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Birdlife Australia Photography Awards

Competition Rules

1. The organisers of the BirdLife Australia Photography Awards (Competition) are BirdLife Australia Limited (BirdLife Australia) and its special interest group BirdLife Photography (Organisers).

2. All persons, including where that person is under the age of 18, their parent and/or guardian, (Entrants) who enter photographs in the Competition must comply with these rules (Rules) to be eligible for shortlisting or award of prizes.

Who can enter?

3. Unless noted otherwise in these rules, entry is open to any person except for the ‘Youth’ category of the Competition where entrants must be less than 18 years old at the date of close of entries. Proof of age may be required at the sole discretion of the Organisers. Persons under the age of 18 years must obtain the consent of a parent or guardian and produce evidence of this if requested by the Organisers.

4. Entrants may be of any nationality.

5. Staff of BirdLife Australia, members of BirdLife Photography involved in organising the Competition, Sponsors listed on the Official Competition Website, any other companies involved with the administration of the Competition or its prizes and judges of the Competition, and their immediate family members, are ineligible to enter.

6. Entrants must pay the listed entry fees for an entry to be accepted and considered. Once an Entrant has submitted and paid for entries, no refunds will be provided.

Submission of entries

7. Entries must be submitted via the official Competition website at www.birdlifephotoaward.org.au (Official Competition Website).

8. Entries open at 8:00AM Friday 24 May 2024 AEDT, and must be received before the competition closes at 11:59PM Monday 19 August 2024 AEDT.

9. The Organising Committee recognises that entrants in this competition may have entered other competitions with identical images. If at the time entries close in the BAPA, the entrant receives notification that the same image has won an award in any other national or international competition open to the general public, and judged by a judge or judging panel, any such image will not be disqualified in the BAPA. Nonetheless, BAPA judges are encouraged to take originality into account, and it will be at their discretion as to whether such images are excluded from further consideration for an award. Images that have won awards in competitions on photo sharing websites and the like that have resulted from rating by peer users of that site are acceptable. For this rule, an award means a first or other numerical placement (eg second, third etc), a commendation, honourable mention, a shortlisting, selection as a finalist or like award, provided that award is publicly announced.

10. Entry into the Competition constitutes full and unconditional acceptance of the Rules and any other entry requirements on the Official Competition Website.  

Categories and entry limits

11. The categories for entries can be found on the Official Website Categories page.

12. An Entrant may submit up to 6 entries per category with the exception of the Youth category where eligible persons may submit up to 12 entries. The same image may be entered into more than one category as long as the appropriate entry fee is paid. An image submitted twice will attract two entry fees. For the Portfolio category, 6 photos must be submitted for each portfolio and up to two portfolios may be submitted.

Image Requirements

13. Images entered into the Competition must:

  • Be of bird species listed in the Current Version of the Working List of Australian Birds, available here;

  • In the case of any entry category which requires a particular bird species to be entered, the image must be of that species;

  • Be consistent with the definition of the category being entered, which consistency will be determined at the sole discretion of the Competition judges;

  • Be of a bird, or birds, not held in captivity or otherwise restrained, except for the Human Impact category only;

  • Be taken within Australian territorial limits and offshore territories of Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, Heard Island, Macquarie Island, McDonald Island; and

  • Not be taken using harmful or unethical practices. In accordance with the BirdLife Photography Code of Ethics, images of birds on nests with young or eggs or images captured using bird call playback to attract birds will not be accepted. Using live baits or altering the bird’s natural environment for photographic purposes are also not permitted.

14. Images must be the original and exclusive work of the Entrant, and must not infringe the rights of any third party. Entrants agree to indemnify the Organisers and/or Sponsors against all costs or loss suffered as a result of any claim by a third party arising from the Entrant's photo and/or a breach of these Rules by the Entrant.

15. Images may be colour or monochrome.

16. Images captured with multiple exposures (taken consecutively at the same time at the same location), for example, HDR, focus stacking or panoramas are acceptable provided the image accurately portrays the scene photographed.

17. Images obtained with drones or automatically triggered trail cameras or the like are ineligible. Images taken with a camera triggered by the photographer using a remote control are acceptable.

