RUGBY Photographer of the Year 2024
LAUNCH DATE: 30th September, 2024
WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT/EXHIBITION: May, 2025
Rules
Please note that this version of the competition rules (‘the Rules’) is binding.
1. ABOUT THE COMPETITION
(1) The Rugby Photographer of the Year Competition (‘the Competition’) is owned by Talk to Eric Limited (‘the Owners’).
(2) The Competition comprises six categories and an overall ‘Rugby Photo of the Year’ category. All categories (except Young Photographer) are open to photographers aged 18 and over, and ‘Young Photographer’ is open to photographers aged 17 and under. Any contact with the Owners regarding the Competition (unless specified otherwise below) should be via the email address: eric@talktoeric.com
(3) Selected entries to the Competition may be displayed in an exhibition at the World Rugby Museum (‘the Exhibition’), featured online, in publicity materials relating to the Competition, or as merchandising according to the terms hereunder.
2. CONDITIONS OF ENTRY TO THE COMPETITION
(1) Entries must be received by 11.59pm GMT on the evening of Monday 31st March 2025 (‘the Closing Date’).
(2) The Competition is open to anyone aged 18 or over on the Closing Date except individuals (and their partners and family) involved in its organisation or judging or employees of the Owners or any official partners, supporters, or sponsors of the Competition.
The Young Photographer category is open to anyone aged 17 or under on the Closing Date except individuals (and their partners and family) involved in its organisation or judging or employees of the Owners or any official partners, supporters, or sponsors of the Competition.
(3) By entering the Competition, the entrant agrees to maintain the highest standards in all matters relating to the Competition and not to do or say anything that does or might damage the reputation of the Owners, the Competition, the other entrants, or the official partners, supporters, or sponsors of the Competition, or the Exhibition. The entrant acknowledges that entry into the Competition does not grant any rights in any intellectual property rights of the Competition and/or the Owners, and agrees not to use any names, logos or other intellectual property rights of any of them or to make any public statement regarding any of them without the prior written consent of the Owners.
(4) It is the responsibility of each entrant into the Competition to ensure that they have read and will abide by these Rules. By submitting an entry, each entrant agrees to the Rules, that their entry complies with the Rules, and that they will be liable to the Owners and their licensees in respect of any damages or losses incurred as a breach of the Rules by the entrant.
(5) Entrants are not permitted to submit images that:
(i) have been awarded any prize, recommendation or other award in any international competition after 1st April 2024;
3. THE COMPETITION - SUBMISSION
(1) Entry must be via therugbyjournal.com/rpoty-2024
(2) Each entrant is allowed a total of 5 entries into the Competition, with an entry submitted to Rugby Portfolio counting as one entry.
(3) The Competition consists of the following categories:
(i) Portrait
(ii) Landscape
(iii) Action
(iv) Spirit of Rugby
(v) Young Photographer
(vi) Rugby Portfolio
(vii) Rugby Photograph of the Year
(5) Entrants to the Rugby Portfolio category may submit up to ten (10) images.
4. ETHICS
(1) Any breach of the Competition’s Ethics below will constitute a breach of the Rules.
(2) caption information supplied must be complete, true and accurate.
(3) Entrants – including those using drones – are responsible for ensuring full compliance with any applicable national or international legislation and for securing any relevant permits that may be required (which, in the case of human portraits, will include the subject’s permission) and which must be made available on request by the Owners.
5. IMAGE SPECIFICATIONS
(1) Submissions must be in digital format but the original entry does not need to have been taken on a digital camera. High quality scans of transparencies or negatives are also acceptable.
(2) For all categories, digital files must be submitted as JPEGs, saved at a high quality setting of at least 8 in Photoshop, Adobe RGB (1998), and at 1920 pixels along the longest dimension. No borders, watermarks or signatures should be included.
(3) Entrants whose work has been shortlisted will be required to provide the following:
(i) RAW files (eg .CR2, .NEF, .ORF, .PEF etc), original untouched JPEGs, and original transparencies or negatives, will be required for authentication. DNG files are only permitted if this is the native RAW format of the camera;
(ii) High resolution files (preferably TIFF) required for printing should be 8-bit, Adobe RGB (1998) at full resolution, and match the colour and cropping of the JPEG submitted at entry. Please do not upscale. Files must not exceed 100MB.
