S14E11 | The international Pet Photographer of the Year Awards- what’s new under the new hosts, Unleashed Education
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The International Pet Photographer of the Year Awards is the biggest of its kind! It was hosted by us here at The Pet Photographers Club until last year, and it's now under new management with Unleashed Education as the host.
They've introduced a few changes which will ensure the competition can continue into the future and so this week I had Craig and Charlotte join me to answer all your questions!
Here's what we covered:
What are The Awards
The 2023 Judging Panel
Why there's an entry fee, what does that get you and how much is it
Change of categories, scoring and awards
IMPORTANT DATES
Entries close June 30th
Finalist announced Sept 1
Awards ceremony Sept 7
Feedback, scores and badges Sept 10
MEMBERS BONUS
For members this week, in lieu of the extended episode, I’ve organised a FREE entry for the first ten of you to request it! Just complete this form ASAP: https://thepetphotographersclub.com/awards-2023
Transcript
Welcome to the Pet Photographer's Club. Tune in as experts share their insights to help grow your business with higher sales, creative marketing, and kick ours business strategies
now on to the show.
Hello, and welcome to season 14, episode 11 of the pet photographers club. I'm Kirstie McConnell. And today I'm chatting with Craig and Charlotte of unleashed education. And of course the new hosts of the international Pet Photographer of the Year Awards.
So welcome to the show, Craig and Charlotte. It's nice to have you guys here. Maybe you guys can go ahead and introduce yourself really briefly as to who you are and why you're here.
Okay, well I'll go first. So my name is Charlotte Reeves. I have been a pet photographer for 16 years and I've been teaching for 10.
And with my partner in crime, Craig, we run Unleashed Education which is an online learning platform specifically for pet photography, shooting and editing. So we've got online courses, we do mentoring workshops, all that fun stuff.
Craig, over you? Yep. And I am Craig Turner Bullock, and I'm based in New Zealand.
I've been a pet photographer since. A long time ago, 2001. A long time and yeah, I have been teaching for a number of years as well. And yeah, we are doing some fun stuff with the creative side of pet photography in Unleash Education. Yeah.
Awesome. So I've put you guys on the show today because most of the listeners probably know, but as of this year, the two of you have taken over hosting the International Pet Photographer of the Year Awards.
And with that, of course, you've made some changes to make it even better than ever before. And I wanted to chat all about it today so that we can. Answer some, some questions that might have arisen from that and dive into a little bit of conversation around the awards as well. So first of all, maybe let's, maybe I'll do it.
Actually, this is a bit weird. Normally I get you guys to do it, but maybe I can give a little bit of a, a backstory I've about the awards and then you can Well, you, so it makes
sense.
So for those of you who are not aware the Pep Photographer of the Year Awards was created by us here at the Pep Photographer's Club a few years ago now.
We hosted them as kind of a, a fun thing that we started a few years back. Not really realizing how big it would grow or how much of a mammoth task it would be to undertake but we're really proud of what we created. We had, you know, entry numbers were doubling year after year. We had amazing judges.
Panel line up each year and judges donated their time to make that happen. You two have both been on that panel before and we received lots of international recognition through that as well. I mean, we ended up in heaps of big newspapers and magazines and that was really exciting for, for those who were shortlisted and also for the club as well.
Last year there were some big changes here at the Pep Photographers Club and with those changes, it was just not even close to possible to keep on running the awards. They, as I mentioned earlier, they're a mammoth task. It would take us six months to organize the awards and that was certainly something I wasn't able to keep doing moving forward.
And so I thought about like, what are the options? And, you know, it is the biggest awards for our industry. It, it would just be so sad to just have to shut it down because of time and so I thought about like, you know, what, what could happen with the awards and well it made sense to me to offer it to these two because, you know, Craig and Charlotte as, as I said earlier, they specialize in helping pet photographers in the creative side of their business.
So, so with shooting and editing, whereas here at the club, we really focus on business. So actually it'll learns much better with what they're offering there than what. Yeah. Than than what I'm doing over here. And so somehow I convinced these guys to take it on and now it's entering the International Pep of the Year Awards are entering a new era under their, their leadership, I suppose would say, as the new host.
So that's about the history of the awards, but we're here today to talk about the future of the awards. So guys, what's happening? You've made some pretty big changes, but Yeah. First of all, you know, first of all, why did you wanna take it on? I'll leave that up
to Craig to answer. Yeah,
I mean, I, I think that you know, this, this industry is so specialized and having such a niche of.
A specialized subject. I think we need to celebrate that and showcase this industry to the world outside, you know that pet photography is a thing that animals are incredible and that there are some really talented artists within this space. And so just to continue to raise that awareness and, and celebrate those people doing awesome work.
Mm-hmm.
And actually you, that was like a perfect segue for me because actually it's a really interesting point that you made, that this is a specialized niche specialized field. And I was gonna ask you guys like, why should somebody enter the pep International Pep Photographer of the Year awards rather than their general like local professional photography awards?
And maybe you've already touched on it just then, but do you wanna go into that a little bit deeper? Either of you. Yeah, well,
I think it's important to enter a wide variety of awards if you can. I know myself and Craig also enter the more general awards, I guess, with different categories. Sometimes they have pet and animal categories.
Sometimes they don't, and sometimes you need to enter portrait. But those awards are definitely good to enter as well. But unfortunately, a lot of the time you're dealing with the judges not actually being specialist pet photographers themselves. So the the scoring that you get and the feedback that you get is not necessarily coming from someone who is an expert in their field.