18. Images must accurately portray nature. Only manipulation where the integrity of the original subject and scene that was photographed is maintained, is allowed.  Images that have been manipulated by the addition, removal or alteration (for example by painting over, cloning or blurring) of anything in the original subject and scene that were photographed are not acceptable. Allowable manipulations are:

  • Cropping (but not canvas extension);

  • Moderate changes to colour, white balance, tone, lighting levels and curves, shadows and highlights, saturation, contrast, sharpness;

  • Moderate dodging and burning; and

  • Removal of dust spots and reduction of image noise.

19. Images must be submitted as digital files in JPEG format and RGB colour space. Each image must not exceed 6 megabytes in size. Images must measure at least 1800 pixels on the longest side.

20. Each image must also:

  • Include a description, which may be edited by the Organisers, of the circumstances in which the image was captured, including: the location; whether an attractant such as food was used, and if so, of what nature;  any unusual or unnatural conditions in which the image was taken;

  • Not contain the name of the photographer in the caption, title or any comments;

  • Not contain borders, signatures or watermarks, and;

  • Be obtained lawfully and in a way that minimises disruption to the bird and its habitat.

21. Images that do not meet one or more of the Image Requirements set out in these Rules, or are suspected of the same, will be disqualified from further consideration without notice to the Entrant. The Organisers reserve the right to amend the Rules and to waive a breach of the Rules at their absolute and sole discretion. Failure by the Organisers to enforce any of its rights under the Rules of the Competition at any stage does not constitute a waiver of those rights.

Judging

22. Judging will be performed by a panel of judges appointed by the Organisers. Details of judges will be provided on the Official Competition Website. Judging will be based on standard criteria including overall visual impact, aesthetic qualities including composition, originality and technical expertise. Entrants will be advised of the outcome after judging is completed. Any entrant that contacts a judge in relation to the competition while the competition is open or during the judging phase will be disqualified. Entries that have not met or are strongly suspected of not meeting the competition rules will not proceed to the judging phase. The Organisers reserve the right to eliminate from judging any entry of low technical quality (for example, poorly focused or poorly exposed images).

23. Entrants whose images are shortlisted in a category by the judges may be required to produce the original unaltered camera image in camera RAW format (or other format, such as unaltered JPEG if RAW was not used) so that compliance with the Rules can be assessed. Failure to supply any original image requested within 2 weeks of such request may result in disqualification by the Organisers. Judges and the Organisers will have sole discretion as to whether an image entered into the competition has been in compliance with the Rules.

24. Entrants who have an image or images shortlisted must treat that information in confidence until advised by the Organisers. Failure to do so may result in such entries being disqualified.

25. In the event that none of the images in a category reach a standard acceptable to the judges, the judges may decide not to award a prize in that category.

Copyright and Usage of images submitted to the competition

26. By entering the competition, Entrants grant to the Organisers and their Sponsors a perpetual, non-exclusive, irrevocable licence to use their  images without payment for any purpose connected with:

  • Judging the Competition;

  • Promotion of the Competition; and/or

  • Bird advocacy, conservation, protection and research as per the goals of the Organisers as laid out in its Constitution.

27. For the purposes set out in rule 26, above, the Organisers may crop or resize an image. If the Organisers require a higher resolution copy of the image than that originally submitted for the competition, the Entrant will take reasonable steps to supply the same to the Organisers.

28. At all times the Entrant retains copyright in their image and the Organisers will acknowledge that copyright on any image used unless the image is used for publicity or promotion before judging is completed. In that case, the Organisers may omit the photographer's name if deemed necessary to ensure judges are able to maintain blind judging (meaning that judges assess entries purely on their photographic merit and are not influenced by who took the photo).

General terms

29. The Organisers will make reasonable efforts to conduct the Competition as outlined in the Rules and on the official Competition website but will not be liable for any loss in the event the Competition is rescheduled, modified (including by changing the Rules), or cancelled, to the extent permitted under Australian law.

30.  All communication with entrants will be via the email address provided by the Entrant during the entry process. The Organisers will not be liable for any loss if contact is unsuccessful due to circumstances outside of the Organisers’ control.

31. All prizes must be accepted as offered and are not transferable. Any taxes, bank charges or other costs associated with the entrant receiving a prize are the sole responsibility of the Entrant.

32. Unless there has been prior agreement with the Organisers, prizes must be claimed within 3 months of the announcement of winners and if not, may be forfeited at the sole discretion of the Organisers. Where the prize is a service such as a travel prize, the winner must notify the Organisers within 3 months of the announcement of winners of their intention to take the prize on the dates and terms offered.