First Ever RCWC Photo Contest! Tangible Prizes!

I am happy to announce that we will be running a photo contest here. The premise is quite simple: take cool photos, submit them, maybe win a prize.

The Details
There are a few core rules:

1. The photo must contain content related to R/C Warship Combat. Ships can be any of the major scales from any of the formats. Steampunk, AoS, IRCWCC, Treaty, BigGun, Queens Own, etc.
2. The photo must be from this year
3. RCWC staff and their families cannot enter as RCWC Staff will be doing part of the judging.
4. You must be the original owner of the photo or otherwise possess permission from the photographer to enter the photo and assign its rights of reproduction&publication. (Basically whoever took it needs to say it is okay for you to submit it and for us to publish/re-use it)

Categories
There will be two primary categories:

1. Ships in Combat - these are photos of ships during a combat event.
2. Beauty & Cool shots - Is your ship dressed for a parade? Might be a good time to take some pictures. Did you catch a really cool photo of your ship breaching a wave or launching a salvo of BBs? That might be cool.

Submitting
We will accept submissions starting the end of April (stay tuned for details on where and how to submit your photos) through July 12 November 1. That gives you some time to attend some events and get some photos (or bring your friend, or wife, or kids, whoever to take photos) and includes the week of IRCWCC Nats for good measure almost everything.

Update
The entry forms are ready and available. In the General forum list you will find a subcategory for Challenges. Link: https://rcwarshipcombat.com/categories/challenges.615/
That subcategory contains two subforums which are populated by your entries. There is a big orange 'Enter Challenge' button where 'Post New Thread' usually exists.
Direct links to application forms:
For Combat Photos: https://rcwarshipcombat.com/forms/2015-combat-photography-challenge.1/respond
For Beauty/Cool Photos: https://rcwarshipcombat.com/forms/2015-beauty-cool-photography-challenge.2/respond

For sanity's sake please limit the number of submissions to 3 per category per person.

Your entries cannot be viewed by other members until the judging begins.

Judging
Judging will be done by a combination of the community and the RCWC Staff.
Following submissions we will open up the gallery of submissions to the active membership of RCWC to vote for the favorites for a week. Those votes will then be compiled and added to the judges' scores.

Each category will have a winner declared, and in addition the judges will select their favorite non-winning photo as a Judge's Choice winner.

Prizes
Prizes are still a little fluid but will in all probability be laser-cut kits from Mark Jenks and possibly 3d-printed topside items to go with them. Exactly which kits are yet to be determined, but his stuff is all very cool.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Feel free to use the space below or send us a PM.

Please share this with your battling friends. You will need to be a member here to enter, but membership is free.

Edit 4/8/2015: Updated Submission Deadline to July 12 to allow more time post-Nats
Edit 4/30/2015: Added links to entry submission forms
Edit 7/7/2015: Updated Extended deadline.

 

It might, it might not. I have found that longer deadlines have a funny way of leading to more people saying they will do something and less doing it. If there is a good level of participation in this one we would like to run a second contest that would close near the end of the year. I have shifted the deadline from June 30 to July 12 though to allow for more time post-Nats for people to process their photos.

When we were looking at dates we felt that 3 months was sufficient time for people to work on their photograph collections. During that timeframe- for clubs that I could easily find schedules- IRC has 4 events including the week of NATs prior to the deadline, PMWC has 3, WWCC has 2 + Maker Faire, GLAS has at least 1, maybe 2, SAS has the Spring Regional at minimum.

I think my response to this would be that ships featured should be built for combat, so balsa sides, and for warships - guns or obvious intent to have guns (empty turrets, punch-outs in turret covers, etc). If a non-combat ship is incidentally in a photo featuring a combat ship I don't think there would be a problem.

 

They're both combat images for sure

Things I personally like to see in photos:
Some evidence of action if its a combat shot (like splashes, bbs in flight, gas cloud, smoking motors, etc)
A close cropping rather than a wide angle shot - show me what is featured and close enough that I can see something other than 'ok, theres a ship over there' - note: if you're trying to take a 'look a whole fleet' shot then this obviously doesn't apply quite so much)
Bonus points if the featured ship(s) is interesting/pleasing to look at: a paint scheme that isn't all one grey, has topside details, etc.

Tip for the interested with cameras on shore: Shots tend to have more of an action feeling if they are taken from a perspective closer to the ground

Since someone is bound to wonder... Sunken and Sinking ships count as combat shots too

 

I would say for the select few with ship mounted cameras.... as sinking shots can be spectacular....

 

To clarify on a question asked.. the photos do not have to be of your own ship.

 

Update time! The entry forms are ready and available. In the General forum list you will find a subcategory for Challenges. Link: https://rcwarshipcombat.com/categories/challenges.615/
That subcategory contains two subforums which are populated by your entries. There is a big orange 'Enter Challenge' button where 'Post New Thread' usually exists.
Direct links to application forms:
For Combat Photos: https://rcwarshipcombat.com/forms/2015-combat-photography-challenge.1/respond
For Beauty/Cool Photos: https://rcwarshipcombat.com/forms/2015-beauty-cool-photography-challenge.2/respond

 

Bump. With Nats and other battles coming up remember to bring your cameras and people to operate them if you're not prone to sinking and/or can't captain and take photos at the same time

 

Updated the deadline to be November 1. That gives everyone lots of chances to attend battles and get photos.

I should also mention that with sufficient turnout we plan to give away a prize to a randomly selected entrant as well, so there's some extra incentive to enter even if you don't think you've got a ringer.

 

I think you can submit as many as you want.....