1. About the competition
- The National Garden Scheme Photographic Competition is owned and run by the charity National Garden Scheme Ltd.
- The competition is a multi-category, free to enter competition aimed at amateur photographers.
- The aim of the competition is to promote high quality and beautiful photography; and the National Garden Scheme wants to share the stunning gardens that open on its behalf.
- The National Garden Scheme Photographic Competition is free to enter
2. Categories and prizes
- Town Gardens
- Design Details
- Beautiful Garden Views
- Garden Wildlife
- People in gardens
- BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine – Fantastic Flowers
- Categories:
- Prizes: All six category winners can choose tools from the current WOLF-Garten range (including cutting tools, cultivating tools, power tools etc.) up to £100. The winner of the Best Overall Photo shortlist picked by the judges will win a WOLF-Garten 72v lithium bundle, including lawnmower, leaf blower, hedge trimmer, and grass trimmer, worth £950.
3. Dates
- Competition opens for entries on 15 March 2018
- The deadline for entries is 23:59 on 28 August 2018
- Winners will be announced during the week commencing 3 September 2018. Announcements will be made on all participating organisation websites and in the BBC Gardener’s World Magazine November and December issues.
- Winning photographs will be exhibited on the National Garden Scheme, BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and WOLF-Garten website and social media channels and used in promotional material.
4. Conditions of Entry
- All entries must be submitted through the National Garden Scheme website ngs.org.uk/photo
- Photography submitted must ONLY be of the garden that is being visited – and not the house(s) UNLESS IN THE BACKGROUND, garden furniture or other valuable items.
- Professional photographers are not permitted to enter the competition
- Entries must be submitted digitally
- Image entry file size must be the largest possible (this is limited to 8mb upload on the National Garden Scheme Website or email to [email protected])
- Images must be submitted by 23:59 on 28 August 2018
- Images must not include watermarks, borders, or signatures.
- Black and white images are eligible for all categories except BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine ‘Fantastic Flowers’
- No single image may be entered into more than one category.
- The competition judges reserve the right to move images to a category they feel better suits the submission
5. Eligibility
- The National Garden Scheme Photographic Competition is open to UK residents only, apart from anyone associated with the competition, namely National Garden Scheme employees (and their partners and family), BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine employees (and their partners and family), board and committee members of the National Garden Scheme and competition sponsors and judges.
- No age limit applies but entrants 12 and under must seek parental permission to enter.
- The entrant must be the original artwork creator and hold the copyright.
- Images must not be licenced or disposed of any rights that will conflict with the competition.
- Photos used to enter must not have been submitted to any other photography competition. It must be the entrant’s original work and you must be the sole owner of the copyright. The promoter does not accept liability for publication of plagiarised entries.
- Any submitted image must not be entered into any other competition after being entered into the National Garden Scheme Photographic Competition until the results have been announced by the end of September 2018.
- The National Garden Scheme requires that prior permission be sought before submitting photographs that contain people.
- Visitors to National Garden Scheme Gardens are encouraged to capture and share photographic moments for personal, non-commercial purposes. Prior permission is necessary for any commercial and editorial usage of still or moving images.
- It is the entrant’s responsibility to ensure that all necessary permissions are obtained from any person featured in a photograph.
- National Garden Scheme garden owners may not submit an image of their own garden.
6. Category definitions
- All photos entered must be taken at a National Garden Scheme open garden between 15 March and 28 August 2018.
- When entering a photo please name the file with the photographer name and date.
- All entrants must be amateur photographers and not already sell photos commercially.
- Best Overall Photo
- This category cannot be entered into, photographs will be picked for submission during the judging stage. Entrants can submit photos to any of the below categories and become eligible for the prizes associated with this category.
- Town Gardens
- Photos that show a beautiful garden in an urban setting – no plot is too small for this category
- Design Details
- Photos that capture beautiful garden features, which aren’t just about plants.
- BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Category: Fantastic Flowers
- Entrants may submit photos of individual plants, plant combinations or whole borders taken in a National Garden Scheme garden. Photos must be landscape format.
- Photos and entrants information entered into this category will be shared securely with BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine for the purpose of judging the winning photos and checking viability of entry into the category.
