2023 Canada: My Country

Honour Award Photo Fredericton Carol Randall 02 Pow Wow Blessing
Gold Medal Camera 35 St Johns Philip Crocker Stage Reflections
1st Merit Que Pierre Pomerleau Long Night At The Stadium
1st Merit Ont Pia OLeary Fall Mists In Algonquin Park
Honour Award Tony Roberts Bullrider Rescue

Scope of Competition

For this competition, we are seeking your best image(s) which symbolizes our unique Canadian identity and the beauties of our country. Submitted images must have been capture at geographical location in Canada.

Competition Details (click for more)
Definition

To assist you in seeking out the best image for this competition, we have included below some ideas:

  • cultural heritage
  • geographical uniqueness
  • historical events or locations
  • iconic landscape/cityscape
  • roughness of Canadian landscape
  • seasonal uniqueness
  • symbols of caring, confidence, courage, encouraging, helping others, nurturing, pride, respect, self-sacrifice and trust
  • nature
  • wildlife specific to Canada
  • Architecture

Your image can include aircraft, animal (feral or wild life), architecture, landscape, objects, people, plants, sea mammals, trains, vehicles, vessels, etc…

This competition will consist of five regional themes:

  • Atlantic Zone (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Prince Edward Island & Nunavut)
  • Pacific Zone (British Columbia & Yukon)
  • Prairie Zone (Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan & Northwest Territory)
  • Ontario Zone
  • Quebec Zone

Your image can be captured as a resident or visitor of a regional theme.

You are permitted to enter your images in one or more of the geographical themes but your total number of submitted images cannot exceed: 3 images for a CAPA member or 6 images from a camera club (all images from different photographers).

Editing Criteria
You are encouraged to submit your images which exemplifies the unique beauty of one or more themes from your perspective as either a resident or a visitor.

  1. Eligibility Criteria – Prior to submitting any photo in a CAPA competition, all entrants must first read the CAPA Eligibility Criteria relating to image submissions. – READ ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA HERE
  2. Open Editing – All in-camera, on-camera and post-processing techniques are permitted. all components of the final image must have been taken by the entrant. Sky replacement is only permitted if the replacement sky was captured by the same photographer submitting the image into this competition.Images that are created totally electronically with no photographic origin are prohibited from this competition.Colour or black & white or monochrome images are permitted.No frame or borders are permitted in this competition.
Image Specifications

Specifications

Title of Image

When images are uploaded into a competition, you are required to enter the title of your image into the Title Field.  Title can be in either  English or French or both.

Do Not: enter your name, the name of the photographer or the club name in the Title Field (that is for the Title of the image)

Do Not: include punctuation or symbols (such as / –_  , ; : ‘’ “” ! ? & $%*{} [ ] @ # &) or quotation marks in the Title of your image.

The Image Title should be simple, and introduce or set the mood or perspective for your image.  For example:  Sublime Nova Scotia Sunset

A weak image title, such as ‘pretty flower,’ will fail to stimulate the judge’s interest in the image and may result in a lower score than expected.

Image File Name

Do Not: include punctuation marks or symbols such as / , ; : ‘’ “” ! ? & $%*{} [ ] @ # &) or quotation marks in the Image File name. For example, do not use: “NAME OF PHOTOGRAPHER”it_a_red rose”.jpg”

The image file name that you create prior to uploading into this competition should also be simple, and could be the same as the Image Title. For example: John Snow-Sublime Nova Scotia Sunset

Image Size – Dimensions

You must ensure your image is re-sized to meet the following two parameters:

  1. Saved as a jpg image with a maximum file size of 1.8 MB.
  2. Dimensions: Maximum horizontal size: 1400 pixels and maximum vertical size: 1050 pixels.

Note: Images smaller than the maximum dimensions will ONLY be accepted when one of the image edges has a horizontal size is 1400 pixels or the vertical size is 1050 pixels.  For example: square image – 1050 x 1050 pixels; landscape 1400 x 800 pixels; or portrait 700 x 1050 pixels.

Note: Images will NOT be rotated by the judges and will scored as submitted.

During the uploading process of your image, our online competition system will verify if the image is less than 1.8 MB and meets the two parameters.

If your image fails this verification process, you will receive an error message and it will appear below the upload image box.

Depending on the error message – you will need to either reduce the file size of the image to be 1.8 MB or less or re-size the dimensions of your image.  After doing so, please re-try uploading your image.

Suggestions – Use sRGB colour space for your image.  For colour accuracy: we strongly recommend that you calibrate your monitor to ensure colour accuracy from your monitor to the image projected to the judges.

Judging Criteria
  1. Image title should complement or contribute to the vision or message being presented in the image.
  2. Judges will award their scoring based on creative vision and the story telling value of an image along with the pictorial quality and technical quality (e.g. quality of execution, innovation, creativity, and ‘wow’ factor) as well as the degree that the image is within the Scope of the Theme.

Competition Processes

  • Competition Coordinator  Sheldon Boles – CAPA Director of Competitions competitions@capacanada.ca
  • Closing Date of Competition – April 15, 2023 at midnight Eastern Standard Time.
  • Open To – All paid-up CAPA members and camera clubs associated to CAPA. Read Eligibility here.
  • Two Parallel Competitions– CAPA Canada: My Country ‘Individual’ Competition for only CAPA member and CAPA Canada: My Country ‘Club’ Competition for all camera clubs. CAPA members can upload a maximum of 3 images. Whereas, camera clubs can upload a maximum 6 photos but all images must be from different photographers. For both the Individual and Club components of this competition, CAPA medals and Honourable Mention electronic certificates will be awarded to entrants with the highest aggregate scores of all themes. Merit Award Certificates will be awarded to the top three individual images for each province and territory.
  • How To Enter Competition – check out our How To Upload Images To CAPA Competition here.

Special Note

Questions about the scope of the competition and/or the editing criteria should be directed to the Competition Coordinator prior to the closing day of the competition.

The top 35 scored images from this competition will be included in the selection process for CAPA’s submission to the international Four Nations competition.