Quarterly Clip Contest Rules

First Quarter: January 1 - March 31 (entries due by April 10) Second Quarter: April 1 - June 30 (entries due by July 10) Third Quarter: July 1 - September 30 (entries due by October 10) Fourth Quarter: October 1 - December 31 (entries due by January 10)

EMail Clips to:

vnpaclips@gmail.com

Newspaper size divisions Small Newspaper division: circulation less than 40,000 Large Newspaper Division: circulation more than 40,000

Categories News - Planned and unplanned events in one photo. Sports - Sports action and sports features in one photo. Feature - Events and subjects (other than news or sports) uncontrolled by the photographer; generally a "found" moment, in one photo. Portrait - A photograph that captures the subject's personality in one photo. Multiple Photos - A package of photos on any one subject. Illustration - A photo, which may use computer manipulation, that illustrates a concept, food, or fashion. THIS CATEGORY IS ENTERED EACH QUARTER BUT JUDGED ONLY ONCE A YEAR AT THE END OF THE YEAR. CLIP CHAIR WILL HOLD ALL ILLUSTRATION ENTRIES UNTIL THE END OF THE YEAR.

Contest Rules

Image Specifications: 800 pixels on the long axis, 72dpi, saved as a jpeg at 'high' quality input caption in the File Info of your image's IPTC fields remove your name and affiliation from the IPTC fields Naming your Files Rename the image as follows: Quarter-Year-Initials-Circulation Size-Category-Number.jpg Circulation Size is either L for large (circulations greater than 40,000) or S for small (circulations less than 40,000) Categories: News, Feature, Sports, Multiple, Portrait, Illo Thus, my second feature entry for the third quarter of 2008 would be:  03-2008-mwm-L-feature-2.jpg For the multiple photo category, name the file as follows: Quarter-Year-Initials-Circulation Size-Category-Entry #-Picture #.jpg Thus, the 5th image in my third multiple photo entry in the 1st quarter of 2008 would be: 01-2008-mwm-L-multiple-3-5.jpg Rules: 1. A maximum of 12 entries per photographer may be entered. There is no limit on the number of entries you enter in a category as long as the maximum of 12 entries total is not exceeded. 2. Entries may be single images or multiple-picture packages. (Weak photos may be edited from a layout.) 3. Only photos published during the quarterly period may be entered in that quarter. Long term projects may be entered in a quarterly period at the end of the publication period. If a project runs over a series of days that span two quarters, enter that project in the second of the two quarters in which it runs 4. By emailing your entries to vnpaclips@gmail.com, you affirm that the images were published in that quarter. 5. The photographer's name and the publication must be omitted from the IPTC fields of the image file. 6. The clip chair may disqualify an entry if information is incorrect, illegible or missing. 7. A picture may be entered as often as it is published unless it has previously won in the contest. 8. A picture cannot be entered in more than one category per quarter nor may a picture from a layout be entered as a single photo in the same quarter. 9. Illustration entries must be entered in the quarter in which they were published, but will not be judged until the end of the year due to the small number of illustration entries. The clip chair will hold all illustration entries until the end of the year.

Point system First Place - 20 points Second Place - 15 Third Place - 10 Entrants for a particular quarter will be notified by email that they have placed in the quarterly contest. Judges comments will be edited and posted. Any copyright of the entry itself remains the property of the photographer or the employer of the photographer. However, all entrants agree to give permission to the VNPA to reproduce the winning entry in VNPA's official publications. Winners agree, that within fourteen days of being notified of their clip win, they will email a copy of the winning image as a JPEG image with appropriate caption information to the VNPA web master for posting on the web site, or risk losing their award. The photographer who accumulates the most points in each newspaper-size division during the calendar year will be named Clip Contest Photographer of the Year. In the event of a tie, the tie breaker will be based on an entrant's versatility (i.e. the photographer who wins consistently in a variety of categories will win over an entrant who shows strength in only a single category.) If both photographers have won in more than one category, then a tie will be declared and the title will be shared as Co-Clip Photographers of the Year. The winners of Clip Contest Photographer of the Year in both divisions will be recognized during the VNPA Awards ceremony at the VNPA Convention. Effective January 1997, the Clip Contest officially became a category of the VNPA Pictures of the Year competition. At the end of the calendar year, the top three winners of each circulation-size division, will receive points that equal a winning position in the annual VNPA Pictures of the Year competition, and those points can be applied to their total points accumulated at the annual competition. 1st place receives eight (8) points 2nd place receives four (4) points 3rd place receives two (2) points Judging rules Pictures will be judged with disregard to picture size, quality of reproduction and layout. Judges will assign places to the best three images in each of the categories. There will be no honorable mentions, but judges are allowed to offer recognition to deserved images. Weak category rule: At their discretion, the judges may deem a category's entries "weak" and not assign any awards.

VNPA webmaster josh.meltzer@roanoke.com