Monthly Competitions

Welcome to the guidance on our digital competitions. We hope you will participate and make them a part of your Creative Camera Club experience. These competitions are great place and resource to grow and gain experience as well as take advantage of the experience and knowledge of other club members and those critiquing our competitions. No shot is bad (well, almost,) but all shots could be improved and that’s what we share… positive, learning, and expanding critique and assistance. The following are the rules and guidelines as set by the Board of Directors through the By-Laws.

1. There shall be member competitions at selected monthly meetings. The Executive Committee and the membership shall determine the number of competitions. The number of meeting competitions shall be no less than 4 and no more than 12.

2. Meeting Competition Categories shall be selected from a survey of the membership. The Executive Committee shall see that the categories are published in the monthly newsletter as early as practical prior to the beginning of each calendar year.

3. Meeting competitions shall be open to current members and shall be limited to a maximum of two (2) entries per competition.

4. Meeting competitions shall be divided into 6 classes. There shall be a digital class in color for beginners, intermediate and advanced photographers. There shall be a digital class in black and white for beginners, intermediate and advanced photographers.

The classes are defined as follows:

A) Beginner Digital– A beginner is any individual who is new to photography and/or feels that they have mastered very few of the basic skills in this area of photography or who has started or is taking basic photography classes to improve their skills. Those who are in the beginner color class and who have won a total of four (4) or more first or second-place awards in the meeting color competitions and/or annual print competition or receive the beginner digital color/B&W photographer of the year award must move to the intermediate class at the end of the year. Beginners shall have the opportunity to move up in class at any time if they so desire.

B) Intermediate Digital– This includes individuals who are not professionals or advanced photographers and feel that they are beyond the beginner stage. Those who are in the intermediate class and who have won a total of four (4) or more first-place awards in the meeting competitions and/or annual print competition or receive the intermediate digital Color/B& photographer of the year award must move to the advanced class at the end of the year. Intermediates shall have the opportunity to move to the advanced class at any time if they so desire.

C) Advanced Digital– An advanced individual is anyone who feels that they are advanced in their photographic skills or who has advanced through another class. All professional photographers must enter the advanced class in all competition categories. A professional is defined as a member that derives at least one-half of his/her gross annual income from the sale of photographs.

D) Novice – The Novice competition class is intended for members new to photography or new to digital photography and new to the club. New members do not have to start out in this category. As with other competition classes, Novice members may move up to the Beginner class at any time. Members may remain in Novice for a maximum of two years but then will be promoted to Beginner after two calendar years.

Novice members will also be automatically promoted to Beginner after winning a total of four first or second-place awards in the Novice class. As a new class in 2016 the wins counted toward promotion will begin once there are 10 people registered as Novice. For 2016 only, current members with less than two years of membership in the club may move into the Novice class (grandfather clause).

5. In order to receive points toward the Photographer of the Year in any class, certain conditions have to be met. During the regular monthly competitions, there must be a minimum of two entrants in a given class for a competition to take place in that class. A sole entrant in a class will not receive points toward the Photographer of the Year. There must be a minimum of two competitions in a class during the year for any entrants in that class to accumulate any points toward the Photographer of the Year. No Photographer of the Year will be awarded in a class if no Photographer of the Year points have been accumulated in that class during monthly competitions.

6. For the purpose of counting first-place awards, the following annual print competition awards shall be considered to be the same as first-place awards: Club’s Choice, Best of Show, Best Color Print, and Best Black and White Print.

7. Individuals in any class who have entered at least 50% of the total number of possible entries during a calendar year, in that particular competition class, (including meeting competitions and the annual print show) and failed to win an award during the calendar year shall be allowed to move down to the next lower class beginning with the new calendar year. Professionals shall not be granted this option.

8. All entries must be related to the monthly assigned subject, but creative techniques such as HDR, stitched images, and stacked focus ( aka helicon focus ), etc. shall be permitted, unless there is a conflict with the competition category descriptions. Composite photos ( including double exposures ) will not be permitted except in the instance that “Composites” is the assigned category for the month. Superimposed titles will not be permitted.

9. No digital image or print that has won an award in CCC meeting competition may be entered in any CCC meeting competition thereafter. Entries that have won an award in meeting competition may be entered in the annual print show according to the rules of that show.