INSPIRE Print Competition 2021

Professional Photographers’ Association of Pennsylvania

Professional Photographers’ Association of Pennsylvania
2021 Inspire Print Competition Rules & Guidelines

Eligibility:
Anyone may enter the competition. Only members of PPA of PA whose dues are paid by March 18, 2021, are eligible for PPA of PA awards. All non-members of PPA of PA will be considered for the Non-Member Trophy, which is awarded to the top scoring image by a non-member. Images must be submitted through PrintCompetition.com to be included in the competition.

Entries Allowed, and Number of Entries: Any photograph, or any other entry shall not be eligible for entry in this competition if it previously received a blue ribbon in a previous PPA of PA Inspire competition or had previously received a PPA merit.

Entry Fees:
$20 per image for PPA of PA Members
$25 per image for non-members

Top Image Designation:
While entrants may submit up to 20 images per Open only four images per Open are eligible for awards. When submitting images through PrintCompetition.com, choose the four images in each Open that are to be considered for awards.

Photographic Open:
Entrants must have captured and or created the original exposure. All elements within the image must have been created or captured by the entrant. All artwork or post-processing must be done by the entrant or under their direct supervision.

Categories:
Portrait

• General Portrait – This sub-category includes families, groups, couples and adults (18 and older), relationships, models and fashion portraits, in addition to tastefully artistic figure studies.
• Child – This sub-category must contain a child or children from birth to age 16.
• High School Senior – This sub-category portrays a person age 16 to 18.
• Animal Portrait – This sub-category captures an animal(s) using structured lighting in a studio or outdoor environment, where the animal is controlled by the owner or photographer.

Illustrative

• Landscape – This category includes, but is not limited to, mountain ranges, cityscapes, sunrises & sunsets with or without people, urban landscapes, waterfalls, rivers, etc.
• Nature – This category includes wild animals in an uncontrolled lighting environment, flowers & plants, or other aspects of nature that do not fit the Landscape category. Animals photographed on a safari, in a wild animal park or zoo would be placed in this category.
• General Illustrative – Images that do not fit the Landscape or Nature category. Entries can be, but are not limited to, conceptual or abstract images.

Commercial
This category is for images created to help promote, market, or sell a product or service. A tear sheet is optional but highly recommended as it shows how the image is used for commercial purposes.

Album
This category includes event and non-event albums. Event albums document social events such as, but not limited to, weddings, bar and bat mitzvah’s, birthdays & anniversaries. Non-event albums tell a story about one or more subjects. Multi-maker albums are allowed if each maker enters the competition, pays the appropriate fee & contributes at least 20 images.

Creative
This category consists of images that have additional elements not created by the maker. Guide images of all elements not created by the maker must be included on the submitted image.

This category is for images that use someone else’s elements in the final image. The entrant must be able to provide releases for elements used, as needed.

Pennsylvania
Images in this category should be representative of the state of Pennsylvania. All images must be captured within the state of Pennsylvania. Illustrative, portraits, commercial or artistic images are accepted.

Artist Open:
Images in the Artist category are judged for artistic, digital and technical proficiency. Entries can be created from existing photographs, portraits, graphics or any other artwork as long as the entrant is able to provide appropriate written documentation verifying permission for use. All processing manipulation artwork or rendering must be done by the entrant. Guide images must be included on the submitted image.

Categories:

Restoration
The reconstruction of an old or damaged image.

Creative
Images created by any artistic technique (not restoration).

Wedding Open:
The purpose of this competition is to allow photographers to enter images created during the actual Wedding Event. For an image to be merit worthy in the wedding competition, additional evaluation may be considered for the entries that illustrate the personality of the subject or subjects and the story of the wedding as well as the artistic and technical skills of the image maker.

Judges will keep in mind that the maker may have limited control over many aspects of a wedding – subject matter, environment and time of day, etc. Ultimately, additional consideration may be given to the maker for technically and artistically executing at a merit level in spite of challenges involved at an actual wedding.

Single Image
Images that were captured on the wedding day.

Wedding Album
All images in the album must be from the wedding day.

Entrant’s Certification of Responsibility: By submitting an entry into the competition, the maker certifies that they have created, composed and made the original exposures; and that the processing, printing, and any special effects were done by them or under their direction. No entry will be eligible that was made under the supervision of an instructor or as a seminar or class assignment.

Legal Release: It shall be the sole responsibility of each entrant to obtain a proper legal release form, correctly executed and signed by the person(s) (or guardian in the case of a minor), for an exhibition entry in which a likeness is recognizable. This must be made available, upon request, to the Print Chairman or President of the PPA of PA, Inc. Entrant agrees to hold PPA of PA, Inc, harmless against any liabilities or claims arising out of display, publication, promotion, or other use of each photograph or other materials submitted to PPA of PA, Inc..

Print Mounting:
Mounting Materials: All print entries must be permanently mounted on mat board, mount board, foam-core, styrene, Gatorfoam or Sintra. Masonite, wood, metal or other types of print mounting material are not acceptable and, if used, shall cause that entry to be disqualified [applicable to all categories]. Prints may not be framed, or under glass. Plastic covering is permitted but not recommended.