So that's what I really love about having this really niche, specialized. Sort of form in the awards because all of the, all of the judges, we've got 16 judges this year. All of them are specialist pet photographers. So when they're looking at your images they, they know pet photography, they know what to look for.
They know all about expression and body language and all the things that more general or other genres of pet photographer o of other photographer might not sort of be aware of. So yeah, I think it's, I think it's a great thing to, to definitely enter both sorts of awards. But ours are pretty unique in that,
in that way, I think, yeah, I think that that's the specialist knowledge of the judges is, is the most important part of this whole system for me.
I think that you're gonna get feedback from experts, industry leaders in this, in this niche.
Yeah, for sure. And I wanna touch on that shortly and about, about the feedback that you guys have introduced this year. But yeah, I just wanted to add to that about what you were saying about the judges.
I remember years ago now entering our app, which doesn't exist anymore, the Australian Professional Photography Awards. And one of my images was a pet image. And it was really interesting to hear the, the feedback from the judges on that, cuz it got debated. It was just really interesting because they were clearly not pet photographers.
All they could judge it on was pro, you know, professional practices shooting technique, this kind of thing. But they were like shocked and, and in awe, like in a good way of that I was able to even capture this image. And so I think actually got. Awarded higher than it probably should have. Cause that, that's nice.
Guess that works out well. It did work in my favor. Because, you know, for them it was like, wow, how did you get these two, two, like mom and pop to sit side by side like that? And on and on, you know, they, they're not pet photographers. So for them it was just like amazing in our awards, which in that your awards, you know, definitely wouldn't have done so well, so well because that really helped.
So yeah, it was really in, it's really interesting to compare. I think, you know, what these diff these different approaches I suppose. And like you said, I think it's, it's still certainly valid to enter other types of awards, but you'll get something different out of those because, you know, they were really.
Harsh on some other areas that maybe we wouldn't be in pet photography. So yeah. I I'm really glad that you guys are keeping it going, that's for sure. Now, earlier you mentioned judges that there are 16 this year, which is a big change and also feedback. So let's start with judges. First of all, how did you choose who to get on the panel this year?
Judge, shall I answer this? Yeah, you answered that. So I basically made a list of like everybody who I really admire and respect in the industry and was like, what would my dream judging panel be? And when when we wrote the list, I was, we were kind of talking about different specialties within pet photography, you know, because it's all well and good having 16 judges, but if all 16 judges only know dog photography, then I.
It's not really a pet photography awards, so people who know horses and birds and exotic pets, people who shoot indoor cats, people who shoot indoors, outdoors with lighting with natural light. People who make composite work. People who more from a like traditional purist kind of angle. So we just put a, together a, a list of our dream people and we co just contacted them and were amazed that everybody said yes.
Yep. Every single one of them that we asked said yes and we were so, we were blown away by that. It was fantastic.
Yeah, it was pretty amazing. So, yeah. Should I tell you who they are?
Yes, go on. Give it a big shout at, read the list,
right? I'm gonna read the list. Right. So we have Alex Kearns from Australia, we have Alice Loader, Alicia Ziska, Belinda Richards, Charlotte and I.
We have Diana London from the usa. Alca Vogel Sang Jess McGovern. Joe Howell. Karen Sup. Kaylee Greer from Dog Breath, Marika Conrad. Nicole Begley, Sam Haddock, and Travis Pat. So some very exciting names in that. Well, not some very exciting names in that list. They're all very exciting names in that list.
Yeah.
Actually
being amongst all of
these other,
we're gonna be, we're gonna be holding judges training shortly. I'm actually quite nervous about having all of these people on a call because like, they're all like rockstar dog photographers and
That's awesome you guys. Yeah. And you're not, you're not joking that you manage to, you know, really cover a really wide range of specialties there.
I mean Yeah. But Alex, who does studio
and Alex also photographs all sorts of exotic animals too. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
Travis as well, studio Alice, who does like that beautiful kind of moody look, I mean, a whole range in there. Some of them are, are returning judges as well, so that's exciting.
Yeah. To see we've had some of those names on the panel before. A
and just the, the, you know, different parts of the world where people are from and different styles that they shoot in as well. So, you know, we want to make this a really international event and cover every kind of aspect of pet photography, all styles you know, and, and just really expand on what you guys had already created and, and really, yeah, encourage art from all walks of life.
Just make it a truly international
competition basically. Yeah. Fantastic. Totally makes sense. I mean, yeah, I love the direction you're going now. 16 judges, that's huge. I mean, we used to have five, I think six last year, but 16. So I'm imagining that's because of feedback. Is it correct. Yeah,
so we definitely wanted a lot of judges.
We also wanted to make sure that, because a lot of the people that entering are people who are our students. So through Unleashed education and, you know, workshops and mentoring, that kind of thing. So we need to be able to abstain from judging images that we are already familiar with. We thought that was quite an important part.
Yeah, so having that huge pool of judges to draw from it means that you're gonna get five sets of fresh eyes on your work, which is amazing. Plus the feedback. So each image also receives two pieces of written feedback. So two judges will provide written feedback on every single image. And we, we included that some competitions.
Make you pay extra for feedback. We feel so strongly about the power of feedback that we wanted to include it as standard for every single entry so you can opt out. But most people choose not to because I mean, it's, it's just so good to
know what,
what the judges are thinking, because I think that's a lot of the time that you enter a competition and you're just not sure.
