Teachers,
The deadline for this year’s Fall Contest is Friday, October 30. Judging will take place in November and results will be published by mid December. We have several championship events in November and December. The 10/30 deadline will allow our staff to support you during the submission process and give us enough time to get the entries checked, judged, and results published.
Categories are unchanged. Entry fees for students and teachers are $3 each. Submission this year will be through the Association of Texas Photography Instructor’s Online Contest Website. The contest site will open October 1.
Students can enter up to three images in a given category, but may enter in as many categories as they like. Student entries must come from their body of work produced in the last year (since the conclusion of the previous Fall Contest). You can review the category list here.
Any faculty member on your campus may enter the contest and there is no limit to the number of faculty entries. Faculty entries are judged together in one pool; there are no individual categories. The faculty contest fee is $3 per entry.
Use of Generative AI and Similar Technologies: The use of artificial intelligence or other generative content tools is only permitted in the Experimental/Enhanced category. All submissions must begin with original work created by the student. The use of generative technology is not permitted in submissions made to any other category. A description of the techniques used must be included in the description field in the image metadata upon submission. Students and teachers will check an acknowledgment of rules box when uploading entries. Images that lack the proper documentation or that are found to violate these rules will be disqualified.
Contest Billing: Once you have submitted all of your entries through the ATPI contest website, you will see an option to download an invoice. Submit your invoice with payment to the TAPPS office. Please send payment by the end of November.
Contest Entry and Metadata: Submissions to the TAPPS Fall Photo Contest must be made through the ATPI Contest website.
Just like previous years, your images will need to be formatted correctly and include metadata in order to be entered into the contest. Including metadata in the photos is both a best practice in photography and invaluable in our judging processes and in constructing the awards program. Proper image formatting helps us save space and bandwidth when processing and storing contest entries.
For a complete breakdown of the submission process along with links to instructional videos on formatting and adding metadata to your submissions, visit the Digital Photo Events page on the TAPPS website or click here.
Remember, there are other contests hosted on the ATPI contest website, including their own Fall Contest (which we encourage you to enter, more on that below). Make sure you are submitting your entries to the correct contest. Complete submission instructions here.
Awards: We encourage you to review the previous contest winners with your students. You can find PDF versions of the awards programs here. You can see brief notes on judging criteria here. We were unable to print an awards catalog last year because the number of submissions had increased beyond the capacity of our in-house printers. We are working on securing sponsors for a print catalog and will keep you updated. Digital copies will continue to be made available on the TAPPS website.
Other Resources / Contests: We encourage you and your students to submit work to the The Association of Texas Photography Instructors (ATPI) Fall Contest as well. You can find more information about the contest here. The ATPI website has winners galleries going back to 2012 and can be a great source of inspiration for you and your students. Membership in ATPI is $30 per school per year, and membership includes access to curriculum and contest resources. ATPI also offers a Winter Conference for students and a Summer Workshop for teachers. More details on the ATPI website.
All entries must be made before 6 pm on October 30. I encourage you to make submissions as soon as they are ready and to avoid waiting until the last minute. If you ever have trouble getting your images formatted correctly or submitted, please contact us at [email protected].
We look forward to seeing your work.
John Skees
Director of Media
TAPPS