2010 Australian Digital Photo Of The Day (ADPOTD) Rules: Australian Digital Photo Of The Day (hereafter referred to as ADPOTD) is open to all Australian residents.  Those with more than 12 months active membership, are granted "special" membership status, should it become necessary to move off-shore.  In recognition of this prior membership, these members may continue to participate in all areas of the ADPOTD web site, including competitions.    Prizes (if offered) will be delivered to Australian postal addresses ONLY, those members living abroad "may" be responsible for all charges associated with prize delivery. Should a winner be unable to take possession of their prize for ANY reason, it will be returned to the competition prize pool. There are two main competitions run on an annual basis, "Photo Of The Year" and "Photographer Of The Year" and these are explained as follows...... Photographer Of The Year Competition: Points are awarded for various competition wins throughout the year (see below). The photographer who accumulates the most points (including those received in the "Featured Category" competitions) will be awarded "Photographer Of The Year" and will receive prize/s as noted on the prize page. Photo Of The Year Competition (Incorporating "Photo Of The Day" & "Photo Of The Month"): Each weekday (Jan-Nov, excluding public holidays and/or dates as noted in the Forum), one image will be chosen from all financial member's gallery images and be awarded as "Photo Of The Day". This is a "blind" selection as the photographer's name remains unknown during the selection process. At the end of each month one image is selected as "Photo Of The Month". This image is selected by one ADPOTD staff member or ADPOTD designated judge and is now considered an "interim" award, on route to the competition's ultimate goal "Photo Of The Year". This image also earns the contributing photographer bonus points (as shown below) towards the "Photographer Of The Year" award. In addition, a minimum of two "Highly Commended" images may be selected each month. These images may be selected from either the "Photo Of The Day" or "Featured Category" competitions and earn the contributing photographer bonus points (as shown below) towards the "Photographer Of The Year" award. Each & every "Photo Of The Day" image becomes eligible for "Photo Of The Year" selection*. This is the ultimate goal for our "Photo Of The Day" images and will be judged by a panel of at least three (3) photographic industry professionals. Each "Photo Of The Day" image also earns the contributing photographer points (as shown below) towards the "Photographer Of The Year" award that is announced at the end of the calendar year. Featured Category Competition: Special "Featured Category" competitions take place in the Gallery. The rules for each competition will be displayed within the gallery as they occur. Points received from this competition contribute to the "Photographer Of The Year" as mentioned above. Competition Points: Photo Of The Day 10 Points Photo Of The Month 5 Bonus Points Highly Commended (POTD & Featured comp) 2 Bonus Points Featured Category Winner 15 Points Eligibility: * All competitions contained within this site, require the Member to be financial at the time of judging. Images from NON-financial Members will be deemed ineligible. Scanned images from traditional film cameras or "grabs" from video footage are not permitted to be entered into the competitions, all competition images MUST be from digital still cameras of any resolution (megapixel rating).  These images are allowed to be uploaded to your gallery however, provided that the competition category is left blank and that they are marked as "Film Original" or "Video Grab".  Images captured with video cameras used in the "still" mode are permitted. Copyright: All images submitted remain the property of the photographer and PixelPix Pty Ltd claims no rights other than the ability to display the images throughout the ADPOTD web site. Winning images will be featured in the bi-monthly publication "Camera" (publication deadlines & layout allowing).  By submitting images to this competition, you agree to provide "Camera" NON-exclusive rights to publish your image should it be selected as a competition winner. "Camera", ADPOTD and PixelPix Pty Ltd make no claim to images submitted and copyright remains the property of the photographer. No fee is offered for publication, however a photographer's credit will be published with each winning image. Image/Entry Guidelines: *** Images MUST be uploaded to the gallery at a minimum of 600 pixels on the longest side and in JPG format and sRGB colour space.  Images not meeting the minimum quality standard as determined by ADPOTD, may not be considered eligible for POTD.  