Sodwana Bay Underwater Photo Shootout 
Rules & Information

OBJECTIVES OF THE COMPETITION

1. To stimulate underwater photography in the wider diving community 
2. To improve the standard of photography and stretch the individuals' ability.
3. To improve the understanding, type and standard of service offered by all operators to underwater photographers

This is to be achieved in a shootout environment over a two-day period, where we have the minimum number of necessary rules that can be easily enforced. With this in mind the following rules would apply:

General

1. All images are to be taken in the Sodwana Bay marine Reserve.
2. Shooting can take place at any time after the registration on Wednesday evening 21 November 2002 until 18:00 on Friday, 23 November when all films must be handed in, 
3. All Operators will be encouraged to provide additional services and or individualised service for photographers as part of contributing to photography as a whole
4. Photographers may hire their own boats and crew.
5. Late entries are allowed. Price is R450.
6. Main prize will be from 35mm slide categories.
7. The judges decision is final.

35mm entries

1. Competition organizers will do the developing
2. Hand in times are 18:00 on Thursday and Friday.
3. Competitors can only hand in one film on Friday, 
4. If competitors are going to hand in two films, the first of these must be handed in on Thursday.
5. Films handed in on Friday will be available for collection at the latest on 08:00 Saturday. 
6. Films will be processed on a first come first served basis and can be collected up until 23:00 on Friday, once they have been processed and are sleeved.

Controls

7. Competitors will collect numbered films at registration
8. Only numbered films will be developed
9. Competitors will select two images and mark them on the sleeves, listing category and level and hand to the event manager, who will mount the entries and mark them.
10. Competitors can hand in the marked sleeves to the event organiser only between 10:00 and 13:00 on Saturday. No entries will be accepted after 13:00.

Open

11. Entries to be handed in by 13:00 either on disc/tape or as a slide.
12. Creative slides, reworked scanned images and digital stills can be entered into this category. 
13. Only one entry for this category per entrant may be submitted. It must be recognised as images taken at Sodwana at during the competition. 
14. The submission must be the sole work of one person, including the shooting during the competition and reworking them etc. No assistance or collusion will be accepted

Video

15. Entries to be handed in at 08:00 on Saturday morning. Judging will take place between 08:00 and 12:00 on Saturday.
16. Hand in the tape in – stopped at the point that the judges must start viewing
17. Entries longer than the specified time limits will be disqualified.
18. Each video entry may not exceed three minutes in length.
19. Video can be submitted in VHS, 8mm, Hi-8mm or PAL format
20. In the advanced video section an audio track is required and at least 75% of video must take place in open water.
21. Each competitor is allowed to use 2 (two) tapes (or memory sticks).
22. Each videotape must be labeled on the tape cartridge and tape case with entrant’ s number and length of tape. 
23. The clean videotapes must be scrutinized by the chief video judge and signed off prior to first dive. 
24. The time and date settings on the cameras to be used must also be verified by the judge.

1. Advanced wide angle
2. Advanced standard
3. Advanced macro
4. Intermediate macro
5. Novice

7. Open----------------------------------35mm slide, digital stills, re-mastered images
8. Video basic-------------------------clean-cut 1min piece
9. Video advanced-------------------edited 3min piece

JUDGING CRITERIA

(Changes to judging criteria are at the discretion of the competition judges)

Slides

All slides will be judged on 

1. Overall impact.
2. Technical image quality (lighting, exposure, and focus) 
3. Composition 
4. Difficulty 

Video Entries

All video entries will be judged on the basis of 

1. Production values (camera, audio, lighting, and editing), 
2. Message & storyline design.
3. The value of UW videography will weigh more than computer-generated graphics and animation. Entries may not be part of a commercial production.

OBJECTIONS

The Objections committee will consist of the judges.

If any competitor wishes to lodge an objection the process is to be followed:

1. A cash deposit of R500 is paid to the Objections committee.
2. A written objection is to be handed to the committee at the same time.
3. The committee will deliberate on and decide whether the objection is valid and should be upheld.
4. The committee will then inform the relevant parties.
5. The full deposit will be repaid to the person who submitted any upheld objection.
6. Deposits will be forfeited if the objections are turned down.

Objections can be handed in until 08:00 on Saturday, 24 November 2002.

The Objections committee is final.  

GUIDELINES FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

In the event that an award winning entry is later found to have violated any rule, it will be disqualified, and officials of this competition reserve the right to recall prizes or request reimbursement of fair market value if non-returnable.

No photograph may be entered in more than one category.

Photography, videography, and editing must have been performed by the entrant only.

Marine life should never be stressed or endangered for the sake of a photo. Entries exhibiting the following behaviour may be disqualified.

1. Divers visibly damaging (e.g. gear dragging or kicking up sand) the environment. 
2. Animals with signs of stress (e.g. puffed puffers, inking octopus). 
3. Animals moved to an unnatural environment or risky location. 
4. Animals being fed (especially artificial food from divers). 
5. Marine life being touched (e.g. coral polyps, seahorse tails). 
6. Divers exhibiting poor buoyancy control.

COPYRIGHT

In submitting any entry, the owner grants Sodwana Bay Photo Shootout the right to use such photographs and videos for no more than two years for promotion of the competition in printed, slide show, video, webpage, and CD Rom formats; and non-profit educational purposes. Finalist and winning entries may be published. All copyrights will be retained by the entrant and recognition will be given to the photographer/videographer. Model releases will be the responsibility of the person retaining copyright Sodwana Bay Photo Shootout officials and any other sponsoring entity cannot be held responsible for loss or damage of an entry before, during, or after the competition.

ELIGIBILITY

The competition is open to all amateur photographers and/or videographers. An individual who earns more than 25% of their income from underwater images, photography, videography, or photo/video editing is ineligible for this competition. 

 The organizing committee is made up of two distinct parts: 

• Members who are involved in only raising sponsorships, and
• Members who will be running and judging the competition.