(4) Any entry that cannot be authenticated or is not of an acceptable quality will be disqualified.
The Owners reserve the right to ask any entrant to supply a range of ‘before’ and ‘after’ original files for any image that requires further authentication.
(5) Digital adjustments including tone and contrast, burning, dodging, cropping, sharpening, noise reduction, minor cleaning work (e.g. removal of sensor dust or scratches on transparencies/scans, removal of chromatic aberration), HDR, stitched panoramas, focus stacking and in-camera multiple exposure taken at the same location at the same time (as a continuous sequence - seconds or minutes apart) are permitted.
(6) The following digital adjustments – but not limited to these – are not allowed: adding, moving or removing objects, people etc; the removal of dirt, highlights, backscatter, bubbles, debris and similar; composites, painting the foreground / painting out the background.
(7) Caption information must be complete, true and accurate, and provide the following:
(i) description (name of club, ground, person or persons featured (if appropriate); background story (if relevant); exact location)
(8) Entrants should not include their name in the caption or on the image itself. EXIF details should be kept intact (eg camera, lens, exposure etc).
6. JUDGING, AWARDS, PRIZES
(1) An independent panel of experts comprising a chair and judges (‘the Jury’) will be appointed by the Owners to shortlist and award seven categories in the Competition.
(2) During judging, and with the express agreement of the Owners, the Jury reserves the right to:
(i) move entries from one category to another where applicable and appropriate;
(ii) remove a category in its entirety.
(3) From those entries selected by the Jury from the Competition, the following awards will be given:
(i) Category Winner
(ii) Rugby Photographer of the Year
(4) Only Category Winners will be considered by the Jury for Rugby Photographer of the Year.
(5) Successful entrants will be notified in strict confidence. It is a condition of entry that the entrant does not disclose the details of any shortlisted or winning entries to any third party.
(6) The list of prizes is available on the website. They are non-transferable. The Owners reserve the right to substitute the whole or part of any listed prize with an alternative of equal monetary value (but the entrant shall not have any right to demand this). Please note that the prizes must be claimed within three months of the Award Ceremony or will be forfeited (including any right to receive any substitute prize).
7. PUBLICITY
(1) All entrants agree that, if their entry is selected by the Jury, they will participate in related publicity and agree to the use of their name and likeness for the purposes of advertising, promotion and publicity of the Competition and/or the Exhibition without additional compensation.
8. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
(1) Each entry must be the original work of the entrant and must not infringe the rights of any other party.
(2) The entrant must either be the sole owner of the copyright in the entry(s) submitted or have secured the written permission of the copyright owner or any joint owners of copyright to submit the entry(s) into the Competition. A copy of any such written permission must be supplied to the Owners on request.
(3) In the event that an entrant is not the sole copyright owner of the entry(s), the entrant agrees to notify the Owners at the date of submission, providing the names of all copyright owners.
(4) Ownership of the copyright in any entry submitted to the Competition will remain with the copyright owner(s). The photographer will be credited (eg © photographer’s name). The photographer agrees that the Owners will not be liable to the photographer in the event of inadvertent omission of the credit.
(5) By entering the Competition, the entrant grants to the Owners [and its sponsors] a non-exclusive, irrevocable licence to reproduce, publish, exhibit and communicate to the public, by any means and in all media throughout the world. This licence is granted only for use in relation to the Competition and Exhibition, which shall include (with the right to sub-license where necessary) - but will not be limited to - any of the following uses:
(i) the process of judging the Competition (including any public vote);
(ii) display during the awards ceremony, and Exhibition;
(iii) publication in other magazines or print media which the Owners (or their official partners, supporters, or sponsors) may produce;
(iv) publication on relevant parts of the Owners’ website, including within interactive elements available for viewing or download;
(v) in publicity materials (including social media).
(6) Awarded submissions may be used by the Owners [and its sponsors] for the purposes of promoting the Competition and Exhibition from the date of notification of awarded submissions until the end of the Exhibition and thereafter the Owners may keep the awarded submissions within an archive (electronic or otherwise) provided that, should the submissions be used in connection with the Competition and Exhibition after the period of five (5) years following the notification of awarded submissions, permission will be sought from the entrant and from the entrant’s parent or guardian if the entrant is aged under 18 on the date on which permission is sought.