Yeah. Like why it scored the way it did. And you might have, doesn't it? Yeah. Like you might have in your head that it's an absolutely fantastic image in it, it just doesn't go anywhere. And you're like, ah, but I wanna know why. So we we're hoping to kind of remove the mystery from the judging process and just really, I mean, even when you enter some other awards, some of the, you know the bigger awards like the Australian and the American photography Association Awards, you not always guarantee feedback.
You know, even live judging. They may not talk about your image and always find it a little bit fr frustrating when they don't. So I just think it's so nice to, to be able to provide that for everyone
so everyone gets feedback. Yeah, definitely. I'm really excited that you guys have brought that in this year.
Last year was the first year I think that we brought in feedback and it was an optional add-on, and we were really surprised because Caitlin and I just thought, oh yeah, a few people will want that. And so many people opted for that, which became a huge task, as you guys know, and it was totally unexpected.
And that really showed to us like, oh, okay. Like they do un you know, the, the entrance do understand that it's, it's a valuable thing. And so to see that you guys have made it included from the beginning totally makes sense. And I agree with you 100% about entering awards where you don't get the feedback.
Compared to when you do, it really changes the experience. I mean, If you are entering awards like ours used to be where like these used to be where there is no feedback, the only real reason to enter is to win because it's not really educational in the end. So it's a fun, it's a fun thing to win or maybe get into a short list or something like that.
But you can't make it overly educational if all you're seeing is a score and only are members ever saw scores. Whereas, like I mentioned earlier, like when I entered the app for example, and few of my images or I entered four and one didn't get discussed at all and the other three did because they got debated and moved up or down or whatever.
And the one that didn't, you're right, I was bummed. I was like, but, but I didn't even know what you guys were thinking. Like why, why it did well or didn't do well or you know, whatever. And so I know like just comparing that experience in the one in that particular awards, which was a print, it's a print camp Yeah, it was just such a difference even between those images, between if it was discussed or not, and the amount of learning from hearing a expert panel discuss your your particular image is huge.
And I know you're doing it a slightly different way, but to have written feedback, I think that's even more valuable. So I really love that you guys have turned this into a full educational experience for everybody. That's awesome. Also helps to justify the, the price as well because you know, the awards used to be free and as I said at the very beginning of this episode, we, you, you know, it, it was a huge undertaking to, I know firsthand to do these awards and I know you guys have made it even bigger and better and so it's even more work for you guys.
And the entire reason that I'm not able to continue doing it is because. I literally cannot give six months of my life to running a free event. And so when I saw you guys made it paid, I mean of course you have to, it's the only way to actually run it properly, to do it justice like you guys are and to take these awards to the next level, but to, to include the feedback in that, in those entry, entry cost, I guess you call it I think makes it 100% worth it.
I mean, just getting the individual feedback is already worth the price. So let's talk about the cost of entry and why you actually decided to do it. Cause that's just me assuming. So yeah, maybe you guys can talk more about that. How much actually is it? And and yeah, why did
you introduce that price tag?
Do you want me to go Charlotte? Yep. Okay. So, okay. So well we, we introduce costs because it's costing a lot to run this awards. And you know, we have 16 judges who are being paid for their time. We have. Lots of overheads with judging systems and developers designing software specifically for us to be able to judge this in the way that we need it to be judged, to make it as fair as possible.
So yeah, we, we have to compensate for that. We are also given cash prizes this year, which is a first for, for the awards as well. So the overall photographer of the year will win $500 and each of the five category winners will get $250 plus trophies as well. So there are costs associated not even thinking about the amount of time that Charlotte and I put into it, which you've mentioned about how time consuming that is a couple of times already.
But yeah, we, we truly believe that the value is in the feedback from these incredible judges that we've. Got on board and that, that's worth it alone. You know, a lot of these people will be charging a hell of a lot more for mentoring if they were, you know, if you were to approach them on a one, one-on-one basis.
So, yeah. So entries are open now until the 30th of June, and if you enter a single image, it's $25. So this is US dollars. You can enter five images for a hundred dollars, 10 images for 180 and 20 images for $320. So the more you, more entries you buy, the cheaper it gets. So anything ranging from $25 for that one image to $16 for, for, for a pack of 20.
And yeah, you can enter 20 images. Or 22 images I should say. Shouldn't I, Charlotte? Really? Yeah. Cuz you can enter up to 22 and yeah, it's it's really down to each entrant how many entries they wanna buy. But yeah,
the, the pricing that we kind of decided on is also pretty much internationally sort of industry standard for this kind of, or this style of competition.
So we didn't just pluck a number out of the air. It was it was fairly well researched. So most competitions that you enter of this format are around the same sort of price. Often they will charge extra for feedback too. Yeah. Most of, so they might end up more, more expensive for each entry, mm-hmm.
At the end of it, so, yeah. Yeah. What I, what I love is that actually, you know, you've, you have kept it quite accessible. I mean, at the end of the day, we're all photographers, which means. We all had enough money to somehow come up with a camera and a lens, if not multiple lenses, a computer, Photoshop, subscription and so on.
I mean, it's not like you're asking thousands of dollars to enter these awards. Of course it's, it is, you know, it can be tough for some people at different times, and of course we're, everyone is aware of that, but even having the option that they can just choose to enter one. I think that makes it, you know, super accessible.
It's not like you've made it that it's a minimum of 10 and x amount of money for that. You know, I remember entering APA where it would cost me over a thousand dollars each each year because you had to print, you had to pay for entries. It was crazy expensive. And then also if you wanted to go to the awards night, then you had to get a dress.
