1. Follow the Rules

Make sure you’re following all our Photographic Competition rules. These include makng sure your images are in the right format.  We can only accept digital images.  The formats you can use are JPG or TIFF.  We can no longer accept slides or print entries for this competition.

2. Image Size

Make sure your images are at least 1500 x 1000 pixels, preferably larger (send full size images if possible).

To see the dimensions of your photo:

• On a PC, hover over the file on your computer and a dialogue box with dimensions should pop up. If it doesn’t, right click your photo and select ‘properties’, then click the ‘details’ tab. This will tell you the size of your photo in pixels.
• On a Mac, hold control & click the photo in question, then select ‘Get info’. Expand the ‘More info’ section to see your image dimensions. For more help, see these articles: how to determine image dimensions on a PC or mac computer, how to view photo details on an ipad or iphone.

3. Name Your Photographs

Give each of your images a filename which includes, in order:

1. The class that is being entered
2. The plant, animal or place name
3. The photographer’s name

Separate these with underscores. For example:

• Class 3_Pulsatilla vulgaris_Alan Pine
• Class 7_Cinque Torri_Mary Adelaide
• Class 6_Hoverfly on Hylotelephium cauticola_Sandy Dunlop

4. Send Your Photographs

Finally, send your pictures to us.

You can send your images to us in any one of the following three ways:

• By email to the competition secretary at photographic.competition@alpinegardensociety.org . Please note that sometimes email systems fail to deliver large emails (> 10MB) with multiple images attached.
  If you use an Apple device, please be particularly careful.  The mail system can think it is helping you by resizing automatically images you send in an email, so they are too small for us.
• By using a data transfer service such as WeTransfer. This is a free service that enables you to send several large files all at once. See below for help with using this service.  Many entrants used it successfully last year.
• By post to the AGS centre at Pershore. Please send your entries on a memory stick, CD or DVD, along with written details of camera properties, to our postal address.

Photographic Competition 2023
AGS Centre
Avon Bank
Pershore
WORCS
WR10 3JP
UK

Whichever way you have sent your entries, please follow this up with an email from your email account to photographic.competition@alpinegardensociety.org, which details:

• The names of the files we should have received and how they were sent
• When & where each photo was taken
• Class 8 only – description of digital manipulation used (if any)

This information can be included in writing with posted entries.

If you would like your postal entry returned after judging, please include a stamped addressed envelope with your entry.

We will acknowledge all entries received.  If you do not receive an acknowledgement within a few days, please check with us, and send the images again if necessary.

Problems or Questions?

We’re friendly! Please don’t hesitate to email us if you need any help – whether in choosing the right class for your photo or overcoming technical problems with WeTransfer.

Just send us an email at photographic.competition@alpinegardensociety.org

Competition Deadline

The 2023 competition deadline will be 31st December 2023, so get snapping!

If your photo is selected by our judges, they may need to contact you for more information about your photograph – so be on the look out!

Winners will be told as soon as possible after judging – usually around February.

Winning photos will be celebrated with publication on our channels. For more info, see the ‘Use of Images’ section on our competition rules page.

Using WeTransfer

In previous years, when people have submitted their entries via email, some of them have had problems due to the size of the files they are sending.

To solve this problem, we recommend that you use WeTransfer to enter the competition instead. It is very simple – here are the basic steps:

Step 1: Go to WeTransfer.com

Visit the WeTransfer website. You should see this screen.

You do not need to sign up for a paid account, or even a free one – you can use it without doing so, by by choosing ‘I just want to send files’ at the bottom.

When you have negotiated that hurdle, this is what you will see (note: the background advert changes – we are only concerned with the box on the left of the page):

If the image is too small, click on it to see a larger version.

Step 2: Click ‘+’ in the blue circle to select your photos (or the link below to select a folder of files)

Step 3: Enter our competition email (photographic.competition@alpinegardensociety.org) in the ‘Email To’ field

Step 4: Enter your email address in the ‘Your email’ field

Step 5: Enter anything else you’d like to say in the ‘Message’ field

Step 6: Click on ‘Transfer’

WeTransfer will then send you an email with a code which you have to enter on the web page, to prove that you are sending the pictures.  If you confirm this correctly, it will send your pictures to us, and send you an email confirming that it has done so.  It can be helpful to send us a separate email telling us you have sent images by We-Transfer.

We will acknowledge all entries received.  If you do not receive an acknowledgement, please check with us in case we have not received your pictures.