If you visit the evrium web site this month, one of the photos at the top of their home page will look familiar to you. My photograph of Susmita, which currently graces the top of this blog page, was selected as a runner-up in their monthly photo competition. Susmita is the daughter of Finjo, my Nepalese porter and guide and was taken in the kitchen of their home in the Langtang region of Nepal. Congratulations to Steve, Mathias and Anders who were also runners-up and particularly to Nicole Gibson who scooped first prize.

Tags: competitions

The lure of impressive prizes for winners of big photographic competitions can be incredibly tempting and there seem to be an increasing number of competitions appearing that are designed to attract photographers.

The Pro-imaging group has recently announced a campaign to raise awareness of the fact that not all competitions are alike and the terms and conditions that entrants agree to when they submit their entries can see their copyright being grabbed by the competition organisers.

It's known as a "Rights Grab" and can be as innocent as allowing the organisers to use your images to promote the competition to a full-blown transfer of copyright from the entrant to the competition organisers. It seems reasonable to me that competition organisers should be able to use submitted images to promote and publicise their competition but there can be no justification for asking for entrants to give up the copyright to their work.

So, be sure to check out the Terms and Conditions of any competitions that you're thinking of entering and if you're required to give away your copyright then think again. The Pro-imaging campaign has introduced a Rights Off List, featuring those competitions that might be considered to be little more than Rights Grabs and, for sake of balance (we like it when there's a yin and a yang), there's also a Rights On List showing those competitions that "respect photographers' rights". When I checked this evening the Rights Off List was four pages long and the Rights On List was... err... empty.

Sadly, two of the worst culprits at Rights Grabbing are the BBC and the Guardian. Two organisations that one might expect to be a little more ethical in their approach to contributors. Indeed, the Guardian used to have a reputation for respecting its journalists and photographers but it's a reputation that's been looking increasingly tarnished of late. A temporary state of affairs no doubt.

So, if you're a photographer, then Pro-imaging asks you to lobby any trade or pro organisations that you're a member of in an attempt to get more bodies behind the campaign. And if you're tempted by big prizes in a photo competition, read those Terms and Conditions thoroughly and carefully consider the implications before sending off your best images.

Tags: competitions