NANPA iNaturalist Nature Photography Day Bioblitz Contest Rules

Eligibility

NANPA’s Nature Photography Day Bioblitz Photo Contest (the “Contest”) is open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia who are at least eighteen (18) years old at the time of entry, and who have registered to participate in NANPA’s iNaturalist Bioblitz Project at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/nanpa-nature-photography-day-2023-bioblitz.

Sponsor

The Contest is sponsored by the North American Nature Photography Association, located at 6382 Charleston Road, Alma, Illinois 62807.

Agreement to Official Rules

Participation in the Contest constitutes entrant’s full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of these Official Rules and the decisions of the Sponsor, which are final and binding. Winning a prize is contingent upon being compliant with these Official Rules and fulfilling all other requirements set forth herein.

Entrant guarantees that all the information provided is correct and truthful and the capture of images complied with local, state, federal and FAA regulations related to photography. Entries not accurately represented or not abiding by contest rules will be disqualified. It is the entrant’s responsibility to provide accurate information including a correct email address for notification. NANPA is not responsible for emails that are not received.

Contest period

The Nature Photography Day Bioblitz Contest begins on June 7, 2023 at 12:01 AM Eastern Time and ends on June 17, 2023 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. All photographs must be taken between June 7, 2023 at 12:01 Eastern Time and June 17, 2023 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time and must be uploaded to the iNaturalist project by June 20, 2023 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time.

How to enter

Participants must first register in NANPA’s Nature Photography Day iNaturalist Bioblitz Project at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/nanpa-nature-photography-day-2023-bioblitz. As defined by iNaturalist, an observation is a photograph that “records an encounter with an individual organism at a particular time and location.” For each observation, a participant will also record what was observed, where, when it was observed in the iNaturalist app. Each photograph of an observation that is uploaded to iNaturalist, verified, and labeled by iNaturalist as “research grade” counts as one entry.

Each image must be entirely the work of the person submitting the image and must accurately reflect the subject matter and scene as it appeared when captured with the camera. Photographers should follow NANPA’s principles of ethical field practices.

Photo rights

Entrants can retain copyright to their photos by turning off the default Creative Commons licensing on iNaturalist. Winning entrants agree that NANPA has the right to use their photographs, without compensation but with attribution, on the NANPA website, and social media channels in promotion of this contest and Nature Photography Day. NANPA may also use the winners’ images for promoting future competitions.

Sensitive species and locations

Note that geoprivacy (hiding observation coordinates from public view) is automatically applied to observations of species with a conservation status and can be hidden by a user when uploading observations of sensitive species or locations.

Prizes

Three (3) $100 VISA gift cards will be awarded, one to each of three winners. Each participant is only eligible to win one prize.

Judges

Three judges will be chosen from among the members of the NANPA Conservation Committee. Judges will not be eligible for prizes and judges’ decisions are final.

Prize drawing

On or about June 30, 2023, the Sponsor will select three (3) potential winners. One prize will go to the individual whose research-grade entries document the largest number of different species. One prize will be awarded in a random drawing from among all entrants who have submitted ten (10) or more research-grade entries. One prize will be awarded by the judges (Judges’ Choice) for an entry of special merit. Sponsor will attempt to notify by email the potential winners on or about June 30, 2023. If a potential winner cannot be contacted within five (5) days after the date of the first attempt to contact him/her, the Sponsor may select an alternate potential winner in his/her place from the remaining non-winning, eligible entries.

In addition, prize winners will each be featured in a blog article on the NANPA website, which will also be shared on NANPA’s social media channels.

Once contacted and verified, prize winners will be announced on the NANPA website and social media channels.