2019-2020 Competitions Season
Street Photography – Street photography is a form of spontaneous photography that portrays everyday life as it happens, on the streets and elsewhere. Street photography is not only limited to bustling city streets, narrow alleyways, and busy urban centers, however; street photography can happen in any public space, with people or without. The only rule of street photography is that it must capture a truly candid, unstaged moment that reveals some true aspect of society (Definition by MasterClass). The pictures should show scenes, unique details, significant building or objects, or local color taken on the street. General subjects that can be seen anywhere should be avoided (e.g., flower close-ups or still life arrangement). However, a unique display in a store window would qualify.
Cityscapes – In the visual arts, a cityscape (urban landscape) is an artistic representation, such as a painting, drawing, print or photograph, of the physical aspects of a city or urban area. It is the urban equivalent of a landscape (Wikipedia). Cityscape pictures must not focus on a single object, but rather show an expanse that contains multiple buildings, streets, or large objects. The pictures may include people, but the people should not be the main subject.
Sunrise/Sunset – Pictures for this competition must be taken during or shortly after sunrise or during or shortly before sunset and include the warm-color sky. The sun itself may or may not be visible (e.g., hidden behind clouds or outside the frame) but the sky and clouds must be. The subject of this competition is the sunrise or sunset. Pictures of landscapes, cityscapes, or other objects that are simply lit by the warm light at sunrise or sunset will not qualify, except for the sky and clouds.
Abstract – An abstract picture does not have an immediate association with a specific object. It could be a composition that concentrates on the fine details of an object, such as patterns, textures, colors, lines, curves, and edges of elements, but not the object itself. An abstract could also be a scene or an object where the photographer removed the details to create a more conceptual image using creative methods during the capture or in post-processing. For example, distorted reflections, soft silhouettes of people, multiple overlapping images.
Night Photography – The pictures submitted should capture the unique characteristics of the scene at night. The use of artificial light to illuminate a subject in the scene is permitted, but it must be clear to the viewer that the picture was taken at night. A successful image should take advantage of the unique light condition and mood of a night scene. Night Photography may include astrophotography (night sky), cityscapes at night, light painting, fireworks, people at night, or any other night scene.
Landscape – Landscape photography shows wide nature scenes with minimal or no inclusion of man-made objects. A landscape photo is made outside the city and shows an open scene. It’s permissible to include man-made elements, such as a road, a fence, a house, a vineyard, or a barn. However, these should only be small supporting elements in the scene. For example, a road may provide a leading line or a person or a house may be used to enhance the composition, act as an anchor point, or show scale relative to the vast landscape.
Surprise Topic: Early Signs of Spring – In an effort to create a spontaneous opportunity to shoot new and fresh subjects, we have selected Early Signs of Spring as our Surprise Topic. There are numerous opportunities such as spring flowers and plants like forsythia, daffodils, snowdrops and crocuses, birds that are spring arrivals, and other creative spring images and events.
The photos entered should be taken in March of this year and not come from your archives. The drama and the storytelling aspects of the images will be evaluated. Composition and design elements will be also included in evaluating the photo’s effectiveness.
Open – The open category has no subject restrictions and can also be in the subject area of any of the assigned subjects.