CONSTITUTION OF THE BLUFF CAMERA CLUB (Revised January 2016) 1 The Club shall be known as Bluff Camera Club, hereinafter referred to as "The Club". 2 The Club shall be seated on the Bluff at whatever venue may be found suitable from time to time. 3 The object of The Club shall be the advancement of photography. 4 The Club shall be convened by an Executive Committee consisting of a Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Hon. Secretary and/or Treasurer and up to four ordinary members elected at the Annual General Meeting. The Executive Committee shall have the power to fill any vacancy which may occur in the Committee and to appoint special sub-committees, where deemed necessary. Members of the sub-committee need not necessarily be members of the Executive Committee. The immediate past Chairman of the Club shall remain on the Executive Committee 'ex' officio' and shall be required to attend only the first few meetings of the new Executive Committee to ensure continuity. 5 The funds of the Club shall be deposited with such a bank as the Executive Committee may from time to time appoint. The banking account shall be in the name of the Bluff Camera Club. All transaction to be sanctioned by a minimum of 2 of the 3 designated signatories. 6 Application for membership shall be proposed and seconded by members of good standing and shall be received by the Hon. Secretary who shall place them before the Executive Committee for consideration, whose decision shall be final. The Executive Committee shall have the power to terminate membership where considered to be in the interests of the Club. 7 Members will be liable for an entrance fee and annual subscriptions payable in advance and will be entitled to proxy vote in club matters 8 Social members are entitled to attend all meetings and outings, but will not have voting powers or be entitled to submit work. Junior members are restricted to High School students up to school leaving age, who will have the same privilege as full members, however no voting rights. Family members consist of partners residing at the same address. Subscriptions will be payable in advance. 9 Subscriptions, payable to the Treasurer, shall become due in June of each year. Members elected after the 1st January in any year shall pay pro-rata annual subscriptions for the year. Non-payment of subscriptions two (2) calendar months after the beginning of the Club year shall mean forfeiture of membership and any participation in Club activities. 10 The Annual General Meeting, at which the Executive Committee shall submit their Annual Report and Balance Sheet, shall take place not later than the end of June each year and ten members shall constitute a quorum. Fourteen days clear notice of such meeting shall be given to members. 11 The Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Hon Secretary and/or Treasurer and Auditor shall be elected at the Annual General Meeting. The retiring officers shall be eligible for re-election and the election shall be by ballot if more than the required are nominated. 12 Ordinary meetings shall be held at least once a month where the Chairman or Vice Chairman shall preside. In the absence of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman, the Executive Committee members present shall elect an Acting Chairman for the meeting. 13 The Committee shall meet at least once every two months Extra committee meetings can be called should the need arise. Five (5) members shall form a quorum. 14 The Committee / Hon. Secretary shall convene an Extraordinary General Meeting upon receipt of a requisition signed by no less than ten (10) members, stating the purpose for which such a meeting is desired and fourteen (14) days clear notice of such a meeting shall be given to all members. Two thirds of Club membership shall form a quorum at such a meeting.
15 Members shall have the privilege of introducing visitors to ordinary meetings of the Club. Visitors may take part in any discussion, but shall not vote on any question. 16 The Executive Committee shall frame regulations for the management of the Club premises and property as may be necessary from time to time and shall see that such rules are enforced. 17 Club competitions shall be run as laid down in the Competition Rules, which shall be revised from time to time by the Executive Committee. The Committee shall see that such rules are enforced. 18 Members shall be provided with a copy of the Constitution. 19 Should the Club dissolve or cease to exist all property belonging to the Club shall sold to the best advantage. The money received from the sale of these items, together with any other monies belonging to the Club, shall be used to pay off any debts and liabilities incurred by the Club. It will then be up to the discretion of the Committee, with the approval of the Club members, as to what happens to the balance of the money. 20 Minutes of all Committee, Extraordinary and Annual General Meetings shall be kept and duly recorded. 21 Any document, other than correspondence, requiring to be executed in the name of the Club shall be deemed correctly executed if signed by the Chairman and the Hon. Secretary or any other two (2) Executive members (in the absence of the Chairman and Hon. Secretary.) 22 The Executive Committee is empowered to affiliate as is felt necessary with any other Club, Associations or Societies. 23 These rules shall not be added to, amended or rescinded, except at an Annual or Extra-Ordinary General Meeting and then only with the consent of not less than two thirds of the members present and voting at such a meeting. 