Photo Contest: Rules, Terms and Conditions

The Wilderness Society invites photographers to enter its Photography Contest. Please read the following rules, terms and conditions before submitting any photos!

The Wilderness Society's Photography Competition (the "Contest") is open to any participant 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.

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 hereby grant to The Wilderness Society (i) a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to reproduce, distribute, publicly display and publicly perform the photographs you submit to The Wilderness Society, and (ii) the right to use your name, city, state and country of residence in promotions and other publications.

What to Enter: We are looking for striking digital images of public lands (including Wilderness, Parks, Forests, Wildlife Refuges, Bureau of Land Management lands, National Landscape Conservation System lands, and all other public lands) in the United States of America. Your images may show wildlife in natural habitat, plant life, public lands landscapes, weather or people in nature.

We are especially interested in images that showcase the wide range of habitats across our country, including all types of forests, grasslands, lakes and rivers, deserts and arid lands and marine habitats.

Images of captive animals photographed in zoos and commercial game farms are prohibited, however photos from state and national wildlife preserves are allowed. If photographs include domestic pets, please include that in the description. If you choose to include people in your submission, you are responsible for obtaining the necessary releases from the individuals depicted, and must be able to provide copies of those releases to The Wilderness Society upon request. Entrants must not submit images that involve the willful harassment of wildlife, damage to 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. 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 acceptable. Images that do not meet these requirements may or may not be judged at the judging panel's sole discretion.

Photo captions must accompany all submissions, and should include in the subject of the image: the location the image was taken, and the name of the photographer(s). Please clearly label animals as wild in digital caption information to assist judges in determining eligibility. Photo must be tagged with "TWS-Card."

All photographs will be credited with the caption "Photo by Person's Name." The Wilderness Society 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 on Flickr™:

1. 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 and then log in. Flickr™ and Yahoo!® are trademarks of Yahoo, Inc.
2. If the photos you would like to submit are not already uploaded to your Flickr account, please add them to your account now. If they are already uploaded, proceed to step 3.
3. If you are not already a member of The Wilderness Society's group on Flickr™, join by clicking "Join this Group?" on the group's homepage.
4. Once you've joined the group, submit your images by clicking on "Add Photos." Browse to the image(s) you wish to submit for the contest, and use the "Add to Group" function to add your images to The Wilderness Society's photo pool.
5. Once added to the group, tag each photo with "TWS-Card". Don't forget to share where and when the photo was taken in the description. If you do not upload your photo to The Wilderness Society's group on Flickr™, or do not tag your photo with an appropriate tag, it will not be considered for the competition.

If you have trouble using Flickr™, please consult their online help files. The Wilderness Society is not responsible for any issues or problems you encounter while trying to upload a photo on Flickr™.

Eligibility and Judging: To ensure eligibility for the contest, entries must have a resolution of 6 million pixels or greater (6 megapixels). Resolution can be calculated by multiplying the pixel width of the image with the pixel height. For example, a photograph taken with a 6 megapixel camera set for the highest resolution and best quality produces images approximately 2832 pixels by 2128 pixels, which are acceptable under the rules (2832 x 2128 = 6 million). Images that do not meet this standard may or may not be judged at the judging panel's sole discretion. In the event that images are lower resolution, we may ask the photographer to provide us with a version that meets these specifications.

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 us a license (see "Your Rights" above). You must be able to disclose when and where the photo appeared previously to The Wilderness Society upon request.

Images will be judged on originality, technical excellence, composition, overall impact and artistic merit. The judges are a panel of Wilderness Society staff members familiar with photography and responsible for selecting images for various Wilderness Society materials.

The Wilderness Society shall determine winner eligibility in its sole and absolute discretion. All decisions made by the judges are final.

Deadlines: Deadline for submitting entries is 11:59 pm Pacific Standard Time on December 31, 2009. Online entries can be uploaded starting 12:01 am Eastern Standard Time on October 28, 2009.

Entrants may be asked to submit a paragraph about the story behind the photo anytime on or after December 31, 2009.

The Wilderness Society reserves the right to adjust any deadline(s) as the result of causes beyond its immediate control.

Legal Conditions: By entering, participants agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless The Wilderness Society, its respective subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers, employees, attorneys, agents and representatives, from any and all third party liability for any injuries, loss, claim, action, demand or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with the competition (collectively, "Losses"), including without limitation any third party claim for copyright infringement or a violation of an individual’s right to privacy and/or publicity right. The Contest is void where prohibited by law.

Questions: Questions and inquiries about contest rules can be emailed to action@tws.org.

photo: Wind River Range, Wyoming. Photo by Jeff Fox.