ELCC Photography Exhibition & Critique Information

Exhibition Chair for the 2024-2025 Club Year: Barry Schwartz

The Awards won for Photographer of the Year and Picture of the Year are posted near the bottom of this web page mid-June each year.

Exhibitions of digital images are held monthly, from September to April.  There are eight Monthly Exhibitions per year, followed by the End of Year Awards, held in June.

All Exhibitions are Zoom only.

The second meeting of each month (Thursday’s, 7:00 pm) is devoted to our Photography Exhibition. Members submit their images using our Exhibition online entry form.

  • You may enter 2 images/month, with the images in any Category you wish (Assigned or Open).  This means you may submit 2 Assigned Images or 2 Open images, or one of each!   Entries submitted into the Open Category SHALL NOT meet the current month​’s Assigned ​theme criteria. ​ If an image is submitted into the Open Category that meets the Assigned theme criteria, the Exhibition Team will move the entry to the Assigned Category, and notify the submitter
  • The Title of your image in the entry form should be 30 characters or less.
  • images must be in JPG format.
  • Images must be 4mb or less in size, and should not be less than 750kb.  Another way to ensure your image will show well is to ensure that the image has at least 1200 pixels on the longest side of the image. We recommend aiming for a maximum of 1920 pixels on the long side”.
  • We suggest you use SRGB as it results in more accurate and consistent colors on Monitors and projectors.
  • Check that all fields are filled in before you hit the upload your “image” button, and wait up to 30 seconds for your image to upload before  leaving the web page.

Submit your image(s) using the online entry form (link below) up until 10:00 pm, 2 days before the corresponding months Speakers meeting.

If you have entered before…

Images that have been awarded 1st, 2nd, 3rd or Honorable Mention during an ELCC Monthly Exhibition or End of Year “Picture of the Year” Award may never be re-entered into a Monthly Exhibition.  Images that have been submitted as “Emeritus”, or have never been awarded 1st, 2nd, 3rd or HM during an ELCC Monthly Exhibition, or in the End of Year “Picture of the Year” may be re-entered into another monthly Exhibition and End of Year “Picture of the Year” one time. Images that are re-entered should have the same title as the original entry.

About Our Exhibitions

Each month we present a different judge from among the top photographers, from a pool of local, out of state, amnd possibly out of the country. Having a professional critique of your work is a great way to improve your photographs and learn from critiques of both your images and those from other members.

While the main value is his/her educational critique, images are also scored by the judge, who awards 1st, 2nd and 3rd places and Honorable Mentions in each of the Groups (Divisions B, A & AA) and Categories. Images are scored using merit points for ribbons awarded; 100 points for 1st place, 70 points for 2nd place, 40 points for 3rd place, and 20 points for Honorable Mention. Judges will be asked to critique each print and projected digital image based on their judgment of the photographs with regard to originality, creativity, composition, technical quality, and impact.

For New Members:  New and less experienced photographers and those who have not entered many images into Competitions or Exhibitions usually enter in the “B” Group. More experienced photographers, including those who regularly enter into Competitions and Exhibitions should exhibit in the “A” Group. The most accomplished photographers, including professionals and those who routinely sell their photographs, are best served in the “AA” Group. Members who have won many photographer of the year and picture of the year awards and who are in the AA Group may submit a request to the Exhibition Chair to move to Emeritus.  These requests must be made by September 1 of each Club Year. 

Photographer of the Year Awards Criteria

Photographer of the Year awards are given to those persons who have the overall highest average in the B, A, & AA Groups, having submitted at least 7 images, with at least two of the seven images being in the “Assigned” category.  An average of Merit points determine Photographer of the Year awards, and are allocated as follows:  100 points for 1st place, 70 points for 2nd place, 40 points for 3rd place, and 20 points for HM.  Photographer of the Year Awards are also given to persons having the Highest “Assigned” and “Open” averages, with awards given to the 1st place winners of each Group (B, A, & AA) for both the “Assigned” and “Open” categories.  Members must have entered at least 5 images in the respective categories for the Assigned and Open awards.

Overall High Average Awards Criteria

Awards are given for ribbons awarded during the monthly exhibitions, is also recognized.  These awards are given for 1st, 2nd, 3rd & Honorable Mention in Groups B, A, & AA.  “Overall High Average” awards are an average of all images submitted during the year by persons who have submitted at least 7 images, with at least two of the seven images being in the “assigned” category.

Promotion to the Next Highest Level Criteria

These Promotions are based on the “Overall High Average” awards (see above) for persons who are in the top 20 percent of the B and A Groups – they will be promoted to the next higher Group and this will be announced during the end of year awards ceremony.  

B and A winners must move up to the next level. AA winners are encouraged to move to Emeritus

Picture of the Year Awards Criteria

 “Overall Picture of the Year” is awarded to the member whose image is selected by the End of Year judging team as the single best image.. “Picture of the Year” Awards are also given to images in each Group (B, A, & AA). NOTE:  Images from Emeritus are entered and judged with the AA Images.  These  “Picture of the Year” awards are given out for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place, and Honorable Mention.  

Each member may enter up to three images. The images must have been entered in one of the monthly Exhibitions of that Club year, though they need not have placed (won a ribbon).

About Our Exhibitions – continued 

Submittals
There are two categories for Exhibition entries – Assigned and Open.  The judges have been asked to include in their critique how effectively the assigned category was expressed in the image, and this may have impact on their judging of an assigned image.

The maker must have photographed all significant components of an image. Any image that has been produced using photo-editing software. all major parts of the image, except for textures and a digitally-produced mat, must have been captured by a camera operated by the submitter.  

To be accepted for any Club competition, exhibition or for posting on the Club’s website, an image must be an original work by the member and cannot contain, as its principal subject matter, the original work (for example, from a painting, sculpture, photograph) of another. These determinations will be made by the ELCC Exhibition Chairperson, or President. The ELCC reserves the right to refuse or exclude any image at its discretion. 

Images or the image title must not contain obscene, provocative, defamatory, sexually explicit (e.g., nudity), political, or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate content. 

 Images can not show the makers name when they are projected. You may not embed a copyright notice in the image so that it shows when projected.  You are not required to delete your name from the metadata including the copyright information.  Your name cannot be included in the title of the image.

Exhibition Results and Awards

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Contact the ELCC Exhibition Chair

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