24 Honorary Membership may be conferred at the discretion of the Executive committee. 25 Honorarium may be granted for services rendered at the discretion of the Executive Committee. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The AGM is held at the second meeting of June each year. Members are requested to notify the committee of any matters they wish to discuss. BLUFF CAMERA CLUB MONTHLY COMPETITION RULES (revised January 2016) 1 Monthly competitions are held at the first meeting of every month (except January). Entries should be submitted via Photovault on or before the Sunday after the previous meeting i.e. the 2nd meeting of the preceding month. 2 There are 7 categories for judging, namely: Pictorial / Open Nature Macro Photo Journalism Creative Set subject Landscape 4 Members may submit up to 6 pictures per event, made up of any category. 5 Images must be resized to fit the maximum resolution of an XGA digital projector with a true resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. Horizontal pictures must have a maximum width of 1024 pixels and the height must be 768 or less pixels. Vertical pictures must be 768 pixels in height. Images must be submitted in JPEG format and must be compressed so that the size is no greater than 500 kilobytes. 6 All entries must be the sole work of the author 7 Members who belong to more than one club may enter any one image under one club only. 8 No image may be entered more than once in a monthly competition. 9 Duplicates and near duplicates of a picture will be considered
as one and the same picture. This applies to monthly competitions as well as Salon acceptances. 10 The judges decision is final. 11 If a Bluff Camera Club member is the monthly judge, they may still enter the monthly competition. However, such an entry will be submitted to another judge for scoring and comment. 12 Requirements for promotion are as follows: ONE STAR to TWO STAR: 60 Club points including 10 golds or merits. TWO STAR to THREE STAR: 70 Club points including 15 golds or merits. THREE STAR to FOUR STAR: 80 Club points including 20 golds or merits. 4 salon points. FOUR STAR to FIVE STAR: 100 Club points including 25 golds or merits. 20 salon points. FIVE STAR to BRONZE HONOURS: 200 Club points including 45 golds or merits. 60 salon points. APSSA or similar distinction. BRONZE HONOURS to SILVER HONOURS: SILVER HONOURS to GOLDEN HONOURS: GOLDEN HONOURS to RUBY HONOURS: RUBY HONOURS to EMERALD HONOURS: EMERALD HONOURS to DIAMOND HONOURS: FPSSA or similar distinction. 13 All new members will enter their work in the one star rating. Should a new member be an experienced photographer he/she may submit a panel of 10 images which will be assessed by 3 Bluff Camera Club judges. New members may be placed in a star rating not higher than 3 star, unless they are able to prove to the satisfaction of the adjudicating panel that they have already acquired sufficient salon points, in accordance with the Bluff Camera Club promotion scale. 14 Club points for promotion are gained as follows: Merit 5 points Gold 4 points Silver 2 points Bronze 1 point 15 Salon points for promotion are gained as follows: National acceptance 1 salon point International acceptance 2 salon points Not more than 3 acceptances may be claimed from any image. Please notify the Competition Steward of your salon acceptances so that the points gained may be credited towards your promotion. 16 Excess salon points and awards may be carried forward to the next star rating, however club points, golds and merits may not. 17 PSSA infinity award for recognition of photographic achievement will be awarded to members on reaching the five star division. These members have to be full PSSA
members. AUD1O-VISUALS - COMPETITION RULES 1 Members may screen AV productions at Club meetings during the competition year, but notification must be given to the Committee, per entry form, in advance for inclusion in the monthly programmes. Entry forms must be handed in at the first meeting of any month. 2 The Competition Steward must be advised, prior to the evening of showing, of any equipment required. 3 The AV must be the sole work of the author/s concerned with a minimum of image-s taken from publications, printed matter and the like, when it is completely impossible to produce original illustration. Copyright must be adhered to and acknowledgements made. 4 An AV production by a group or a single member of the club is allowed. 5 There is no limit to the number of AV's a member or group may produce during the competition year. 6 The maximum running time for AV's in any category is ten minutes. 7 All AV's screened during the competition year will be eligible for the "Best of the Year" judging when a panel of outside judges will choose the winning AV's in each of the following categories: (a) An AV produced by a group of club members (b) An AV produced by a single club member BEST OF THE YEAR. 1 Best of the year is held at the 2 nd meeting in November 2 Members may enter up to 6 pictures in each of the seven categories (pictorial, nature, macro, photo journalism, creative, landscape, set subject). 3 All images must have been entered into monthly competitions during the relevant competition year from November to October. 4 All AV's screened during the competition year may be entered into the "Best of the Year". 5 Entries must be entered via photovault as per the date indicated in photovault. 