The City of Gainesville, Florida invites individual photographers to enter the Third Annual Gainesville Photography Contest: Gainesville Transitions... From Old to New. Your photo could be featured in the City of Gainesville's Citizen's Report and be featured in an exhibition at the Hippodrome Theatre. Gainesville's Mayor Craig Lowe will reveal the grand prize winner at the Annual State of the City Address this January! Don't miss the opportunity to showcase your talent! No need to be a professional, any individual can enter.
This year's contest theme is "Gainesville Transitions... From Old to New." We're looking for entries in any of six categories, see the rules below for more details. Please read the following rules, terms and conditions before submitting any photos.
OFFICIAL RULES: The City of Gainesville, Florida invites individual photographers to enter the Third Annual Gainesville Photography Contest: Gainesville Transitions... From Old to New. Please read the following rules, terms and conditions before submitting any photos. By submitting a photograph to the contest, you are agreeing to the contest rules.
The photography competition (the "contest") is open to all individual photographers at least 18 years of age. The contest is open to all participants regardless of residence or citizenship, so long as the laws of their jurisdiction allow participation. Each individual is allowed a maximum number of three (3) entries. Participants exceeding three (3) photos will be disqualified. All submissions are irrevocable and final.
YOUR RIGHTS: You will retain all rights to any photograph you submit -- including ownership, if applicable -- other than those rights licensed in the next sentence. By entering the contest, you certify that you have the authority to and that you hereby grant to the City of Gainesville, Florida (i) a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to reproduce, distribute, publicly display and publicly perform the photographs you submit to the City of Gainesville, Florida, and (ii) the right to use your name, city, state and country of residence in promotions and other publications.
WHAT TO ENTER: ***Please note all photo submissions must be taken within the greater Gainesville area.***
The overarching theme for this year's contest is "Gainesville Transitions: From Old to New." We are looking for unique aspects of our city that reflect Gainesville's transition over time, capturing the city's authentic character above and beyond its obvious connection to the university.
Each photograph will be judged in no more than two (2) of the following categories (as determined by the photographer or the judging panel):
- Altered History (altered photographs)
- Generations (the people of Gainesville)
- Natural history (nature, wildlife, etc.)
- Looking back
- Moving forward
- Landmarks of Gainesville
Submissions to the contest should include photos that express the growth and vitality of Gainesville as a special place to live, work and play; photos that depict Gainesville's physical and natural beauty and the unique characters that reside in Gainesville. Photos should reflect the topography, people, culture, arts and ideas that evoke the transitions Gainesville continues to undergo.
Some examples are the historic or new buildings, including both well and lesser known areas of our community. Photos of people should express an authentic Gainesville attitude, which reflects the energetic, vibrant, diverse, evolving character of the community we know and love.
Please do not include photographs where the primary subject is a pet or domestic animal. If you choose to include people in your submission, you are responsible for obtaining any necessary releases from the individuals depicted, and must be able to provide copies of those releases to the City of Gainesville, Florida upon request. Entrants must not submit images that violate any laws, involve the willful harassment of wildlife, damage to property or the environment by the photographer or infringe on the rights of any other photographer or person.
All photographs should accurately reflect the subject matter and the scene as it appeared. With the exception of the altered category (Altered History), photos that have been digitally altered beyond standard optimization (removal of dust, cropping, reasonable adjustments to exposure, color and contrast, etc.) will be disqualified. Multiple exposures that have been combined to produce a single "high dynamic range" image are unacceptable.
All photographs will be credited with the entrant's name. The City of Gainesville, Florida has final approval of any language that appears on its website with any of the photos and will not promote or endorse third-party products or services.
HOW TO ENTER: Each photo must be submitted electronically, by one (and only one) of the following three methods:
- Via the City of Gainesville Website - Fill out the form at the bottom of this webpage, which includes your name, email address, photo title and Flickr™ url.
- Via Flickr™ - To submit your photos via Flickr™, use your Yahoo!® ID to login to www.flickr.com. If you do not have an account, you can sign-up for free at www.flickr.com. Flickr™ and Yahoo!® are trademarks of Yahoo, Inc. After logging in, upload your images using the mechanism provided. If you are not already a member of City of Gainesville, Florida's group on Flickr™, join by clicking "Join this Group?" on the group's homepage. The group pool can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/gainesville2011/.