9. LIABILITY
(1) Proof of electronic submission is not proof of receipt by the Owners.
(2) The Owners cannot be held responsible for emails that do not arrive due to an entrant’s email security settings or restrictions placed by their Internet Service Provider. Entrants must ensure that their settings accept emails from eric@talktoeric.com
(3) The Owners regret that they cannot accept liability for any loss of or damage to any entry submitted into the Competition howsoever caused or for any other loss or damage as a result.
(4) The Owners regret that they cannot accept liability for the misuse of images and/or failure of any third party to comply with the Competition’s credit guidelines.
(5) Non-awarded digital entries submitted into the Competition will not be stored or returned by the Owners after the names of awarded photographers are announced.
(6) Except where expressly stated elsewhere in the Rules, the Owners regret that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, they cannot accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered by any entrant in relation to the Competition or the use of any prize.
10. DATA PROTECTION
(1) The personal data of entrants will be managed by the Owners in accordance with data protection legislation.
(2) The Owners will collect personal data about entrants (and the entrant’s parent/guardian where applicable) at the time of registration, and as otherwise provided in order to administer the Competition and/or all associated activities.
(3) Entrants will be asked at the time of registration if they would like to join the mailing list administered by the Owners to receive Rugby Photographer of the Year competition news and related information. The contact details supplied will be used accordingly.
(5) Entrants may contact the Owners at any time to update their details and/or preferences regarding permitted use of their personal data.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How do I enter the competition?
Please enter via our online entry site: therugbyjournal.com/rpoty-2024
Do I need to register?
Yes, you need to register your details at therugbyjournal.com/rpoty-2024
Are there any age restrictions?
Entries for Portrait, Landscape, Action, Spirit of Rugby and Rugby Portfolio must be over the age of 18.
Entries for Young Photographer must be 17 years old or under.
Do I have to pay to enter?
No, there is no fee to enter the Rugby Photographer of the Year 2024.
How many entries can I submit?
You can enter once per category.
How many images may I submit per category?
You can only enter one (1) image per category except for the Rugby Portfolio category where you can enter up to ten (10) images.
Can the same image be entered into more than one category?
Yes, you can enter the same image into more than one category.
How do I know if my submissions have been received?
Once your files have been uploaded and saved, they are automatically included in the competition.
Is there a time limit on when images must have been taken?
Yes. All submissions must be taken between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025.
In which categories can black and white images be entered?
Black and white images can be entered into all categories
Can I enter an image that has been previously published?
Yes, you may enter previously published images, but please don't enter images that have already received an award or recognition in another international photography competition.
How is the competition judged?
We appoint a panel of judges and a chair to evaluate all entries. Each submission is reviewed anonymously. Judging comprises two rounds. During the second round, images will undergo an authenticity check to ensure the entry complies with our rules and ethics. The panel will be looking for photographic excellence, artistic merit, relevance to the category themes, technical proficiency and innovative ideas, so this should be reflected in all submissions
Submission enquiries
How should I prepare my files for submission to the competition?
Digital files must be submitted as JPEGs, saved at a high-quality setting of at least 8 in Photoshop, Adobe RGB (1998), and at 1920 pixels along the longest dimension. No borders, watermarks or signatures should be included.
What forms of digital adjustments are acceptable?
Digital adjustments including tone and contrast, burning, dodging, cropping, sharpening, noise reduction, minor cleaning work (e.g. removal of sensor dust or scratches on transparencies/scans, removal of chromatic aberration), HDR, stitched panoramas, focus stacking, and multiple exposure taken at the same location at the same time (as a continuous sequence – seconds or minutes apart), are permitted.
What forms of digital adjustments are NOT acceptable?
The following digital adjustments – but not limited to these – are not allowed: adding, moving or removing objects, animals or parts of animals, plants, people etc; the removal of dirt, highlights, backscatter, bubbles, debris and similar; composites, painting the foreground / painting out the background.
Who do I contact if I still have a question?
Please email us at eric@talktoeric.com and we'll be happy to help.
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