Our monthly Competition News is aimed at providing all CAPA members and camera clubs with timely information relating to our competitions.

For this month, we have included information below under the following titles.

2018 Black & White Competition

As of this date, the Black & White competition now holds the record for the largest number of:

• entrants who submitted images in a CAPA competition – 186 (37 + 149); and
• submitted images for a CAPA competition – 789 (219 + 570).

Submitted images were grouped into six photographic genres with the associated totals

Category	Individual	Club	Total
Landscape	112	52	164
People	133	78	211
Insect/Bird/Animal/Plant	120	35	155
Object Primary Focus	66	22	88
Architecture	110	27	137
Vehicle/Train/Boat/Aircraft	29	5	34
TOTAL	570	219	789

 

Based on these totals, the following pie chart was created.

 

 

As the statistics have outlined above, the Black & White competition was extremely popular.  Therefore, this competition will be included in the 2018 – 2019 competition cycle but will be revised as the Monochrome competition and will contain four genres:

• Individual/Groups (street photography is included)
• Landscape/City-scape
• Architecture (inside/outside)
• Flowers/Plants (wild or cultivated)

Each genre will be judged separately.  If this competition format is found to be popular then it will be used in our 2019-2020 competition cycle for other competitions.

Check out this new competition here.

2018 – Survey Sent Out To Camera Clubs

In January 2018, we sent out a survey to all camera clubs seeking ideas and comments to enhance CAPA.

Unfortunately, we received a very low response to this survey.  However, the collective responses to one question did provide us an insight into which competitions are popular with camera clubs – as noted below. 

 

 We used these responses to assist us in determining what competitions to offer in our 2018 – 2019 competition cycle.  In the near future, it maybe beneficial to send out a similar survey to all our CAPA individual members. 

Altered Reality Competition Results

This competition closed on February 28, 2018 and the images submitted were as follows:

1 – Club category: 158 image from 28 clubs

2 – Individual category: 227 images from 60 CAPA members

The three judges for this competition were:

1 – Carol How – CAPA Judge (Crescent Beach Photography Club)

2 – Frank Pali – Certified CAPA Judge (Not a member of a camera club)

3 – Gilles Vezina – Certified CAPA Judge (R.A. Photo Club)

Many thanks to the judges for assisting in this competition. 

This competition was hosted by CAPA.

Check out the winners of the competition as follows:

1 – Winners – Club – Altered Reality – CHECK OUT WEBPAGE HERE

2 – Winners – Individual – Altered Reality – CHECK OUT WEBPAGE HERE

All the entrants in this competition have received a copy of the final competition report.  This report can be reviewed by logging into the CAPA website and selecting Competition Report from the Competition dropdown menu.  If the Competition Report is not displayed, you are not logged into the website.

 

2018 – 2019 CAPA Competitions

In March, we sent out a message to all camera clubs seeking volunteers to host of one of our 2018 – 2019 (September 1, 2018 to June 1, 2019).  Based on this request, the following competitions will be proceeding as of September 1, 2018: 

• Nature – hosted by: Richmond Hill Camera Club – Closing Date: October 30, 2018
• Fine Art – hosted by: Derek Hayes & Friends – Closing Date: October 30, 2018
• Photo Journalism – hosted by: Hamilton Camera Club – Closing Date: November 23, 2018
• Altered Reality – hosted by: Lance Gitter – Closing Date: January 15, 2019
• Monochrome – hosted by: CAPA Director of Competitions – Closing Date: January 30, 2019
• Open Theme – hosted by: Toronto Digital Photographic Club  – Closing Date: February 20, 2019
• A Photo Series Of 4 Photos – hosted by: Shuswap Photo Arts Club – February 20, 2019
• Audio Visual Presentation – hosted by: Toronto Camera Club – Closing Date: March 31, 2019
• Portraiture – hosted by: Prince George Photo Society (Selena Laing) – Closing Date: March 31, 2019
• Canada: My Country – hosted by: Director of Competitions  – Closing Date: April 30, 2019
• 2019 Annual Photo Challenge (Open only to CAPA members) – hosted by: CAPA Director of Competitions – Closing Date: May 31, 2019
• International Four Nations Competition – hosted and coordinated by: CAPA Director of Competitions – Closing Date: July 1, 2019
• Wildlife- hosted by:           – Closing Date:
• Open Print – hosted by:         – Closing Date:

