Competition Rules

The wording ‘Captured Experiences Competition’ used in these Competition Rules refers to the competition and campaign as explained within this website as well as the managing companies of this competition.

Who May Enter

The contest is open to all persons except employees of SANParks, Tourism Blueprint, head office employees of Toyota SA, Nikon SA and Hi-Tec and any person involved with the judging and their immediate family members.

Number of Rounds and the Categories

The Captured Experiences Competition consists of four rounds, each with 10 categories. See the Categories page for detailed information. Each round will be judged independently of each other, with prizes awarded for first, second and third in each category (giving you a total of 120 prize winners in the rounds preceding the finals). The winner of each category, in all four rounds, will advance to the final. Out of the 40 winners from each category in the four previous rounds, 10 overall winners (one representing each category) will be selected. Over and above the winners of the ten categories, all entrants will automatically be submitted for seven special prizes. See Prizes page and Judging below, for more information.

Competition Dates

Competition starts	15 January 2010
Round One	Closes 11 April 2010 (first Sunday after Easter) winners appear on website 30 April 2010
Round Two	Closes 13 June 2010 winners appear on website 09 July 2010
Round Three	Closes 27 September 2010 winners appear on website 19 October 2010
Round Four	Closes 4th January 2011 winners appear on website 25 January 2011
Gala Prize Giving	Prize giving to be in early April 2011 at an open air music and dinner evening in the desert!

How to Enter

Each entrant may submit up to 6 photographs, per category, per round. With ten categories this means you can enter up to 60 photos per round. Over the 4 rounds that adds up to a potential 240 photos per entrant. The entrant may submit entries at different times during the entry period and in the different rounds, as long as they use the same profile. Late entries will be discarded. If an entrant uses more than one profile they will automatically be disqualified.
All photographs must be taken within the six Arid Parks of the Northern Cape.

See The Arid Parks page for details of these Parks. Any photographs that are identified as not to have been taken in the Arid Parks, as described on this site, will be disqualified.

Each entry must comply with the following requirements:

Photographs must be in digital format and only online entries will be eligible. No print or film submissions will be accepted for entry into this competition. The photograph need not be taken with a digital camera; scans of film entries are acceptable. All digital files must be 1.5 megabytes (closed JPG file) or bigger, but not more than 4 megabytes. They must be in JPEG or JPG format. Please do not compress your images to less than medium quality (6 out of 12 in Photoshop).

All photographic entries must be accompanied by a title and a caption or story - this being your “Captured Experience”. This will be taken into account as part of the judging criteria. The caption is not to exceed 80 words. You may also send us your technical data, i.e. camera, lens, aperture, shutter speed, etc. The technical data however is not mandatory.

For all categories, except the Mood category, no digital manipulation is allowed with the exception of cropping and only minor sharpening, burning, dodging and/or colour correction. High dynamic range images (HDR) and stitched panoramas are acceptable if the combined parts are all made around the same time. The Mood category is the only category where major manipulation is allowed, but then the manipulation techniques must be disclosed.

The photograph, in its entirety, must be a single work of original material taken by the competition entrant. By entering the competition, the entrant represents, acknowledges, and warrants that the submitted photograph is an original work created solely by himself/herself, that the photograph does not infringe on the copyrights, trademarks, moral rights, rights of privacy/publicity or intellectual property rights of any person or entity, and that no other party has any right, title, claim, or interest in the photograph.

The photograph must not, by the sole and unfettered discretion of the Captured Experiences Competition, contain obscene, provocative, defamatory, sexually explicit, or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate content. All Park rules of the individual Parks must be strictly adhered to. If any photograph shows participants breaking Park rules they will be disqualified.

The entries in each Category will be judged separately, in accordance with the Judging Criteria, as defined below. All entries must be submitted and received by the dates as published above. Proof of submission is not proof of receipt. Entries must be made by the authorized account holder of the email address submitted at the time of entry. “Authorized account holder” is defined as the natural person who is assigned to an email address by an Internet access provider, online service provider, internet domain owner, or other person or organization (e.g., business, educational institution, etc.) that is responsible for assigning email addresses for the domain associated with the submitted email address. Captured Experiences Competition reserves the right to examine the original photograph/source material in order to confirm compliance with these rules.

Release

If the photograph contains any material or elements that are not owned by the entrant and/or which are subject to the rights of third parties, and/or if any persons appear in the photograph, the entrant is responsible for obtaining, prior to submission of the photograph, any and all releases and consents necessary to permit the exhibition and use of the photograph in the manner set forth in these Official Rules without compensation.

Contest Prizes

Prizes will be awarded in accordance with those published on the Prizes page of this website. The prizes are non-transferable, and no cash alternative is available. In addition, each first-place winner in each Category will automatically be published in the Coffee-table book, as detailed on this site, as well, as on posters that are to go on exhibition and permanent display. Failure to execute and deliver any required documents to the Captured Experiences Competition by the specified deadline may result in disqualification from the Competition, and selection of an alternate winner.

