Rule Book

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Swindon Photographic Society Affiliated to:

The Photographic Alliance of Great Britain
through the Western Counties Photographic Federation
This document is in 2 sections,
the Constitution (how the club is run), and the Competition Rules.
Items in italics are included to help clarity and understanding.

THE CONSTITUTION

The club shall be known as the Swindon Photographic Society.

The club shall be affiliated to the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain, through the Western Counties Photographic Federation. The object of the club shall be to assist and encourage the highest standards of photography.

The Financial year shall be from July 1st to June 30th. Subscriptions become due on September 1st and must be paid within one month of that date. Persons whose subscriptions are not paid by the end of September shall be considered to have terminated their membership.

Subscription rates will be agreed at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the following categories of membership:

(All subscription fees are reduced by £10 after the 1^st January.)

Adult (over 18 and under 65 years of age)
Senior (over 65 years of age)
Junior (under 18 years of age)
Visitor per night

All junior members must be accompanied by a full club member, authorised by the junior member’s parent/guardian.

If a visitor eventually joins the club, up to 3 visitor’s fees will be deducted from the full subscription rate, or up to 2 visitor’s fees from the reduced, post 1^st January rate.

Any concessions are at the discretion of the Treasurer or President.

The committee shall consist of the following posts, elected at the AGM, or co-opted at the discretion of the committee.

President, Vice-President, Immediate Past President, Secretary, Treasurer, Programme Secretary, Competition Secretary, Exhibition Secretary, Battle Secretary, Membership Secretary, WCPF Representative, Hall & Kitchen Manager, Publicity Officer, and other posts without portfolio.

Only members are eligible for nomination as officers or committee members. Members may submit nominations for the committee, via the Secretary, up to and including the election time of the AGM.

The committee quorum shall consist of a minimum of six committee members, to include at least one from the President, Vice-President, or the Immediate Past President.

The Treasurer is required to keep accounts of monies received and spent during the year, to present interim statements of these accounts to monthly committee meetings, and a final statement of the accounts, which shall be audited, to the AGM.

The committee is empowered to disburse club funds up to an amount not exceeding £750 on any items it considers necessary or desirable for the successful running of the club. With the exception of the regular hire-of-room charges and WCPF affiliation fees, proposed expenditure in excess of £750 must be agreed at an AGM or a Special General Meeting (SGM).

Financial losses incurred by the club shall be equally shared by all members. If financial difficulties are foreseen, it is the responsibility of the committee to call an SGM for a decision to be made by the members.

The AGM will be held on a convenient date within two months of the end of the financial year, when officers and committee members for the following year will be elected.

Only members are entitled to vote at any meeting in connection with club business, eligible to serve as committee members, take part in club competitions, or propose a motion to an AGM or SGM.

No amendment to the Constitution or Competition Rules may be made except at an AGM or SGM.

Any change to the Constitution may be proposed by the committee, or by any two members in writing to the Secretary or President, to be received at least two weeks before the relevant meeting. The Secretary shall post all such motions on the club notice board at least one week before the meeting.

The committee, or at least ten members, having given written notice to the Secretary or President, may call an SGM. The Secretary or President shall be responsible for posting a notice on the club’s notice board of the AGM or SGM at least three weeks before the date of the meeting.

End of the Constitution

GENERAL COMPETITION RULES

All images submitted for club competitions and/or exhibitions must have been taken by the member, and the copyright owned by that member. Composite images are permitted provided all component images meet this requirement.

Whilst all care will be taken when handling entries, the club cannot be held responsible for the loss or damage to members’ entries.

No image can be greater than 3 years old at the time of entry. All images are assumed to have a two year “shelf life”, which means the image can not be re-used in a competition more than two years after its first showing in a competition at the Swindon club.

(An image that is manipulated, either digitally or in the darkroom, to produce a significantly new image, shall have a “fresh life”).

Competitions may have a Single class, or a Primary and Advanced Class.

(As specified in the rules for each individual competition).

The medium for entries for competitions will be print, slide, or digital.

(As specified in the rules for each individual competition).

For all competitions, unless otherwise specified, up to three entries per medium may be entered.

In the event that a competition is oversubscribed, the entry number may be culled to ensure the total entry is reasonable to be displayed in one evening. This culling will start at the member’s lowest choice, however at least one entry from each member (their first choice) will be shown.

