Call for Entries - Undewater Images Photo-Video Competition

"uwphotographer" wrote in message
oups.com...
In your OP your handle was "Mark" now you change it to "
and later to "uwphotographer". You can't hide like that. You also munged the
photography NG's names so your replies won't appear where photographers who
are knowledgeable about such contests can question you. I've fixed that for
you.

As much as several thousand dollars per year has been donated to the
beneficiaries listed he
http://www.uwimages.org/contributions.htm

The bottom of this page says that the scholarship is for Ohio residents
only. There is no mention of the dollar value of your contributions. It does
link directly to the scholarship site that you mention in your next
paragraph.

In the last two years $500 donations have also been made to the OCSSDI
Memorial Scholarship fund:
http://www.ocssdi.org/scholarship.htm

This web site links directly to your contest and makes no mention of the
dollar value of your contributions.

The last 2 year's scholarship recipeint was Joe Hoyt, who by the way
also was awarded the prestigous Our World Underwater Scholarship in
Chicago for 2004
(http://www.owuscholarship.org/OW-USS.html).

How can we know if the people who get the scholarships are financially
unable to attend college without it? Those people could be
friends/relatives/acquaintances of the scholarship fund managers.

Looks like a scam to me!
me

me wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...
In your OP your handle was "Mark" now you change it to
"
and later to "uwphotographer". You can't hide like that. You also
munged the
photography NG's names so your replies won't appear where
photographers who
are knowledgeable about such contests can question you. I've fixed
that for
you.

You can question me at the webmaster email on the site. Nothing to hide
accept email address from spam/email harvesters. (Had trouble with
usenet account, so signed up for google usenet access to reply, if you
really need to know)


Yes, some prizes may cost you airfare to get there or other typical
out
of pocket travel costs. However, most divers will be going on trips
anyway.

And if they aren't do they still get the prize?

Yes, give it away or sell it if you please.


Prizes
donated are given out as donated.

Don't they have to be won first?

My response was meant that if airfare or extra expenses is not donated
as part of the prize, it is not added. If it were, then either entry
fees would be higher or less or none would go to the charitable
beneficiaries. Your response is a good indication of your attitude.


Equipment is shipped to winners at no
charge out of entry fees.

DUH! I guess so. They've already paid their entry fee!

Exactly. That's part of what it covers.


This is a legitimate photo/video competition for a good cause.
Judges
for 2005 haven't been announced yet, but past judges have included
Stan
Waterman, Stephen Frink, Wayne Hasson, Jay Ireland, and Dee Scarr.
Hopefully this will distinguish this competition between those that
may
be less than worthy. This should give you some idea that these
industry
professionals would not be associated if it were not legitimate.

Legitimacy is proven by the rules/conditions of the contest, not who
the
judges are.
In legitimate contests the entrants retain copyright ownership. Do
they
retain their copyrights for the materials they submit to your
contest? This
is a very important point and for photographers and it is the best
indicator
of whether or not a contest is legitimate. Knowledgeable
photographers never
give away copyrights that could be worth thousands in exchange for
gifts.


Unlike many contests, this one clearly spells out the copyright policy
which is probably more favorable to entrants than any other I've seen,
and they DO retain copyright ownership. I would think you might read
the copyright statement before making negative and incorrect comments.

We would be happy to answer specific and sincere questions. If you just
wish to flame, and be a troublemaker as I suspect, this will be the
last response to you here. If you don't want to enter, then don't;
however there is no reason to attack a worthy competition you know
nothing about.

me wrote:
"uwphotographer" wrote in message
oups.com...
In your OP your handle was "Mark" now you change it to
"
and later to "uwphotographer". You can't hide like that.

...and didn't try to.

this question coming from someone who posts as "me"
and doesn't sign their posts? It's easy to be critical when you are
totally anonymous. Why don't you sign your next post and give a place
where you can be contacted.

The bottom of this page says that the scholarship is for Ohio
residents
only. There is no mention of the dollar value of your contributions.
It does
link directly to the scholarship site that you mention in your next
paragraph.

Yes, that scholarship is provided by the OHIO Council of Skin & Scuba
Divers, Inc. an Ohio non-profit organization of dive clubs. Underwater
Images is held in conjunction with Scubafest(www.scubafest.org), a dive
show held in Ohio by the OCSSDI. Scholars don't necessarliy attend
school or have their career in Ohio though.

This web site links directly to your contest and makes no mention of
the
dollar value of your contributions.

Page 10, paragraph 4:
http://ocssdi.org/fp/2004faceplate-spring.pdf

The majority of funds have gone to marine conservation and
environmental education organizations listed on the site. Contact or
research them if you question their causes or the donations. specific
questons should be sent to the competition director.

How can we know if the people who get the scholarships are financially
unable to attend college without it?

I don't know that that is a requirement, but may be a factor. Contact
the committe at OCSSDI for your answer. However, academic scholarships
are not always based on pure need.

Those people could be
friends/relatives/acquaintances of the scholarship fund managers.

Contact the OCSSDI or the past recipients with this question. Many
likely are acquaintances or relatives of OCSSDI members since they have
to be a member of the OCSSDI or a member dive club for eligibility.
Underwater Images does not manage this scholarship, but has just made
donations to the fund.


Mark Beatty
uwimages.org

"me" wrote:

Looks like a scam to me!
me


You're entitled to your own opinion on the matter.

My personal criteria of "scam" is predicated by what the contest's rules
say in regards to Copyright retention.

The contests that are the real scams are the ones that seize the
Copyright of every photo's entered. These are the ones that rightfully
deserve to be par-broiled.