And it was like, gosh, I was just starting out my business. I was like, can I even afford this anyway? And yet Stillton and I still thought it was worth it. So with your award with, with the awards today, how you guys are doing them, I love that you've made it really educational. I love that the judges are being paid for their time.
You mentioned that very briefly earlier. And I think that's fabulous because that's something we weren't able to do and I always wished we could have because it is a lot to ask of the judges. Yep. And especially the way you're doing it now with all the feedback, it's, it's a lot of time and it's only fair that they get paid a small, you know, something at least to, to show appreciation.
I don't know what your payment is like, but it's interesting. There's something there all basically.
Yeah. And yeah, I, I think, you know, all the, all the changes that we've made, I think, I think when people see the changes, see the information on the website, all of that stuff, like, I think it becomes pretty obvious that, you know, it, it could not continue to be free.
So
I just couldn't have,
we've got new categories. This, we were a new category this year. We are doing the award ceremony live in, in Las Vegas at the shutter hand conference that Kaylee and Sam are putting on. So, you know, there's, there's lots of really cool stuff happening that yeah, we hope we'll just keep the growth of this.
In a upwards trajectory every year on year. Yeah. I don't actually know. I'm worried about next year now because like, I dunno what we're gonna do to, to improve again. So we've got some idea,
sorry, speaking of the categories, the scoring, the actual awards, let's just dive into that before we wrap up because we haven't spoken about it at all really.
And I know that you have added a new category, renamed a category scoring is completely different. And of course you mentioned earlier there's cash prizes, but there's also trophies in this kind of thing. So let's dive into that a little bit. First of all, tell us what are the categories this year? Okay.
So
do you have 'em up
there,
Craig? Yep, I have them in my head. we have got the portrait category which is Carrying, continuing on from, from previous years along with the pets and people category and the, the open category, which is now called creative. And then we've also got the action category.
So those four categories essentially are the same as previous years, aside from Open, has now been renamed creative. And our new category this year is a documentary category. That's cool. Yeah, I'm excited about that. We've seen, we've seen some incredible photographers doing some awesome work in the dog sport arena, in animal advocacy spaces and That's a style of photography.
I think certainly in, in the pet photography world that doesn't really get a lot of recognition. So we wanted to bring some attention to the amazing work that people are doing in that space as well. So yeah, so we're excited about, about that new category and, and yeah.
Awesome. No, that's cool. I'm excited that you introduced, introduced to that.
It's something we also spoke about last year, I think it was that, you know, those images, like you just mentioned, they don't quite fit into the, any of the other categories. Yeah. And so they would maybe not get entered in the first place, or if they would, it was hard to judge them based on that category.
So to give a, a unique category for that. That's great. I'm really excited to see that. Do you wanna just, I mean, you kind of dived into what people could enter into tho that category, but do you, one of you wanna also give some kind of I don't know, insight into how maybe. An entrance, an entrant could choose or to, could work out which is the best category for their image, because that's a question we used to get all the time.
You know, like, does it grow better in creative or portrait, for example? For example. Or when should it go into this one and when should it go into that one? So maybe you guys wanna just give a little bit of a Yeah. Overview as to how that works.
So I think the, the, the biggest thing really is the editing rules.
So we've, we've brought in some editing rules for each category. Basically there's, there's sort of two different types of editing, so there's faithful editing. So with the faithful editing, basically it kind of excludes images that have been created using composite techniques. So anything that's been created using a composite technique, there's a combination of multiple images that needs to go into creative because the other categories, so portrait action, pets and people, and documentary you're not actually allowed to enter composite images into those categories.
So that's a pretty easy
one.
I guess. I mean, obviously if you're, if there's humans included, you are probably best to put that into pets and people that's gonna fit into that one better. Action's pretty straightforward. The documentary
editing rules are also a little bit different. They, Craig,
they're
a bit more, yeah, they're, it's a little bit more specialized.
So, documentary images shouldn't be staged and orchestrated. They should be kind of organically created shot as seen. And therefore you are a little bit more limited to the types of editing that you can do on documentary images. So you can't do head swaps, for example which you can do in the faithful editing categories.
So for portrait, for action, for pets and people, you could do a head swap. But for documentary, you can't you can still do cropping, you can remove Like sensor spots and dirt and things like that. And you can do some dodging and burning and those kind of things. But pretty purist in terms of editing techniques on the documentary category.
So kind of like yeah, what you could do in the dark room basically is is what you can enter in documentary. Yeah. And anything
pretty much. Yeah, pretty much. So, yeah. So yeah. So yeah, just no, no, no elements of compositing or, or anything like that in documentary. Cool. Yeah. And Yeah, I think
we are, we are
quite realistic with the faithful editing.
So we do, as Craig mentioned, we do allow head swaps we allow exposure stacking, we allow leash removal and collar removal and anything that you wanna do that's in relation to keeping the animals safe as you're photographing it. So those sorts of things are allowed in the faithful editing. If you did wanna check that out on the website, just go to the page called entry information and have a look at the editing rules.
So it's all
laid out there. The rules are there for each category. Yeah. Okay, perfect. So, so that, yeah, that's the rules. I guess. We should probably mention the awards I guess too, right there. How, how we are earning a award, how you are earning awards with your images. Yeah, let's start,
let's start with scoring actually, Craig.
