CONTEST RULES | Small Exotic Animal

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2022 SEA Rules and Mechanics

2022 SEA Liablity (Waiver) Form

The Small Exotic Animals (SEA) Philippines is a nationwide competition, which will kick off on September 10, 2022, and end on October 10, 2022. The competition will run for a month. Competition is open to all amateur underwater photographers who are certified scuba divers.

Participants can join anywhere in the Philippines via online registration and submission. Participants will be given a total of thirty days for the competition.

Joining the registration is FREE of charge.

COMPETITION OVERVIEW

REGISTRATION PROCESS

1. Pre-registration shall be done through sea.com.ph

~Registration must be completed on or before September 24 and before taking photos.

~Submission of photos without prior registration will be considered DISQUALIFIED.

2. This is a special competition. There are no classes for this event. There are only 2 categories to join in, namely; MACRO and WIDE ANGLE snooting.

Ways of submitting entries:

~ A submission of a single (1) photo in either macro or wide angle snoot categories qualifies the participant for the competition and a chance to win in any of the category places.

~ A submission of two (2) photos where each photo represents a MACRO and WIDE snoot categories qualifies the participant to win in the portfolio winning places.

~ First two (2) photos submitted are FREE.

~ A participant may submit multiple entries where fees will apply. Additional photo entries for any category are welcome and are subject to a fee of PHP650.00 or USD 12.00 for each photo.

~ If a participant wishes to submit more than one (1) portfolio, fees will apply per photo as well. Photos must be identified which will belong in the 1st or 2nd portfolio and onwards.

If an individual wishes to participate in this competition below are the rules that have to be followed:

1. Participants must completely fill up the ONLINE registration form. Download the LIABILITY RELEASE FORM filled up and signed. Submit the completed form to splashcompetition@gmail.com

2. Participants will receive a confirmation email within a week after their completed registration which contains their individual contest details (name, category) and RESET DATE. This will serve as their I.D. for tracking purposes throughout the duration of the competition. Refer to FILE NAME on use of ID number.

3. Photo(s) must ONLY be taken anywhere within the Philippines, and only during the competition dates from September 10 to October 10, 2022.

4. Camera/memory card must be formatted to the date assigned to the participant. An assigned date will be sent via email BEFORE taking pictures.

NOTE: Participants are required to format their camera/memory card on the same day that they will receive their assigned date.

5. Each participant will be assigned a folder in Dropbox; the Dropbox link will be sent via email. When submitting entries, the folder should contain both RAW and JPEG files. The participant will need to send an email to splashcompetition@gmail.com notifying SEA that the participant has uploaded their entries.

SEA will confirm your submissions in a timely manner. DO NOT EMAIL your entries, this will not be considered for the competition.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS AND SUBMISSION

A. FILE NAME (ID# is provided by us - Small Exotic Animals (SEA))

a. MACRO SNOOT

ID#_YYYY_MS_<YOUR NAME>.jpg
ID#_YYYY_MS_<YOUR NAME>. (RAW file extension - .NEF, .ARW etc.)

Example:

201_2022_MS_JOE BLACK.jpg
201_2022_MS_JOE BLACK.ARW

b. WIDE ANGLE SNOOT

ID#_YYYY_WAS_<YOUR NAME>.jpg
ID#_YYYY_WAS_<YOUR NAME>. (RAW file extension - .NEF, .ARW etc.)

Example:

201_2022_WAS_JOE BLACK.jpg
201_2022_WAS_JOE BLACK.ARW

B. FILE FORMAT

All entries submitted must be in JPEG format with accompanying RAW files. In the event the camera used does not have RAW format, the ORIGINAL CAMERA file will be sufficient but must have been taken in the highest resolution possible in JPEG format. Other forms of file formats will not be accepted.

NOTE: Participants are to STRICTLY follow the stated formats above when submitting their entries.

C. IMAGE MANIPULATION

Image manipulation (e.g. cropping, color correct) in any forms in any software will NOT BE ALLOWED for this competition. Conversions of RAW files will be a direct conversion to JPEG only without the use of an in-camera software converter. For cameras without RAW capability, there will be no conversion required.

FILE FORMAT

DEFINITION OF CATEGORIES
OF IMAGES

1. MACRO SNOOTING

Photos of marine macro subjects were taken with a 50mm macro lens, or narrower where the strobe uses a strobe or light source is used with a snoot to control light output rendering the background darker or less light.

2. WIDE ANGLE SNOOTING

Photos of any subject such as turtles, squids, fans, corals, or the like are taken with a wide angle lens using a wide angle lens wider than 50mm where the strobe or the light source is controlled with a snoot to limit light to a chosen subject while maintaining ambient light in the foreground or background.

PARTICIPANTS ELIGIBILITY

The competition is open to all amateur photographers, both local and foreign (tourists or expats) who will be in the Philippines during the competition schedule. The intent of this competition is to give exposure and credibility to amateurs. Industry professionals are INELIGIBLE to participate in the competition; the following are considered to be industry professionals:

1. REGULARLY teaching underwater photography courses

2. CONSISTENTLY contributing works on print or online to any diving or non-diving magazine or media are ineligible to join.

3. WINNERS of key places in any previous SEA competition or similar MAJOR competitions both locally or internationally.

When in doubt, please simply ask for confirmation.

All participants must be a certified Open water scubadiver or higher to be able to participate in this competition. Local diving laws and safety standards must be followed at all times for a safe enjoyable dive.

Marine life should never be stressed or endangered for the sake of a photo. Entries exhibiting any of the following behavior will be disqualified, but not limited to:

• Divers visibly damaging (e.g. gear dragging or kicking up sand) the environment

• Animals with signs of stress (e.g. puffed puffers, inking octopus)

• Animals moved to an unnatural environment or risky location

• Animals being fed artificial food from divers

• Marine life being touched (e.g. coral polyps, seahorse tails)

• Divers exhibiting poor buoyancy control

DIVE REGULATIONS

In submitting an entry, the participant, as owner of the photograph, grants Small Exotic Animals (SEA) and Splash Underwater Imaging, Inc, the right to use his entry or entries no more than two (2) years from Awarding Ceremonies for promotion of the competition in printed, slideshow, video, and webpage formats, and for non-profit educational purposes. Copyright will be retained by the participant and recognition will be given. Model releases will be the responsibility of the person retaining copyright.

COPYRIGHTS

Any registrant may challenge a submitted entry for violating any of the competition rules, provided he has sufficient proof of a such violation, by notifying the competition officials within forty-eight (48) hours from the last competition date. The owner of the entry challenged will be notified immediately by email or by phone, followed by mail, to allow him the opportunity to (1) to present all reasonable evidence to prove that the allegation is not true, or (2) withdraw the entry. If an entry is withdrawn, the winning position goes to the next participant having the closest points to the challenged entry or portfolio. The participant proven to have violated any of the competition rules will be banned from any future competitions that will be implemented by the SEA organizers or accredited clubs or organizations.

CHALLENGES

Winning photos will be selected as follows.

Best Macro Snoot – 1st place / 2nd place
Best Wide-angle snoot – 1st place / 2nd place
Splash SNOOT Photographer of the Year 1st place | 2nd place | 3rd place