Download PDF of Conditions of Entry

PSA RECOGNITION: PSA 2021-1353

APS APPROVAL: Newcastle Exhibition APS 2021/17; Wangi Exhibition APS 2021/18; Belmont Exhibition APS 2021/19.

DATA PROTECTION:  By entering this exhibition, you, the entrant, are explicitly consenting to the personal details you have supplied, including email addresses, being held, processed and used by the exhibition organisers for purposes associated with this exhibition. You also explicitly consent to such information being sent to organizations that have accorded official recognition, patronage or accreditation to this exhibition. You acknowledge and accept that entering this exhibition means that the status and results of your entry may be made public.

NOTICE:  When an entrant fills in an Entry Form to submit an entry the entrant will see a feature to affirm he or she has read these Conditions of Entry when he or she fills out the entry form. If the entrant does not so affirm the entry will not be submitted.

Sections and exhibitions

The Circuit consists of THREE exhibitions (Belmont, Wangi and Newcastle). Each exhibition has six sections:

• Colour Open (PSA-PIDC)
• Monochrome Open (PSA-PIDM)
• Nature (colour or mono) (PSA-ND)
• Wildlife (colour or mono) (PSA-ND)
• Photojournalism (colour or mono) (PSA-PJD)
• Photo Travel (colour or mono) (PSA-PTD)

An entrant may enter up to 4 images in each section. Subject matter is open within each section but must comply with the definitions that are reproduced in these Conditions of Entry. 

Monochrome images may NOT be entered in the Colour Open (PIDC) section. 

Monochrome images entered in the Nature, Wildlife, Photojournalism and Photo Travel sections must be greyscale (toned images will not be accepted).

All entries are made online at  https://lakemacint.myphotoclub.com.au

Image format

The maximum image size is 1920 pixels horizontal and 1200 pixels vertical when the image is viewed with correct orientation. Images larger than the permitted size will be rejected. Smaller images are permitted but will be appear smaller on screen. Maximum size of closed file is 3 MB. File format must be JPEG.

Image files should have the same name as the title of the relevant digital image in the online entry system. For example, an image called “Golden sunset” should have a file name “Golden sunset.jpg”. Titles and file names must use the English alphabet and may include numbers. Please refer to point 16 in the General Conditions.

Please keep borders to a minimum if you need to use a border to separate the image from the background.

If you need assistance resizing your images for entry, please download these instructions.

