Welcome to the first East Coast Fish-Watch Project Photographer of the Year competition!

We have set this up in order to encourage you, the enthusiastic underwater photographer, to take more photos and give them to us to help in the cataloguing of the fish species of the Eastern Coast of Southern Africa.

As is the case with all worthwhile competitions, there is a prize - R1,000 kindly donated by Dennis and Sally Polack of Uniross Batteries.

The prize will be awarded to the photographer sending us the best fish photo. This will include bonus marks for especially unusual or rare fish species, so keep a sharp look out for those! Clear shots showing all the essential characters of the fish are what we really need, although of course beautiful pictures that also achieve this aim are more than welcome! Rarity of the fish will also be a high priority. So, even if it doesn't look like something that will ever grace the pages of Dive Style, send it in! We will endeavour to identify the fish for you and will send you the name of the species when we return the image to you.

Photos should be limited to fish portraits (generally a side view of the fish is best). Species other than fish should not be in the photo unless it gives an impression of the habitat of the fish, or emphasizes a special relationship (symbiosis) or scale. We generally prefer slides, as they give a higher quality image, but don't let that put you off taking print film!

Please remember to tell us where and when the picture was taken, as this could be important in establishing distributions of fish. The more information you can send us about the fish, the better!

We will be displaying some of the photos on the website, both as examples of photos which at that stage we think have a good chance of winning, and also in our Fish of the Week feature. Regular contributors may well get their own showcase page.

We'd like to draw your attention to another aspect of the Project which has received little attention - that is membership of the Project as fish photographers. In return for your joining as photographers, and sending us your photos, you will be given complimentary membership and free film. All you have to do is send us the film once you've taken the pictures and we'll take care of the developing and so on. For more information, contact us via the usual means.

We look forward to seeing your entries.

Good luck!
 

Terms and Conditions:

1) Copyright of the images will be retained by the photographer although the Project and the JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology reserve the right in perpetuity to use the photos in publications, either printed or digitally without incurring a charge for its use.

2) The Photographer will always be credited every time the photo is used. In the case of digitally encoded images, the name of the photographer will be placed into the image itself. (For instance when incorporated into a database or published on the Internet).

3) We reserve the right to make duplicates of slides or prints sent in for our archives. Original images will be returned to the photographer.

4) Photographer of the Year will be run over a 12 month period, starting from the launch of the competition on the _ _  2000.

5) Entries received prior to _ _ 2001 will be entered into the 2000 competition, those arriving after this date will be entered into the following year's competition.

6) The prize of R1,000 will be awarded to the photographer who the judges feel has sent us the best entry.

7) This competition is only open to current members of the East Coast Fish-Watch Project.