Competition Rules

By entering the competition you hereby accept these Rules and Terms and Conditions
  1. The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards recognises THAT YOU RETAIN THE COPYRIGHT OF EACH OF YOUR ENTRIES.
  2. There is no restriction on the date of origin of entries or the number of entries per entrant.
  3. There are 10 categories to select from during the entry process. Choose the category which best fits your image.
  4. The International Wedding Photographer of the Year is open to all photographers, professional and amateur.
  5. There is no expiry date on the images you wish to enter (ie. your entry may have been taken 1 week ago, or 10, 50 years ago as long as you took it)
  6. Review the updated definition of a ‘wedding day’ / ‘elopement’ (see below under “Entry Requirements” Clause 9)

THE COMPETITION

  1. The International Wedding Photographer of the Year awards is open to all photographers.
  2. By entering the Competition You hereby accept these Competition Rules, Terms and Conditions
  3. Entry Dates: Entries open July 1st 2023 at 12.01am (UTC -11) Early Bird entries close midnight 21st September 2023 (UTC -11). Late entries accepted until Thursday 28th September 2023 at midnight (UTC -11). We reserve the right to extend the entry period of the Awards if costs have not been met due to lack of entries.
  4. Entry Fees are in USD, payable by Credit Card via Secure Stripe Payment or Paypal. The Entry fee is US$18 for 1 entry for non-members ($15 for Directory Members). 
  5. Entry fees during the “Final Entry” period are $25 for non-members and $15 for members. More information on Directory membership available here.
  6. By entering the Competition, you agree and acknowledge that The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards is permitted to receive your registration data. All personal information will be used by The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards in accordance with its Privacy Policy
  7. To enter, you must upload your image(s) via the following website: https://iwpoty.com (the Awards Platform), following the on-screen instructions carefully.
  8. Entries will be judged by nominated judges.
  9. Each entry will be scored by 6 separate judges.
  10. The 6 scores will be averaged to produce a final score. The highest final score within each category will be deemed the category winner.
  11. In the case of a category tie the 6 individual scores will be added together to produce a score tie calculation. The image with the highest score tie calculation will be deemed the winner.
  12. The 15 highest scoring images from each category will also continue through to the final round of judging – consisting of 150 images from the 10 categories.
  13. The International Wedding Photographer of the Year will be the photographer of the highest scoring image from the 10 categories after the final judging round. The next highest scoring image will be deemed the Runner Up.
  14. The Overall Winner of The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards, The Runner Up and each Category winner will be announced on-line on a date to be determined. All Winners will also be notified by email addresses provided by you when entering.
  15. Prizes – All prizes are not redeemable for cash, are not transferrable and are final. All vouchers and credit must be redeemed or initiated, within 12 months from date of delivery.
  16. Judging will take place in late October, result scheduled for announcement in November 2023

JUDGING

    1. Judging will be ‘blind’. No names or other indicators are allowed in or on the Entry that could indicate who is the author of the Entry.
    2. Nominated judges will judge entries. 6 separate judges will score each Entry.
    3. The judging process is as follows:
      1. Each Entry will be judged in its category and the 6 judges scores will be averaged to produce a final score
        2. The Entry with the highest final score within each Category will be deemed the Category winner.
        3. In the case of a category tie, the judges 6 individual scores for each Entry will be added together to produce a score tie calculation. The Entry with the highest score tie calculation will be deemed the winner.
        4. In the event that Entries in a Category are still tied at the end of the judging process, those images will be re-judged by a further independent judging panel to produce the winner.
        5. The 15 Highest Scoring Entries from the 10 single image categories will be collected and those 150 Entries will be re-assessed and re-scored by the 6 judges. The highest scoring image from those 150 (approx) entries will be deemed the Overall Winner and International Wedding Photographer of the Year. The 2nd highest scoring entry will be deemed the Runner-Up International Wedding Photographer of the Year.
        6. Winners will be published on-line at iwpoty.com and via social media avenues and press releases.
        7. The winner from each category will be announced on a date to be determined and notified by email.

