Toronto Photography Meetup Group

No, we're not currently holding any contests here (potentially in the future though), instead, this thread is intended to be about contests. Which ones are good? Bad? Coming up? What are the photographers rights? How does the new copyright bill affect our rights when submitting? Does it at all? (I dunno, haven't looked yet).

I only have a small amount of experience with entering contests but I have looked at them for a while and have figured out a handful of things. Contests can provide exposure for a photographer, build a resume if you're trying to be a photographer for a living, prizes, and be a tool for developing your skills. Unfortunately, they can also be a way to give away your great images for nothing. For example, a common contest practice is for an organization to hold a photo contest with a small prize, let's say $500, free dog food, a P&S or whatever. Anyone who submits images to these particular kinds of contests gives an organization rights to use image(s) in perpetuity for free in exchange for that opportunity to win a Nikon G Shot X Pro 4. Sometimes there is no prize - just exposure. A highly debatable value. There are many flickr group contests that claim rights to use an image submitted to contests and sometimes just groups. The organization gets hundreds, if not thousands of submissions dozens of which are good enough to use in promotion materials for years. For the small cost of setting up the contest, easy peasy, and a relatively small prize cost that organization just bought itself a custom image library. Plus the attention garnered by advertising, something they were gonna spend money on anyway.

That said, not all contests are bad. How do you guys feel about contests? Care to share with us your experiences, have submission tips or contests you enter or are you afraid of the competition?

Here's a link I got from PotatoEYE a while back that's a good contest resource: Photography Competitions.net

Edit, added that this is the place we can put links to results of contests so they're all in one place.

Stickied for now, let's see how popular the topic is.

I've entered, won, lost and whatnot. I usually look for free entry ones with a prize I might be interested in, also making sure the copyright stays with me. Always read the full terms and conditions description.

Woo hoo! I get a place to post my cat pictures! Hey wait a minute!

speaking as a judge (trained by CAPA).... I love contests, and think they have a lot to offer photographers who want to get positive feedback, and rewarded for their good efforts. Most club contests usually don't have prizes associated with them, aside from perhaps ribbons or award certificates, and the bragging rights that go with them.

But the issue of organizations that hold contests for the sole purpose of exploiting unsuspecting or naive photographers into giving them their images for a new website or promotional purpose with a small prize in return - such as a sweatshirt, etc, came up for me recently at a place that I frequent. I felt that this organization was merely exploiting good people for a purpose which they should have been paying market value for (website redesign). Instead, they now have a handful of mediocre holiday pictures mixed in with good nuggets as well.

Zeiss Lens Photo Contest.

I wonder if I can use the contax Zeiss?

Yeah, any Zeiss afaik.

Magenta flash forward : http://magenta-new.spidersilk.net/submit/ff2013.php

Submissions due at the end of the month.

More on that Zeiss contest:

Rules
Terms of Participation
Submissions

Good luck to anyone who enters.

Winners of World Press Photo Contest from 1955-2011. Warning, some pretty graphic photojournalism inside.

Wow...some powerful images.

Give an image to the Ontario Forest Association for a chance to win a trip (aka nothing).

Interesting legal question: Since the signed photography release doesn't mention any of these terms including the exclusive and the legal compensation does the signed document over ride the contest regulations.

Good question. And how does the new provisions in copyright law work with stuff like this?