SPECIAL NOTE: We are still seeking a Competition Host for the Wildlife and Open Print competition.  The Wildlife competition can be hosted as either a ‘live-judging‘ or a ‘remote-juding‘ competition.  If you or your club is interested in hosting one of these competitions, please email the Director of Competitions at competitions@capacanada.ca

The competition details for the following 2018-2019 competitions are now posted on Current Competitions webpage: 

• Nature
• Fine Art
• Photo Journalism
• Altered Reality
• Monochrome
• Portrait
• A Photo Series Of 4 Photos
• Open Theme

In the forthcoming weeks, the remaining 2018-2019 details will be posted. You will be able to upload your images to these competitions after September 1, 2018.

 

 

 

Four Nations Competitions

We have received some enquires about the international Four Nations competition and how images are selected by CAPA for this competition.

The participating organizations in this competition consist of:

• Australian Photographic Society
• Canadian Association For Photographic Art
• Photographic Society of New Zealand
• Photographic Society of South Africa

Each year, the hosting of this competition rotates through the participating photographic organizations.  This year’s host is the Photographic Society of South Africa.  In 2019, it will be CAPA’s turn to host this competition.

Noted competition consists of four categories and the corresponding number of images to be submitted each year:

• Open Theme – 35 images
• Nature – 15 images
• Monochrome – 15 images
• Our Country – 15 images

Each contributing organization must submit 80 images.  All 80 images must be submitted by 80 different photographers.  No previously submitted image can be re-submitted. 

Each year, this competition closes on July 1st.  After the closing date, all submitted images will be randomly sorted and  judged by at least three individuals not residing or citizen of the four participating countries.  These judges will be either PSA and/or FIAP certified judges. 

For CAPA’s submission to this competition, the new process will be as follows: 

• select the top 50-100 scoring images from each of our 2017 – 2018 competitions
• three independent Certified CAPA Judges will re-score all the selected images
• scores will be sorted from highest to lowest
• top images will selected for each of categories for the Four Nations competition
• seek permission to submit the image from the photographer
• submit our selected 80 images to the Four Nations’ Competition Host
• receive the competition results
• advise the photographers of results
• post the results on our website
• all future CAPA competition webpages will contain a note that the top 50 scored images in each competition will be considered for selection into the Four Nations competition 

Check out the results from the 2017 Four Nations Competition here.

If you have any questions or concerns relating to this competition, please Sheldon Boles (Director of Competitions) at competititions@capacanada.ca

Forthcoming 2018 Competition

As a reminder, we have three forthcoming competitions in April and May:

1 – 2018 Canada: My Country – closes April 18, 2018 

2 – 2018 Close-up – closes April 30, 2018

3 – 2018 Annual Photo Challenge (only open to CAPA Individual Members) – closes May 31, 2018

Our monthly Competition News is aimed at providing all CAPA members and camera clubs with timely information relating to our competitions.

For this month, we have included information below under the appropriate title.

2018 Black & White Competition

This closed on January 2018 and took considerable time to judge the close to 800 images submitted:

1 – Club category: 219 image from 38 clubs

2 – Individual category: 570 images from 149 CAPA members

Several new camera clubs entered images for the first time: Birdnet Camera Club (In China with 220,000 members), Prince George Photo Society and the Port Franks Camera Club.

For twenty-three CAPA members, this was their first time in participating in a CAPA competition.  

Despite the unexpected large number of submitted images, the Victoria Camera Club did an outstanding job in hosting this competition.  

Many thanks to the three CAPA judges: Michael Easton, Neil le Nobel and Rick Shapka for their assistance.

