50th Westchester International Exhibition 2023
Color Camera Club of Westchester
General
Chairperson: Monika Sukhatme
8 Bruce Road
Mamaroneck, NY 10543
internationalchair@colorcameraclub.com
Forms submission: All entries must be submitted via the online entry form. Scroll to the bottom of this page for the link.
Website: https://cccw.clubexpress.com/
Email: intlcomp@colorcameraclub.com
Phone: 651-226-0827
Sections:
Color Open - PIDC
Monochrome images may NOT be entered in PID Color sections.
Monochrome - PIDM
Nature - ND
Entry Fees:
Fee is USD $10.00 for each section, with a maximum of four images per section. All
payments must be made online, via PayPal. Cash or checks are not accepted.
UNPAID ENTRIES WILL NOT BE JUDGED. NO DISCOUNTS ARE OFFERED.
Calendar:
Closing date: 04/08/2023
Judging Date: 04/22/2023
Notification Date: 05/06/2023
Dispatch Awards: 06/21/2023
Online Catalog Available: 06/21/2023
Galleries posted by: 06/21/2023
Judges:
Deborah Loeb Bohren PID Color, PID Monochrome, Nature.
Country of Residence: USA
Outstanding Achievement/First
Place, 14th Annual Color Awards/
Abstract Professional. Judge for
Nature, Monochrome, PID Color and
Open categories at various camera
clubs in New York, Connecticut, Illinois and
California
Guo Jiang (John) Ou PID Color, PID Monochrome, Nature.
Country of Residence: USA
APSA, GMPSA, EFIAP, Hon. FRSPS,
Hon. FUPHK, Hon. FSoF, Hon. FPSNJ,
Hon. FPSSN, Hon. FICS, Hon. PESGSPC,
Hon. EFMPA, Hon. TAMAPC, Hon.
FKPN. Judged in Nature, PID Color and
PID Monochrome for various
International Photographic Exhibitions
and Photographic Societies and
Circuits since 2013.
Andrew Kurchey PID Color, PID Monochrome, Nature.
Country of Residence: USA
APSA, Recipient of awards at NECCC, PFLI
(Photographic Federation of Long Island)
and Berks Photographic Society.
Judged for various local, national,
international and PSA International
Exhibitions over the past 20 yrs.
Awards: PID Color PSA Gold Medal Best of Show
Bunny Solomon Honorary Certificate for Best Landscape Photo
PID Monochrome PSA Gold Medal Best of Show
Nature PSA Gold Medal Best of Show
Catalog: PDF downloadable by the exhibitor from the CCCW website:
www.colorcameraclub.com, by 6/21/2023
Public exhibitions: Slideshow viewing of all acceptances at CCCW club meeting in December, 2023.
Exhibition Requirements:
IMAGE AND ENTRY REQUIREMENTS This exhibition is open to anyone; however, an entry may be rejected when the Sponsor or the Exhibition Organizers, in their reasonable discretion, believes the entry does not conform to exhibition rules and these Conditions of Entry.
Membership in any photographic organization is not required.
Penalties: Entries will not be accepted from any entrant who has put on the PSA Penalties List for Ethics Violation. Entry fees are not refundable in these circumstances.
PSA Star Ratings
To receive proper Star ratings credit from PSA, entrants must provide their names and country exactly the same way in each exhibition. Aliases are not permitted. Please contact PSA in the event of name changes or relocating to another country. Using one’s name differently in different exhibitions exposes the entrant to the risk that many of their acceptances may not be recognized by PSA Star Ratings.
Image Creation
Entries must originate as photographs (image-captures of objects via light sensitivity) made by the entrant on photographic emulsion or acquired digitally.
Certification:
By virtue of submitting an image, the entrant certifies the work as his or her own. Images may not incorporate elements produced by anyone else (for example: clip art, images or art by others downloaded from the Internet). Aliases are not allowed.
Reproduction
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. The Photographic Society of America (PSA) may request specific permission from Entrants to reproduce entered images in its educational materials. The terms of that permission will be mutually agreed between the entrant and PSA except in the circumstances where the entered image is found to breach the PSA Ethics Policy. In those circumstances the image may be reproduced by PSA, without the entrant’s further permission, for educational purposes to illustrate serious exhibition rule violations. For those reproductions, the entrant's name will be withheld. Entries will not be accepted from entrants who indicate that their images may not be reproduced in materials related to the exhibition.” The exhibition assumes no liability of any misuse of copyright.
Alteration and Computer Generation Subject to Divisional restrictions (particularly Nature, Photo Travel, and Photojournalism) images may be altered, either electronically or otherwise, by the entrant; 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 entrant.
