All You Need To Know

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So What’s It All About?

What the heck is TPOTY I hear you cry, the Tollesbury Photographer Of The Year competition! This is our big news for 2021. I hope it’s a way for us all to get a little more photomotivated (yes I did just make that up but it works!), to get our photomojo back (that one already exists, seriously google it) and I hope a way of us all staying in touch a little more in the coming months.

In 2020, we started a fun monthly photo post with different categories each month for us to shoot and share on the TPG Facebook page. This year we thought we could take that fun a bit further and create a photographer of the year competition, where we submit 12 photos through the year based on monthly categories. Those images would then be judged with a monthly winner and cumulative scores that build through the year to crown the first TPOTY winner in December.

 To ensure that everyone can take part the photos will be displayed at www.paulaldred.co.uk/tpoty2021 and the monthly results will be posted here too.

 So how do you take part?

We have a set of categories for each month which you can find below, so just shoot your photos and share one image for each category. You might fancy just entering the odd month or you may want to enter every month to be in the running to be our first annual TPOTY, either way it would be great to get on and shoot this year, safely of course.

All photos must be shot within 13 months of the monthly deadline (eg Anytime from January 2020 for entry in to January's category), although priority will be given to images shot in 2021 through the scoring system (see below).

Each month send your photo to tpg@paulaldred.com and I'll upload them to the TPOTY2021 webpage.

Here are the monthly categories (Please bear in mind that you may need to get creative with your interpretation depending on lockdown or social distancing rules) :

·       Jan : Minimalism

·       Feb : Action

·       Mar : Vanishing point

·       Apr : Transport

·       May : Street

·       Jun : Still life

·       Jul : Colour RED

·       Aug : Panoramic

·       Sep : High Key

·       Oct : Spooky

·       Nov : Coloured Glass

·       Dec : Lights

Who is eligible ?

Any paid up member of Tollesbury Photographic Group from 2020.

How will the images be judged and scored ?

Rather than having an appointed judge, we'll all have the opportunity to judge one month. This will allow all of us to take part in the competition and to democratise the judging process.

Each month, the judge will rank the top 10 images with points awarded as follows :

·       1st place - 10 points

·       2nd place - 9 points

·       3rd place - 8 points

·       4th place - 7 points

·       5th place - 6 points

·       6th place - 5 points

·       7th place - 4 points

·       8th place - 3 points

·       9th place - 2 points

·       10th place - 1 point

·       All other entries - 0 points

·       Photographs shot in 2021 will be awarded an additional 5 points on top of the judged score

The image judged in first place will win that month, with points for all photographers carried forward through the year. At the end of the year, the photographer with the most overall points will be crowned Tollesbury Photographer of the Year.

The points system is designed to reward frequent entries through the year from each photographer and to reward photographers that shoot photos in 2021 rather than calling on a back catalog.

The small print

·       Each photographer can submit only 1 picture for each category.

·       All submissions must be shot within 13 months of the deadline (ie January 2021 submission can be taken at any time since January 2020).

·       All images must contain metadata information identifying when they were shot.

·       Images must be at least 1000 pixels on the long edge (ie 1000 wide for a landscape shot or 1000 pixels tall for a portrait shot).

·       Images should be supplied in JPEG format.

·       All images to be submitted by last day of month, with the exception of January and December. January images to be submitted by 5th February. December images to be submitted by 14th December.

·       Submissions to be sent to tpg@paulaldred.com

·       Images will be available to view at www.paulaldred.co.uk/tpoty2021

·       Evaluation and scoring to be completed and by end of 1st full week of following month, with the exception of January and December as follows

·       January entries will be evaluated and scored by 12th February

·       December entries will be evaluated and scored, with monthly and overall winner announced on 20th December.

·       Scoring will be undertaken by entrants to the competition. Judges should judge images honestly and not tactically. Judges may not vote for their own image but will receive 10 points if they enter an image for that month and an additional 5 points if the image was shot in 2021.

·       Entrants will be allocated judging months randomly. Where necessary there may be multiple judges in any given month who will need to reach a consensus on their scoring.

·       Photographs will only score points if they are related to the category for the month.

What do you need to do to enter ?

1.     Send an email to tpg@paulaldred.com to register your entry in to TPOTY.

2.     Send your first image to tpg@paulaldred.com by 5th February 2021.

3.     Watch out for the images to be published at www.paulaldred.co.uk/tpoty21