Because you know, at the moment we've got a quite a good picture now, like what's gonna get entered, where that they're gonna get feedback and all of this kind of thing. But yeah, how are they scored? Because I know you've completely flipped it upside down. It's more in line with traditional competition now.
So you guys yeah, let us know exactly what you're looking for and,
and how they're gonna get judged. Yeah, so so we have a list of judging criteria that we will be going through. As I said, we've got the judges training coming up soon. So the judges will be trained on how to use the system, but also what to look for in terms of creativity, originality, emotional response technical skills, composition, light appropriate use of techniques, all of those different things that make up an image and make an image.
Awesome. So That's what the scores will be based on. And we, we've just switched the scoring up to a score out of 100. So, like you said, a little bit more in line with a lot of other awards and competitions out there. And so within each scoring range, you will actually win, win an award at some level if you reach a certain score.
So we, we are not gonna have a, a top 100 or a, a top 25 shortlist this year, but you will be awarded for for certain scores. So we have a bronze, a silver, a gold, and a platinum award for the images. And if you score, well, hang on, let me bring up my, oh, I've got it here. You like that scores? Yep.
You wanna tell the scores Charlotte?
Yeah, so basically anything higher, any score and the, and the score. Obviously five judges will give a score, and then that score is average.
Average between five. Yep. Yep.
So the final average score before you go on Charlotte.
Yeah. Are you doing an extra layer of if there is an outlier to have.
You know, to look at it further or it's just a straight out average. To keep it
simple. Yeah. It's, there's not gonna be like challenges or anything like that. And yeah, not that would be too, that's too hard for this first year future.
Be
really lovely in the long term to do live judging.
Yeah. We'd love to do line and that
sort of format lens itself to be able to.
To do that sort of model where you have challenges and you know, people can talk up the, talk up the score amongst the group of, of judges. But yeah, we're just keeping it
pretty simple this, this first time we're doing it. No, no, totally get it. Like I'm already impressed with how much, you know, you guys have added to the awards.
So Yeah, don't worry. I, I probably was pushing it a bit much even asking we,
we did never live judging and we did think about, oh, is it possible to actually do judging at shutter hound and all of these things and yeah, it's maybe, maybe next year, maybe it's definitely something on our radar. Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, so sorry, can you just before you go ahead then just give us a bit more clarity with the judging. So is it like a certain amount of points towards each of those criteria you just said? Or is it an overall that the judge makes a decision? Like they look considering all of those things and decide, okay, 82 or 78 or whatever,
Yeah.
So the, the judges, the school will be at the judge's discretion. There's not a breakdown of, you get 10 points for this, 10 points for that, or anything like that. Okay. It's, it's based on the overall overall image and how the judge kind of sees the image, what those criteria have been met and and their, yeah, their emotional response and, and how they, they feel and, and things like that.
So I, I think the, the thing with any of these kind of awards is that, There is an element of emotion involved. There is, it is art at the end of the day, and that is subjective. And I think that's why, you know, having five judges per image is, and taking an average of those judges scores is, is probably the fairest way to do it.
Because, you know, we all come from different walks of life and we all see art differently. We all have different opinions of different things. So getting multiple judges to score an image and coming up with an average, I think is the, is the fairest way, I think to, to get a result for for each image.
Yeah.
Now Charlotte you were actually on a really good roll before and I interrupted you, so I'll let you continue. Sorry.
Okay, great. So so the average final score that someone receives for an image will be between zero and 100. So anything from 50 to 64 we would count as below.
Professional standard from 65 to 74 we count as professional standard, a professional standard image. Then we start getting into the awards. So from 75 to 79 is counted as a bronze award from 80 to 89 is silver. From 90 to 94 is gold, and then 95 and above is platinum. Cool. So those so once you receive the score, you'll basically receive the corresponding award.
We will be giving you badges that can be placed onto the image. So so entrance can share their achievements.
That's awesome. I know there was a little bit of confusion at first. Maybe people hadn't read quite, you know, everything on the page yet or whatever to quite understand that. So that's awesome that you've clarified.
I know there were some people saying, oh, but I, I was excited to win the top 25 short list or top 100, but in this way it's almost like more likely that you'll have a badge because, you know, if it's more than, what was it, 75? If you score more than 75, then
you know, you, you'll, there's no, there's no limit on, on the number of awards we'll be giving out.
So if, yeah. You know, if, if, if. Any image scores above that 75 marker, then it's an awarded image. Or yeah,
but it's almost like each image is awarded based on its own merits rather than being, I guess, compared to other images, more of an individual sort of thing for each image, which I think is yeah, it's a lot more freeing, I suppose, when it comes to the images being
awarded.
Mm-hmm. So we should talk about the, the actual category wins and how people win the categories and the overall and that as well, I guess. Yes, definitely. So yes, so for, so you, each image will be scored and receiv a score, and then for each category, the top 10 images for each category. So the 10 highest scoring images in each category will be, Prejudged.
So they will be the finalists for that category, which we'll be announcing in advance. And then the, those 10 images will be prejudged by fresh eyes. And winner will be decided between those top tens for each
category. Sorry, is the, is the winner decided based on who has the highest scoring image
then?
No. So the, so the top 10 highest scoring images in each category will then be finalists for that category, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the highest scoring image will be the winner. So they will then go into a judge off and they will be prejudged and a winner will be decided on re judging. Again, in a similar way to most of the awards.
In the industry are, are, are done at the moment. So that is how each category will be decided. And then the category winners will receive a trophy, a certificate, and $250. And then to win the overall title of International Pet Photographer of the year, we will be taking the people who have got the five high the, to the cumulative highest scores from their fi top five images.
