Photo Contest Rules, Terms and Conditions

The Arbuckle-Simpson Nature Festival would like to invite all you amateur photographers to enter our 2013 Digital Photography Contest!  Please read the following rules, terms and conditions before submitting any photos!

Our contest is open to amateuar photographers.

What to Enter:

Photos must be taken in South Central Oklahoma.  We have both adult and youth divisions with the following categories:

• Landscapes-Images that showcase outdoor beauty. (Note: Please include the location for shot in the title or description of your photo)
• People enjoying outdoors (must have permission of any individual featured in your photo)
• Wildlife - Animals in their natural habitat (No pets, captive or zoo animals)
• Digital Darkroom/Artistic-Artistic compositions in nature, both natural and manipulated in post processing (black and white, infrared, stitched panoramas, multiple-exposure, digital manipulation).
• Flora and Macro - Flowers, trees, and shrubs in their natural habitat or get in close for small detail of the subject.

Please do not include photographs of pets, domestic animals, and captive zoo animals.  You may include wildlife shots from South Central Oklahoma state and national wildlife preserves.

Photo captions must accompany all submissions, and should include the subject of the image, the location the image was taken, and the name of the photographer.  Please clearly label animals as wild in digital caption information to assist judges in determining eligibility.

If people are visible in your photos, the photographer will need to have releases from those people before the winning photo's can be published to the ASNF website.

The Arbuckle-Simpson Nature Festival board will have final approval of any language that appears on its web site with any of the photos and will not promote or endorse third-party products or services.

Submission Process

Entries may be submitted beginning Nov. 1, 2012 through April 19, 2013.

You may mail or drop off entries to The Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge, 12000 South Refuge Road, Tishomingo, OK 73460.

All prints must be matted, copy(ies) must be no bigger than 8” x 10” (excluding mat) or no smaller than 5” x 7”. A matted print means your photo should have a surrounding paper border, a window mat, or be mounted on stiff board.  The photo itself may be a glossy or matte finish. Please do not use frames, glass, or plastic covers. Names should not be visible on the front side.  We will not accept entries on CD or emailed to us.

One entry form PER PRINT required. We will assign an identification number to each print and separate prints and forms for the judging.

Photographers can submit up to two entries per each category with a LIMIT of 6 Entries Total for the entire contest.

Click here for PDF entry form.

Eligibility and Judging

Entries may originate in any format – including, but not limited to digital files, digital prints, color transparencies, color prints, or black and white prints.

The ASNF photo contest invites entries from amateur photographers who take pictures for personal reasons.  Professional photographers are those who promote and sell their photography or photographic services and earn income from their photographic work, and they are ineligible for the contest.  Photographs that previously won awards in the ASNF contest are also ineligible.

Images will be judged on originality, technical excellence, composition, overall impact and artistic merit. All decisions made by the judges are final determining both winners and eligibility of entries.

Winning Entries

First, second and third place winners will receive ribbons.

Winning entries will then be on display during the event at the Murray State College Student Campus Center.

There will also be a “People’s Choice” award presented at the Saturday night Arbuckle-Simpson Nature Festival Banquet on Saturday evening. The banquet will be held in the Murray State College Aggie Ballroom.

The Arbuckle-Simpson Nature Festival will not be held responsible for mailed entries that are lost or damaged in transit. We will of course make every possible effort to safeguard the prints in our secure building, but we cannot be responsible in case of natural disaster or other unforeseen events.

Entries must be picked up on Saturday April 27th no later than 4:00 p.m. at the Murray State College Student Campus Center in Tishomingo, OK.

Your Rights

You will retain all rights to any photograph you submit - including ownership if applicable.

If your image is selected as a finalist, winner or "People's Choice" selection, you will grant the Arbuckle-Simpson Nature Festival a nonexclusive right, in perpetuity, to:

• Publish the images on the Arbuckle-Simpson Nature Festival website and may be used in future brochures, mailings, reports.
• Use, in connection with the Photo Contest, your name, city, state of residence in promotions and other publications.

As conditions of this permission, the Arbuckle-Simpson Nature Festival shall credit all photographs with the caption “©Person’s Name” when the full name is available.

Legal Conditions

By entering this contest, you agree to certain legal conditions. Click here to read the legal conditions.

Questions?

If you have any questions about the contest please email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call Kris Patton (580) 371-2402.