For the Club category, three camera clubs received CAPA medals:

1 – Gold Medal – Richmond Hill Camera Club

2 – Silver Medal – Images Alberta Camera Club

3 – Bronze Medal – Jiahua Elite Photography Association

You can check out their winning images on our Winners – Club webpage here.

CAPA members were also awarded CAPA medals for the individual category: 

1 – Gold Medal – David Laronde of North Vancouver, BC

2 – Silver Medal – Norman Dougan of Kamloops, BC

3 – Bronze Medal – Missy Mandel of Toronto, Ont

You can check out their winning images on our Winners – Individual webpage here.

Two images from this competition were disqualified for the following reasons:

1  – watermark on surface of the image

2 – entrant entered the same image in both the Club and Individual categories of this competition. 

Reminder For All Competitions

A question has been raised whether a stock image or an image on internet can be incorporated as an element in an image submitted for competition.

The answer is no.  Point #1 of our CAPA Competition Eligibility Criteria states:

1. the submitted image is their original work and must not contain the elements created by someone else;

The CAPA Eligibility Criteria for these two types of disqualifications are as follows:

8. they will NOT enter an identical or simultaneously the same images or one that is substantially the same in both the ‘individual‘ and ‘club‘ components of a CAPA competition;

9. the image will not contain any watermarks, name of the image or name of the photographer;

Each competition detail webpage contains a hyperlink to the CAPA Eligibility Criteria page.  It is important that each entrant review this webpage prior to submitting an images for the respective competition.

How To Upload Competitions Webpage

This webpage has been updated to reflect the current layout and processes in uploading an images to a CAPA competition.

A hyperlink to this document is contained in all CAPA competition pages. You can view this new document here.

Potential CAPA Competitions

For our 2018 – 2019 competition cycle (September to June), we have the following potential competitions:

2019 – Photo Challenge	Altered Reality	Audio Visual Presentation	Capture The Perfect Flower Theme
Close-Up	Fine Art	Four Nations	Monochrome
Nature	Open Print	Open Theme	Photo Travel
Photo Journalism	Portrait	Story Telling With 4 Images	Wildlife

Audio Visual Presentation Competition Update

 For this competition, we have added the following details to this competition:

SPECIAL NOTE: For a club submission for this competition – at least two people MUST be involved in creating the audio visual presentation.

In addition, we have updated the entry form for this competition.  Check out the competition detail page here.

Forthcoming 2018 Competition

As a reminder, we have several forthcoming competitions in March and April:

Spring Open Competition – closes March 31, 2018

Audio Visual Presentation – closes March 31, 2018

Canada: My Country – closes April 18, 2018

Spring Close-up – closes April 30, 2018

 Questions or Concerns

If you have any questions or concerns about any aspect of CAPA competitions, please email our Director of Competitions at competitions@telus.ca.

Our monthly Competition News is aimed at providing all CAPA members and camera clubs with timely information relating to our competitions.

For this month, we have included information below under the appropriate title. CAPA Clubs, don’t forget to complete the club survey recently sent out. We would like to hear from you.

Judging Criteria Updated

As of January 31, 2018, the CAPA judging criteria for all competitions has been expanded to include the following statement:

— image title that compliments or contributes to the vision or message being presented in the image.

An effective title will lure the viewer into the image and with an implied emphasis by the photographer.   If done appropriately, the images will standout from the rest of the images being judged and will be remembered.

Audio Visual Presentation Competition Update

 We have made some minor refinements to the Audio Visual Presentation Competition and these refinements are as follows:

SPECIAL NOTE – For a club submission for this competition – at least two people MUST be involved in creating the audio visual presentation.

A black 3 to 4 second slide at the beginning of the presentation and after one at the end of the show after the credits. (This will allow the Competition Committee presenter to cue the show without it starting before everyone is ready). The name of the entrant MUST NOT appear in the credits nor in any other area of the presentation.

2018 Annual Photo Challenge Competition

Canon Canada has re-affirmed it support to be a major prize donator for our 2018 Annual Photo Challenge Competition. 

