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25.01.2022 Just confirming that the Crikey Photo competition is an ok competition In response to those concerned about the t&cs. They’re ok/good, in my opinion as the PhotoWatchDog. This is the usage part of the t&cs. ... 11. By entering this promotion: a. The participant grants Australia Zoo, CameraPro and its licensees and assignees a non-exclusive license to exercise all rights in perpetuity throughout the world for the entry at any time. This includes, but is not limited to, the right to display the entry or any part of the entry in whole or in part in any media, including on the Australia Zoo Facebook page and CameraPro Facebook Page. The participant acknowledges that they will not be entitled to any compensation for this continued use but photographers will be credited at all times. b. Photos submitted as part of this competition will be used ONLY in conjunction with this competition and promotions or media surrounding it. Use thereafter will require positive permission from the photographer. So while part a looks a little intimidating, what you need to do is carry on reading and see that part b, importantly, limits use to promotion of the competition only.

25.01.2022 For years (nearly 2 decades) I've been the only person behind PhotoWatchDog. My self appointed brief was to try and lobby photo competition organisers to produce fair terms and conditions for their conditions. For those who don't understand how photo awards and competitions are organised; the organisers of the awards or competitions provide their event, set the rules and set what is and what isn't allowed in their categories or competition. There is usually ZERO input from judges into how these things are set up. Stop the "blame the judges" posts. They are told to judge the images in front of them.

24.01.2022 MEDIA STATEMENT FROM NZIPP PRESIDENT The NZIPP Honours Council has now concluded their investigations into allegations of Iris Award rule breaches by Australia...n photographer Lisa Saad. While the NZIPP Honours Council appreciates that some may see the announcement of this outcome as slow, it was essential that the investigation follow a thorough and rigorous process around what has been a complex situation. The allegations first came to light following anonymous emails sent to a number of organisations around the world, including the NZIPP Honours Council. In the days that followed revelations were made by Corey Doyle Balazowich, through her Stopstealingphotos.com website in support of these allegations. We acknowledge the significant amount of work undertaken by Ms Balazowich, which reflected the complexity and depth of the analysis required to investigate the allegations. Ms Balazowich’s work was a major catalyst for both the NZIPP Honours Council and other organisations commencing their own investigations into Ms Saad. The allegations revolved around plagiarism and copyright, and this was also the focus of the initial investigations carried out by the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP), Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP) and Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI). Each of these organisations subsequently disqualifying Ms Saad’s entries. The second component to the AIPP investigation concluded when Ms Saad failed to submit the requested files by their imposed deadline. The failure by Ms Saad to supply these files resulted in an automatic breach of entry rules and an across the board disqualification. Her membership of the AIPP was immediately terminated, and all points, awards, titles, and prizes rescinded. A ban from entering future AIPP State or National Awards was also imposed on her. The investigation undertaken by the NZIPP Honours Council took a slightly different route, where Ms Saad chose to submit a number of the requested files, withdrew entries where she was unable to provide files for all of the elements, and more recently, did not provide all of the remaining files as requested by the designated deadline. Members of the NZIPP Honours Council have worked day and night over recent weeks to carry out a comprehensive review of all files and images that were submitted, assessing these alongside the allegations and information shared on the Stopstealingphotos.com website, as well as the rules outlined in the Iris Awards Call for Entries document. The NZIPP Honours Council investigation revealed compelling evidence of breaches of rules and entry conditions by Ms Saad. Furthermore, Ms Saad’s conduct indicated an intent to deceive and mislead the outcome of the investigation. Based on these findings, the NZIPP Honours Council has now disqualified all of Ms Saad’s entries. Subsequent to this disqualification, NZIPP has decided that effective immediately, all awards, titles, prizes, accrued merit points and Honours Distinctions received by Ms Saad through the NZ Iris Awards be revoked. In addition, a life ban is to be imposed on Ms Saad, meaning she will no longer be eligible to enter any future NZ Iris Awards competition. Following this outcome, the NZIPP Honours Council will now commence the process of re-assigning awards to the revised and rightful winners. Information on this will come through in the weeks ahead. This has been an unprecedented situation, but throughout the process the NZIPP Honours Council has proven that both the Iris Awards entry rules and the systems in place to enforce those rules have stood up to the investigation. As such, aside from the annual review of entry rules, there is no reason to make any significant changes to what currently exists. Ultimately, the onus falls on the entrant to read, understand and follow all entry rules, with consequences should they choose not to. Finally, while this event has affected many people, the NZIPP hopes that through the NZIPP Honours Council now reaching an outcome, all those who have been impacted and affected by the situation are able to move on in a positive light, trusting that this has been an isolated case and that entrants who enter the Iris Awards in the future do so with honesty and integrity. Ollie Dale, FNZIPP NZIPP President

