The International Aperture Awards








Entries Open 1st October to 30th of November 2009

The 2009 International Aperture Awards is the world's most prestigious international online photography competition.

The competition is now open for all professional and non professional photographers with a combined prize pool of US $88,000.00 in cash and prizes.


 


The International Aperture Competition Rules
  1. The International Aperture Awards Competition is open to all Photographers.
  2. By entering the Competition You hereby accept these Competition Rules and the Terms and Conditions

    3. The Open Competition
  3. Closing Date, Entries and the Entry Fee must be submitted by 30th November 2009.
  4. The Entry Fee is USD$39.00, The Entry Fee allows you to enter one (1) image. You may enter as many images as you wish, each additional image entered is USD$39.00.
  5. Images will be judged Category by category, category winners will be chosen on the highest individual averaged image score. In the case of a tie the aggregated score will be calculated to determine the winner.
  6. Judging will be blind. No names or other indicators will be shown to lead to the entrant
  7. By entering the Competition, You agree and acknowledge that The International Aperture Awards is permitted to receive Your registration data. All personal information will be used by The International Aperture Awards in accordance with its Privacy Policy.
  8. To enter, you must upload your image via the following website: www.internationalaperturewards.com (the "Website"), following the on-screen instructions carefully.
  9. Entries will be judged by nominated judges.
  10. Each Image will be scored by 5 separate judges.
  11. The 5 scores will be averaged to produce a final score.
    • The highest final score within each category will be deemed the category winner
    • In the case of a category tie the 5 individual scores will be added together to produce a score tie calculation. The Image with the highest score tie calculation will be deemed the winner.
    • The Top 5 placed Images from each category will be selected and announced from the 10th of December 2009 and continue through to the final round of judging.
    • In the event that images are still tied at the end of the judging process, those images will be re-judged by a further independent judging panel to produce the winner.
    • The finalists will be judged by a panel of elite judges. The scores will be averaged to produce a final score.
    • The highest final score will be deemed the major prize winner
    • In the case of a tie the individual scores will be added together to produce a score tie calculation. The Image with the highest score tie calculation will be deemed the winner.
    • The overall winner of the International Aperture Awards 2009 will be announced on-line 15th December 2009
  12. Winners from each category will be selected and announced from the 10th of December 2009
  13. Additional non financial gold distinction, gold, silver and bronze merit awards will be will be awarded based on the averaged 5 voting scores as follows
    • Platinum Award scored 95-100,Gold Award scored 88-94,Silver Award scored 82-88, Bronze Award scored 75-81
    • The Platinum, gold, silver and bronze awards recognized by the judges as high quality images and worthy of recognition in the competition.
  14. The decision of The International Aperture Awards is final.
  15. The International Aperture Awards reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify and remove any entry that does not comply with the following requirements, even after the entry is submitted on the Website. You warrant and represent, in respect of each entry submitted by You ("Entry"), as follows:
  16. You are the sole owner and author of each Entry
  17. The image presented for judging must be 100% photographic in origin, generally this means using a camera or similar device.
  18. You have the right to make Your entry available to the Competition
  19. Each entry does not contain personally identifiable information about You or any other person(s)
  20. Each Entry does not contain any infringing, threatening, false, misleading, abusive, harassing, libelous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic or profane content
  21. Each entry does not contain any material that could constitute or encourage conduct which would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any law
  22. Each entry does not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property rights of any third person or entity, or violate any person's rights of privacy or publicity.
  23. Your Entry does not include:
    • trademarks owned by third parties
    • copyrighted materials owned by third parties (including movie dialog or musical compositions)
    • names, likenesses, voices or other characteristics identifying celebrities or other public figures, living or dead
    • Entries in which You have purchased or secured the rights to use stock images
    • Entries which contain any commercial content that promotes any product or service other than that of Aperture Awards.
    • Entries containing screen credits
  24. You agree to fully indemnify The International Aperture Awards in respect of all royalties, fees and any other monies owing to any person by reason of Your breaching any of the foregoing.
  25. You confirm that each person depicted in the Entry has granted permission to be portrayed as shown. Any costumes, props or other materials used must be rented or borrowed with the permission of the owner, and all other relevant permissions must have been obtained.
  26. The International Aperture Awards will run an on line voting process whereby members of the public may vote for a favorite image. If there is sufficient evidence (in The International Aperture Awards sole discretion) to suggest malpractice and manipulation of the rating process, then The International Aperture Awards has the right to remove the relevant Entry or Entries and, if necessary, award the prize to a different contestant. The International Aperture Awards decisions are final.
  27. The International Aperture Awards recognizes that you retain full ownership of the copyright in each Entry.
  28. All entrants understand that any image submitted to the competition may be used by The International Aperture Awards, and its Event Partners, for marketing and promotional purposes of the event only. You hereby grant Aperture Awards a non-exclusive, irrevocable license in each Entry throughout the world in perpetuity in all media for any use directly or indirectly connected with the Competition, including, but not limited too:
    1. judging the Competition
    2. displaying the winning entries and runners up at public exhibitions promoting The International Aperture Awards and organized by The International Aperture Awards
    3. inclusion within the Website, a Awards book, magazine or similar
    4. inclusion within any materials promoting of the Competition and / or any exhibition organized by The International Aperture Awards or its Event Partners, in the promotion of The International Aperture Awards
    5. inclusion on Competition- and exhibition-related products to be sold by The International Aperture Awards or any third party following the individual agreement by the author
    6. sub-licensing the Entries to the press for reproduction in connection with the Competition and any exhibition
    7. allowing viewers of the Website to view images on a computer screen, PDA or mobile telephone and store such pages in electronic form on disk or on a PDA or mobile telephone (but not on any server or other storage device connected to a network) for their personal, non-commercial use only.
    8. being chosen and entered into promotional competitions by The International Aperture Awards or its Event Partners for marketing and promotional purposes.
  29. Any photograph used by The International Aperture Awards shall carry a credit line. Any failure to provide such credit line shall not be deemed to be a breach, as long as The International Aperture Awards uses its reasonable endeavors to rectify such failure within a reasonable period from the date of notice of such failure.
  30. You acknowledge that is Your responsibility for protecting any Entry against image misuse by any third party, for example, but not limited to the insertion of a watermark. The International Aperture Awards and its Event Partners assume no responsibility and are not liable for any image misuse.
  31. The International Aperture Awards assumes no responsibility for any incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete information, whether caused by website users or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Competition, and The International Aperture Awards assumes no responsibility for technical, hardware or software failure of any kind, for lost network connections, garbled computer transmissions, other problems or technical malfunctions with regard to the Competition. The International Aperture Awards assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, corruption, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to or alteration of Entries. The International Aperture Awards is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, computer equipment, software, failure of any e-mail addressed to The International Aperture Awards on account of technical problems, human error or traffic congestion on the Internet or any website, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to Your or any other person's computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials in the Competition. If for any reason a contestant's entry cannot be viewed or is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer viruses, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud or technical failures, The International Aperture Awards assumes no responsibility.
  32. In no event will The International Aperture Awards, its parents, affiliates, subsidiaries and related companies, Event Partners, its advertising or promotion agencies, or its officers, directors, employees, shareholders, representatives or agents be responsible or liable for any damages or losses of any kind, including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages arising out of any contestant's access to and use of the Website. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, everything on the Website is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for purpose or use or non-infringement.
  33. You agree to participate in related publicity and to the use of your name and likeness for the purposes of advertising, promotion and publicity without additional compensation.
  34. Entries must comply with specifications, RGB, 8-bit, 2362 Pixels (20cm) on the longest side, saved as a jpeg at a setting 10 or higher. All entrants must to supply a high resolution image suitable for printing in media.
  35. There are no alternatives available for prize winners.
  36. Winners will be published on-line on www.aperturewards.com
  37. No late entries accepted, all entries are to be entered, accepted and paid by the advertised closing date, no exceptions
  38. Entry fees and prizes are quoted in USD, currency conversions are on screen at point of entry. The International Aperture Awards does not account or have any liability for any participants' bank fees and charges that may be levied in currency conversion and currency transaction by the participating bank or institution. Prizes are paid in USD, currency conversions to local currency are at winner's discretion at the time of conversion.
  39. Aperture Awards decisions are final. Right of rejection and or right of refusal are at the discretion of the event organizers and can happen at any time
  40. Entry receipts for the competition are stored in your account details. Your purchase receipt will be listed there.
  41. All entries are subject to the laws of Australia and the state of Victoria.
  42. All terms and conditions subject to change without notice.