Posted Final Competition Reports & Winning Images

The final reports for all our Fall 2017 competitions are now posted on our Competition Reports webpage. 

To view these results, a CAPA members or camera club representative must first login to our website with the appropriate username and password.  Once logged in, select the Competition Reports option found on the Competitions dropdown menu. 

If the Competition Reports option is not included then you are not logged in. 

Winning images for the Fall 2017 competitions are now included on the appropriate webpage:

– Winners – Club  

– Winners – Individual

Forthcoming 2018 Competition

As a reminder, we have two forthcoming competitions in February and March:

Creative Altered Reality

Audio Visual Presentation

Spring Open

Our monthly Competition News is aimed at providing all CAPA members and camera clubs with timely information relating to our competitions.

For this month, we have included information below under the appropriate title.

Posted Final Competition Reports & Winning Images

The final reports for all our Fall 2017 competitions are now posted on our Competition Reports webpage. 

To view these results, a CAPA members or camera club representative must first login to our website with the appropriate username and password.  Once logged in, select the Competition Reports option found on the Competitions dropdown menu. 

If the Competition Reports option is not included then you are not logged in. 

Winning images for the Fall 2017 competitions are now included on the appropriate webpage:

– Winners – Club  

– Winners – Individual

Comment From Judges

Based on judging our Photo Journalism competition, Glenn Springer (CAPA Judge) provided his suggestions to all photographers: 

I’m trying to think, “If I had just one suggestion for makers entering competitions, it would be…”?

– “your picture needs to tell a story”.

But you need to have your other ducks in a row too…

– What’s the subject? If the viewer doesn’t see the subject in the first 3/10ths of a millisecond, forget it.

– The obvious technical stuff. Focus, exposure, composition, no unintended artifacts and so on. Always take a last walk around your image before hitting “send”.

Remember that the judges are human too. Some of them are deathly afraid of spiders. Others hate cats. Although they try to be objective, in the real world that’s tough. Take their comments as constructive criticism and learn by them. Or just laugh!

Reminder For All Competitions

Prior to entering a CAPA competition, it is essential to read and comply with all the terms and conditions outlined in the competition.

In the event you are unsure if your image falls within the scope of the competition, please email the respective Competition Host well in advance of the ‘closing-day’ of the competition.

For our Fall 2017 competitions, several images were disqualified for the following reasons: 

– same image entered in both the “Individual” and “Club” competitions

– human element was contained in a Nature competition submission

– exceeding the restricted editing criteria

– watermark on the image

– image did not fall within the scope of the competition

Forthcoming 2018 Competition

As a reminder, we have two forthcoming competitions in January and February:

Black & White Competition

Creative Altered Reality

 Club Enquires About Digital Projectors

We have had a couple enquires on what would be the most appropriate and economical digital projector for camera clubs.

Dr. Robert Ito (CAPA Director of Photographic Imaging) has provided the following comments about digital projectors:

Very few projectors are ideal for projecting digital images.   Projector should be a sRGB compliant device having a display resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher.  If the projector specifications do not include sRGB then it is not sRGB compliant.

The Optima projectors have 8 business class (XGA and WXGA) projects with sRGB in the specifications and one Home Theatre (1920 x 1080) projector (EH345) in the offerings.  Canon does have a sRGB compliant projector – LX-MU500.  However this projector is likely too bright for camera clubs.

Our monthly Competition Update webpage is aimed at providing all CAPA members and camera clubs with timely information relating to our competitions.

For this month, I have included information below under the appropriate title.

 

Disqualifying Of Competition Image

For the Fall 2017 competitions, a number of submitted images have been disqualified for a variety of reasons.

It is critical that you read all the details of the competition and the CAPA Eligibility Criteria prior to entering a CAPA competition. Do not assume by the competition title that your images will be automatically accepted into the competition.

If you have questions about whether your images will be accepted or not, please email the respective Competition Host. It is the responsibility of the Competition Host to review all submitted images, prior to them being presented on the ‘day-of-judging.’   Only images which meet the competition details and CAPA Eligibility Criteria will be presented to the judges.

