Rules and Eligibility

All photographs entered in the contest must have been made by active or life members in good standing; associate members are not eligible. An individual who has never been a WHNPA member may become a member and enter the contest at the same time so long as they pay the dues for the calendar year when the entries were made as well as the next year's dues. Those who have previously been members, but their membership has lapsed may re-apply for membership, but they may only enter work produced or published after the date of their new membership application submission.

Entries must have been taken or initially published between January 1, 2024, and January 20, 2025. Previously entered images are not eligible. (Photos made after midnight into January 21 are eligible for entry, but only pertaining to the inauguration. Previously unpublished and un-entered photos from prior to 2024 are allowed to be entered only as part of long-term picture stories.)

All entries must have been created by Active or Life Members in good standing. If you are not currently an active member, you may join and submit your membership dues for both 2024 and 2025. Then, you may enter work completed by January 21, 2025.

Photographers who move out of the area during the year can enter the contest, but only photographs that were made while they were active members and still living in the area can be entered. Photographs made after they moved from the DC region cannot be entered. 

The content of a photograph must not be altered in Photoshop or by any other means. No element should be digitally added to or subtracted from any photograph and the image must be a truthful representation of whatever happened in front of the camera during exposure. Retouching to eliminate dust and scratches is acceptable. Reasonable adjustments in Photoshop or Lightroom are acceptable. These include cropping, dodging and burning, conversion into grayscale, and normal toning and color adjustments that restore the authentic nature of the photograph. Excessive changes in density, contrast, color and saturation levels that alter the original scene are not acceptable. Backgrounds should not be digitally blurred or eliminated by burning down or by aggressive toning. Frames or borders outside the image area are not allowed nor is text – digital or otherwise – allowed on the image. The judges and contest committee reserve the right to see the original (un-retouched) raw image files, negatives and/or slides. Any photographer violating these standards will be disqualified from the competition. (The contest chair will inform the contest judges of these guidelines.) Use of Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is not permitted.

Photographs made with non-professional digital cameras, like the iPhone or point-and-shoot cameras, are allowed in the contest. Keep in mind that like all submitted images they must adhere to the same non-alter guidelines stated above (they can not be digitally altered or manipulated images, i.e., taken with filters or other creative apps)

Entries must be true to the spirit and principles of both the WHNPA bylaws and the profession of photojournalism. Photographs that were made while on assignment, or while on staff, for a non-journalistic organization, are not eligible to be entered. This prohibition includes, but is not limited to: NGO's, political campaigns, governments, sports teams and organizations such as the International Olympic Committee, corporate and advertising work.

Photojournalists employed or contracted by editorial news organizations with paid partnerships and other editorial content partnerships/exchanges with sports organizations or sports leagues may enter those images in sports categories, so long as the individual is paid directly by their employer or contracting agency.

Any entry submitted where the byline or credit has changed from how it was originally published will be disqualified. Transparency is paramount.

The Photographer of the Year will be chosen based off of the Photographer of the Year/Portfolio category (Category 19). The previous points system will not be in effect.

The contest committee reserves the right to review any submission and alter an entry at the committee's discretion. (This includes but is not limited to recategorizing, correcting mistakes, fixing metadata, or disqualify an entry)

Requirements

A photographer will be limited to 25 entries plus one (1) Photographer of the Year portfolio. A picture story and a political portfolio each are considered one entry. Individual pictures from a picture story may be entered in single picture categories but must be entered separately. Individual pictures from a picture story may not be used in another picture story. Each entry must be entered in one category only (exception: qualifying individual pictures and stories may also be included in political portfolio and general portfolio). More than one picture on an individual file is not permitted. The Contest Committee reserves the right to re-categorize any entry. Pictures that are flagrantly entered in the wrong category may be disqualified. Entry must be labeled and submitted correctly or face disqualification without exception. Our volunteer members, your generous colleagues, do not have time to reorganize or resubmit erroneously contest entries. 

Image Specifications

Each image should be rendered as a RGB or Grayscale file. Do not use CMYK. Final individual image size should be at least 10-12.5 inches longest dimension at 250 DPI,  3000 pixels longest dimension.  Uncompressed RGB file size should be about 10-15 megabytes. File size after  compression would be about 2-5 megabytes.

Save images as large JPEG files, and use Baseline ("Standard") under Format Options when doing so.

Caption Instructions 

The following instructions are based on the IPTC caption information window in Photo Mechanic. These are the fields in the Photo Mechanic IPTC Stationery Pad that will need to be filled in. Please see the screen-shot examples at bottom of the list.

Description/Caption:

This will include a brief and concise caption for the photograph. Your caption must be in AP Style which includes the description followed by the LOCATION, DAY OF THE WEEK, AND DATE. This is solely for the volunteers who donate their time to make it easier on them designing the annual WHNPA book of winners. Example: FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019.

Please Note: It is absolutely essential that you remove your name and any other identifying information, including the name of your agency or publication, from this field.