However, a Contest that explicitly limits their Rights to the
Photographer's Work (eg, time duration, etc) and explicitly states that
the Photographer retains his Copyright is doing their best to be "Rights
Friendly".

You owe it to yourself to go read the fine print before making a public
comment on the merits of any Photo Contest announcement.

And if you find something that you don't like in some specific
provision, then point it out and your rationale why. Revealing problems
in the rules like this has been done before, and some photo contests
have actually amended their rules. If you don't ask, it won't happen.


-hh

" H. Huntzinger" wrote in
message
...
"me" wrote:

Looks like a scam to me!
me


You're entitled to your own opinion on the matter.

My personal criteria of "scam" is predicated by what the contest's rules
say in regards to Copyright retention.

My exact words. See last paragraph:

The contests that are the real scams are the ones that seize the
Copyright of every photo's entered. These are the ones that rightfully
deserve to be par-broiled.

Indeed.

However, a Contest that explicitly limits their Rights to the
Photographer's Work (eg, time duration, etc) and explicitly states that
the Photographer retains his Copyright is doing their best to be "Rights
Friendly".

Agreed.

You owe it to yourself to go read the fine print before making a public
comment on the merits of any Photo Contest announcement.

I challenged the OP to prove me wrong. He did not.

And if you find something that you don't like in some specific
provision, then point it out and your rationale why. Revealing problems
in the rules like this has been done before, and some photo contests
have actually amended their rules. If you don't ask, it won't happen.

I won't live long enough to investigate every scam proposed in a NG. It's up
to the person making the proposition to demonstrate it's legitimacy. He did
not. All he made clear is how he wanted to be paid.
Still waiting to be proven wrong by the OP.
me

"uwphotographer" wrote in message
ups.com...

me wrote:
"uwphotographer" wrote in message
oups.com...
In your OP your handle was "Mark" now you change it to
"
and later to "uwphotographer". You can't hide like that.

..and didn't try to.

Then why did you change your handle three times?

this question coming from someone who posts as "me"
and doesn't sign their posts?

I did, I signed "me", my handle. Why didn't you sign this post?

It's easy to be critical when you are
totally anonymous.

Anonimity isn't required for criticality but it does prevent spam.

Why don't you sign your next post

See above.

and give a place
where you can be contacted.

Contact me right here.
And why are you still munging all other NG names except this one? I had to
fix this again.
Signed,
me

In article , me
wrote:


€
€ Then why did you change your handle three times?
€
€ this question coming from someone who posts as "me"
€ and doesn't sign their posts?
€
€ I did, I signed "me", my handle. Why didn't you sign this post?
€
€ It's easy to be critical when you are
€ totally anonymous.
€
€ Anonimity isn't required for criticality but it does prevent spam.
€


There are other ways to prevent spam, and being anonymous costs you
credibility.

"uwphotographer" wrote in message
oups.com...
Yes, that scholarship is provided by the OHIO Council of Skin & Scuba
Divers, Inc. an Ohio non-profit organization of dive clubs. Underwater
Images is held in conjunction with Scubafest(www.scubafest.org), a dive
show held in Ohio by the OCSSDI. Scholars don't necessarliy attend
school or have their career in Ohio though.

The bottom of this page http://www.uwimages.org/contributions.htm says that
the scholarship will be awareded to "a person from Ohio". This proves that
it is a *requirement* that the recipient be an Ohio resident, just as I said
previously.

Page 10, paragraph 4:
http://ocssdi.org/fp/2004faceplate-spring.pdf

It says $10K was raised by scubafest and $1K was given to the scholarship.
Exactly who recieved the rest of the money and exactly how much did they
recieve? Don't tell me to contact someone else for an answer, you're the one
asking for money. As you state above "Underwater Images is held in
conjunction with Scubafest" which sounds like an affiliation or at least a
circular relationship.

The majority of funds have gone to marine conservation and
environmental education organizations listed on the site.

What are the exact figures?

How can we know if the people who get the scholarships are financially
unable to attend college without it?

I don't know that that is a requirement, but may be a factor.

You give money but you don't know what the requirements for eligibility are
or how much need (if any) the recipient of the scholarship has for the
money???

Contact
the committe at OCSSDI for your answer.

They didn't post in a NG promoting a contest asking for entry fees, you did.

However, academic scholarships
are not always based on pure need.

Those people could be
friends/relatives/acquaintances of the scholarship fund managers.

Contact the OCSSDI or the past recipients with this question.

No I'm not contacting anyone except you. You contacted us promoting your
contest asking for entry fees which you justified with the riducilous notion
that the fee is necessary to limit the number of photos submitted (as stated
in your OP).

Many likely are acquaintances or relatives of OCSSDI members since they
have
to be a member of the OCSSDI or a member dive club for eligibility.

So this scholarship is only for the benefit of Ohio residents who are
members of an Ohio dive club.

Underwater Images does not manage this scholarship, but has just made
donations to the fund.

And you earn money via the contest by doing so. You have yet to provide a
thorough accounting of who received how much money which IMO is required to
prove the worthiness of any philanthropic fund raising.
Skeptical.
me

"uwphotographer" wrote in message
oups.com...
Unlike many contests, this one clearly spells out the copyright policy
which is probably more favorable to entrants than any other I've seen,
and they DO retain copyright ownership.

Prove that with a link to those terms and I will concede the point (if
justified)

I would think you might read
the copyright statement before making negative and incorrect comments.

No. Anyone who promotes a photo contest in a NG must state clearly the
copyright terms (or link to terms) or expect to get flamed.

there is no reason to attack a worthy competition you know
nothing about.

I only know what you have said in your posts. It is *your responsibility* to
demonstrate the worthiness/legitimacy of your contest.
Skeptical,
me