DIRECTORY – MEMBERSHIP

Definitions

‘We’ / ‘Us’ / ‘IWPOTY’ refers to the owners of this website – The International Wedding Photographer of the Year (IWPOTY)
‘You’ refers to the photographer
‘Award Season” – refers to the time between two Award years – Eg. 2023 Awards = 1st July 2023 – 3oth June midnight 2024.

    1. Your 12 month membership is $95USD, paid at the time of registration and your 12 months begins on that date and renews annually. You will receive notifications prior to future renewals to give you the opportunity to cancel your membership.
    2. Your membership includes your directory profile, which you will complete via your login, after payment of your membership fee. You can access and update your profile information at any time and is the responsibility of the photographer to maintain and upload the content. No responsibility is taken by IWPOTY to set up or maintain your member profile.
    3. Your membership provides you with $75 entry credit for the Award Season that occurs during your 12 month membership. For example – If you join before the 28th September (the last date to enter the Awards each year) your Entry Credit will expire at midnight on the 28th of September in that year. If you join on the 29th of September your entry credit will expire on the 28th of September of the following year. The entry credit is non-refundable or transferrable.
    4. Your membership provides you with fixed price entries for the term of your membership. Entry fees to the Awards for members are $15USD per entry. There is no limit to how many entries you submit.
    5. Your $75 entry credit must be redeemed in a single transaction at the checkout when submitting your entries. No ‘change’ is given, ie. ‘use it or lose it’
    6. Annual Membership Fees are subject to change at the discretion of IWPOTY.
    7. You do not have to be a member to enter the Awards
    8. You do not have to enter the Awards if you are a member

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify and remove any entry that does not comply with the following requirements. You warrant and represent, in respect of each entry submitted by You (“Entry”), as follows:

  1. You are the sole owner and author of each Entry (you took the photo)
  2. The image presented for judging must be 100% photographic in origin, generally this means using a camera. The use of Ai generated images is not allowed..they are not photographs taken by you and are therefor not allowed.
  3. You have the right to make your entry available to the Competition
  4. Each entry does not contain personally identifiable information about You or any other person(s)
  5. Each Entry does not contain any infringing, threatening, false, misleading, abusive, harassing, libellous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic or profane content
  6. Each Entry does not contain any material that could constitute or encourage conduct which would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any law
  7. Each entry does not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property rights of any third person or entity, or violate any person’s rights of privacy or publicity
  8. Your Entry does not include:
    1. trademarks owned by third parties
    2. Copyrighted materials owned by third parties (including movie dialog or musical compositions)
    3. Names, likenesses or other characteristics identifying celebrities or other public figures, living or dead
    4. Entries in which You have purchased or secured the rights to use stock images
    5. Entries which contain any commercial content that promotes any product or service other than that of the The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards.
    6. Entries containing screen credits
    7. Entries from styled shoots for editorial purposes, images of hired talent / models and images created at workshops or education seminars are not eligible for entry.
  9. With the exception of the “Non-Wedding Day / Engagement Session” Category all image(s) must have been taken on the ‘Wedding Day or Elopement’. 

By way of definition for the purposes of these awards ‘The Wedding Day’ or ‘Elopement’ is – 

The event where a ceremony occurs (civil, religious or symbolic) between two people that celebrates their union, that includes the exchange of vows or promises.

The entry to the Awards must be from “The Wedding Day or Elopement” that can be supported by official documentation (if requested) to support the union of the 2 people. An entry is considered valid if the officiated documentation has been completed before the time of submission to the IWPOTY Awards and photographic evidence to support this can be provided upon request. This could include, but is not limited to photos showing getting ready, first look, ceremony, cocktail hour, couple portraits, reception etc

Examples of what’s not within the rules – images taken at workshops, editorial or styled shoots or with models (paid or unpaid), portrait sessions etc..

If you are uncertain please email [email protected] for clarification.

All terms and conditions are subject to change without notice.