I've gotta, so cumulative scores from their top five entries. So basically to win the overall title, you will, you will need to enter at least five images. But you only need to enter one if you, if you're going for like a category win for example. But to win the overall prize, five images, and again, we will be announcing the finalists for that.
And those five images for each of the finalists will be going into a judge off where they will be prejudged as a portfolio of five images and then a winner will be decided. And I think it's really important here to say that the portfolio of images, they do not need to be consistent or all look the same or, you know, have the same editing or the same color scheme or, you know, anything like that.
They ju they will just need to be five awesome images. And if you are one of the five highest scoring people in the categories anyway, then you are obviously gonna have a pretty decent image to start with. So yeah, so we're not looking for consistency of the look o or the style of the images across the board.
Yeah,
yeah, yeah. And they can be from different categories, so they could, I mean, you, you, their top five images may all be from the same category. They may be spread across multiple categories. So I mean, we might have a winner who's entered, you know, one in each, or they might be all portrait images. So it's got, it's based on the, the individual scores of the image rather than the
categories.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So that's a bit, yeah, that's a bit different. That's new, so that's exciting. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. Now
oh, and the winner gets $500 a trophy, and we'll be presenting them at Shutter Hound live in Las Vegas, so it'll be really awesome if the winners were in the room. Yeah, that'd be So get your tickets to shut a hound people.
Nice. Alright guys, that's cool. Is there anything else that we need to know that maybe we haven't covered yet? Because we've gone through quite a lot now. I mean, we've, we've discussed, you know, the background of the awards, the judging lineup, which is incredible, the cost, the feedback, the actual category, scorings and what you can win.
Have we missed anything that's new?
Just here? I'm just looking at my list of what's new so we can,
something that
I, I would like to, something that I would like to probably mention at this point and only because within the last week it's kind of blown up in the photography world is ai. Oh,
ai. Yep.
Absolutely.
So Photoshop's new generative fill currently in beta. It's gonna be in the actual version of Photoshop really soon. It's gonna allow it's gonna make it really easy for people to incorporate elements into images that were not originally captured by them. So we will, we do have a rule that images may not use this new AI technology, generative fill or any other programs used to incorporate elements not originally captured by the photographer.
And that's across, that's competition wide. That's across all categories, even including the composite creative category. All elements need to be created by the photographer.
Okay, so let's just break it down a little bit. So for example, if I wanted to have like I don't know, a texture over my image, I would have to photograph that texture and then apply it in whatever processing way I cannot purchase and already create a texture.
Is that correct? Correct. That's exactly correct.
Yes. Every single element incorporated in the image needs to be an original capture by you as
a photographer.
Yep. Okay.
Things like text and anything like that needs to be photographic based as well. So, no there's no reason why you can't put text on an image, but that text needs to be photographed in some way to be able to be incorporated. You can't just write text in on the image in, in Photoshop and, and submit.
So every element must be photographic and every element must be created by the photographer within the timeframe. Yeah. Also. Yeah. So it has to be, it all has to have been created within the last five years as well.
Now that's a great rule, I think. And I also saw that it must be entered for the first time.
Is that correct? Yep, that's another rule. Cool. We, why did you guys do that?
Devils advocate, you answered that question. I know why you did it, but I
think
we've been talking about it. Ok. So, ok. Couple of reasons why we have introduced a five-year rule. First of all it does seem to be something that is fairly standard in awards. But that's, you know, we, we wanna make this awards unique anyway, so that's not really a, a major consideration.
The biggest consideration, I think, is that, you know, this is art and photography and this this process changes. We grow as photographers nonstop. We are always learning. There's always new techniques we can try. And so we want you to be creating work that is new and fresh and we don't want to encourage you going through your archives from.
You know, a decade ago and going, oh, I might stick this one in the awards this year. It's been sitting on my hard drive for, you know, we want this to represent what is happening in the industry now. So being able to enter new work that is fairly recent within the last five years, I think keeps everything fresh.
It keeps people wanting to create, going out and, and pushing their own boundaries. And I mean, you know, maybe you want to go out and shoot specifically to enter the awards. Maybe you are entering client work, but having it be of of images that are newer from your collections and your Lightroom catalogs and whatever I, I think is the most important thing that we.
I think that's why we came to that decision is to make it fresher and, and and current. And current.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Look, at the end of the day, it's the International Pet River of the Year
Award. So you know, you've gotta think about like, I. People who are making composites and things as well, you know, where they do build their own stock libraries of textures and things.
You know, you might, you might wanna use a texture that's five years old on an image that you shot last week and you might not have the opportunity to always go out and shoot new textures. So, you know, you can still incorporate things like that into composite work and things as well. So yeah, we
didn't wanna be too restrictive.
Yeah, some competitions have a two or even three year limit. But yeah, we thought five was pretty generous, so.
Yeah. Yeah, no, I think it's great. I mean, it's a good balance because like you said, you want it fresh, you want new content. Yeah. You, you want people to push themselves. That's the whole point of entering awards.
Yeah. Not just looking back through archives, but at the same time, like you said, you know, there might be an element that you're going to include that is shot. You know, earlier on, or maybe you're entering something that's from a trip that you did and you can't just go and redo that trip again. You know, like, and it's the most amazing image.
