Rainforest Alliance's "Picture Sustainability" Photo Contest Rules, 2009
Rainforest Alliance invites you to submit photographs that promote our mission of working to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior. We encourage submission of photographs that display and celebrate local cultures and communities, sustainable livelihoods in agriculture, forestry and tourism, and flora and fauna in landscapes, environments and habitats around the world.
Eligibility, entry period and instructions, judging criteria, prize details and winner selection and notification procedures are detailed below. BY ENTERING THIS PHOTO CONTEST, YOU AGREE TO ALL OF THE RULES OF THIS CONTEST AND TO ALL OF THE LEGAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS LISTED BELOW.
ELIGIBILITY
This contest is open only to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 years of age or older as of the date the contest begins. Employees and immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, sibling or sibling's spouse) of employees of the Rainforest Alliance and its affiliates, or Fujifilm or its affiliates, or Art Wolfe, Inc., are not eligible to participate. No purchase is necessary to enter the contest.
This contest is void in Puerto Rico, outside the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, and where prohibited by law.
ENTRY PERIOD
The contest begins June 15, 2009, 4pm EST and ends November 1, 2009, 4pm EST. All entries must be received within this time period in order to be considered for prizes. Rainforest Alliance reserves the right to modify the deadline for submissions due to circumstances beyond its control.
ENTRY INSTRUCTIONS
Please enter the contest by completing the on-line submission form and submitting your original photograph electronically at www.raphotocontest.org. Entrants must complete all data requested on the form. No other method of entry will be accepted. We will not accept photographs submitted through the mail.
You may submit as many photographs as you wish; however, you must complete a separate on-line submission form for each photograph you wish to enter. The image may originate in a non-digital format (such as high quality film slides, negatives or prints scanned into a digital format) so long as it is submitted electronically. Entries must be submitted in JPEG format (as .jpg files) and should be at least 1MB but shall not exceed 5MB. You must submit the actual image file, not a link or other type of file. If an image file is not readable, the entry will be disqualified. Altered photographs may be submitted, so long as you specify on the entry form how the photo has been altered. No photo montages or composite images will be accepted. The Rainforest Alliance in its sole judgment shall determine whether a photograph meets these requirements for entry into the contest. Electronic files submitted to Rainforest Alliance will not be returned and may be retained by the Rainforest Alliance after the completion of the contest.
By entering, you warrant that the photograph that you submit is original and is your own, and does not infringe on the rights of any third party. You further warrant that your participation in this photo contest does not violate any agreement between you and a third party.
By entering the photo contest, you grant the Rainforest Alliance the non-exclusive right to publish, use, distribute, reproduce and publicly display your photograph, and to create derivative works from your photograph, in perpetuity, in any of its on-line, print or other media publications, materials or exhibitions, for purposes of promoting the Rainforest Alliance's mission and awareness of its program, including but not limited to for editorial, advertising, publicity, and fundraising purposes, without payment of compensation unless prohibited by law. You grant the Rainforest Alliance permission to provide your name, and your city and state of residence, when publishing, reproducing or otherwise using your photo and when identifying you as an entrant or prize winner in the photo contest. While the Rainforest Alliance will make every effort to credit photographers when using photos, there may be circumstances where it is not possible to do so. Subject to the rights granted to the Rainforest Alliance, you retain all other copyrights and rights to future use of the photographs you enter into the contest.
If your photograph(s) include a recognizable person or people, you must secure permission from each person (or in the case of a minor, the minor's parent or guardian) to use his/her image in the photo contest, and present it to Rainforest Alliance, if requested. Click here for a model release form. The Rainforest Alliance reserves the right to disqualify an entry if it finds, in its sole discretion, that an entrant has not secured a necessary release.