ADDITIONAL RULES

  1. You agree to fully indemnify The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards in respect of all royalties, fees and any other monies owing to any person by reason of  your breaching any of the foregoing
  2. You confirm that each person depicted in the Entry has granted permission to be portrayed as shown. Any costumes, props or other materials used must be rented or borrowed with the permission of the owner, and all other relevant permissions must have been obtained
  3. All entrants understand that any image submitted to the competition may be used by The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards, and its Event Partners, for marketing and promotional purposes of the event only. You hereby grant The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards a non-exclusive, irrevocable license in each Entry throughout the world in perpetuity in all media for any use directly or indirectly connected with the Competition, including, but not limited to:
    1. judging the Competition
    2. displaying the winning entries and runners up at public exhibitions promoting The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards and organized by The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards
    3. inclusion within the Website, an Awards book, magazine or similar
    4. inclusion within any materials promoting the Competition and / or any exhibition organized by The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards or its Event Partners, in the promotion of The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards inclusion on Competition and exhibition related products to be sold by The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards or any third party following the individual agreement by the author
    5. sub-licensing the Entries to the press for reproduction in connection with the Competition and any exhibition
    6. allowing viewers of the Website to view images on a computer screen, PDA or mobile telephone and store such pages in electronic form on disk or on a PDA or mobile telephone (but not on any server or other storage device connected to a network) for their personal, non-commercial use only
    7. being chosen and entered into promotional competitions by The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards or its Event Partners for marketing and promotional purposes
  4. Any photograph used by The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards shall carry a credit line. Any failure to provide such credit line shall not be deemed to be a breach, as long as The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards uses its reasonable endeavours to rectify such failure within a reasonable period from the date of notice of such failure
  5. You acknowledge that it is Your responsibility for protecting any Entry against image misuse by any third party, for example, but not limited to the insertion of a watermark. The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards and its Event Partners assume no responsibility and are not liable for any image misuse
  6. The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards assumes no responsibility for any incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete information, whether caused by website users or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Competition, and The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards assumes no responsibility for technical, hardware or software failure of any kind, for lost network connections, garbled computer transmissions, other problems or technical malfunctions with regard to the Competition. The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, corruption, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to or alteration of Entries. The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, computer equipment, software, failure of any e-mail addressed to The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards on account of technical problems, human error or traffic congestion on the Internet or any website, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to Your or any other person’s computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials in the Competition. If for any reason a contestant’s entry cannot be viewed or is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer viruses, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud or technical failures, The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards assumes no responsibility.
  7. In no event will The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards, its partners, affiliates, subsidiaries and related companies, Event Partners, its advertising or promotion agencies, or its officers, directors, employees, shareholders, representatives or agents be responsible or liable for any damages or losses of any kind, including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages arising out of any contestant’s access to and use of the Website. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, everything on the Website is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for purpose or use or non-infringement.
  8. You agree to participate in related publicity and to the use of your name and likeness for the purposes of advertising, promotion and publicity without additional compensation.
  9. Entries must comply with specifications, RGB, 8-bit, 3500 Pixels on the longest side, saved as a jpeg at a setting 10 or higher. All entrants must be ready to supply a high resolution image suitable for printing in media, if asked
  10. There are no prize alternatives available for prize winners. All warrantees associated with product prizes are subject to the Warranty of the Country of the sponsor / distribution.
  11. Winners will be published on-line at iwpoty.com
  12. No late entries accepted, all entries are to be entered, accepted and paid by the advertised closing date, no exceptions
  13. Entry fees and prizes are quoted in USD, currency conversions are on screen at point of entry. The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards does not account or have any liability for any participant’s bank fees and charges that may be levied in currency conversion and currency transaction by the participating bank or institution. Cash prize money is paid in USD, currency conversions to local currency are at winner’s discretion at the time of conversion
  14. The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards decisions are final. Right of rejection and or right of refusal are at the discretion of the event organizers and can happen at any time
  15. Entry receipts for the competition are stored in your account details. Your purchase receipt will be listed there
  16. Judges, sponsors, entry fees and prizes may be changed without notice up to the closing date of the competition.
  17. All entries are subject to the laws of the state of South Australia and the laws of Australia. All terms and conditions are subject to change without notice.

All terms and conditions are subject to change without notice.

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