So at least five years allows for something like that. Speaking of trips, actually a couple more rules I'd like to run by. The first one is that one. What about images that were taken at workshops? Okay,
so this is yep. This is definitely a pretty important rule. So we feel that the images should be the work of the photographer.
And often when you're in a workshop or a treat, that sort of situation, you are being directed, supervised, taught, there is input from an outside source to allow you to create that image. So we basically wanted to make sure that it's all the photographer's work and it's not sort of influenced overly by other people.
Also when you're working in a retreat and a w in that sort of situation, like we both run retreats. We know what, how, what can happen when you're in a group shooting situation. There can be very similar images taken by multiple people. So we wanted
to sort of rule out that happening. Mm-hmm.
Perfect.
From a, from an entrance point of view as well. You know, if you've got an image taken at the same place at the same time, but from a slightly different angle of one dog you know, the first time a judge sees that you know, it, it doesn't matter whose image it is, the first time the judge sees it, it might be quite impactful.
But then it, if you then see that similar kind of image again in 10 images time, it's not gonna be as impactful because the judges have just seen it. So you, you're probably not gonna score as well as, as the person whose image came up first. Even if your image might even be better than theirs, because it's not gonna be new and, and exciting and fresh.
So it would have less impact when judges see it. So from the entrance point of view I, I think that, that, that's a really important consideration too.
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. We actually, oh, I had a, a rule and both the retreat so far and all the future ones as well anyway, that we said from the retreat point of view that any images created at the retreat should not be entered into any awards.
I knew that because of hosting awards yeah, unless you completely created the image yourself. If you took the dog away, you found the lighting location, you found the background, you worked with the dog one-on-one, there was no influence from anybody else, then it's your image. But if. You know, anybody else had any kind of impact on your image?
You know, somebody helped you pose it, somebody did the lighting, somebody chose the background, et cetera. Then it's, as far as we, we were saying then it's not a hundred percent your image. And so, you know, even using it like, you know, on your socials and stuff should always be said that it was taken at a retreat because it's not fair on your clients.
That's the kind of the very strong opinion that I have around this topic because like said, you, you know, hosting the awards in the past we would see images come up. We had a rule also the same role that you, you had to have created the image yourself, but. Steel people would enter and you'd see the same image come up like you just said, Craig, from three different angles.
And it was like, ah, okay. So these guys were all at our workshop together. So, yeah,
and I think it, it just goes back to, you know we don't allow any ai, we don't allow any images that are not created by the entrant in composite work or otherwise. So in the creation process of the image, then it makes sense that we don't allow anything from workshops, because that is not all the photographer's own work and their own ideas either.
Mm-hmm. So we, we wanna make sure that what we're seeing is truly each photographer and, you know, the essence of what they they do and put into their work. Yeah. Yeah. Fabulous. Now
speaking of rules there was just, One other that caught my eye that I was very happy to see back again which was about safety.
So do you guys wanna go into that a little bit further? I think it's really important and I think it's just, I mean, we've got this platform to discuss safety now anyway, and I think the awards is a great way to encourage it further because we, you guys would see it as well. I see it too, quite a, not a lot, but enough that, you know, there are images that are being put out into the world that aren't really very safe for the dog or the, the person.
And to have this opportunity to discuss that a little bit further, I think is is quite important. So tell me about this safety rule.
So, yeah. When it comes to unsafe situations, I'm, I'm thinking of a particular example, I'm just gonna pull this one and just use this one as an example, is railway tracks.
So great example. I think, I think most people can probably agree that railway tracks is probably not a particularly safe environment for anything other than a train. Really? So dogs on railway tracks not very safe. We do have people that, that photograph dogs on railway tracks and they argue that it was safe because the tracks were decommissioned.
Or perhaps it's some sort of model railway that only runs on weekends. There's often a variety of reasons why they might deem it safe. However, that is, when you look at it, it's promoting unsafe practices as a whole. The person looking at the image doesn't know that the railway tracks were decommissioned.
They get the idea and they think, oh, that's a great idea. I'm gonna go photograph dogs on railway tracks. So we're basically trying to avoid that whole scenario of perpetuating these kinds of images that can potentially result in, you know, loss of life even. So those sorts of situations are ones that we are definitely not going to be accepting, mm-hmm.
In the images that are submitted for the awards.
Okay, great. Yeah. Exactly right. You know, I mean, we cannot be putting even if it's the most incredible image in the world and it is on a, you know, decommissioned track, et cetera, as that example, I certainly don't wanna see that as the, you know, on the category winner of portrait, for example, and then spreading the message to everybody else there.
This, you know, to not worry about it. That it's totally fine, everything is safe, you know? I think there are many other examples that we could talk about, and I know you've listed some in the rules, so make sure guys, you can go and have a read through and just double check, but also just, you know, use your own common sense.
Like, okay, was this safe? Yes it was. Does everybody else know that it's safe without being there? And then then you can make the decision from there. I imagine the same goes, same goes for also the, the safety of the dog in terms of like reducing stress and this kind of
thing, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I think, again, that's one thing I think is quite unique with this awards platform is that we are looking for safety.
We are looking at the body language of the animals in, you know, in the images that the, the dogs are comfortable and don't look really stressed out. You know, if you're gonna if you're gonna pose a dog with, its, with its newborn human, baby brother or sister that, you know, it doesn't look like the dog is gonna just bite somebody in a minute.
You know, it's not safe necessarily to do that. So all of those things will, will be taken into consideration. We have we have Like we talked about train tracks, there are some other safety issues that we don't allow into the awards. So train tracks, powder shots, and, and really anything that is an unsafe practice that the, the subjects of the image, whether that's people or the animals in the images could be in danger from.
