Photo Contest

NPRB's annual photo contest welcomes original images of coastal or ocean seascapes or sea life within U.S. waters from the Gulf of Alaska, Prince William Sound, the Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, Bering Strait or Beaufort/Chukchi Seas.

We will be accepting images for the 2011 Photo Contest starting in Fall 2010; entry deadline will be Spring 2011. See below for the Official Rules before entering.

Congratulations to our winners for 2010!

More than 120 images were entered in the 2010 Photo Contest. After an initial review by a panel of photography professionals, the six top images were chosen by Board and Advisory Panel members at their May 2010 meetings.

Adult

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First Place, $1,200	Second Place, $600	Third Place, $300
Nathan Banfield	Billy Adams	Ram Papish
Arctic fox with kittiwake chick on St. George Island.	Man in kayak retrieving seal in icy seas 1.5 miles northwest of Barrow.	Puffin landing on Bogoslof Island.

Youth

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First Place, $600	Second Place, $400	Third Place, $200
Sarah Donohue	Sarah Donohue	Sarah Donohue
Walrus hauled out on Round Island.	Red fox sniffing the wind from Dragon’s Spine on Round Island.	Tufted and horned puffins along grassy cliff on Round Island.

Official Rules, Regulations and Legal Conditions (“Official Rules”)

The NPRB Photo Contest (“the Contest”) is governed by the following rules, terms and conditions. By participating, you agree to these Official Rules and the decisions of the judges, which are final and binding. NPRB reserves the right to change these rules or cancel the photo contest at any time, at its sole discretion.

The Contest is open to photographers who are residents of the United States, except employees of NPRB or their families, members of the NPRB Board and their immediate families, and members of NPRB science or advisory panels.

Your rights

You retain all rights to any photograph you submit -- including ownership if applicable -- other than those rights licensed in the next sentence. By entering the contest, you hereby grant to NPRB:

• a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to reproduce, distribute, publicly display and publicly perform the photographs you submit to NPRB, and
• the right to use your name, city, and state of residence in promotions and other publications.

What to enter

Beautiful images of sea life, seascapes and coastal scenes within U.S. waters of the Gulf of Alaska, Prince William Sound, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, Bering Strait or Beaufort/Chukchi Seas, particularly subjects that relate to NPRB’s research themes, which include seabirds, marine mammals, plankton, fishes and invertebrates, as well as images of people engaged in conducting research, diving, fishing, subsistence, and other activities.

• Include the location and date of the image in your photo caption.
• Please do not include photographs of pets or domestic animals. Images of captive animals photographed in zoos and aquariums or research laboratories are also prohibited. Please clearly label animals as wild in digital caption information to assist judges in determining eligibility. If you choose to include people in your submission, you are responsible for obtaining the necessary releases from the individuals depicted, and must be able to provide copies of those releases to NPRB upon request.
• Previously published material for which non-exclusive rights were granted may be entered as long as you still warrant full usage rights. However, upon submission you must disclose when and where the photo previously appeared.
• Entrants must not infringe on the rights of any other photographer or person, or submit images that involve the willful harassment of wildlife or damage to the environment by the photographer.
• All photographs should accurately reflect the subject matter and the scene as it appeared.
• Photos that have been digitally altered beyond standard removal of dust, cropping, color/contrast adjustments, etc. will be disqualified.

How to enter

A maximum of 5 images will be accepted per entrant. Entrants must check the appropriate age category (Adult or Youth) for their submission. Submissions will be accepted on portable digital material such as a CD or DVD. CDs/DVDs will not be returned. Submit a signed copy of the Official Rules along with your submission.

We do not accept images via email. Please drop off or mail images to NPRB Photo Contest, 1007 West 3rd Ave., Suite 100, Anchorage, AK, 99501.

Image format and resolution

Camera-made digital images must be in either JPEG or TIFF (for TIFF images, compression is acceptable). Images in other formats will not be accepted. Contact us if you have questions about image format or resolution.

• Image resolution: To ensure eligibility, entries must have a resolution of 5 million pixels or greater (5 megapixels). Calculate resolution by multiplying the pixel width of the image by the pixel height. For example, a photograph taken with a 5 megapixel camera set for the highest resolution and best quality produces images that are 2584 pixels by 1936 pixels, which are acceptable under the rules (2584 x 1936 = 5 million). Images that do not meet this standard may or may not be judged at the judging panel’s discretion.
• Scans of slides or negatives (but not scans of prints) are acceptable. Original or duplicate negatives, slides, or prints are not acceptable.

Deadlines

Entry deadline is March 1, 2010. Entrants may be asked to submit a paragraph about the story behind the photo anytime after March 1, 2010. Winners will be announced on or before May 15, 2010. NPRB reserves the right to adjust any deadline(s) as the result of causes beyond its immediate control.

Judging

Images will be judged on originality, technical excellence, composition, overall impact and artistic merit. The judges are professional photographers, graphic designers, NPRB Board members, and staff. NPRB shall determine winner eligibility in its sole and absolute discretion. All decisions made by the judges are final.

Winning photos

Three photos in each of the two age categories will be selected as finalists. Winning images will be featured on the NPRB website, and in a traveling exhibit, as well as appear in NPRB publications. All finalists and prize-winning photographs will be credited with the caption © Your Name/NPRB. NPRB has final approval of any language that appears on its website with any of the photos and will not promote or endorse third-party products or services.

Legal conditions

Your entry to the contest constitutes your agreement that your photographs may be made available for public use, published in printed NPRB materials, published or used in websites owned by NPRB and its partners, and used in connection with promotional use including, but not limited to, a photo exhibit developed by NPRB, film documentaries, educational and outreach materials, and PowerPoint presentations, without compensation. NPRB will retain ownership of the portable media and images for previously mentioned publishing purposes.

By entering, participants agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless NPRB, its respective subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers, employees, attorneys, agents and representatives, from any and all third party liability for any injuries, loss, claim, action, demand or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with the competition (collectively, “Losses”), including without limitation any third party claim for copyright infringement or a violation of an individual’s right to privacy and/or publicity right. The Contest is void where prohibited by law.

Each participant in the Contest (each a “Participant”) is responsible for ensuring that he or she has the right to submit them to the Contest per these rules.

NPRB is not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by website users or by any equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the photo competition, or by any technical or human error that may occur in the processing of submissions to the photo competition, including but not limited to any misprints or typographical errors. NPRB assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, entries. NPRB is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer equipment, servers, providers, computer on-line systems, software, or failure of email on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website, including injury or damage to participant’s or to any other person’s computer related to or resulting from participating or uploading images or information in the photo contest.

Still have questions?

For more information, contact the Photo Contest Coordinator via e-mail or by phone at 907-644-6707.