Getting Started with Competitions

Participating in competitions is one of the best ways to improve your photography, receive constructive feedback, and share your work with fellow members. Whether you're entering your very first image or you're an experienced competitor, the St. Louis Camera Club strives to provide a welcoming and educational competition environment. The purpose of our competitions is to encourage photographic excellence while helping members grow as photographers.

New to Club Competitions?

Don't worry—you don't have to be an expert to participate.

All new competing members begin in Class B, allowing you to compete alongside photographers with similar experience. As you earn points through competitions, you'll advance to higher competition classes within each category. Advancements are based on cumulative points earned over time.

How to Get Started

Getting involved is easy:

Become a Competing Member - Joining the camera entitles you to participate in our competitions.

Learn the Competition Categories - The club offers several regular competition sections:

• Open Digital
• Nature
• Travel
• Photojournalism
• Color Prints
• Monochrome Prints

In addition, the club hosts special competitions throughout the year, including Image of the Year, Long and Short Photo Essays, and the Rookies Only Competition.

Prepare Your Image
Review the image preparation guidelines to ensure your image meets the required specifications before uploading.

Submit Your Entry
Upload your image before the published submission deadline (typically the Sunday before a Wednesday competition). Print competitors must also bring their mounted print to the meeting.

Attend A Competition Night
The majority of our club meetings (both in-person and online zoom meetings) feature a presentation followed by a competition, Join us to hear comments from experienced judges, celebrate award winners, and learn from the work of fellow members.

Helpful Resources

To help you prepare for your first competition, we recommend reviewing these pages:

• Competition Rules & Etiquette – Complete rules for each competition category, judging procedures, and eligibility requirements.
• Preparing Images for Competition – Image sizing, color space, and export recommendations.
• Image Upload Tutorial - Instructions on uploading images directly to a competition.
      (Please note that the link to Submit Images is now under "Competitions" and then "Enter Competitions" on the menu)
• Submit Images to a Competition – Upload your entries before each competition.
• Competition Results – View current and past competition results.

Tips for First-Time Competitors

• Enter images you're proud of—but don't worry about perfection.
• Listen carefully to the judges' comments; they're intended to educate and encourage.
• Ask questions! Experienced members are always happy to help.
• Attend competitions even when you're not entering images—you'll learn a tremendous amount by watching and listening.
• Remember that every accomplished photographer started as a beginner.

Ready to Enter?

Competitions are one of the most rewarding aspects of club membership. We encourage you to participate often, challenge yourself creatively, and enjoy the opportunity to learn from both judges and fellow photographers.

We look forward to seeing your images!

While we are grateful and thank all of you volunteers out there, we did not have the resources to maintain the level of competitions and presentations we had before. The total number of Wednesday night competitions has been reduced from 47 to 37.

This is being done on a trial basis and can be changed back next year if the club desires to do so.

PSA Interclub competitions will remain at 15.

Required Points for Advancement

Due to the reduction of competitions, the required points for advancement will be adjusted as follows
 (Please note – advancements will take effect at the end of the club year in 2026).

Advancement from Class B to Class A requires the accumulation of points equal to twice the number of annual competitions held in each section. Advancement from Class A to Salon Class requires the accumulation of points equal to six times the number of annual competitions held in each section.

New members begin in Class B. Members advance to the next class based on the points accumulated in that section, as given in the table above. The total points may have been accumulated over any number of years. All advancements are made at the end of the club year in which the accumulated points meet or exceed the criteria listed above.

Other Notable Competition Rule Changes

• Automatic advancement for the Person with the Most Points in each Section will be discontinued.
• Awards will be given to 40% of the entries regardless of the number of entries (i.e. if there are only 3 entries only 1 image will be placed).
• Prints will be judged based on seeing the print only. Print judges will not see the digital images of the prints you submit on Sunday night, but we require you to continue to submit the digital image of the print on Sunday night, so winning images are available to show on our website the day after the competition.