Competitions

“B” Competition

B (Beginner) Competitions were designed to provide the full competition experience while retaining a more comfortable atmosphere, geared primarily as a learning experience for beginning photographers.  The expectation has been that as experience is gained an individual would move up to the Regular Competitions.  It was never the intent that an individual could compete year after year in B Competitions.  A new student just finishing a Fundamentals class could find they are competing against someone with several years of experience. To maintain that comfortable experience for the beginner, starting with the 2024-2025 Competition season, participation in B Competitions will be limited to two years.  Those who competed in B Competitions during the 2022-2-23 and 2023-2024 seasons will be required to move up to Regular Competitions (Creative, People, Nature, B&W and Pictorial).

Black and White

Monochrome images, including single tone and sepia. Any image with spot color is considered a Color image and is not eligible for this category.

Each competition evening features one category but all competitions also provide the opportunity to submit Pictorial images.

Creative

Photos taken using special lenses, filters, lighting conditions, or other creative means and photos creatively edited using digital imaging software.

Each competition evening features one category but all competitions also provide the opportunity to submit Pictorial images.

Nature

Photos of animals, flowers, plants and scenics where the ‘hand of man’ is not evident.

Each competition evening features one category but all competitions also provide the opportunity to submit Pictorial images.

People

Includes all aspects of the human form or evidence of the human presence.

Each competition evening features one category but all competitions also provide the opportunity to submit Pictorial images.

Photojournalism

Photojournalism is the process of story telling using the medium of photography as your main story telling device. While a journalist will use their pen and paper to tell stories, a photojournalist will use their camera to capture the visual representation of a story. On PJ nights, members are asked to give a brief description of their unique and powerful form of visual storytelling for their images.

You may enter up to seven photojournalism images. Photojournalism photos should not be obviously posed and NOT staged. Adding or removing elements with any photo editing software is not permitted. Editing should be limited to cropping, color balancing, conversion to B&W and subtle dodging and burning. Adding or removing elements with any photo editing software is not permitted. An image should tell a visual story with the photographer being aware of and attempting to capture the emotions, actions, drama and timeliness (or timelessness) of the scene. You may upload fewer than seven images each photojournalism night, but no more than seven through Shutter Score. Each image must have its own individual title. State fair 1, state fair 2, etc. will not be allowed. Be prepared to briefly talk about each image.

Though not judged at the time, all photojournalism images uploaded for presentation become eligible for submission to the end-of-the-year competition, where they are judged against each other and one is chosen as Photojournalism Image of the Year to hang on the back wall.

Pictorial

An open category encompassing photos of any subject.