No prize transfer, assignment, or substitution by winners is permitted. If a prize (or part of a prize) is unavailable, the Captured Experiences Competition or the sponsor, in its discretion, reserves the right to substitute the original prize (or that part of the prize) with an alternative prize to the equal monetary value and/or specification. Non-compliance or return of a prize notification as undeliverable, whether by email or regular mail, may result in disqualification and the prize given to an alternative winner.

Judging

The competition consists of four rounds, each with 10 categories. The rounds will be evaluated independently of each other with prizes awarded for first, second and third in each category, for each round. The winners of each category in all four rounds will automatically go forward to the final. Out of the 40 winners of the four previous rounds, ten overall winners will be selected in the final. Over and above these categories all entrants will automatically be submitted for seven special prizes, judged to best represent the six Arid Parks and an Explorer Experiences Prize for photographers that have entered photographs of a ‘family’of four or more Parks. These will be judged as part of the final in November 2010.

A panel of judges consisting of both photographic and Arid Park experts will select entries (as stated in the paragraph above) in each Category from among all eligible entries, based on the following criteria, a 30 point system, which is divided as such:

1. Appropriateness to the selected Category, the Park and the Caption (story) submitted with the photograph - 10 points (33.3 %);
2. The Creativity - 10 points (33.3 %);
3. Photographic Quality - 10 points (33.3 %).

In the event of a tie, the tied entries will be resubmitted to the Judges for re-judging between the tied entries alone. In the event that a tie remains after re-judging, the entry with the highest score in the creativity criteria will be declared the winner. See Competition Dates above for deadlines.

License

The copyright of all images sent into the Captured Experiences competition remain with the original photographer. However part of the objective of the competition is to showcase the best qualities of our Arid parks. By entering the Competition, all entrants grant an irrevocable perpetual, non-exclusive license to the Captured Experiences Competition authorized parties, to reproduce, distribute, display, and create derivative works of the entries (along with a name credit) in connection with the Competition and promotion of the campaign, in any media now or hereafter known, including, but not limited to: Displaying photographs in exhibitions; publication of a book featuring select entries of the Competition.

Entrants consent to the Captured Experiences Competition doing or omitting to do any act that would otherwise infringe the entrant’s “moral rights” in their entries. That the entrants' photographs may be edited, including cropping and ‘deep-etching’ for use in published material. Display or publication of any entry on an Authorized Party’s website does not indicate the entrant will be selected as a winner.

Authorized Parties will not be required to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection with such use. Additionally, by entering, each entrant grants the Captured Experiences Competition the unrestricted right to use all statements made in connection with the Competition, and pictures or likenesses of Competition entrants, or choose not to do so, at their sole discretion. The Captured Experiences Competition will not be required to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection with such use.

No photographs, uploaded on this site and entered into this competition, may be downloaded for either commercial or private use. All photographs entered into this competition are the sole property of the photographer, who has granted an irrevocable perpetual, non-exclusive license of use to the Captured Experiences Competition and authorized parties, as stated in the “Rules of the Competition”.

Limitation of Liability

By entering this Competition, all entrants agree to release, discharge, and hold harmless Captured Experiences Competition and its partners, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising agencies, agents and their employees, officers, directors, and representatives from any claims, losses, and damages arising out of their participation in this Contest or any Contest-related activities and the acceptance and use, misuse, or possession of any prize awarded hereunder.

The Captured Experiences Competition assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, or delay in operation or transmission; communications line failure; theft or destruction of or unauthorised access to Competition entries or entry forms; or alteration of entries or entry forms. Captured Experiences Competition is not responsible for any problems with or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any email entry to be received on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website, human errors of any kind, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to entrants’ or any other persons’ computers related to or resulting from participation, uploading or downloading of any materials related to this Competition.

Conditions

By entering, entrants also agree (a) to be bound by these Competition Rules; (b) that the decisions of the Judges are final and binding with respect to all matters relating to the Competition and no correspondence will be entered into; and (c) if the entrant wins that Captured Experiences Competition may use the winning photographs and each winner’s name, photograph, likeness, and/or voice in any publicity or advertising relating to the Competition or future promotions without compensation or approval.

The Captured Experiences Competition reserves the right to verify the validity and originality of any entry and/or entrant (including an entrant’s identity and address) and to disqualify any entrant who submits an entry that is not in accordance with these Competition Rules or who tampers with the entry process. Failure by the Captured Experiences Competition to enforce any of its rights at any stage does not constitute a waiver of those rights.

Right to Cancel or Suspend Contest

If for any reason the Captured Experiences Competition is not capable of running as planned, due to infection by computer virus, bugs, worms, trojan horses, denial of service attacks, tampering, unauthorised intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes beyond the control of Captured Experiences Competition that corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this Competition, Captured Experiences Competition reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual(s) who tamper with the entry process, and/or to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the Contest.

Data Privacy

Entrants agree that personal data, especially name and address, may be processed, shared, and otherwise used for the purposes and within the context of the Competition and any other purposes outlined in these Competition Rules. The data may also be used by the Captured Experiences Competition in order to verify the participant’s identity, postal address, and telephone number or to otherwise verify the participant’s eligibility to participate in the Competition.