22.01.2022 I’ve republished this page after numerous messages asking for it to be active again. If you’re aware, or have seen a photo competition that you’re not sure of, or have doubts about or are concerned about, please post it on this page. I will investigate, and if I can, I’ll try to persuade the competition producers to make their competition fair.... I’ll then give that competition a grading Please do not message me, as it’s easier to respond to a post, which then helps everyone

20.01.2022 I wrote this for another group, but as it turned into a mini novel I thought it would be worth sharing it here too. #youbethejudge #photowatchdog I've been a j...udge on many photo competitions and I am the PhotoWatchDog, a service that no one has ever tried to supply (one that lobbies photo competitions to produce fair competitions for entrants and to give away freely my time and energy to photo competition organisers providing them with fair terms and conditions) OK lets get one thing straight. Photography is subjective. Even the most experienced and creative photographers will disagree on how an image is scored, or judged. Competitions rely on judges, and if you, the entrant think that when your images aren't received as well as you, your friends, your mentors think you should have scored, been awarded, then attacking the system or the judges in general is in my view unacceptable. I've been a great advocate of putting some form of defence system within the terms and conditions to protect judges. Is it that necessary ? After 24 years of judging anything from APPA, and AIPP state awards, to Luminous Awards, Creative Asia Awards, Epson Pano Awards and the Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize; I've received a fair amount of thanks but an inordinate amount of negative/hostile feedback. On several occasions that feedback has transgressed from slightly hostile to actual death threats, where the police have been called into knock on the door of the upset interstate entrant. Like many I'm asked to contribute my time because of my experience within the industry. I've also been a state chair of jurors and national deputy chair of jurors, which relies on selecting judges and putting together teams of people with varying degrees of experience, balancing gender, and opposing and wide range of views. Recently I put my own images into National APPA's after I'd entered them at State, they didnt do as well as I'd hope, but I probably had unrealistic goals and expectations. Yes I complained to some of my nearest and dearest, but after a couple of days, I had to remind myself of what I tell everyone else; judging an image is not a mathematical equation. It's not something you can rely on it being judged the same from one panel to the other. There is no system in the world that can do that. So when you enter a competition, you accept the outcome of the judging - it says that in all the terms and conditions of entry. And these days it also says that you shouldnt go on to social media and bag the judging out. We've all done it at some point, myself included. But here's why we shouldn't do it, and that is because it relies on people to judge it. If we slam the judging (after it has followed an acceptable and described process prior to entry), then more and more people who accept, (normally at their own cost) to judge a competition, will begin to decline those invitations. I assure you that it is happening. I am deeply concerned that more and more people are saying no thanks to judging because of social media posts. I won't call them attacks, because I'm sure that many of you here wouldn't think that they are, but when you've been part of a judging panel and then the social media world lights up because Fred has a much better picture (but didn't enter it - not to self, you can't win it if you're not in it), or Felicity didn't get the score she was assured from her friends that she deserved, that feels like an attack. Sit down all day for four to five days, judging images approximately one every minute, for ten hours a day, with a short time off every 45-60 minutes. Not every one of your calls is going to be correct. If your image is judged after a series of uninspiring images, then you have a luck on your side. If your image follows a series of amazing images that all score golds, then yours just might be dismissed fairly quickly. The good news is that most systems rely on many different