• Headline: The title of the image or the picture essay
• Keywords: Your email address
• City: The city in which the image was made
• State: The state in which the image was made
• Country: The country in which the image was made
• Date: The date when the image was made (In Photo Mechanic, you can select "Capture Time" from the pulldown menu on the right hand side of this field and the program will use the date that the image was made.)
• Photographer: Your name 
• Title: Your title
• Source: The publication or organization for which the image was made. If not on assignment specify "Independent."
• Copyright: The image's copyright holder
• Black Slides And Contact Sheets

Picture stories and portfolio categories require a “Project Description” to be completed upon upload of your images. You must complete the fields in the “Project Description.” Do not add project summaries to your images for picture stories or portfolios in the caption field.

Black Slides And Contact Sheets
A black slide is required to separate picture stories as well as single entries in portfolios. You may use title slides instead; for example, you might use a title slide with the word "SINGLES" followed by all your single pictures, then have a title slide with the words "PICTURE STORY #1" followed by that pictures story, etc. DO NOT put the title of the picture story on the slide. (These slides will not count against your total number of images in the portfolio.) A contact sheet is required for picture stories and portfolio entries.

To create a digital contact sheet first prepare the individual images and make sure the files are correctly renamed and in their proper order, and collected into their folder. In Photoshop, go to FILE > AUTOMATE > CONTACT SHEET II... to open the contact sheet dialog box. Designate the folder using the "Choose..." button. Set the document dimensions and thumbnail columns/rows as shown in the example below, and press "OK." Photoshop will generate the contact sheet (or multiple sheets in the case of portfolio entries), which you should then flatten (go to LAYER > FLATTEN IMAGE) and save into the folder along with the image files, numbering it as if it were the 13th and/ or final image in the story.

The maximum number of images you are allowed to submit in the categories has been adjusted to accommodate for Black Slide and Contact Sheets. Disregarding Black Slides and Contact Sheets by submitting more photographs than the category allows will result in disqualification. 

Tips

We strongly recommend that you do all of your cropping and toning adjustments first, and initially save images into a folder on your hard drive. Entering the caption information and renaming the images will be much easier to do as a group, one right after another. Though it may look intimidating at first glance, inputting info with Photo Mechanic will only take a couple of minutes for each image.

The Contest Committee strongly recommends you tightly edit your picture stories, your Political Portfolio, and your General Portfolio. Though this isn't an editing contest, judges always favor tightly edited stories and portfolios. A mediocre photograph will likely hurt the entire body of work.

Submitting payment serves as a digital signature to the contest, I agree to the following terms and conditions:

• I am the sole owner of copyright in the Content submitted, (hereinafter the "Content") and I have, or if I am not the sole owner of copyright in the Content that I shall obtain (prior to any WHNPA award and upon notification of a pending award by WHNPA) the authority and legal capacity to enter into this agreement and to grant the rights herein stated in and to the Content.

• The Content originates with me and is not copied from another person or work.

• The Content when used by WHNPA in accordance with this agreement will not violate the rights, (including but not limited rights of copyright, moral right, publicity, privacy, trademark, or any other rights) of any person or party.

• I am an active or life WHNPA member in good standing, or I have submitted an application for active membership and have never been a WHNPA member in the past.

• The Content was created or initially published within the rules of the contests and that I was a WHNPA member at the time the Content was created or initially published.

• The Content was not previously entered in this contest.

• I shall retain copyright in the Content, or my employer shall retain copyright in the Content if it is work made for hire.

• I hereby grant to WHNPA and those acting under WHNPA's permission only the non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty free, fully paid up, irrevocable, sub-licensable, assignable, permission, in all existing and future media (including, without limitation, WHNPA authorized Internet and or social media), to use the Content for and in connection with the WHNPA Awards or other WHNPA Book, WHNPA Exhibitions, WHNPA Educational and Editorial Activities, WHNPA Advertising and WHNPA Promotions, WHNPA Sponsored or Authored Publications and Activities, and for all purposes that are ancillary to, related to, or that directly arise out of the foregoing.

• As a condition precedent to my being offered, and to my receipt of, any WHNPA award I warrant and represent that I shall disclose to WHNPA any rights granted by me herein which may be owned by my employer or another party and that I will provide to WHNPA, in writing, and within seven (7) days of WHNPA's request, TIME BEING OF THE ESSENCE, and at my own expense, such further assurances and documentation as may be legally required, and any that may be requested of WHNPA, to give full force and effect to the permissions granted by me herein, including without limitation any affirmation, confirmation, and verification of such grant as WHNPA may require or request of my employer or any other rights owner.

• In default of my identification of the rights owner and or my provision of such affirmation, confirmation, and verification in a form acceptable to WHNPA, such acceptability to be determined solely by WHNPA in its sole and absolute discretion, WHNPA may without waiver of any other or additional remedy, decline to make an award, cancel an award, or retract an award without any obligation to or liability to the proposed award recipient.

• I agree to indemnify, protect, defend and hold harmless WHNPA and its officers, directors, members, employees, and agents) for and from any and all actions, claims, demands, and proceedings and for any and all costs (including legal fees, investigatory fees, and court costs) that arise out of or in connection with any actual breach by me, default by me, or non-frivolous claim that there is a breach or default by me, of the warranties and representations and agreements I have made herein.