The regulations of the photo contest of the Lithuanian caving club AENIGMA
confirmed by the Council of the Club in 2013
1. GENERAL REGULATIONS
1.1. The aim of the speleo photo contest The Speleo Photo of the Year (further – the Contest) is the promotion of the speleology.
1.2. The Contest is organized by the council of the caving club AENIGMA (further – the Council) or the organizer(-s) elected by the Council (further – the Organizer). The Organizer cannot be a person who is participating in the Contest.
1.3. The regulations of the Contest regulate the organization of the Contest, participants, the selection and work of the commission, evaluation of the photos and awarding.
1.4. The Organizer of the Contest has a right to use the submitted photos for non-commercial purposes, such as promotion of the speleology and the Contest. The usage of the photos by the third parties without the permission of the Organizer is forbidden.
2. PARTICIPANTS OF THE CONTEST
2.1. Everyone whose photos meet the requirements can take part in the Contest.
3. ORGANIZATION OF THE CONTEST
3.1. Each participant can submit up to 5 photos for the Contest.
3.2. Submitting a photo it is recommended to submit such information:
3.2.1. the name and the category of the photo;
3.2.2. the date (year, month) and the place (the name of country, district, cave/mountain, city) when and where the photo was taken;
3.2.3. author‘s name, surname or alias/ coauthor‘s names, surnames.
3.2.4. represented country, city;
3.2.5. contact information (e-mail, phone number, other).
3.2.6. short (up to 300 characters) description of the photo.
3.3. Photos are submitted until the date and by the address settled by the Organizer.
3.4. Submitted photos are sorted according to the criteria described in the article 5.
3.5. The beginning of the Contest, time of internet voting, rules and ways of voting are announced in public (on the website www.speleo.lt and in the discussion forum of the Lithuanian cavers).
4. FORMATION AND WORK OF THE COMMISSION
4.1 During the Contest the Organizer selects and sets the Jury. The Jury is selected for the Contest period.
4.3.1. The Jury consists of photographers and cavers. Jury consists of 5 persons.
4.3.2. A member of the Jury cannot be a person who is participating in the Contest.
4.3.3. Every member of the Jury selects up to 20 photos and sorts them by priority. The best rated photo is given 20 points, next one – 19 points and etc.
4.3.4. Members of the Jury send their evaluations by e-mail to the Council.
5. CRITERIA OF THE PHOTO SELECTION
5.1. The Organizer sorts the photos presented by participants and admits them to the Contest following these criteria:
5.1.1. Photos have to be on caving theme. Recommended categories: the man and the cave, the portrait of the caver, expedition reportage, the underground landscape, „non-format“.
5.1.2. The longer side of the photo has to be no less than 2000 pixels.
5.1.3. Photos have to be taken no earlier than a year before the beginning of the Contest. Exact dates are announced by Organizers every year.
5.1.4. Only small digital corrections fixing exposure and color balance mistakes are allowed in the submitted photos (sharpness, brightness, level, color balance etc.).
5.2. In case of any doubt if the photo is suitable for the Contest, the Organizer refers to the Council and the Council decides whether the photo should be accepted to the Contest.
6. REALIZATION OF THE CONTEST
6.1. Submitted photos are displayed in the photo gallery of the website of the caving club AENIGMA https://www.speleo.lt.
6.2. Photos are displayed by categories. Photos are evaluated and awarded in common context, without reference to the categories.
6.3. The voting of the public and the Jury is anonymous.
6.4. During internet voting everyone has a right to vote for any photo. Only the total count of the votes will matter in the evaluation of the photo without the reference to its rating (the number of the stars in the internet gallery).
6.5. After the internet voting is finished the photos are sorted out according to the count of votes they have got. The photo that has got the largest count of votes is evaluated 20 points, next one – 19 points and so on until the 1 point that is given to the photo on the 20th place.
6.6. If two or more photos get the same count of votes, they are evaluated the same amount of points.
6.7. The votes of the internet voting and the Jury votes are summed. The photo of the year becomes a photo that gets the most points.
6.8. If two or more photos receive the same amount of points, the winner is the photo that has received more points from the Jury.
6.9. Three photos that have received most points are awarded.