arrangements of multiple judges. And that's when the "feedback" comes into play. Now this is a very personal view, but after a print has been judged with a score is the absolute worst time to gain feedback. It's when the olympic ice dancer couple have completed their dance, it's subjectively viewed and scored by a panel of judges. Some judges see the best part and score if highly and some see the faults and score it low. Their score is announced. Hoorah or tears. Then a judge is selected that is sitting somewhere in the middle, ie they were not decisive, they played safe, and they're the ones who are asked to add a comment. Why? Who is interested in their view I'd ask. I want to hear from the judges who saw the faults, or ask why it didnt appeal to them. But the horse has bolted, they've gone, they're no longer there. Comments and feedback is required prior to entering these things. Ice Dancers like almost anyone have coaches or trainers. My past career was as a Principal Ballet Dancer with a leading company that performed all over the world. Applause at the end of the show was one way of knowing that you'd done a good job. If there was none, then you would hear a deafening silence. If it was the last chance to perform that role, I would received zero feedback from my Artistic Director, Ballet Master, Coaches, Trainers or Partners, there was no point! Their job was to coach, mentor me, extract the best out of me. If you're entering competitions for feedback you're doing it for the wrong thing and you're approaching it from the wrong way. Get that feedback before you enter. Yes I cant argue with how many people want feedback from judging, but just because a lot of people who don't know how a system works asks for something doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do. Personally I try and educate as many as I can about how to go about entering into competitions I've coached many photographers for both their work and entering competitions and I've explained to them things that are important - READ THE RULES, READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, READ THE BRIEF or CATEGORY DESCRIPTION I've mentored totally new photographers to very very experienced, and also taking that range, I've mentored or coached in one on one situations and those people have as first time entrants not just scored highly but taken out the main titles. And very importantly, understand how the image will be judged; what the lighting conditions will be or will it be judged digitally, on calibrated high end monitors (so if you're viewing yours on a cheap monitor or on an calibrated screen). There is a wealth of new competitions on the market and most are run on a commercial basis, they almost have to be. There are very few that are not. But most still rely on a large amount of volunteers. So what some will see as "such a small thing", others, including me see that as a fairly large issue. And I'm as welcome to that honest view as the original author is of those words. BTW, I'm not a nazi and by disagreeing with you, I'm being as honest as I would be face to face. ( What I won't ever do is use the term Nazi, that is without debate highly offensive, and I would ask that people please decline from using it) That's my view based as an entrant, as a judge and as a photographer who chooses to shoot to push myself regardless of how long I've been doing it for.

18.01.2022 Well the exclusion of eligibility by residents of Tasmania from WPPI has prompted me to republish this page. On behalf of Tasmanians I'm currently trying to draw a proper explanation from WPPI (without success to date) . In the meantime I'm seeking legal advice from some of Australia's leading QCs on behalf of those who now find themselves singled out as ineligible. The rumours, and I can only describe them as that, as to the reasoning behind this bizarre decision appear...s to be equally bizare, with references being made to a US law on sweepstakes; that WPPI is a "for profit" competition (plenty of photo competitions are run for profit), and payment of judges (again many competitions pay their judges). The most amazing point is the issue appears to be that the administrators of WPPI would seem to be indicating that their competition is a game of chance, ie the reference to sweepstakes laws in the US . Over the past 25 years I have no experience of anything like this happening before, by any photographic competition worldwide.