General Conditions of Entry

1. Sponsor and Exhibition Organisers: The Sponsor of this Exhibition is the Belmont 16s Photography Club, Australia. The Exhibition Organisers are the Circuit Chair of the Exhibition, appointed by the Sponsor, and others delegated by the Circuit Chair to assist with the organisation and operation of the Exhibition.
2. Exhibition Process: This Exhibition will be conducted according to the recommended practices of the Photographic Society of America (PSA) and the Australian Photographic Society (APS).
3. Eligibility: With the exception noted in the following paragraph, this exhibition is open to anyone; however, an entry may be rejected when the Exhibition Organisers, in their reasonable discretion, believe the entry does not conform to these Conditions of Entry. Membership in any photographic organization is not required.
4. Sanctions: Entries will not be accepted from any entrant who is currently sanctioned by the Photographic Society of America (PSA) or the Australian Photographic Society (APS).
5. PSA Star Ratings: To receive proper Star Ratings credit from PSA, entrants must provide their names and country exactly the same in each exhibition. Aliases are not permitted. Please contact PSA in the event of name changes or relocating to another country. 
6. Image Creation: Images entered into this Exhibition must originate as photographs (image captures of objects via light sensitivity) made by the entrant on photographic emulsion or acquired digitally.
7. Certification: By virtue of submitting an image, the entrant certifies the work as his or her own (aliases are not permitted). Images may not incorporate elements produced by anyone else (for example: clip art, images or art by others downloaded from the Internet). The entrant permits the sponsors to reproduce all or part of the entered material free of charge for publication and/or display in media related to the exhibition. This may include low resolution posting on a website.  Note: Entrants who indicate that their images may not be reproduced or used “will not be eligible for awards” or inclusion in audio-visuals of the exhibition “and could be subject to disqualification” by the exhibition sponsors. The exhibition assumes no liability for any misuse of copyright. 
8. Alteration and Computer Generation: Subject to PSA Divisional restrictions (particularly those incorporated in the Nature, Photojournalism and Photo Travel definitions), images may be altered, either electronically or otherwise, by the maker. Adjustments to enhance images or creatively modify images are allowed providing the underlying photograph is retained in a way that is obvious to the viewer.  Images may not be constructed entirely with a computer, and must be the sole work of the author. ALL MEDAL-WINNING IMAGES AND RANDOMLY SELECTED OTHER IMAGES WILL BE CHECKED FOR ORIGINALITY AND COPYRIGHT VIOLATION.
9. Re-use of accepted images: Once an image has been accepted in a PSA Recognized exhibition, any identical image, or near identical image, may not, in future, be entered or re-entered in any section of the same Division Star Ratings class in that exhibition regardless of media, format, or title; may not be re-titled for entry into any other PSA Recognized exhibition, including translation into another language.
10. Entry: An Entry consists of up to four (4) images entered by a single Entrant into the same Section. An entrant may enter a specific Section only once. An image may be entered in only one section where acceptances of that image in multiple sections would be eligible for the same star path. Sequences of images are NOT permitted as a single entry.
11. Entry Presentation: An entrant’s images will not be presented consecutively to the judges. Each entrant’s images in a Section will be distributed throughout four rounds of judging in that Section. Distribution of images shall be in the same round order as submitted by the entrant. 
12. Titles: Each image must have a unique title. That unique title must be used for entry of that image or of an Identical Image into any and all PSA-Recognized exhibitions. Titles must be 35 characters or fewer. No titles may be visible to the judges, and nothing in the image may identify the maker. Titles must not include file extensions such as .jpg or .jpeg (or any other camera capture filenames), or words such as “untitled” or “no title”. Titles may not consist solely of numbers. Titles will not be read at judging. Please do not use these characters / \ : ? * ” < > | ‘ # ( ) in file names or image titles. Titles should be exactly as you want them to appear in the catalogue.
13. Colour and Monochrome: Colour and Monochrome images from the same capture that share substantial pictorial content in common will be considered the same image and must be given the same title. However, PSA members working on Galaxy and Diamond Star Ratings are allowed to continue using different titles of monochrome versions and colour versions of the same capture that have already been accepted until the required number of acceptances for those titles has been completed.
14. Acceptance Range: This Exhibition sets as a target that 32-35% of all images entered into each Section will be accepted. 
15. Double Entry: An image or an identical image –  or a monochrome version of a colour image –  may be entered in only one section of the Lake Macquarie Circuit. 
16. Image Disqualification: Images may be disqualified from the exhibition and not scored or accepted if the Exhibition Organisers or the judges decide that the image does not conform to these Conditions of Entry. In such cases no refund of fees will be made to the entrant. The Exhibition Organisers make reasonable efforts to review entered images for compliance with these Conditions of Entry and may give the Entrant the opportunity to submit replacement images if the Exhibition Organisers believe that the original submission should be disqualified. Such opportunity for resubmission may only be offered if the image is submitted in ample time before the closing date of the Exhibition.
17. Entry Forms: All entries must be entered using the online entry process found at https://lakemacint.myphotoclub.com.au. Images on CDs and email attachments are NOT permitted. 
18. Exhibition and Catalogue: A PDF catalogue of the Exhibition will be downloadable from the Exhibition website https://lakemacint.myphotoclub.com.au. The catalogue will contain links to all the images, and this will constitute one actual exhibition. Further exhibitions will be held on dates and at places publicised on the Exhibition website.
19. Medals & other Awards: Medals and Ribbons will be sent by first-class mail by the date specified on the exhibition website. In situations where COVID restrictions prevent awards being posted to some countries until a later date the recipients will be informed by email. It is the entrant’s responsibility to ensure that the address they supply when entering the exhibition is a valid postal address. Failure to do so may result in awards not being delivered.
20. Email List: By virtue of submitting an entry, the Entrant accepts that his/her email address will be used for communicating information about this Exhibition and may be used for announcements of future PSA-recognized exhibitions sponsored by the Sponsor. The Entrant may opt out of this email list after the Exhibition by notifying the Exhibition Chair.  ALERT: opting out before the Exhibition catalogues are posted can result in the Entrant not receiving important Exhibition status information such as scorecards.
21. Judge Entry: Judges may not enter any Section that they are judging but they are eligible to enter sections they are not judging in the same exhibition or any sections in other exhibitions in the Circuit.
22. Chair Entry: The Chair of the Exhibition may not enter any section in the Exhibition. Neither can any other person enter any section if they have access to the images prior to the judging.
23. Breaches of Rules: If, at any time, it is determined in the reasonable discretion of the exhibition organizer or the judges before, during, or after the judging of an exhibition that an entrant has submitted entries where one or more images may fail to comply with these Conditions of Entry, including the stated definitions, the exhibition organizers reserve the right to delete the entry from the exhibition and void any or all acceptances or awards in connection with the exhibition. Fees may be forfeited or refunded in these circumstances. The entrant acknowledges that the decision of the exhibition organizers or the judges is final.
    