Re-use of accepted images: Any image that has been accepted in this exhibition, past or present, may not be entered again in the same Division Star Ratings Class in any future instances of this exhibition. It may, of course, be entered in any other PSA recognized exhibitions but must always have the same title. Re-titling in another language is not allowed.
Entry: An Entry consists of, up to and including, four (4) images entered by a single entrant into the same Section. An entrant may only enter a specific Section once. Entrants may not enter identical or similar images into the same section or different sections of the same exhibition.
Titles:
Each image must have a unique title that is a description of the image. 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 entrant. Titles may not include file extensions such as .jpg or .jpeg (or any other camera capture filenames such as IMG 471). Titles may not consist of personal identifiers possibly augmented by a number; or include words such as “untitled” or “no title”. Titles may not consist solely of numbers unless those numbers are prominently contained within the image, such as a contestant number in a race.
Color and Monochrome:
Color 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.
Submitting Entries:
- Submitted Digital images must be in JPEG format. Using sRGB is recommended.
- A maximum image height (vertical) of 768 pixels** and a maximum image width (horizontal) of 1024 pixels will be used for the judging.
- Judges are required to use color calibrated monitors.
- Digital images will not be altered, including resizing, by the exhibition before judging. Oversized images will be rejected.
- DVDs and email attachments will not be accepted.
- **Note: The maximum height for vertical images is 768 pixels. The width will default to the correct size. Images this size project with no issues.
The Exhibition will be conducted in accordance with the rules of the PSA
An entrant’s images will not be presented to the judges consecutively. An entrant’s four images will be distributed throughout four rounds of judging in that section. Distribution of images will be in the same round order as submitted by the entrant. At no stage will a judge be able to view all the entrant’s images together.
Judging Method:
- Judging will be virtual.
- Judges will be required to use color-calibrated monitors.
- Computer monitors are required to be capable of displaying images at 100% of the image resolution and that images will be displayed at exactly 100% of their resolution (that is, that the images will not be enlarged beyond their native resolution).
- Target Range for Acceptances: 29% - 35%
Protection of Entrants’ Personal Information:
DATA PROTECTION
By entering this exhibition, you are explicitly consenting to the personal details you have supplied, including physical addresses, email addresses, being held, processed and used by the exhibition organizers 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 by entering this exhibition, your participation status which includes your first and last name, name of the country used during registration at the exhibition, number of sections entered and number of photos entered in those sections will be made public in a published status list and that the result of your entry shall be made public in exhibition gallery, exhibition catalog. You also agree and accept the policy regarding Breaches of Rules of the PSA.
SUBJECT MATTER AND SECTION DEFINITIONS
Statement on Subject Matter applicable to all sections
The fundamental rule that must be observed at all times and applies to all sections offered in exhibitions with PSA recognition is that the welfare of living creatures is more important than any 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 exhibition with PSA recognition. Under no circumstances may a living creature be placed in a situation where it will be killed, injured or stressed for the purpose of obtaining a photograph. Images that show live creatures being fed to captive animals, birds or reptiles are not permitted under any circumstances.
There are also concerns about the use of aerial photography, drones, helicopters, low flying aircraft. These should not cause any interference with other individuals or animals which causes a disturbance in their normal activity or disrupts the way any individuals or animals interact with their environment. Entrants in PSA recognized exhibitions should comply with all relevant laws and regulations, associated with aerial photography, in the country in which the image was taken.
Entry in this exhibition is conditional on accepting these policies. 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, will be disqualified so the entrant may be aware of the problem when considering entry into other exhibitions with PSA recognition.
Projected Image Division (PID) Color General/Open
- Monochrome images may NOT be entered in PID Color sections.
- Acceptances in PID recognized Color sections shall be credited towards PID Color Star Ratings and Who’s Who Color listings. Monochrome images accepted in PID recognized Color sections shall only be credited towards PID Color Star Ratings.
- All acceptance eligibility shall be in accordance with the PID Star Ratings or the Galaxy/Diamond Ratings requirements as appropriate.
- An image that was accepted in a prior CPID or EID recognized section of this exhibition may not be entered in a PID recognized Color section of this exhibition.
PSA Monochrome Definition
An image is considered to be Monochrome only if it gives the impression of having no color (i.e., contains only shades of grey which can include pure black and pure white) OR it gives the impression of being a greyscale image that has been toned in one color across the entire image. (For example by Sepia, red, gold, etc.) A greyscale or multi-colored image modified or giving the impression of having been modified by partial toning, multi-toning or by the inclusion of spot coloring does not meet the definition of monochrome and shall be classified as a Color Work.
For the purpose of this exhibition, only greyscale images are allowed in monochrome section. Toned images are not allowed.