18.01.2022 Is the iPhone competition really fixed? Read this: http://www.artists-bill-of-rights.org//is-apple's-%23shoto

17.01.2022 Do not enter or support in any way this competition! Disgraceful. If this was covered under fair trading it would of course be banned. It's not. So government bodies who should be setting standards, do the opposite and rip off the public. https://www.facebook.com/200895784761/posts/10158511679789762/

12.01.2022 https://fstoppers.com//sony-world-photo-awards-has-lost-it

11.01.2022 Good to see that the terms and conditions are great. http://www.australianphotography.com//dog-photographer-of- Tick of approval from me.

07.01.2022 It’s not photos they want, but video. And it’s horrendous. First class example of how NOT to run a competition. Instead of a positive public relations experience, it will be a negative experience for all. A classic fail. The competition https://tclelectronics.com.au/born-a-legend/... These are the horrendous terms. They may as well be asking for your first born. Truly unacceptable. https://tclelectronics.com.au//up/TCL-Born-A-Legend-TC.pdf Thanks TCL, but no thanks. Thanks to Marc Gaffen, editor of Capture Magazine, for notifying me.

06.01.2022 Richest company in the world.

05.01.2022 The Mono Awards is looking for the best black and white photography across Australia and New Zealand. $10,000 in cash and prizes. Entries open now. More: http:...//www.themonoawards.com.au Momento Photo Books Momento Pro Kudos Cameras

05.01.2022 Plenty of new photo competitions available. This is a reminder to please check the terms and conditions before you enter and part with your money. One of my new favourite images to grab your attention

05.01.2022 Edited. I’m please to say that with Rachel Gordon’s initial contact with their CEO, this organisation will be immediately changing its terms. I’ve reviewed and approved the replacement terms. Please edit any social media posts as they have been really receptive to photographers concerns.

05.01.2022 As the PhotoWatchDog, I’d like to remind everyone, that the fall out of this will affect all photo competitions. If we can’t rely on the photographer/entrant reading the rules and complying to all the terms and conditions, then photo competitions are in general, going to be a thing of the past. Far too many accusations aimed at organisers of competitions around the world that they should tighten the rules, or make them fair (I can’t understand that comment personally).... It’s the entrants moral and legal responsibility to remain compliant. It’s that simple. That anyone can excuse the entrant, if they’re disqualified is, in my opinion, totally baffling.

03.01.2022 Do we really need .au only domain names ?

01.01.2022 Strong advisory notice. Please read, share and distribute this. Do not enter this competition. In the 2018-19 budget, there was $47.5 million over 4 years to boost international and domestic tourism. (source https://apps.treasury.act.gov.au///budget-in-brief/tourism)/ ... This contributes $2.3 Billion to the ACT Economy. And yet: ACT Government you should be utterly ashamed of yourselves. You're running what to the informed is an "image grab" As soon as you enter the entry becomes the property of ACT Government. How fair is that? They don't even respect the copyright! That's right, if you shot it, the default is that you own the copyright because you created it. What an utter disgrace that the home of the Australian Government, feels that they need to con the public out of their images and use them commercially for any tourism marketing purpose? So if you're visiting Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, please read the terms and conditions of this "competition". Essentially you're giving your nice pictures away, they could be used for anything to publicise the city. Each month the first prize is a one-hour boat ride worth $99 Oh and just in case you missed it, they (ACT Government - the hosts of the competition) can pull the competition at any time (ie not award a prize at all), and keep all entries. There is no mention of the word copyright or licence, so as that is not covered at all - disgraceful oversight from the ACT Government, home of the Australian Government - then you are likely to not be able to use or publish the image you enter for your own purposes. APPALLING! $47.5 million over 4 years to boost tourism and you stoop to con the "243,000 international visitors abd 4.75 million interstate day and overnight visitors that experienced Canberra last year" (source https://apps.treasury.act.gov.au///budget-in-brief/tourism) Visit Canberra time to lift your game. This is not just cheap, it's shameful that you think this is in any way fair or moral! https://www.facebook.com/200895784761/posts/10158511679789762/