The winner of the Monthly Competition Primary class moves to the Advanced class for the following year.

A member moves to the Advanced class for the following year if that member wins two Annual Exhibitions in different seasons.

Any member may request to change their class, up or down, by applying to the Competition Secretary two weeks before the proposed change, who will assess their previous work/scores before making a decision. Any changes will be effective from the next competition entry date if the member has not previously submitted work that season, or from the start of the next season if they have already submitted work that season.

Images taken with professional assistance are not eligible for entry into club competitions.

Members are on their honour to observe any time restrictions set out in these rules.

Any image submitted for competition may also be displayed on the club website.

Any image submitted for club competition will be considered for battles with other clubs, and the author’s consent for this use will be assumed to have been given. The copyright of the image remains with the author.

The Battle Secretary will select the images to be use in battles, based on the specific battle criteria and the best images to represent the club. (Not all images submitted will be selected for battles.)

Slides

Must be mounted in glass or any recognised 2″ (50 mm) mount.

(Please note the WCPF will not accept glass mounted slides)

Must contain the title and author’s name on the mount.

Must be ‘spotted’ in the bottom left-hand corner of the mount when the slide is viewed correctly in the hand.

The required text & spot must be written by permanent pen onto the mount without the use of sticky labels anywhere on the mount.

Prints

Externally judged competition prints must be mounted with a maximum mount size of 500mm x 400mm, and be no more than 5mm thick. There is no minimum mount or print size.

(Internally judged competition entries do not need to be mounted, but must still observe the 500mm x 400mm maximum size.)

It must contain the title and author’s name on the back of the mount. (You may also wish to indicate which way up the print is to be shown.)

No mount should be used that, in the opinion of the Competition Secretary, can cause damage to any other member’s print. All velcro, clips, rings or similar fixings must be removed from the mount.

(Prints that break this rule will be excluded from the competition without warning.)

Digital Images

Images will be projected in a landscape format at the native resolution of the projector.”

(Native mode size is 1920×1080 pixels. Images smaller than this size will still project correctly but will appear smaller on the screen than those at the maximum size allowed. Images larger than the native mode will be rejected. It is the photographer’s responsibility to ensure the image is of an appropriate size.)

Colour Space/mode: SRGB, 8 bit.

File Format: Only .JPG files are acceptable.

Image files must be named using a 2 digit number followed by a space then a short title finishing with underscore (_) and the photographer’s name, a space then A or P (class).

e.g. 01 The Beginning_John Start A or 03 The End_James Last P

(Please note the only keyboard characters to be used in the title are numbers between 0 and 9 and letters A to Z i.e. no hyphens quotes commas etc. with the exception of the underscore before the photographer’s name).

THE COMPETITIONS

Monthly Competitions

Medium: Print & Digital
Class: Primary & Advanced
Judge: External
Trophies: Primary prints (Abbey cup), primary digital (trophy), Advanced prints (salver), advanced digital (cup)

There are five open subject competitions, and one set subject competition. (The committee proposes 3 titles to the AGM for Comp 5.)

Points will be awarded as follows:

First place – six points; Second place – five points; Third place – four points; Highly Commended – three points (usually two awards per competition); Commended – two points (usually three awards per competition). Any entrant not included in the above list scores one point. (Only the highest score for each round is counted.)

Prints or digital images placed first, second or third in a Monthly Competition will not be eligible for entry to another Monthly Competition in the same class. (This does not preclude them from the Annual Exhibition, plus the two year rule still applies.)

All entries for the Monthly Competitions should include the order of preference of the author (a form is available), otherwise the order will be at the discretion of the Competition Secretary.

If, in the opinion of the Judge, the total entry exceeds a reasonable amount to comment on adequately in one evening, then the Judge may choose not to comment upon, or display, some or all of the author’s choices, except the first.

The Annual Exhibition

Medium: Prints & Digital
Class: Primary & Advanced
Judge: External
Trophies: Primary colour prints (salver), primary digital (cup)
- Primary mono prints (salver)
- Advanced colour prints (rose bowl), advanced digital (shield)
- Advanced mono prints (shield)

Entries are limited to ten prints and ten digital images per member. As this is the only public showing of the club’s work, it is hoped that all members will give this event their full support.