6 Closing date for Best of the Year entries will be the Sunday after the 1 st October meeting. DEFINITIONS OF CATEGORIES Updated as per PSSA update as at 15 February 2015 PICTORIAL / OPEN In this category the subject matter is totally open. All elements must be photographic; if graphic elements are included they should enhance the photographic image but not take over from it. All graphics used should be created by the photographer using his/her own artwork. Images with wide visual appeal. Any subject that is treated pictorially, embodying the elements of good design, arrangement or composition, which reflects the personal interpretation of the photographer. Any image that does not fall within the other categories is welcome in the category. Images that fall within the other categories will be disqualified in this category NATURE Nature photography is restricted to the use of the photographic process to depict all branches of natural history, except anthropology and archaeology, in such fashion that a well informed person will be able to identify the subject material and certify its honest presentation. The story telling value of a photograph must be weighed more than the pictorial quality while maintaining high technical quality. Human elements shall not be present, except where those human elements are integral parts of the nature story such as nature subjects, like barn owls or storks, adapted to an environment modified by humans, or where those human elements are in situations depicting natural forces, like hurricanes
or tidal waves. Scientific bands, scientific tags or radio collars on wild animals are permissible. Photographs of human created hybrid plants, cultivated plants, feral animals, domestic animals, obviously set arrangements or mounted specimens are ineligible, as is any form of manipulation that alters the truth of the photographic statement. No techniques that add, relocate, replace, or remove pictorial elements except by cropping are permitted. Techniques that enhance the presentation of the photograph without changing the nature story or the pictorial content, or without altering the content of the original scene, are permitted including HDR, focus stacking and dodging/burning. All allowed adjustments must appear natural. Colour images can be converted to greyscale monochrome. Stitched images are not permitted.infrared images, either direct captures or derivations, are not allowed. PHOTO JOURNALISM (P.J.) An image that tells a news story. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography by the qualities of: Timeliness the images have meaning in the context of a recently published record of events. Objectivity the situation implied by the images is a fair and accurate representation of the events they depict in both content and tone. Narrative the images combined with other news elements to make facts relatable to the viewer or reader on a cultural level. Digital manipulation is not allowed. High Dynamic Range (HDR) is not allowed. CREATIVE Creative photography is a form of art. It may include altered reality, abstract images, imaginative use of subject matter, unusual viewpoints or creative lighting. Modifications may be done in the darkroom, on the computer or in the camera. In the creative section the subject does not always have to show reality. SET SUBJECT Each month a different topic is chosen. This will appear in "Viewfinder" and be announced at the club meetings. MACRO A photographic situation where you get close to a small subject by physical or optical means. Starting at approximately 1/4 life size i.e. when the subject being photographed is four (4) times the size of the film plane (i.e. film or digital sensor). There is no limit on the upper end. Techniques that enhance the presentation of the photograph without changing the nature story or the pictorial content, or without altering the content of the original scene, are permitted including HDR, focus stacking and dodging/burning. All allowed adjustments must appear natural. Colour images can be converted to greyscale monochrome. Stitched images are not permitted.infrared images, either direct captures or derivations, are not allowed. SCAPES A genre intended to show different spaces within the world. A scape comprises of visible features of an area. Landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes are permitted in this section and MAY NOT be entered into Nature or Open. Digital manipulation is permitted WHAT CONSTITUTES MANIPULATION? Manipulation shall constitute any or all of the following modifications to the original image: Adding an element to the image that was not contained in the original capture; Removing an element from the image that was contained in the original capture; Moving or repositioning an element of the image that was contained in the original capture. In the categories Nature, Macro and Photo Journalism, manipulation is not allowed.
In Open there are no restrictions whatsoever in the way authors choose to post process an image. The following actions are allowed and are not seen as manipulation: Cropping Correction of lens distortion, chromatic aberrations, purple fringing, lens vignette and vertical/horizontal perspective adjustments; Removal of dust spots or scratch marks from sensor or scanned images; The blending of different exposures of the same scene to broaden the dynamic range e.g. High Dynamic Range (HDR); Not allowed in Photo Journalism. Focus stacking to widen the depth of field especially in Macro photography. In the case of Nature and Wildlife HDR and focus stacking will not be considered as manipulation and may therefore be used provided that the end result is a faithful representation of the original scene. Not allowed in Photo Journalism