JUDGING CRITERIA & PRIZE WINNER SELECTION
After the close of the entry period, eligible photographs will be assigned to one of four categories:
• Landscapes (tropical, temperate and boreal forests; rivers, streams and waterfalls; flowers and plants; beaches: wetlands; coral reefs)
• Conservation in action (children and/or adults conserving natural resources, including water, flora and fauna, or engaging on environmental education)
• Wildlife (insects, birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, fish)
• Sustainable tourism (hiking, bird watching, mountain biking, and other land-based nature activities; surfing, scuba, kayaking, snorkeling and other coastal or marine activities; other ecotourism-related subjects)
Preliminary judging and scoring will be done by a panel of judges from the Rainforest Alliance. The photographs will be judged based on three (3) criteria and assigned a score of up to a maximum of 30 points. The three criteria, which will be weighted equally, are: visual appeal and composition (maximum 10 points); portrayal of the Rainforest Alliance's mission (maximum 10 points); and originality and creativity (maximum 10 points). The judges will be staff in the Communications and Marketing divisions of the Rainforest Alliance who have experience or educational training in photography and design, and/or are responsible for the design of and selection of images in the Rainforest Alliance electronic and non-electronic publications and materials.
Up to 20 finalists (up to five in each category) will be selected from all eligible submissions based upon the scoring system. In the event of a tie, the selection of finalists will be within the discretion of the judges.
The Rainforest Alliance will then post the finalists for each category on its Web site (www.rainforest-alliance.org) and invite the public to vote on category winners. Web site visitors can vote by dragging their favorite image into a box to select it as the winner for that category. At the end of the public voting period, votes for each photo will be tallied by Rainforest Alliance communications staff and Category Prizes will be awarded to the photos with the most votes in each category. A maximum of four (4) Category Prize winners, one for each category, will be chosen.
Finalists also will be sent to Art Wolfe, world-renowned wildlife and nature photographer, who will select one Grand Prize winner. Should Art Wolfe choose the same photo for the Grand Prize winner that the public has chosen as a Category Prize winner, the Category Prize will then go to the photo in that category with the next highest average score from the public voting. Only one (1) Grand Prize winner will be chosen.
The decisions of the judges are final and binding.
PRIZE WINNER NOTIFICATION & PRIZES
On or about December 15, 2009, the Rainforest Alliance shall notify the Category Prize winners and the Grand Prize winner of his or her selection. Notification shall be by e-mail and/or telephone. If the Rainforest Alliance is unable to contact a potential winner, does not receive an acknowledgment of receipt from a potential winner within ten (10) days, or if the notification is returned as undeliverable, the Rainforest Alliance has the option to disqualify such potential winner and select an alternate winner.
Each Category Prize winner will be awarded one (1) Fujifilm Finepix S100 FS 11.1 megapixel digital camera with 14.3x Optical Zoom 28-400mm (35mm equivalent)10.7x Wide-Angle Optical Zoom and a one-year Rainforest Alliance membership. Approximate retail value of each Category Prize is $800.
Benefits of a Rainforest Alliance membership, at $100 level, include; a subscription to our monthly e-newsletter, The Canopy, members-only conservation updates, and opportunities to participate in fun and informative events.
The Grand Prize winner will receive a five-day, four-night rafting and eco-tour for two to Costa Rica, including airfare from the lower 48 US states at a value not to exceed $800/person. The trip will be organized and booked through Colorado-based Aventouras and Costa Rica Nature Adventures' Pacuare Jungle Lodge. The trip combines rafting on the world's most scenic white water, surrounded by unparalleled natural beauty, with gourmet food and the utmost in service at the award-winning lodge.
Included in the Grand Prize trip:
Prize winners will be required to execute and return to Rainforest Alliance an Affidavit of Eligibility/Release of Liability/Prize Acceptance Form ("Affidavit and Release") within ten (10) days of notification of selection as a prize winner. The Affidavit and Release will, among other things and as required under these contest rules, certify the prize winner's eligibility to enter the contest, rights in the photograph submitted, and ability to grant rights in the photo to the Rainforest Alliance; grant the Rainforest Alliance the right to publish and use the photo, without further consent of or compensation to the winner and/or any person whose recognizable image appears in the photograph; release and indemnify the Rainforest Alliance from and against liability associated with the entry, the photograph, the contest and the prizes; acknowledge responsibility for taxes; and certify compliance with the U.S.A. Patriot Act and related anti-terrorism laws. Failure to sign and return an Affidavit and Release to the Rainforest Alliance within ten (10) days of notification may result in disqualification and the selection of an alternate winner. The Grand Prize winner (or designated transferee for travel) and his/her travel companion also will be required to execute a release of liability in connection with their participation in the travel prize.