To ensure that the Annual Exhibition only includes fresh work every year, no image may be entered in more than one Annual Exhibition. (Fresh images produced in the darkroom or by digital manipulation are not affected by this restriction.)

Some of the prints entered for this competition will be hung in library or other exhibitions during the summer, to promote the club.

Summer Competition

Medium: Prints & Digital
Class: Single
Judge: Club
Trophy: Prints (cup), digital (cup)

The image must only have been taken during any of the summer programme events directly organised by the club, in the preceding summer.

Monochrome Competition

Medium: Prints & Digital
Class: Single
Judge: Club
Trophy: Prints (Mike Brougham salver), digital (tankard)

The club has adopted the WCPF’s definition of Monochrome for its black & white work.

“An image is considered to be Monochrome if it (in addition to a straight black and white image) is toned entirely in one colour.”

(A black and white image modified by partial toning, or by the addition of one colour becomes a colour work.)
Please be aware that any event that requires FIAP patronage uses a more restrictive definition of monochrome.

Series Competition

Medium: Prints & Digital
Class: Single
Judge: Club
Trophy: Prints (cup), digital (cup)

Prints: Each series may be of 3,4,5 or 6 prints. (These may be presented all on a single mount or individually.) There is no restriction on mount size provided the mount is not so large that it would be difficult to display for judging.

(Members are asked to act reasonably as regards this issue).

Digital: An unlimited sequence of images, projected without sound, with a maximum running time of 60 seconds. The series must be capable of running on the club computer as an ‘executable’ file, without the need of additional software.”

(see Page 8 Paragraph 1 for image size and projection.)

Portrait Competition

Medium: Prints & Digital
Class: Single
Judge: Club
Trophy: Prints (Robinson trophy), digital (Roy Henry salver)

A portrait is an image of a person. The intent is to show the basic appearance of the person, and some insight into his or her personality.

The “John Evans’” Competition

Medium: Prints only
Class: Single
Judge: The Evening Advertiser
Trophy: Rose Bowl

The Rose Bowl trophy was presented to the club to commemorate a former “Evening Advertiser” Chief Photographer. The judging will alternate between the Swindon Advertiser (even years) and the Mayor of Swindon (odd years). Note that the Advertiser likes journalistic images, but the Mayor prefers strong reference to Swindon.

Images must have been taken on or after the 1st January in the year preceding the competition, and within a ten-mile radius of Regent Circus, Swindon.

A member may submit up to 10 images to this competition.

The “Bernard Hinton” Competition

Medium: Digital only
Class: Single
Judge: Club
Trophy: Pewter Cup

This is named after a past member of the club who took a great interest in photographing Swindon’s Parks and gardens.

The digital image must have been taken in the nominated Swindon park or garden during the preceding or current club season, the venue of which will be published in the programme each year.

A-V Competition

Medium: Digital AV
Class: Single
Judge: Club (This may be external if expected entries warrant)
Trophy: Shield

Competitors may enter up to three sequences, but total showing time may not exceed 24 minutes, and no one sequence may exceed 12 minutes duration. (There are no minimum limits.)

No sequence can display details of the competitor’s name or club.

(In line with WCPF rules.)

It is expected that the major part of the work will have been done by the members or member entering the sequence, and that they will reveal any work carried out by others.

(Judging should take into account, when assessing the merit of a sequence, whether it is mainly one member’s work and presentation, or if it has been prepared or presented jointly.)

All AVs must be capable of running on the club computer as an ‘executable’ file, without the need of additional software.

(see Page 8 Paragraph 1 for image size and projection.)

It is the responsibility of the entrant to determine their need for any necessary music performance licenses and, if necessary, to obtain them.

Competitors are urged to make themselves familiar with the rules laid down for National A-V competitions and to get into the habit of following these as far as possible.

The Albright Trophy

Trophy: Crystal decanter

The current President will select the best contempory image from all images shown during the year, in any format, for this trophy.

The Kevin Wilcock Trophy

Trophy: Salver

The Competition Secretary will propose three Natural History prints, from all the prints shown during the year, for the current President to select the winner.

Natural History Images are to be of any living fauna or flora, must be the main focal point of the image, and should convey the essential truth of what the photographer saw at the time it was taken.

Please be aware that the WCPF and other organisations use a more restrictive definition.

End of the Competition Rules