BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//6.1.2//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:1247@dvoc.org DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261217T191500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261217T213000 DTSTAMP:20261030T022649Z URL:https://dvoc.org/events/members-photo-night-2026/ SUMMARY:Members' Photo Night 2026 DESCRIPTION:Join us for the annual Members’ Photo Night. Each year\, memb ers submit photos in several categories – Birds\, Fauna\, Flora\, Scener y\, Birders\, bird photos taken within the DVOC area\, and Bird of the Yea r - Cedar Waxwing.\n\nRegister here via Zoom\n\n************************** **************************************************************\n\nSubmit y our photos to programs@dvoc.org                     \n\nPhotos are due by 9 pm on November 29.\n\n\n\n \;\n\nThe results will be reve aled by compiler Patrick McGill. Every year we receive remarkable photos.   Prizes will be awarded in each category and for the Most Artistic Photo (Avocet Award) and the Best in Show (Steve Kacir Award). Judges will use criteria listed below to determine the best in each class. This year’s j udges are Navin Sasikumar\, Peter Hamner\, and Dan Efroymson .\n\nReminder – the photo contest is for members only but all are welcome to attend t he meeting to see the results.\n\n \;\n\nCategories and Definitions:\n \n\n Birds: Photos of birds. Judges will prefer photos of live\, wild bir ds that are free and unrestrained.\n Fauna: Photos of animals that are no t birds. Photos of free and unrestrained living\, wild animals will be fav ored by the judges.\n Flora: Photos of plants (including but not limited to flowers)\, fungi\, algae and other life forms that are not animals. Flo ra photographed in its native habitat will be preferred by the judges. Pho tographs of seeds\, spores\, pinecones and other propagules qualify for th is category.\n Scenery: Photos in this category will capture elements of the great outdoors and not rely upon their subject matter being alive. Thi s is a catch-all category that includes such subjects as landscapes\, skie s and weather\, astronomical photography\, rock formations and other lands cape elements\, rocks\, fossils\, bones\, shells\, pollen\, fallen leaves\ , crystals\, water\, roads\, paths\, signage\, etc. Essentially\, these ar e nonliving subjects that might be encountered while birding\, hiking or o n an outing for outdoor photography. If plants or animals are within these photos\, the photos will only be judged on how well the photos succeed in terms of the inanimate subject matter and any live plants and animals wil l be treated as part of the scenery.\n Birders: Photographs of birders an d/or nature photographers.\n DVOC Area: Photographs of birds taken within the DVOC area (SE PA\, NJ\, DE). Description must include location inform ation\, date\, and species information.\n Bird of the Year: 2026 = Cedar Waxwing. Submit your best photo of this bird species.\n\n \;\n\n\nMaxi mum Submissions per Member\n\n\n Birds: 5 photos per member\n Fauna: 2 p hotos per member\n Flora: 2 photos per member\n Scenery: 2 photos per me mber\n Birders: 2 photos per member\n DVOC Area: 3 photos per member\n Bird of the Year: 1 photo per member\n\n\nEligibility\n\n\n Only members are eligible to submit photos. Members may only submit their own work for the competition\; though\, members can submit images to share with the clu b that were taken by nonmembers. Such photos are ineligible for the compet ition\, but still count towards that member’s maximum allowed submission s for the photo’s category.\n Contest judges and compiler are ineligibl e for the competition\, but may submit images to share with the club on th e DVOC Members’ Photo Night. Even contest judges who are not DVOC member s may submit images to share during the photo night if they so desire. Jud ges are held to the same maximum submissions as eligible members.\n Photo s that had previously won an award at a past DVOC Photo Contest are inelig ible for competition. Likewise\, photos submitted to the DVOC Photo Contes t in past years are ineligible for this year’s competition.\n Photos ma y have been taken in any year. The competition is not limited to photos ta ken during the year of the competition\, but only newly submitted photos a re eligible for competition.\n Winning Photos will be displayed as low-re solution versions on the DVOC website. Entering photos into the contest co nstitutes consent for the DVOC to publish these low-resolution versions on the DVOC website. Winners may also want to consider submitting winning ph otos to Cassinia for publication\, though this is not required.\n\n\nSubmi ssions\n\n\nPlease do not include your name or a personal watermark within the image of submissions for the photography contest. Judging is to be pe rformed blind\, and submissions of such marked photos may necessitate obsc uring such identifying marks\, which can affect the overall appearance and impact of the photographic work.\n\nFor each photo submitted\, please inc lude the following information along with the photo (but not within the im age):\n\n Title of the photo\n A short description of the subject of the photo\n Location for the photo\n Category for the photo. Choose one of the following for each photo submitted: Birds\, Flora\, Fauna\, Scener y\, Birders\, DVOC Area\, Bird of the Year.