Once an image has been selected as POTD, a high resolution JPEG (min. 20cm on the longest side, 300ppi, Level 10 compression) should be supplied via email for POTM judging purposes to pix@potd(DOT)com(DOT)au (SPAM avoidance... replace the dots please). . As of the time of judging, images that have not been supplied as high resolution may not be eligible for POTM.  This will insure that winning POTM images are of sufficient quality to meet our sponsor's publication requirements and are on hand to meet publication deadlines. (ADPOTD respects the copyright of the photographer and the supplied images will not be used for any other purpose, without the permission of the photographer.)  Image shall be accompanied by the Photographers name, photo title, photo description and camera settings (if available) & photographers contact email. All images uploaded to a user's personal gallery, or other public gallery are eligible for ADPOTD at any time and NOT just the day/month of submission." Multiple entries are welcome in any one month and/or category, however PixelPix Pty Ltd reserves the right to limit entry numbers at any stage. Images and requested details shall be submitted via the User Gallery.... see the Submit Entry page for details. Gallery images for competition must be to specified size and web ready in sRGB, any image not correctly prepared or suffering image degradation due to over-compression will NOT be considered for entry and will be deleted from our system. PixelPix Pty Ltd is NOT responsible for image preparation, other than resizing to suit the ADPOTD web site and associated pages.  However due to the wide variation in user's monitor calibrations and image profiles, PixelPix Pty Ltd may feel it is necessary to alter image brightness, contrast and/or profile of some images, in order to maintain consistent site display.  Images may be submitted with decorative borders, however ADPOTD may remove these borders for POTD display.   Digital Manipulation: Digital manipulation of images entered into the "standard/regular" ADPOTD competition categories is permissible, however these are to be kept to those features that "enhance" the existing content of an image ie USM, levels, exposure and tonal adjustments (localised or otherwise), clone (for retouching) etc. Digitally "modified" images that display excessive enhancement or that owe their "content", total or in part, to the post photographic processes* of subject duplication, combining of images of differing content or the creation of new image elements by any other process, may not be entered unless specifically allowed for in a special competition category.  * Combining of images for increased Field Of View ( FOV) or High Dynamic Range (HDR) excluded. PixelPix Pty Ltd understands that post processing is a normal part of today's photography, however at times, there may be a fine line between "Digitally Enhanced" and "Digitally Modified" images and should, in the considered opinion of the administrator, an image appear excessively modified and no longer present a seemingly natural scene, the right to consider the image ineligible will be reserved. Visual effects created by the external application of filters and/or other photographic accessories at the time of capture are not considered to be Digital Manipulation. Special consideration is given to Black & White images. As the forerunner to the more modern colour image, Black & White remains an accepted and popular alternate presentation in all competition categories.  This includes singular toning such as sepia, however "spot colouring" will be at the discretion of the judge.  The Fine Print: PixelPix Pty Ltd makes no claims or promises regarding this Australian Digital Photo Of The Day site other than the "PixelPix User Web" and/or cash/gift voucher prizes listed on the web site from time to time. PixelPix Pty Ltd will not be responsible for the supply and/or delivery of prizes donated by a sponsor company, as they will be provided and shipped directly from those companies. PixelPix Pty Ltd will NOT be responsible for any images lost or damaged during submission. It is the photographer's responsibility to maintain original copies of their work for archive purposes.   PixelPix Pty Ltd reserves the right to alter an image's competition category, should that image be considered more suitable for the new category. Images that are considered of an offensive nature will be rejected.  It is the responsibility of the photographer to gain the required permissions, allowing him/her to post images containing recognisable people in the ADPOTD web site. PixelPix Pty Ltd reserves the right to amend these rules if required. Any change to these rules will be made public via the Forum. All submissions are accepted on the understanding that the photographer agrees to these terms and has obtained the required permissions.  Member's Conduct: ADPOTD will NOT tolerate offensive behavior, offensive images or spam.  Any user found to be involved in these will have their account deleted without warning! - Also see our Forum & Gallery Rules