however photos from state and national wildlife preserves are allowed.
If you choose to include people in your submission, you are responsible for obtaining the necessary releases from the individuals depicted, and must be able to provide copies of those releases to GLS upon request. Entrants must not submit images that involve human nudity, the willful harassment of wildlife, damage to the environment by the photographer, put any individual or animal in danger, or infringe on the rights of any other photographer or person.
All photographs should accurately reflect the subject matter and the scene as it appeared. Photos that have been digitally altered beyond standard optimization (removal of dust, cropping, reasonable adjustments to exposure, color and contrast, etc.) will be disqualified. Multiple exposures that have been combined to produce a single “High Dynamic Range” image are acceptable. Images that do not meet these requirements may or may not be judged at the judging panel’s sole discretion.
HOW TO ENTER:
Use an image hosting service such as flickr.com, imgur.com, or instagram.com (or even facebook), and post a link of your submissions directly to our facebook page. Submissions must link directly to a specific image file.
*Do not send images as attachments via email. Digital images that are sent via mail or email will not be accepted. If your photograph is selected from those submitted on our facebook page, we will contact you for a high-res version of it.
Photo captions must accompany all submissions, and should include the subject of the image, the location the image was taken, approximate date the image was taken, and the name of the photographer(s). Please clearly label animals as wild in digital caption information to assist judges in determining eligibility.
ELIGIBILITY:
To ensure eligibility for the contest all entries must have a resolution of 6 megapixels or higher to be made available upon request. Images that do not meet this standard can still be judged, but may not be honored as a finalist in the competition (at the judges sole discretion) if the photographer is unable or unavailable to provide the proper resolution when asked.
Entries may originate in any format — including, but not limited to digital files, digital prints, color transparencies, color prints, or black and white prints — so long as they are submitted electronically. Previously published material for which non-exclusive rights were granted may be entered as long as you still maintain the right to grant us a license (see “Your Rights” below). You must be able to disclose when and where the photo appeared previously to GLS upon request.
Submissions may be watermarked if desired, but the watermark should be inconspicuous enough to not interfere with the judging of the photo. A watermarked photo might not be honored by the competition (at the judges sole discretion) if the photographer is unable or unavailable to provide a pristine, watermark-free version of the image when asked.
GLS shall determine winner eligibility in its sole and absolute discretion. All decisions made by the judges are final.
DEADLINES AND JUDGING:
Entries can be submitted any time before midnight, September 30, 2014.
Entrants may be asked to supplement their submission (such as a paragraph about their photo, the highest resolution version of their photo, or a watermark-free version of their photo) anytime on or after September 30, 2014.
The judging panel will select approximately 12 photos to be the contest’s Finalists. Finalists and Honorable Mentions will be announced on October 3, 2014, on our facebook page.
On facebook, the general public will select the First, Second, and Third Place Winners by popular vote (“likes”) from this pool of Finalists. There is a limit of one vote per person. The image with the most “likes” by midnight of October 10, 2014 will become the First Place Winner. The image with the second most “likes” will become the Second Place Winner, and the image with third most “likes” will become our Third Place Winner. In the event of a tie, the judging panel will vote independently as a tie-breaker.
Winners will be announced during the Lake University Workshop to be held on October 11, 2014.
GLS reserves the right to adjust any deadline(s) as the result of causes beyond its immediate control.
Images will be judged on originality, technical excellence, composition, overall impact and artistic merit. The judges are a panel of GLS board members familiar with photography and responsible for selecting images for various GLS printed and online marketing and membership materials. All decisions made by the judges are final.
WINNING PHOTOS:
Honorable Mentions, Finalists, and winning images will be displayed on the GLS website, and in GLS communications. First, Second, and Third Place winners will also receive:
- First Place… $50
- Second Place… $25
- Third Place… $15
YOUR RIGHTS:
Your photographs help GLS protect the amazing diversity of wildlife, people, plants and habitats around Georgia’s lakes. Thank you for helping to further our mission through your photography.
You will retain all rights to any photograph you submit—including ownership if applicable. You only grant GLS rights (as described below) to your photograph if you are honored by the competition as an honorable mention, finalist, runner up, or prize winner. Before you are formally honored by the competition, GLS will contact you to confirm that you wish to grant us rights to your image as described below.
If your photograph is formally honored by the competition as an honorable mention, finalist, runner up, prize winner, or grand prize winner, you grant GLS a royalty-free, nonexclusive right, in perpetuity, to:
Use the photograph on the Internet in support of our mission.
Use the photograph in GLS’s nonprofit communications, including any print publications, which may include a calendar.
Provide your photograph to other individuals and organizations for non-commercial use, GLS-related use in news stories, newsletters, reports, slide shows, displays, web pages, and the like.
Use, in connection with the Photo Contest, your name, city, state and country of residence in promotions and other publications.
Keep the files provided, and to archive the images on CD or in other electronic forms, so that your photos can be used to support our mission and be properly credited.
As conditions of this permission, GLS shall credit all photographs with the caption “© Person’s Name” when the full name is available.
QUESTIONS:
Questions and inquiries about contest rules can be emailed to gls@georgialakes.org.