\n\n\nAwards\n\n\n The Steve K acir Memorial Award for Photographic Achievement: Judges will first determ ine the winner of the Grand Prize\, The Steve Kacir Memorial Award for Pho tographic Achievement. The photo that wins this category will be considere d the overall “best-in-show” for the members’ photo night and contes t. In contrast to previous years\, this winner will be considered to merit a category all its own. While the winning photo certainly would win first place within the subject category to which it will have been submitted\, this photo will be given the top prize overall\, leaving the first place c ategory in the winning photo’s subject matter open for competition.\n T he Avocet Award for Artistic Achievement: The second major prize to be awa rded will be “The Avocet Award for Artistic Achievement.” This award w ill only be presented to a member who submits a photo that meets the award criteria. This award will honor a qualifying photo that transcends the co nventions of wildlife or nature photography in terms of mere documentation . Instead\, a competitive photo will approach its subject matter in a mann er that illustrates a unique artistic vision for the subject using a uniqu e and artistic photographic process. This award is not required to be give n by the judges\, and will only be used to honor an appropriately artistic photograph. A photo that wins the Avocet Award is still eligible for a Fi rst Place\, Second Place or Third Place Award within its particular catego ry.\n From the remaining pool of entrants\, winners of First Place\, Se cond Place and Third Place for each category will be chosen. As describ ed above\, the photo that wins the Steve Kacir Memorial Award will not be eligible to receive an additional award\, leaving the remaining entrants t o contend for these prizes.\n\nJudging Criteria\n\n\nWhile judging photos is necessarily a subjective matter\, the judges believe it to be in the in terest of the competition to detail certain artistic and photographic elem ents for which the judges will be looking during the judging process. Thes e elements essentially fall into a few somewhat overlapping categories tha t are listed below. Keep in mind\, these are not meant to be all-inclusive lists and no single photograph is likely to include all the components li sted below.\n\n Photographic Competency: Lighting\, Focus\, Exposure\, De pth of Field\n Artistic Competency: Lighting\, Composition\, Distance to Subject\, Color\, Texture\, Appropriate Compositional Style for the subjec t matter\, Interconnectedness of Compositional Elements\, Depth of Imagery and/or Depth of Field\, Background Choice. Elements of composition can in clude such items as pattern\, symmetry\, texture\, depth of field\, lines to train the eye\, framing\, perspective\, sense of space\, balance &\; imbalance. As a helpful hint\, past judges had noted particular issues wi th photos that were cropped as squares – choosing such an aspect ratio c an be especially challenging. Unless there is an artistic reason to crop a photo as a square\, the judges recommend avoiding such an aspect ratio. S imilarly\, cropping a very small element out of a larger photo – regardl ess of original photo resolution – will often result in an image that is not competitive. This can be due to a flat look of the subject matter\, l ack of resolution of fine details\, odd perspective\, or introduction of a rtifacts by the camera or editing process. Feel free to submit such photos \, as they almost always will still look great when they are projected for the photo night. However\, if you are feeling competitive\, choose photos that don’t need much cropping of the original image.\n Photographic vo ice: Lighting\, Storytelling\, Capturing a Moment\, Use of Color\, Perspec tive\, Viewpoint\, Experimentation\, Creation of Mood\, Connection with vi ewer\, Evocation of Emotion\, Title of the Photo\, Use of Bokeh or Deep Fo cus\, Strong Moments. Strong Moments: “When every part of the picture in teracts with the other parts in a way that the viewer might think – wow this is special and probably doesn’t happen that often.”\n— Jacob M aentz of the blog Light Stalking\nhttp://www.lightstalking.com/5-fundament al-elements-of-great-photographs\n\n\n\n ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dvoc.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/p hotography-art-300x169-1.jpg CATEGORIES:Hybrid Meeting,Meetings LOCATION:Academy of Natural Sciences\, The Academy of Natural Sciences of D rexel University\, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy\,\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 191 03\, United States GEO:39.9570904;-75.17120469999998 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=The Academy of Natural Scie nces of Drexel University\, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy\,\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19103\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Academy of Natural Sciences:geo:39.9570904,-75.17120469999998 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20261101T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR