Digital Camera Photographer of the Year 2008
1. The organiser
The organiser of the Digital Camera Photographer of the Year competition is Future Publishing Ltd ("Future"). Employees of Future and its group companies, and any of the official partners, sponsors, or associates of Future relating to the competition and their families are not eligible to enter this competition.
2. Eligibility
By entering the competition, you agree to be bound by the following rules, and also Future's terms and conditions of website use and its privacy policy.
The competition is open to amateur and professional photographers of all nationalities who are over 18 years of age at the closing date of the competition and who have access to the internet. Entries must be submitted by an individual (not via any agency or similar). Entries must have been taken no more than five years prior to the category submission closing date.
A maximum of five entries per category are permitted. Your photos must have been taken with a digital camera. Images uploaded to the competition website should not exceed the maximum size of 2MB, in JPEG format. If your image is selected as an Editor's Choice, you will be asked to submit a high-resolution version.
An image that has won a prize in a major national or international competition (one receiving more than 500 images) is not eligible for entry.
An image that has previously been printed in Digital Camera or any other photographic magazine is not eligible for entry.
There is no entry fee associated with the Digital Camera Photographer of the Year 2008 competition. All entrants agree to participate in any publicity in connection with this competition as required and to the use of your name and likeness for the purpose of promotion and publicity.
3. Legal requirements
By submitting an entry into the competition, you warrant to Future that the entry is wholly original to you and not wholly or substantially copied from any other material and that the entry does not defame, cause injury to or invade the privacy of or otherwise infringe or violate any statutory, common law, regulatory or intellectual property rights of any third party. You agree to fully indemnify Future and any of the official partners, sponsors or associates of Future relating to the competition in respect of all royalties, fees and other monies owing to any person by reason of your breaching this rule.
4. Entering your photographs
Entries must be submitted in accordance with the instructions set out on the Enter page
5. Image editing
You should use image enhancement and digital darkroom techniques to optimise an entry into the competition, such as touching up a portrait, building a panorama or creating an HDR image from multiple exposures. Adding or removing significant elements of a composition is discouraged in all but the Creative Vision category. Where appropriate, original files may be requested if a photograph reaches the shortlist of photographs selected by the independent panel of judges.
6. Categories and closing dates
The categories in the Digital Camera Photographer of the Year 2008 competition are:
- Urban
- Hidden Britain
- Action & Movement
- Animals
- Documentary
- Dusk to Dawn
- Landscapes
- People & Portraits
- Black & White
- Creative Vision
All categories close at 5:00pm GMT, Tuesday 30th September 2008.
7. Judging
Future will appoint an independent judging panel to determine the short-listed entries and winners in each category. The decision of the judges in determining the short-list and deciding the winners in each category is final and Future will not enter into any correspondence regarding the judging or organisation of the competition.
8. Notification
Winner, runners-up, highly commended and commended entrants within each category will be announced on the competition website and in issue 81 of Digital Camera magazine on Tuesday 16th December 2008.
9. Prizes
9.1 The Digital Camera Photographer of the Year 2008 winner
The overall winner of the Competition will win a £15,000 cash prize.
9.2 Category winners and runners-up
Other prizes will be awarded to each category winner and two runners-up as follows:
Category winner
£1,000 plus a year's free subscription to Digital Camera magazine and a year's free membership to the Royal Photographic Society
1st runner up
£350 plus a year’s free subscription to Digital Camera magazine
2nd runner up
£150 plus a year’s free subscription to Digital Camera magazine
Future reserves the right to change or add to the prizes and substitute with a comparable alternative due to unforeseen circumstances. Any changes will be posted on the competition website at www.photographeroftheyear2008.com. Prizes are non transferable. If the quality of entry falls below the required standard, Future reserves the right not to award a prize/prizes.
At the point of notification of winning entries, the winners must supply full postal address information and such other information Future may require (including, without limitation, bank transfer details) for the purpose of sending out the category prizes. Once address details have been supplied, winners should allow 28 days for receipt of their category prizes.
10. Copyright
The entrant must be the sole author and owner of copyright, intellectual property, and all other proprietary rights in all pictures entered. It is the legal responsibility of the entrant, and not Future, to ensure they comply with these ownership and copyright requirements and own the rights to reproduce their images. Entries that do not fulfil these criteria will be deemed ineligible and disqualified. Future does not make any claim on the copyright of your images. The photographer will retain copyright and where an image or images are reproduced, the photographer will be credited.
11. Reproduction of entries
By entering your images into the competition, you grant to Future and any of the official partners, sponsors, or associates of Future relating to the competition a worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable licence throughout the world in perpetuity in all media to reproduce any of the images for any purposes in connection with the competition including, but not limited to, the following purposes:
a) judging the competition
b) voting by registered members of www.digitalcameramagazine.co.uk
c) inclusion within the website, Digital Camera magazine, Photographer of the Year book, supplements or similar
d) displaying the winning and commended entries at public exhibitions promoting the competition
e) inclusion of Editor’s Choice, winning and commended entries in television coverage connected with the competition and / or any exhibition
f) inclusion within marketing and promotional materials (including emails, websites and press packs) for the competition and / or any exhibition
g) sub-licencing the entries to the press for reproduction in connection with the competition and any exhibition
h) allowing viewers of the Website to view images on a computer screen, PDA or mobile telephone and store such pages in electronic form for their personal, non-commercial use
i) reproduction on Digital Camera Photographer of the Year merchandise
j) being chosen and entered into promotional competitions by Future for marketing and promotional purposes
All entrants must be able to supply a high-resolution image suitable for printing in media. Please note that your real name, rather than your username, will be used where your image is reproduced.
12. General
12.1 These competition rules and competition are governed by English law. Any disputes arising between Future and any third party in relation to these competition rules and/or a competition shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales (save that Future shall be entitled to take action against a third party in any other jurisdiction).
12.2 If there is any inconsistency between any of the provisions of these rules, Future's terms and conditions of website use or Future's privacy policy, the provisions of these rules shall prevail.