Greyscale Monochrome images may be entered for Nature, Photojournalism and Photo Travel but toned images are not permitted for these sections.
Editing Guidelines for Nature, Photojournalism and Photo Travel
These sections require images to be truthful records, so there are limits on the amount of manipulation allowed.
Editing Guidelines
Processing or editing must be limited to making the image look as close to the original scene as possible, except that conversion to grayscale monochrome is allowed.
Allowed editing techniques:
• Cropping, straightening and perspective correction.
• Removal or correction of elements added by the camera or lens, such as dust spots, noise, chromatic aberration and lens distortion.
• Global and selective adjustments such as brightness, hue, saturation and contrast to restore the appearance of the original scene.
• Complete conversion of color images to grayscale monochrome.
• Blending of multiple images of the same subject and combining them in camera or with software (exposure blending or focus stacking);
• Image stitching – combining multiple images with overlapping fields of view that are taken consecutively (panoramas);
Editing techniques that are not allowed:
• Removing, adding to, moving or changing any part of an image, except for cropping and straightening.
• Adding a vignette during processing.
• Blurring parts of the image during processing to hide elements in the original scene.
• Darkening parts of the image during processing to hide elements in the original scene.
• All conversions other than to complete grayscale monochrome.
• Conversion of parts of an image to monochrome, or partial toning, desaturation or oversaturation of color.
Borders
For the purpose of this exhibition any border added to a digital file must be a single border of
white or grey, no greater than 3-5 pixels in width.
PSA Nature Definition
Content Guidelines
- Nature photography records all branches of natural history except anthropology and archaeology. This includes all aspects of the physical world, both animate and inanimate, that have not been made or modified by humans.
- Nature images must convey the truth of the scene that was recorded. A well-informed person should be able to identify the subject of the image and be satisfied that it has been presented honestly and that no unethical practices have been used to control the subject or capture the image. Images that directly or indirectly show any human activity that threatens the life or welfare of a living organism are not allowed.
- The most important part of a Nature image is the nature story it tells. High technical standards are expected and the image must look natural.
- Objects created by humans, and evidence of human activity, are allowed in Nature images only when they are a necessary part of the Nature story.
- Photographs of human-created hybrid plants, cultivated plants, feral animals, domesticated animals, human-created hybrid animals and mounted or preserved zoological specimens are not allowed.
- Controlling live subjects by chilling, anesthetic or any other method of restricting natural movement for the purpose of a photograph is not allowed.
Attention is drawn to the PSA Statement on Subject Matter which applies to all sections and to the Editing Guidelines for Nature, Photojournalism and Photo Travel.
PSA Rules:
Breaches of Rules
Entrants are strongly advised to look at the PSA Ethics Policy which can be found at https://psa-photo.org/page/ethical-practices.
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, exhibitions, on behalf of the judges, are allowed to request unedited or raw files of the submitted image.
In order to ensure that images comply with the Conditions of Entry and definitions, the exhibition organizers 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 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 fails to comply with the Conditions of Entry (also known as Entry Rules), and offering the entrant a reasonable opportunity to provide counter evidence to refute the exhibition organizer’s evidence by a set deadline. Such entries that are not cleared or are still questionable after the entrant has presented 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, on receiving reports from exhibitions of possible breaches, retains the right to investigate in any way all complaints/suspicions of breaches of entry conditions, impose penalties if deemed necessary, void the acceptances of any image found to violate the PSA rules, include the entrant’s name on the list of sanctions provided to Exhibitions, and share such investigations with FIAP. Entrants automatically agree to these 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 penalties for any violations to these Conditions of Entry and PSA’s Statement of Ethics that may result.
If another party is processing images for an entrant or submitting images on the entrant’s behalf, the entrant will still be held responsible for adhering to all Conditions of Entry including the specific conditions in the relevant definitions.
Notice to entrants:
NOTICE: When entrants fills in the Entry Form to submit an entry they will see the following feature to affirm they have read these Conditions of Entry.
“I hereby confirm that I have read, understood and agree to the Conditions of Entry of this exhibition. I have read the PSA document to be found at
http://psa-photo.org/resource/resmgr/pdf/exhibitions_/exhibition-entrants-agreemen.pdf. I am aware that PSA may apply penalties for breaches of these Conditions of Entry”
Failure to agree will mean that the application will not proceed.
ENTRY FORM::
Please read all exhibition details above before submitting your entry. Then to submit an entry, CLICK HERE.
EXHIBITION ENTRIES TO DATE:
To see a list of all exhibition entries to date, CLICK HERE.
LAST YEAR'S PHOTOS:
To see the winning photos from last year's 49th annual Color Camera Club of Westchester Exhibition, CLICK HERE.