    To ensure that images comply with these Conditions of Entry and definitions contained herein, the Exhibition may carry out reasonable measures to verify that (a) the images are the original work of the entrant; and (b) the images comply with the rules and definitions as set out in these Conditions of Entry.
    
    These steps may include, but are not limited to, questioning any entrant, requiring the submission of RAW files or other digital files representing the original capture of the submitted image(s), confronting the entrant with evidence that one or more submitted images fail to comply with these Conditions of Entry and offering the entrant a reasonable opportunity to provide counter evidence to refute the Exhibition Organiser’s evidence by a set deadline. Such entries that are not cleared or are still questionable after the entrant has provided evidence may be considered in breach of these Conditions of Entry, and declined. Such entries may be referred to PSA for further investigation of possible ethics violations.
    
    PSA retains the right to investigate in any way all complaints/suspicions of breaches of conditions of entry, impose sanctions if deemed necessary, void the acceptances of any image found to violate PSA rules, include the entrant’s name on the list of sanctions provided to exhibitions, and share such investigations with the International Federation of Photographic Arts (FIAP).
    
    Entrants to this Exhibition automatically agree to all the foregoing terms by the act of entering the Exhibition and agree to cooperate with any investigation. If another party is submitting images on the entrant’s behalf, the entrant will still be held responsible for adhering to these Conditions of Entry (Entry Rules) and will be subject to sanction for any violations to these Conditions of Entry and PSA’s Statement of Ethics that may result.
24. Notice: Before an entrant is permitted to submit an entry into this Exhibition the entrant will see a feature to affirm he or she has read these Conditions of Entry.  If the entrant does not so affirm the entrant will not be permitted to enter this Exhibition.

PSA Statement on Subject Matter

There is one hard and fast rule, whose spirit must be observed at all times and applies to all sections offered in PSA recognised exhibitions. The welfare of the subject is more important than the photograph. This means that practices such as baiting of subjects with a living creature and removal of birds from nests, for the purpose of obtaining a photograph, are highly unethical, and such photographs are not allowed in ANY section of a PSA recognised exhibition. 

There is also a PSA policy on the use of aerial photography – aircraft, helicopters and drones.  This policy can be found at https://psa-photo.org/index.php?psa-policies#drone. 

The purpose of this policy is to prevent any interference with other individuals or animals which will or may cause a disturbance in their normal activity or disrupt the way any individuals or animals interact with their environment. Entry in this exhibition requires exhibitors to agree to this and other PSA exhibitions.

The content of images must comply with these General Conditions and with the Division and Section definitions listed in these conditions. Images that – in the sole opinion of the judges or the Exhibition Organizers – do not comply are likely to be disqualified so the entrant may be aware of the problem when considering entry into other PSA recognized exhibitions.

In addition to the PSA Statement om Subject Matter, the Lake Macquarie Circuit has the following restrictions on subject matter:  No image will be accepted for judging in any section if, in the opinion of the exhibition organisers, it depicts a living creature being killed, injured or stressed for the purpose of photography. 

PSA Recognition number PSA 2021-1353.