Who may enter:

Amateur photographers, which we define as someone who does not make their living through photography. The Youth category is for children 13 and under. Employees of MaineToday Media are not eligible to enter. No purchase or payment necessary to enter.

What to enter:

Photographs taken in Maine that capture the state’s scenic character, its people and anything else. In the adult classification, there are three categories: scenic, people and open. In the Youth classification, there is one open category covering all content.There are four seasonal contests per year and photographs should reflect the season of the constest they are entered in (i.e., photographs for the summer contest should be taken in summer, fall photographs should be taken in the fall, etc.) Obscene, provocative or otherwise questionable photographs will not be considered.

How to enter:

Enter online at www.pressherald.com/photocontest

Please do not send photographs in the mail. Each week, a winner will be chosen in each category. Each contestant is limited to one entry per category per week.  Photographs should be entered in the jpeg (.jpg) format, and should be no larger than 1.5 megabytes (MB) when closed. The image should no larger than 1600 pixels in its longest dimension.

Permitted digital enhancement of the images is limited to cropping, resizing, spot editing, toning using controls such as levels, curves, brightness and contrast and use of filters to sharpen or remove noise. Alterations NOT permitted include adding elements, removing or replacing elements that are not present in the scene. The use of artistic filters is not permitted.

Entries must be submitted by the original photographer who is the sole owner of the copyright of the image. Submitting a photo and filling out an entry form is your guarantee that you are the author and copyright holder of the photograph. Winners will be asked to submit a high-resolution digital file. By entering the contest, entrants grant MaineToday Media a royalty-free, non-exclusive license to reproduce and display the photographs, including but not limited to, advertising and promotion by MaineToday Media, it’s publications and Web sites.

Entry deadline:

For the Fall season contest, contestants can submit entries until November 25th, 2010.

Judging:

A winner will be chosen by our photography staff in each category every week. Also each week, there will be a readers’ choice winner in both the adult and youth classifications. At the end of the seasonal contest, winners will be chosen from the winning weekly entries. 

Judging will be done by the staff photographers of the MaineToday Media. Readers’ choice winners will be determined through voting by online viewers. Winning photographs will be published in the Portland Press Herald, the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel. Decisions of the judges is final. Winning photographs from all four seasonal contests will also be printed and displayed in an annual exhibition at a date and location to be announced.