The International Aperture Amateur Competition Rules
  1. The International Aperture Amateur Awards Competition (the 'Competition') is open to all Amateur Photographers and Non Professional Photographers
  2. By entering the Competition, You accept these Competition Rules and their Terms and Conditions.

    3. The Amateur Competition
  3. Closing Date: Entries and the Entry Fee must be received by 30 November 2009.
  4. The Entry Fee is USD$9.00 per image, no limit on the number of images that can be entered.
  5. To enter, you must upload your Entry(s) at the following website: www.internationalapertureawards.com (the 'Website'), following the on-screen instructions carefully.
  6. Entrants may enter as many images as you wish (the 'Entry' or 'Entries') in the Competition. Each Entry must be entered into a Category. Entrants may enter all their Entries into one Category, or any of the three Categories.
  7. Entrants must upload their Entries as digital files at www.internationalapertureawards.com and comply with the following specifications:
    • RGB colour space, 8-bit;
    • Measure 2300 pixels on the longest side;
    • Be saved as a JPEG at a setting of 8 (80%) higher.
    • Winning Entrants must also be able to provide a high resolution digital file suitable for offset printing if required.

    Judging
  8. Judging will be blind. No names or other indicators are allowed in or on the Entry that could indicate who is the author of the Entry.
  9. Entries will be judged by nominated judges. Each Entry will be scored by 3 separate judges.
  10. The judging process is as follows:
    • Each Entry will be judged in its category and the judges' scores will be averaged to produce a final score.
    • The Entry with the highest final score within each Category will be deemed the Category winner.
    • In the case of a category tie, the judges' 3 individual scores for each Entry will be added together to produce a score tie calculation. The Entry with the highest score tie calculation will be deemed the winner.
    • In the event that Entries in a Category are still tied at the end of the judging process, those images will be re-judged by a further independent judging panel to produce the winner.
    • The top 5 placed Entries from each category (the 'Finalist Entries') will be selected (as outlined above) and continue through to the final round of judging.
    • The Finalist Entries will be judged by a panel of elite judges. Their scores will be averaged to produce a final score.
    • The Finalist Entry with the highest final score will be deemed the major prize winner.
    • In the case of a tie, the judges' individual scores for each Finalist Entry will be added together to produce a score tie calculation. The Finalist Entry with the highest score tie calculation will be deemed the winner.
    • In the event that Finalist Entries are still tied at the end of the judging process, those Entries will be re-judged by the panel of elite judges to determine the winner.
    • Winners will be published on-line at www.internationalaperturewards.com.
  11. The winner from each category will be selected and announced from 1st Dec to 8th December 2009 as results come to hand.
  12. The Grand Prize and overall winner of the International Aperture Amateur Awards 2009 will be announced on-line on 15th December 2009.
  13. All International Aperture Amateur Awards "general terms and conditions" are in the rules of the main International Aperture Awards competition.
  14. All terms and conditions are subject to change without notice.

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