Here are some of the reasons why images were disqualified in our Fall 2017 competitions:

– same image entered in both the “Individual” and “Club” competitions

– human element was contained in a Nature competition submission

– exceeding the restricted editing criteria

– watermark on the image

– image did not fall within the scope of the competition

 

CAPA Eligibility Criteria Updates

 As we gain more experience with our new online competition system and remote judging, the CAPA Eligibility Criteria will be updated.

The recent updates to the CAPA Eligibility Criteria are outlined below with the associated rationale:

By virtue of submitting an image, the photographer agrees that:

9 – they will NOT enter an identical or simultaneously the same images or one that is substantially the same in both the ‘individual‘ and ‘club‘ components of a CAPA competition;

Rationale: We are finding incidents where two images were taken moments apart with one being entered in the ‘Individual’ and ‘Club’ competitions. The best of the two image should be entered in one of the competition not both.

Acceptable Filenames And Titles – have been included at the bottom of the Eligibility Criteria webpage and includes examples.  In addition, the same information has been added to the respective Competition Submission page.

These new changes to the Eligibility Criteria do not take effect until January 1, 2018. Check out the CAPA Eligibility Criteria here.

 

Posted Competition Results

The following webpages have been updated to included the results from the Nature, Fine Art and Print competitions:

Winners – Club – CHECK OUT WEBPAGE HERE

Winners – Individual – CHECK OUT WEBPAGE HERE

 

Uploaded CAPA Medal Presentations

For our new website, we have commenced a process of photographing the CAPA medal presentation being made to medal winners. Images are added to the bottom of the respective competition found in the Winners – Club or Winners – Individual webpage.

Some recent presentations can be found on the following webpages:

‘4 Nations’ Competition – photograph of Rachel Schneiderman and Campbell Hasting receiving their Gold Medal – CHECK OUT WEBPAGE HERE

Fine Art – Club Competition Bronze medal presentation to the Langley Camera Club – CHECK OUT WEBPAGE HERE

Here are the latest information updates and news about CAPA competitions.

CAPA Medal Presentations

This year we will be encouraging local competition host clubs to take photos of winners receiving their CAPA medals. We will post the presentation photos on the Winners Page for that competition along with all the winning images. If you haven’t had a chance to see the winners pages from the 2016-17 competitions, we invite you to have a look. For example, here is the winner’s page for the Fall 2016 Print – Club competition.

Update to Eligibility Criteria

The Eligibility Criteria has been updated to include:

• requirement for all competitions that the image colour space should be sRGB
• CAPA and corporations providing prizes are not in any way responsible for any claims or liabilities related to the outcome of a competition or the violation or infringement of any Canadian law or regulation

Updated Guideline for Judging a CAPA Competition

The Guideline for Judging a CAPA Competition has been updated to include CAPA’s new Competition Standards. This document is provided to all camera clubs hosting a CAPA competition who distribute it to competition judges. Judges are asked to read and comply with the details of this document.

Note that there is a full CAPA Judging Course Manual that is included when individuals have completed a CAPA Judging Course.

Open Print Competition – Deadline October 30

This year, the Red River Exhibition Association is hosting the Print Competition. They are extending a special invitation to CAPA Clubs and Individual members to consider submitting and supporting this competition. There’s something special about printing your photo. Experience the joy of holding the physical results of your work in your hand and sharing it with others. Seeing your photo in print helps you to become a better photographer. Choice of paper, printing method and many other things make the printing process truly a labour of love. There’s plenty of time to prepare your submission before the October 30 deadline . Submissions should be sent to: Judy Berthman, 230 Laurent Drive, Winnipeg, MB  R3V 1S7.

And speaking of sending in your prints, here are some instructions for making your own photo shipping container.

Upcoming Fall Competitions

Check out the details for all fall competitions

• Fine Art
• Nature
• Open Print
• Photo Journalism

How to Upload Images

Here is a page with step-by-step instructions for uploading images for a CAPA Competition. 