Browse to the image you wish to submit for the contest, and use the "Add to Group" function under the "Action" menu to add your images to the City of Gainesville, Florida's photo pool.
- Via Manual Submission - If you choose not to use Flickr™ to submit your image(s), please email rawsonle@cityofgainesville.org for directions.
The City of Gainesville, Florida reserves the right to upload photos submitted through this process to its public group on Flickr™.
INFORMATION TO INCLUDE: The following information should be included with each submission:
- Photo tags: If using Flickr™, tag each photo with one or two contest categories (see list on page one). If no categories are noted, the judging panel will select categories. The judging panel does reserve the right to change categories if they believe another category is more appropriate.
- Photo captions: Photo captions must accompany all submissions, and should include:
- the title of the photograph,
- the location the image was taken (if using Flickr™, GPS coordinates are preferred) and
- the name of the photographer(s).
- Contact information: In order to give credit to the finalists, please contact us via Flickr™ and send us your email address or send your email address directly to rawsonle@cityofgainesville.org. It is important to us to have a way to notify the finalists once they are selected.
All of this information should be entered on Flickr™. A sample entry, with the entry information, is available in the photo pool (http://www.flickr.com/photos/gainesville/3859680467/.
ELIGIBILITY AND JUDGING: Photographs that have been recognized by this contest in previous years are not eligible for resubmission. Photographers that have been previously recognized by this contest may enter other photographs. Non-winning photographs may be resubmitted for consideration, provided the other rules of this contest are followed.
To ensure eligibility for the contest, entries must have a minimum resolution of 300 ppi (pixels per inch). Images that do not meet this standard may or may not be judged at the judging panel's sole discretion.
Entries may originate in any format -- including, but not limited to digital files, digital prints, color transparencies, color prints, or black and white prints -- so long as they are submitted electronically. Previously published material for which non-exclusive rights were granted may be entered as long as you still maintain the right to grant the City of Gainesville, Florida a license (see "Your Rights" above). You must to disclose to the City of Gainesville, Florida when and where the photo appeared previously.
Images will be judged on originality, composition, overall impact, reflection of the contest theme and artistic merit. The judge's panel is comprised of City of Gainesville, Florida staff members familiar with photography and/or graphic design and responsible for selecting images for various City of Gainesville, Florida printed and online materials.
Members of the judging panel (and their immediate family) are ineligible to participate in the contest. City staff are eligible to participate in this contest, but photographs must be taken during non-work hours.
All submissions must adhere to the policies already in place on Flickr™. The City of Gainesville, Florida reserves the right to remove any photograph deemed inappropriate. The City of Gainesville, Florida has sole and absolute discretion to determine winner eligibility. All decisions made by the judges are final.
DEADLINE: Online entries can be uploaded starting 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on August 1, 2011. The deadline for submitting entries is 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on September 30, 2011 or after 500 photographs have been submitted.
Entrants may be asked to submit a paragraph about the story behind the photo between October 1 - December 1, 2011. Finalists will be announced and notified on or before December 1, 2011. The Grand Prize Winner will be unveiled at the Annual State of the City Address, held at the Hippodrome State Theatre in January 2012.
The City of Gainesville, Florida reserves the right to adjust any deadline(s) as the result of causes beyond its immediate control.
WINNING PHOTOS: The judging panel will select at least 20 photos as finalists. The panel will select a first and second place winning photo for each of the contest categories. If fewer than ten eligible photographs are entered in a category, the panel may choose to name only a first place winner, or may cancel that category. In addition, other winners may be selected in categories with large numbers of entries, at the discretion of the judging panel. The pool of finalists and the Grand Prize Winner will be determined by the judging panel.
The 20 finalist photographs will be on display at a photo exhibition that will be held at the Hippodrome State Theatre in 2012 and the grand prize winner will be unveiled by Mayor Craig Lowe. Winning photographs will be displayed inside City Hall after the exhibition at the Hippodrome. The grand prize winning photograph will also be featured on the city's website.
The grand prize winning photograph will be printed in the upcoming 2011 Citizen's Report. The other finalists' images may be printed in the report as well.
The finalists' images will be used in a free PDF calendar that will be available for download on the City of Gainesville, Florida website.
QUESTIONS: Questions and inquiries about contest rules can be emailed to rawsonle@cityofgainesville.org.
To view last year's winners, please click here. To print these rules, please click here.