- Beautiful Garden Views
- Photos that show a wide shot of a garden and how it relates to the landscape in which it sits.
- Garden Wildlife
- Photos that show garden wildlife at work – bees, butterflies, birds and more.
- People in Gardens
- Photos that show a garden in action with visitors, young and old, enjoying the space.
7. Ethics
- Digital adjustments that maintain the integrity of the image are allowed.
- It is not permitted to make any physical changes to the image. You may not, for example add or remove plants, objects, animals, people, landscapes or any parts of animals, plants, people or landscape.
- Accepted digital adjustments include dodging and burning, changes to tone and contrast and cropping, as well as High Dynamic Range imaging techniques, stitched panoramas and focus stacking.
- The National Garden Scheme may request the RAW file(s) or original camera jpeg(s) for any shortlisted image, if it deems that image does not follow the restrictions on digital manipulation and reserves the right to disqualify any image that it feel lacks authenticity.
- An image will be rejected if, in the opinion of the judges, it appears that the image has been taken in such a way that wildlife law or animal welfare requirements may have been breached; protected species or habitats have been compromised; or the image has been otherwise taken in an irresponsible manner.
8. Judging
- The photographs will be judged by a panel of judges including an independent party, and the promoter reserves the right to withhold prizes if the standard so warrants. Entries will not be returned.
- The competition judges will then choose from the selected shortlisted entries, to select winners of each category.
- The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
- Entrants can find out the names of the winners by sending an SAE within 6 months of the close of the competition.
- Entrants must supply to the National Garden Scheme their full name, email address and daytime telephone number
9. Shortlist
- Shortlisted entrants will be contacted by the National Garden Scheme.
10. Winners
- The winners of each category will be chosen from the shortlisted entries.
- The winners will be publicised on the National Garden Scheme, in Immediate Media publications including BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and website, WOLF-Garten websites, social media accounts from 3 September
- Winners will be informed that they have won by phone or email within 12 weeks of the closing date.
11. Prizes
- Prizes will be awarded to winners of each category.
- The prizes must be claimed within three months of the competition winners being announced or the prizes will be forfeited.
- No cash alternatives to the prizes are available.
12. Copyright and Usage
- Entrants remain the copyright holder to any images submitted by themselves.
- By entering, you grant The National Garden Scheme a perpetual, irrevocable and royalty-free licence to publish your photograph in any type of media, including but not limited to: exhibitions, online, in press, and in promotional items.
- By entering, you grant Immediate Media a perpetual, irrevocable and royalty-free licence to publish your photograph in any type of media. Entries may be published in future issues of Gardeners’ World Magazine and associated products including the 2019 Calendar.
- The entrants agree to National Garden Scheme free usage sub-licensing the shortlisted images for press articles or any other external communications related to the competition or the gardens the photos were taken in.
- The photographer will be credited (e.g. © photographer’s name). The photographer agrees that the Owners will not be liable to the photographer in the event of inadvertent omission of the credit.
- The entrant is responsible for any claim made by a third party against the submission.
- The Promoter excludes liability to the full extent permitted by law for any loss, damage or injury occurring to the participant arising from his or her entry into the promotion or occurring to the winner(s) arising from his or her acceptance of a prize.
- The promotion is subject to the laws of England.
13. Disclaimer
- The information given in these Terms & Conditions is correct, but the National Garden Scheme reserves the right to change any of it without prior notice. By entering the competition, entrants will be deemed to have agreed to be bound by these Terms & Conditions. Any breach of these Terms by an entrant will void their entry. If a breach has occurred, but is discovered after the award of a prize, then the organisers may require the return of that prize.
14. Data protection
- The personal data of entrants will be managed by the National Garden Scheme in accordance with the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998 and from 25 May with the General Data Protection Act 2018.
- The National Garden Scheme will collect personal data about entrants (and the entrant’s parent/guardian where applicable) at the time of registration, and as otherwise provided in order to administer the Competition and/or all associated activities.
- The Promoter will use entrants’ personal details in accordance with the National Garden Scheme Privacy Policy (https://ngs-wp.tclhosting.co.uk/privacy-policy/).