CAPA Nature/Wildlife Competition

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Definition 

There are five themes within this category.

Botanical - Only wild plants, including fungi and algae, in their natural environment are allowed.  Hybrids and cultivated plants are not permitted.  Wild plants grown in a botanical garden are allowed. In cases where a plant species is known to occur in the wild and has been cultivated by humans, the judging panel will give the image the “benefit-of-the-doubt” and accept the image as meeting the definition of this theme.

Insects, reptiles and amphibians.

Landscape - including weather phenomena, geological formations, landscapes, seascapes, planets, stars and astronomical events.

Nature - including living birds, animals, anthropods (invertebrates with an exoskeleton, differentiated segments, and paired, jointed appendages, such as spiders and crustaceans) and marine subjects.  They may be under the care and feeding of humans (in zoos, game farms or aquariums) provided the human element is not obvious.  No feral or domesticated birds or animals are permitted. 

Wildlife -  only living and untamed mammals, birds and marine subjects.  No traditional zoos, open-range zoos, game farms or areas where animals are restrained or confined.  Animals in nature parks are allowed where animals are living free, as are scientific bands, tags and radio collars, but no tethers or harness attachments.

“Hand-of-man” is allowed in the “Botanical” and “Insects, reptiles and amphibian” themes, but only where it is an integral part of the nature story, and even then it must be less than 10% of the total area. Note that “hand-of-man” includes jet trails, cables, artificial light, man-made paths, food, cut trees, and systemically planted plants. 

Hand-of-man is permitted in the “Nature” theme provided it is an element of an “adaptive environment”.  An “adaptive environment” is where the animal, bird or marine subject uses a human-created structure for nesting or feeding their young or attracting a mate, consuming a cultivated plant or flower, and using a human-created structure for another purpose, such as consuming their prey or food on a fence post or sawn log.  

No hand-of-man (except scientific bands, tags and collars) is permitted in the Wildlife or Landscape themes.  No tethers or harness are permitted in Wildlife.

Editing

No techniques that add, relocate, replace, or remove pictorial elements (except by cropping) are allowed.  Enhancing techniques such as HDR, long exposure, focus stacking and dodging/burning are allowed, provided they do not change the nature of the story or alter the content of the original scene.  All allowed adjustments must appear natural.  Filters that change the mood of an image are not allowed.

Alterations or additions generated AI, whether by text prompt or non-text technique, may NOT be used either in whole or in part.

Removal of elements added by a camera, such as dust spots, digital noise and film scratches, are permitted.  Infrared images are not allowed, nor are stitched images or borders or digital frames.

You must preserve your original RAW or JPEG file.  If your image is selected for an award, you will be required to produce your original file.  Make edits on a copy.  A DNG and a PSD file are not recognized as an original file. The only exception will be for images captured on specific cameras: Apple iphone, Leica, Nokia smartphone, Ricoh, Casio, LG, Panoscan, Samsung, DxO, MegaVision, Pentax and Sinar.

Submissions

VCC members may enter two images as Club images.  The Club may enter only 6 images from 6 different photographers.  The Club must enter images in at least two different themes to be eligible for medals. 

The DEADLINE for submission of up to 2 images to VCC in the Club category is September 15, 2024, midnight PDT. 

Individual CAPA members may enter a maximum of 3 images.  They too must enter into at least 2 themes to be eligible for overall CAPA medals. The CAPA deadline for individual submissions is October 15 at midnight, EST.

Specifications

1. Images should be in JPEG format, maximum 1400 pixels on the horizontal x 1050 on the vertical in size.

2. Note: One of the dimensions must be exactly the maximum allowed size (either 1400 or 1050 pixels).

3. A portrait image would have a vertical dimension of 1050 pixels.  A square image would have vertical and horizontal dimensions of 1050 pixels.

4. sRGB colour space and have a maximum file size of 1.8 MB

5. Maximum number of submissions per VCC member  to VCC is two.
6. Individual members of CAPA may submit 3 images to CAPA.
7. Please preserve your image’s RAW formatted files, should CAPA request them.

See  2024 Nature/Wildlife Competition for More Information

VCC Results

• 2024/25
  Results are in on the first big national CAPA Club competition this season.  VCC came in 6th out of 55 clubs, winning an Honour Award.  Congratulations to Alec Lee for "Totality - Solar Eclipse" awarded 25 points, Bill Cubitt for "An Anhinga Having Lunch" awarded 24.5 points, Christy Grinton (Martin) for "Family Love" awarded 24.5 points, Steve Barber for "White Rhino" awarded 24 points, Lori Moilanen for "Eastern Meadowlark" awarded 22.5 points, and Kathy Carter for "Mama Cheetah on Guard" awarded 22 points.  On the Individual side of this competition, Christy Grinton (Martin) won an honour award at 69.5 points for her three individual pictures, followed by Daniel Rondeau at 67 points, Jim Fowler at 66 points, David Clow at 65.5 points, and Jerome Rozitis (2 photos only) at 42.5. See gallery to the right

• 2023/24
Results have been released, and VCC won Honourable Mention. Our six images scored 145.5 points in this competition which saw 45 clubs from across Canada submit 264 images. Congratulations to our members: Bill Cubitt, for Great Blue Heron and Fish; Nick Delany, for Grizzly Chase 1; Jerome Rozitis, for The Hunt; Jill Turyk, for A Force of Nature; Daniel Rondeau, for Taken to the Air Waves; and Steve Barber, for Frozen Waves. Also, congratulations to Nick Delany who also entered the Individual competition and won an Honour Award overall and a Third Merit Award in Nature. See the gallery

• 2022/23
After a one year absence, VCC has entered the Digital Nature Competition with 6 entries from Club photographers. One picture, Red Columbine, was chosen for an award, but sadly it had to be disqualified by CAPA because the photographer was unable to produce his original RAW image, so the VCC score was based on only five pictures instead of the 6 entered.  As a result, we came 38th out of 42 Club entries. See the gallery


Club member Daniel Rondeau chose to enter the Individual contest in addition to the Club contest, and won an honour award. See his photos



• 2020/21
  In 2020, the VCC won the Silver medal in the Club Competition and Steve Barber won the 3rd Merit Award (Nature). In the Individual Competition, Lois Burton won the Gold Medal as well as 2 Merit Awards (1st in Insects and 3rd in Wildlife) and Daniel Rondeau and Leah Gray won 1st and 3rd Honour Awards.  See the gallery

• 2019/20
  The Victoria Camera Club placed 21^st out of 43 camera clubs. Suzanne Huot’s image “Red-eyed Tree Frog” won the 1^st Merit Award.  See the Gallery

• 2018/19
  VCC finished out of the placings (21^st out of 38). Evan Guengerich’s image “Sibling Rivalry” received a Merit #2. See the Gallery

• 2017/18
  In 2017 the VCC came in 16th place out of 35 clubs in the CAPA Fall Digital Nature Competition. We felt that we had submitted a strong  entry, but obviously we were up against some impressive competition. See the Gallery

• 2016/17:
  In 2016 Victoria Camera Club placed 9th, slightly better than in 2015. See the Gallery

• 2015/16: 
  In 2015, Victoria Camera Club scored a total of 129 points which was good for 11th place. The winning club was the Toronto Camera Club with 143 points.  See the Gallery

--to see a full image size slideshow, hover cursor over an image then click on the "Expand" icon on the right of the filmstrip--