Size Requirement and Recommended Thickness: Minimum thickness of print entry should be 1/8 inch. Maximum thickness should be 3/8 inch . Entrant may submit printed images of any shape and size on a mount board a minimum of 80 square inches to a maximum of 480 square inches, with the largest dimension no longer than 24 inches.

Note: if print does not meet the above size requirement, it will receive a “disqualified” stamp. However, a disqualified print is eligible for a ribbon and eligible for display in the exhibit, but is not eligible for trophy selection. The maker May correct the print before entering a regional or national judging.

Overlays and Underlays: Overlay mats and/or underlay mats ARE PERMITTED in ALL categories.

Entry Requirements Overview

Both Digital & Physical images are accepted for this year’s competition.
Register at PrintCompetiton.com

Entry Fees:
$20 per image for PPA Members
$25 per image for non-members

Recorded Critiques by an IPC Approved Juror are available @ $10 per image

All entrants are required to upload digital copies of their entries to PrintCompetition.com no later than March 18, 2021, for the PPA of PA competition on March 20, 2021.

Go to PrintCompetition.com and register/create an account. The cost to register is $11.00 for the entire year, for as many competitions that you choose to enter.

If you are submitting physical prints, your digital images & titles that are uploaded to PrintCompetition.com must match the physical prints being judged.

Entrants may submit up to 20 images in each Open (Photographic, Artist, Wedding) for a total of 60 images. Members may have no more than four images eligible for awards in each Open. Eligible images are designated at time of registration.

Image Maker of the Year requires members to have four eligible images in the same Open score 80 or higher to qualify.

Physical prints must be no less than 80 square inches (8×10) and no more than 480 square inches (20×24), with smallest side at least 10 inches, and longest side no longer than 24 inches.

Please contact Aaron Beale, PPA of PA Print Chair, with any
questions: ARBealePhotography@icloud.com – 717-686-0956

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Professional Photographers’ Association of Pennsylvania

2021 Inspire Print Competition Awards

Only PPA of PA members whose dues are paid by March 18, 2021, are eligible for PPA of PA awards.

All PPA of PA Awards except for Photographer, Artist, Wedding Photographer & Image Maker of the Year are chosen by the judges, The PPA of PA Image Maker of the Year is awarded to the maker with the highest scoring four images, with all four images scoring at least 80. The CPP Award & ASP State Elite Award are awarded to the highest scoring image by an eligible entrant.

Trophies are available for each of the following categories:

Photo Open Awards

Portrait – Animal

                Awarded to the Best Animal Portrait

Portrait – H.S. Senior

                Awarded to the Best H.S. Senior image

Portrait – Child

                Awarded to the Best Portrait of a Child

Portrait – General

                Awarded to the Best Portrait not in the Animal, H.S. Senior or Child sub-categories

Commercial

                Awarded to the Best Commercial image

Creative

                Awarded to the best image that incorporates an element/elements not created by the maker. Requires guide image/images for added elements.

Pennsylvania 

                Awarded to the image that best represents Pennsylvania

Album

                Awarded to the Best Album, this may be an event or non-event album

Illustrative – General

                Awarded to the Best Illustrative image, as chosen by the judges.

Illustrative – Landscape – Monteith Award for Best Landscape Image 

                Awarded to an image within the Illustrative – Landscape category

                This award is named in honor of Ann & Jim Monteith.

Illustrative – Nature – Campanellie Award for Best Nature Image 

                Awarded to a Wildlife image within the Illustrative – Nature category

                This award is named in honor of Joe Campanellie.

Artist Open Awards

Creative 

                Awarded to the Best Creative Artist image

Restoration

                Awarded to the Best Restoration 

Wedding Open Awards

Wedding Image

                Awarded to the Best Wedding Image

Wedding Album

                Awarded to the Best Wedding Album

Non-Member Trophy

Awarded to the highest scoring image by a non-member of PPA of PA.

CPP Award

This award recognizes the highest scoring Certified Professional Photographer print, album, or electronic submission.

ASP State Elite Award

The State Elite Award is to be presented to the ASP member in good standing for the highest scoring entry at his or her State Print Competition. This means that he or she is a member in good standing with PPA as per our Bylaws and that he or she must be current with their ASP dues PRIOR to the competition. In the event of a tie, total case score will be the first tiebreaker. 

Fuji Masterpiece Awards
The FUJIFILM Masterpiece Award is the the highest honor for print competitions that is given by Fujifilm. The award is given for prints in three separate categories–Wedding, Portrait and Illustrative–that reflects the highest level of professional photography. Only prints that are printed on Fujifilm paper with scores above 80 meet the criteria for the award. Only PPA of PA members are eligible for the Fuji Masterpiece Awards.

To be eligible for any of the following awards, the member is required to designate their four eligible images per Open at the time of registration.

Photographer of the Year

Member whose four eligible images score the highest in the Photo Open, with all images scoring at least 80

Artist of the Year

Member whose four eligible images score the highest in the Artist Open, with all images coring at least 80

Wedding Photographer of the Year

Member whose four eligible images score the highest in the Wedding Open, with all images coring at least 80

Image Maker of the Year

Awarded to the Photographer, Artist or Wedding Photographer of the year with the highest combined score. 

Please contact Aaron Beale, PPA of PA Print Chair, with any questions:

ARBealePhotography@icloud.com

717-686-0956