BcUK Photograph of 2024 Competition Themes and Rules

[Mesquite]

With it now being the end of the 2023 competition over it's time to announce the themes for the 2024 photograph competition.

As in the previous years the competition is going to follow the same format with monthly themes as listed below and the winner of each month will go forward to a final vote in December to decide the members favourite picture for 2024.

With regards to prizes for this year I'm pleased to say that Tony has again kindly offered to award a small prize for each of the monthly heat winners and a prize of a T-shirt and a mystery prize for the overall winner

Also, each months heat winner picture will be used as the cover photograph for the BCUK Facebook page.

Please note that the purpose of this thread is to give people a heads up of the competition. Please DO NOT post any pictures in this thread as they will not be included in any of the heats.

There will be a specific thread for entries posted on the first of each month for you to post your entry.

The themes for this year’s competition are as follows:

January – Photographers choice

February – The Fallen Tree

March – Urban Wildlife

April – Signs of Civilization (Nature/Landscapes) - Landscapes of nature with signs, bridges, roads, structures, etc.

May – Subjects that begin with "H"

June – On the River

July – Feather Sticks

August – Mobile Phone – Country Sports. The picture must be taken on a mobile phone; pictures taken on a dedicated camera are not allowed

September – Bathtubs in Fields

October – Fences in the Countryside

November – Close up - Fungi

As usual there's no heat for December as the voting for both November's picture as well as the overall winner will be taking place then.

If you're unsure of the meaning of a particular theme please do ask as I'm more than happy to expand upon them

Here's the rules for this year’s competition so please make sure you're aware of what's allowed and what's not:

1. The photograph must have been taken in the last 5 years.
2. Photographs that have been entered in previous BcUK photograph competitions are not permitted to be entered again
3. All entries must have been taken by the person submitting it into the competition.
4. In the event of a member being permanently banned from the forum whilst the competition is taking place all of their entries are automatically eliminated from the competition. Should the member have won a monthly theme then the entry in second place will be put forward to the final vote in December
5. Members may enter only one photograph per month unless indicated otherwise in a particular theme. However, you may change your entry once. If you wish to do this then you must state that your previous entry is being withdrawn.
6. All entries must be posted in the appropriate thread.
7. Private entries by PM will not be accepted.
8. The closing date is 23.59 on the last day of each month
9. Entries must be based on the theme for that month.
10. The organiser has the right to bar an entry if they feel it doesn't relate to the theme.
11. Digital adjustments. The integrity of the subject must be maintained and the making of physical changes to the landscape is not permitted. You may not, for example, remove fences, move trees or strip in the sky from another image. Minor adjustments to levels and curves and cropping of the image are allowed. The organiser may request the RAW file or original camera jpeg for any image. The organiser reserves the right to disqualify any image that they feel lacks authenticity due to over-manipulation. Stitched panoramas are allowed in all categories. (Digital Manipulation rule borrowed from Landscape Photographer of the Year 2013)
12. If you're unsure then PM the organiser with the photograph for advice before posting it.
13. The winner of each month’s competition will go into a poll at the end of the year decide the overall members favourite photograph
14. Winners will be decided by popular vote via a public poll. If there are more entries in a particular month’s theme than the forum system allows for a poll (max of 20 items) then as many extra poll threads as needed will be created to accommodate the entries for that month. The winner of each poll thread will then go forward to a separate poll to decide the overall winner of that month.
15. If there is only one poll due to the number of entries and the result is tied at the end of voting then all tying pictures will go forward into a new poll to decide the overall winner.
16. If, at the end of the tie break poll, there still isn't an overall winner then the heat will be decided by the entries by a random selection method.
17. The time period for voting on each heat will be one week. The voting time for tie break polls will be 3 days
18. The organiser reserves the right to reduce picture sizes when posting them in the poll
19. By entering you agree to allow your picture to be used on BCUK and its associate pages.
20. The organiser has the right to add to or refine the competition rules as they see fit
21. The organiser has the final say in any dispute.