Competition Sponsors

Thanks to the following sponsors who have donated prizes this year for CAPA competitions:  

Audio Visual Presentation Competition: 

Photodex is providing a copy of ProShow Producer for the Gold Medal winners for the CAPA Individual & Camera Club competitions.

Annual Photo Challenge Competition 

Open Theme Competition

The Corel Corporation is providing prizes for the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners for both the Club and Individual components of this competition. 

 

Questions about CAPA Competitions? Email the Director of Competitions, Sheldon Boles

New Online Uploading System

Starting this fall, CAPA has a new online competition system. The new system is similar to the one being used by many Ontario camera clubs.  A huge thanks goes out to CAPA member Lance Gitter of the Richmond Hill Camera Club who dedicated countless volunteer hours to implement and configure CAPA’s new online competition system.

Also new for the 2017-18 competition cycle, we are implementing ‘remote-judging’ for three competitions – Nature, Photo Journalism and Spring Open.  With ‘remote-judging’, competitions will be judged by individuals in different parts of the country without the need to travel to a particular club’s location.  This feature may be of interest to camera clubs and we hope that more clubs will become Competition Hosts by using ‘remote judging’.

The new online system provides for a more streamlined uploading. As with all new systems, there are a few requirements in order to have consistency when you upload images:

1. File naming Convention:

– Filenames of photographs to be uploaded may ONLY contain letters, numbers, spaces, periods(.), underscores(_) or dashes (-)

– No other punctuation is allowed in this filename or the name of its folder

2. Image Title:

– May NOT contain the club name or the photographer’s name

– Unrestricted except refrain from using the following characters:  ” ‘ 

When you upload your images, these notes will be on the screen as a reminder.

 

Competition Eligibility Criteria

There are two new items added to the eligibility criteria:

6. the submitted image must not have previously received a CAPA award such as: a CAPA medal, Certificate of Merit, Merit Award Ribbon, Honourable Award Certificate or Honour Award Ribbon

7. Do NOT enter an image simultaneously in both the ‘individual’ and ‘club’ components of a CAPA competition

A link to the eligibility criteria is in each competition description.  Please read these carefully before submitting an image for a competition.

 

Competition Standardization

It is important that entrants read and comply with all the conditions of each CAPA competition prior to submitting an image.  Competition Hosts will no longer request a re-submit for an image that does not meet the scope of a competition and the non-qualifying image will not be presented on the ‘day-of-judging.’

For clarity, there is a separate webpage for each competition.  The traditional CAPA Competition Guide has been eliminated.

For the majority of competitions, the judging criteria have been standardized:

“Judges will award their scoring based on key elements such as composition, technique and subject matter.  However, the judges will have a strong emphasis on the creative message, quality of execution, innovation, and ‘wow’ factor.”

All judges will be asked to comply with these criteria when assigning their score to images.

In early May 2017, a message was sent to all CAPA members and camera clubs advising them of the new 2017-18 competitions.  Please explore all the competitions when considering submission of your images.

 

Fall Competitions

This fall there are four photo competitions:

• Nature (Closes October 30, 2017) – has been expanded to include the promotion of responsible photographing species.
• Fine Art (Closes October 30, 2017) – definition has been expanded and clarified.
• Open Print (Closes October 30, 2017) – it is important to read the Competition Process for this competition to ensure you also upload a copy of your print image to the new online competition system.
• Photo Journalism (Closes November 30, 2017) – this new competition provides an opportunity to expand your photographic abilities and to comply with photo journalism standards.

 

Club Membership Contact Information

Please keep your club’s contact information up-to-date on the CAPA website.  We use this information to send you the Canadian Camera Magazine, CAPA Monthly Newsletter , Competition Updates, and CAPA awards/prizes.

For camera clubs, we ask that contact information includes:

– Primary contact person (i.e. treasurer) with contact information

– Club President Name & email address

– Club CAPA Representative & email address

– Club Competition Contact & email address

– Communications Contact & email address

If you have any questions about CAPA Competitions, please email the Director of Competitions (Sheldon Boles) at competitions@capacanada.ca