Annual Awards Rules 2023/24

Overall rules for the Annual Awards

This is the main opportunity for members to show their work to members of the society, to members of other societies, and also, if there is an exhibition, to the public. We regret that images showing artistic nudity or similar will not be displayed in the annual public exhibition.

Members are encouraged to submit :

• Up to five mono prints (each on a 40 x 50 mount), and
• Up to five colour prints (each on a 40 x 50 mount), and
• Up to five projected images (slides cannot easily be displayed in public exhibitions).

Specific annual awards

NB: All images will be automatically in the General category, irrespective of whether they are also in a special category such as Landscapes, Studio image, etc.

The awards are:

Entries for award trophies must be appropriately labelled to show clearly which award(s) they are to be considered for.

All Print entries submitted will be considered for print of the year

All Slide and Digitally Projected entries will be considered for “slide” of the year

• The deadlines for the annual award entries are:
  • 15 May: Register print titles and submit DPIs
  • 20 May Chair to issue email with Judging Sequence numbers for all prints
  • 22 May: Bring in prints, with labels and including Judging Sequence numbers.  Following the programme changes due to the Coronation Bank Holiday, this is unfortunately also the new date to bring in and get scored your 4^th Mono Print entries.  At the  end of the evening, if you have a burning wish to swap one (or more) of the mono print titles previously registered on the 15 May for the same number of print(s) in the 4^th Mono Print competition then see Rob who will arrange it – but please try to keep this to a minimum.  Please note you will NOT be able to submit EXTRA prints on the 22 May since that would change all the Judging Sequence numbers.  If you do swap a print you must ensure the new entry is properly labelled for the Annual Awards.
• You may submit up to 5 of each of colour prints, monochrome prints and DPIs

• The specific annual awards are:
  • Print of the Year: All mono and colour prints are automatically entered into this
  • Projected Image of the Year: All DPIs are automatically entered into this
  • Best Landscape Print
    • A landscape is defined as “An image that has as its subject an extensive outdoor scene of land, sea, sky or city, with no requirement that land as such be the largest component. It may include individual items of interest like persons, trees, buildings but not if they dominate the image.”
  • Best Landscape Projected Image
    • The definition of a landscape is as given above for the Best Landscape Print
  • Best Studio Image, for a DPI or print of an image taken at a Studio session
    • This would include images taken at any hired studio or using a paid model
    • Home studio images of e.g. still life, flowers, bubbles etc will not be accepted
  • Marshall Figure Trophy (engraved annually): Best print or DPI depicting the human figure
    • It should include either one or two human figures, male or female.
    • The people may be clothed or unclothed.
    • It must be a full or half length (e.g. waist upwards or waist downwards) image in which the form of each human figure is fully visible (NOT a portrait – i.e. where the face or clothing is the main subject).
  • The Eric Earl Cup (engraved annually): Best Natural History, for flora and/or fauna.  It is for either PIs or prints.
    • This award celebrates Eric Earl’s long association with the Society.   The award is for images covering everything to do with nature such as animals, birds, flowers, etc. It includes DPIs and prints.   However, the award excludes pure landscapes as there is a separate award for these.
  • Entries for specific awards must be appropriately labelled (as detailed below) to show clearly which if any award they are to be considered for.  Your choices are one and only one of the following four options:
    • General (i.e. none of the special categories in this list)
    • Landscape (all of these are automatically also included under General)
    • Natural History (all of these are automatically also included under General)
    • Studio / Marshall Figure Trophy (all of these are automatically also included under General)
      • Studio
      • Marshall Figure Trophy
      • Both Studio AND Marshall Figure Trophy.

How to label your images for the Annual Awards competition

• PDIs should be submitted through the website.  Prints should be registered on the same webform.
• Prints labels need to state the following details
  • The competition.  You can abbreviate this to “AA 2024”.
  • The image format i.e. MP (for Mono Print) or CP (for Colour Print)
  • Your Group (A, B or C, depending on the image format (MP, CP or PI;  if you know you don’t have one, just use C).  You can check your Groups on the website under Competitions > League Groups for 2023-24.
  • Your preference 01 to 05 for the images for each of MP and CP
  • The Category for each image.  Each image must be labelled with one and only one of the category designations below:
    • General                                                            Abbreviate to “G”
    • Landscape                                                       Abbreviate to “L”
    • Natural History                                               Abbreviate to “NH”
    • Studio/Figure:
      • Studio                                                 Abbreviate to “SS”
      • Marshall Figure                                   Abbreviate to “SF”
      • Both Studio and Marshall Figure       Abbreviate to “SB”
    • Title
    • Author – your name.
  • Judging Sequence number must also be added, once you receive it.
• Hence your set of prints will be labelled like this, for a member in Group B for mono prints but Group A for colour prints:
  • AA 2024 MP B 01 L Title by Author
  • AA 2024 MP B 02 G Title by Author
  • AA 2024 MP B 03 SS Title by Author
  • AA 2024 MP B 04 NH Title by Author
  • AA 2024 MP B 05 G Title by Author
  • AA 2024 CP A 01 L Title by Author
  • AA 2024 CP A 02 G Title by Author
  • AA 2024 CP A 03 SS Title by Author
  • AA 2024 CP A 04 N Title by Author
  • AA 2024 CP A 05 G Title by Author

The rest of this note describes the 22 trophies that will be presented at the Annual Awards.

• Annual Awards for image entries
  • General: no trophies are given, but placings are recognised.  They are split into 9 groupings of DPI, MP and CP each of which is split into Groups A, B and C
  • Landscape: 2 trophies, one for DPI and one for Prints (MP and CP combined)
  • Natural History – the Eric Earl Cup for either DPIs or prints: 1 trophy
  • Studio/Marshall Figure Trophy – you can enter an image for both of these
    • Studio/Figure – Studio: 1 trophy
    • Studio/Figure – Marshall Figure: 1 trophy
  • Best PI of the Year: 1 trophy; this is judged across all Categories combined together
    • This year we again have no slides, so this is purely DPIs
  • Best Print of the Year: 1 trophy; this is judged across all Categories combined together
• There are four trophies given for the Set Subject competitions held during the season
  • Two or More People, But Not A Crowd (this uses an external judge)
  • Summer Holiday
  • Orange
  • Abstract
• There are two trophies that are not related to images but awarded for broader contributions to the club
  • President’s Cup
  • Chairman’s Shield
• There are nine trophies given for the season’s league competitions
  • DPI, MP and CP leagues each of which is split into Groups A, B and C

Separate note

Comments on the website Register & Submissions form for the AA:

• For prints, we only needed to ask for Title, plus the separate field for Category.  The remaining data (Mono or Colour, Pref, Author) is implicit in the field.  Group can be derived from Author.
• Choose the field names very carefully, to be:
  • As clear to users as possible
  • Making the field names contain the meaningful info in the Submissions file column headings