So yeah, have a look at the, the rules on the website and, and make sure you're familiar with all of that. So, yeah it's really about the animals and celebrating animals and not putting them in danger. The, the risk with that, of course, is that somebody else will see an image that's won an award and that perpetuates a trend or, or starts off something.
And you know, when people see other people be successful, they go, oh, I wanna try this out for myself. And then they go and put a dog on a train track. But maybe it's a live train track and, you know, Things can go wrong. So well, yeah, and especially
for, sorry, Craig, especially for, you know, up and coming photographers, emerging photographers.
Well, we also have young people following, you know, following along on this kind of thing. I mean, I remember seeing train track shots when I was in school studying photography. I was 16 years old and I was like so confused about it. Like, oh, that's random. Why do you wanna stand on a train track for a, for a portrait?
And then eventually kind of, I saw, so it was very trendy back then and I saw so many that I was like, I should do that, you know, and I actually thought like that, that would be cool. Eventually, you know, 17 year old me and, okay. It changes over time and you know, it's not just young people, you know, if you're new to the industry or whatever it might be, or you've just seen so many that it becomes normal.
So, yeah. You know, exactly. We do have a responsibility especially, you know, as, as hosts of the awards, you guys have their responsibility as well to, to avoid encouraging that kind of thing. So I'm really glad that you've, you've stayed, you know, strong with that and it doesn't surprise me whatsoever.
And you know, there are so many other amazing. Backdrops or, or ways to become creative without putting anybody at risk. And we've seen that, you know, year on year time and time again. How amazing you know, photographers are in terms of creativity and that's exactly what the awards is all about, isn't it?
Just pushing that to the next level. So, absolutely. Yeah. I'm for one, very excited to see this year's winners and, and as many images as get shown around, I can't wait to see them all. So when do entries they're already open, when do they close? And when can we expect to get some updates in terms of scores and this kind
of thing?
Okay, so award entries are open until June 30th at 5:00 PM Australian time. That is the deadline for your entries. Then we will be going through the judging process through most of August, probably depending on how many entries come in. We will be announcing the finalists of the categories and for the overall pet photographer of the year title on September the first.
The awards ceremony will be live at Shutter Hound Conference in Las Vegas at the Mirage Hotel at the closing of the conference on September the seventh. And, All all of the winners and, and everything will be online shortly after that. And then the entrance will have received all of their scoring, all of their feedback and all of their badges for their images no later than September the 10th.
There we go. So that's a, that's a time. So that timeline is also on the website, so make sure you go and have a look and, and, and see that timeline too. There's, there's a lot going on, guys busy in
September for you.
Yeah, yeah. We, we have a, we have a busy September and very busy. Yeah. August and September.
Yep.
Yep, for sure. Now you guys actually for the, for the listeners, as you guys all know, normally this these episodes are released as two halves. The first half that goes out to the public through Spotify, iTunes, whatever your favorite podcast listener is, and you can listen to the first half free, anywhere on the go.
The second half gets released only to our members. It's also in your favorite podcast player using your favorite your, sorry, your private RSS feed link this week or this episode, because it does, you know, It kind of, all the information goes out to everybody, everybody needs to hear it. We didn't wanna, you know, segment just half four members, half our listeners, et cetera free listeners, et cetera.
So this entire episode is going out to everybody. If you are a member though, we have a bit of a bonus for you because I wanna, you know, didn't wanna just jib you of your, of your benefit for this week. And so Craig and Charlotte, very kindly offered us up 10. Actually, maybe you guys wanna go into the details so I don't mess it up.
10 coupons. Ok, go on. Go on.
Okay, so yeah, we're providing 10 free entry codes and that will entitle you to a free entry. So you'll just need to follow the links on the international. Pep of the year website and register for an account and then you'll just be able to enter this code and redeem your free entry.
So this is, regardless of whether you've already bought entries or you haven't bought any yet you'll be able to redeem that free entry. They're all single use codes too,
so once they're used, that's it. All right. And it is one per person and there's only 10 available. So if you've been thinking about entering or you've got one extra image that you hadn't entered, but you are wanting to and you haven't got around to it yet, this is your opportunity.
It's for members only. So I'm gonna send out the details in the members' Facebook group. So check in there. You'll have to contact me to grab your code. It's one per person maximum of 10. So jump on it. Don't hesitate. And most of all, for all of you listening, good luck. Remember to, you know, This is about growth, this is about education, this is about celebrating the industry.
So have a go, you know, you're gonna get feedback regardless, and I encourage you all to yeah, submit your best en images from the last five years.
That's it. Yeah. Thanks so much, Kirsty. Like we are, we're very grateful for your continued support in this and
Yeah, it's fantastic. Yeah. I'm grateful for you guys for taking it on.
No. Before we wrap up, guys, just let the listeners know exactly where they should go. What is the web link for the awards nowadays? Okay, so
there is a brand new website for this here, and it is pet photography awards.com. Nice and simple. So if you visit that website that's got all of the information that you need on there, all the entry information, information about the judges a link so that you can actually go and create an account and upload and manage your images.
It's also got information about the past winners and there's a few tutorials on there that we've created to help you prepare your images and also check your images before submitting to make sure that they meet all the criteria. So there's a ton of information on that website, pet photography awards.com.
Easy. Awesome. Thank you so much you guys. And yeah, for the listener, good luck.