Rules of Entry

1. Entries open at 12pm Sunday 4th February 2024 and close at 5pm on Sunday 31st March 2024.
2. All entries are to be submitted via the entries portal at lifeandlight.com.au, after the completion of an online entry form. – image files must be named in accordance with the photo title on the entry form. Hard copies or photos submitted on a USB will not be accepted.
3. Subject matter is restricted to the locality of the Western Local Land Services region and should address the theme of this year’s competition: Spirit of Country. For more information on the Western Local Land Services region go to lls.nsw.gov.au.
4. Subject matter must not contain anything that could be considered animal cruelty or animals in distress.
5. Subject matter must not contain any form of nudity.
6. Any photos with watermarks will not be accepted into the competition.
7. The entrant accepts complete responsibility for gaining permission to enter and publish photos of the people featuring in their photograph. The Life and Light Photo Competition accepts no liability for entrants that have not been given permission to enter and publish photos of people featuring in the entered photograph.
8. Photographs must have been taken no earlier than 1 January 2023, Entries into all Life and light categories must not have been published for profit and should not have won any other competition with the exception of the semi professional category.
9. Entries will be limited to 20 images per person in total.
10. The competition organiser reserves the right to immediately disqualify any entrant deemed to be deliberately in breech of competition rules. The decision shall be final and no correspondence will be entered into.
11. The copyright of each entry submitted remains with the photographer, and every endeavor will be made to recognise the photographer however, Western Local Land Services and Western Landcare NSW reserve the right to use any entry for promotional purposes and each sponsor reserves the right to use any entry submitted to their corresponding category for promotional purposes. Entries may be chosen for promotional items sold for profits of which will be put back into the running costs of the Life and light photo competition only.
12. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. The judging panel comprises a Western Local Land Services nominee, a Western Landcare NSW nominee and a Semi professional photographer.
13. Semi Professional entrants may use their social media platforms to promote their entries but will NOT be exempt from rule number 11. NOTE: Semi Professional photographers will not be eligible for the peoples choice category.
14. Entrants will be deemed semi professional photographers if they meet one or more of the listed;
    a) Entrant has a business Facebook page for which they use to publish their images to share with followers and/or the public.
    b) Entrant publishes images for the purpose of income/profit.
15. Notification of shortlisted nominations will be sent via email as well as be published on the competition’s Facebook page.
16. Winners will be announced and presented with awards at Agfair on the 3-4th May 2024 in Broken Hill.
17. Prizes will be awarded as set out for each category to winners, second place and third place. See guidelines and website for more details on categories and prizes.
18. The Life and Light in the Western Region Photographic Competition 2024 is open to all interested persons except judges of the competition and their immediate family, Western Local Land Services and Western Landcare NSW employees, Western Local Land Services Board Members and Western Landcare NSW Steering Committee Members.
19. In order to be suitable for publication, photographs that are submitted must be of high resolution in JPEG (.jpg) format. The file needs to be a minimum 2000 pixels on the longest side for website uploads and a maximum 5000 pixels at a max 10MB in size. Winners of the competition may be contacted to supply larger format images for exhibition purposes. If high resolution copies cannot be provided the entry may be disqualified from the competition. NOTE: Large files may take some time to load, depending on your internet speed - please be patient when uploading.
20. Each entrant must create a login at lifeandlight.com.au that will consist of that entrant’s name, address, and contact telephone number. For each photograph submitted the entrant must provide the title, location (property or town), year of the photograph and the category it is to be entered into.
21. Votes for the People's Choice award will close on Sunday 7th April 2024 at 5pm.

Category Rules:

• Must be taken in the Western Local Land  Services Region.
• Must have been taken after January 1st 2023.
• Must align with 2024 Theme: "Spirit of Country"

Category Specific Rules:

Open Colour:

• Any image that aligns with the 2024 theme but does not fit into any other categories

Open Black and white:

• Any black and white image that aligns with the 2024 theme.

Nature in the Spotlight:

• Images which contain Flora and Fauna as the dominant and primary subject located in the western region.

Semi Professional:

• Any image captured by a photographer deemed by the competition organiser as semi professional. (See above for guidelines) Please note: Semi Professional photographers will not be eligible for the peoples choice category.

Wool & Livestock:  

• Images which are characterised by content that relates to wool & livestock (i.e. sheep, cattle, goats, poultry etc.), farming activities (i.e. shearing, feeding, mustering etc.). Highly flexible category.

Junior:  

• Must be aged 16 or under when competition closes on 31st March 2024. ALL JUNIOR ENTRIES MUST BE ENTERED WITH A DATE OF BIRTH AND IN THEIR OWN NAME.

People's Choice:

All photos accepted into one of the above categories will automatically go into this category as well. The winner is determined by votes/likes that occur on the competition’s  Facebook page. facebook.com/lifeandlightphotocomp/.