The winning photographs may appear on the Rainforest Alliance Web site and the Fujifilm Web site, and also may be used by the Rainforest Alliance for future publicity or fundraising purposes.
For a list of prize winners, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Rainforest Alliance, "Picture Sustainability" Photo Contest, 665 Broadway, Suite 500, New York, New York, 10012 after December 1, 2009 but before July 6, 2010.
LEGAL TERMS & CONDITIONS
This photo contest is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations.
As an entrant in this photo contest, it is your responsibility to determine that you are eligible to enter and to comply with the entry instructions and other photo contest rules set forth herein. Any violation of the contest rules may result in your disqualification, in the sole discretion of the Rainforest Alliance.
In the event of a dispute relating to the identity of the entrant, the entrant will be deemed to be the authorized account holder of the email address used to submit the entry to the photo contest. The authorized account holder shall mean the natural person who is assigned to an e-mail address by an Internet Access Provider, online service provider, or other organization (e.g., business, educational institute) responsible for assigning e-mail addresses for the domain associated with the submitted e-mail address.
The Rainforest Alliance reserves the right to disqualify you if, among other reasons, you breach the warranties you are required to make, you have failed to secure permission from persons whose recognizable images appear in the photo, or your entry is lost, late, misdirected, incorrect, garbled or incompletely received, for any reason whatsoever, including by reason of hardware, software, browser or network failure, malfunction, congestion or incompatibility with the Rainforest Alliance's servers. The Rainforest Alliance further reserves the right to disqualify you, and to seek damages against you to the fullest extent permitted by law, if you intentionally or recklessly damage the Rainforest Alliance Web site or tamper with the entry process or operation of the Web site or otherwise undermine the legitimate operation of the contest, or attempt to do so. Such actions may violate criminal and civil laws.
In the event that the Rainforest Alliance cannot complete the photo contest as planned, including but not limited to by reason of infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, force majeure, technical failures of any sort or other causes beyond the control of the Rainforest Alliance that corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of the photo contest, the Rainforest Alliance reserves the right to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the photo contest.
By entering this photo contest, you agree to release the Rainforest Alliance and its affiliates, and their officers, directors, agents, attorneys, employees and representatives, from any and all liability for any claims, demands, causes of action, damages, judgments or settlements, or for any losses or injury to earnings, profits, or goodwill, or for any direct, indirect, special, punitive, incidental or consequential damages, including attorneys' fees and court costs, other than entrant's out-of-pocket expenses (if any) associated with entering the contest, arising out of or relating to this photo contest, your access or lack of access to the Rainforest Alliance Web site, or in connection with any prize won, any misuse or malfunction of any prize awarded, or any use by Rainforest Alliance of the photographs submitted.
By entering the photo contest, you hereby agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Rainforest Alliance and its affiliates, and their officers, directors, agents, attorneys, employees and representatives, against and from all third party claims, demands, causes of action, damages, judgments or settlements, including reasonable attorneys' fees and court costs, arising out of or relating to this photo contest, or in connection with any prize won, any misuse or malfunction of any prize awarded, or any use by Rainforest Alliance of the photographs submitted.
In the event of any dispute, controversy or claim between an entrant and the Rainforest Alliance, the parties shall first seek to resolve the dispute through informal discussions. In the event any dispute, controversy or claim cannot be resolved informally, the parties agree that the dispute, controversy or claim will be settled by binding arbitration in accordance with the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association in effect at the time of commencement of the arbitration, and the parties agree that judgment upon the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof.