Pixiq

Trophies

As photographers we are a visual species.  We love to look at things and photograph them as well as showing off our photography.  This is all good and well, but there may come a time when you wish to actually submit a photo into a photo competition.  Now whether this is just a small single website photo contest like the one we host here, or an international photography competition hosted by large corporations you need to know that the rules that govern those photo contests do not, in any way, strip you of your rights to the images you have produced and entered into said competition.

Enter Pro-Imaging’s Photographer’s Bill of Rights.  The Bill of Rights for Photography Competitions works at keeping photo contests and photography competitions from doing what is called a “rights grab”.

From the website:

Competition sponsors and organisers require the right to use submitted images for publicity purposes and to promote future competitions, however, many, if not most photographic competitions seek to obtain rights well in excess of those actually needed for publicity purposes.

So what does the website hope to accomplish?  It appears that Pro-Imaging is keeping a database of trusted and non-trusted photo contests and photography competitions in an effort to keep the photographic community aware of any potential right’s grabs contests.  This is a very good thing indeed.

Go to the website and bookmark it.  Put it in your faves or whatever it takes so that you can cross reference any photography contest you enter first thereby avoiding submitting images that you’ll lose your rights to.  This also happens to be a good place to look at other photography competitions that you may not have been aware of that are photographer friendly.

This website has quickly become one of the most important photography resource websites of 2008 and I’m hoping that their continuation into 2009 will see more support and growth.

I encourage you to visit the Pro-Imaging today and show them your support!

Photograph Trophies by AlaskaTeacher who can also be found at The View From the North.