Golden Turtle International Wildlife Festival 2019

Golden Turtle International Wildlife Festival 2019 now is over!

Photography Competition 2019 hosted by The Golden Turtle International Wildlife Festival, the largest international cultural and ecological event in Russia celebrating the beauty of the wildlife invies authors around the world to enter and take a part.

About Competition

The enrollment for the Golden Turtle 2019 creative competitions has been officially opened and authors around the world are invited to enter their best work.

Golden Turtle is the largest international cultural and ecological event in Russia, dedicated to celebrating the beauty of the wildlife.

The "GOLDEN TURTLE" photo contest is a competition in the art of photography, not image processing, so the results of correction should not change the captured reality, nor prevail over the authenticity of the picture taken.

There is a following categories:

• Reserved Russia
• The Portrait of the Animal
• Microcosm
• Landscape
• The underwater world
• Humans and nature
• Animal behaviour
• New technologies in wildlife photography
• Art and Nature’s Image
• Nature through the eyes of youth
• Nature through the eyes of children

To achieve the goals of the Festival and its creative competitions, the following ETHICAL STANDARDS were adopted:

1. Minimal possible interference in the life of animals and their habitats - they always place the welfare of our subjects above all else. Key to this is the maintenance of safe, informed and responsible working distances and minimizing our impact on the landscape by following the “Leave No Trace – Pack It In, Pack it Out” ethic that maintains the integrity and character of the places we work.
2. Use of Captive Animals - In some cases, photographing captive animals can be a valuable source of rare imagery that can be valuable for specific conservation goals. However, the use of captive animals must be governed by the same ethical considerations as elsewhere:
• The welfare of the animal should be paramount.
• Any institution that exploits animals solely for profit should not be utilized or supported.
• Images of captive animals will be honestly and accurately captioned and never represented as wild.
3. Digital Manipulation - Image manipulation must never alter essential content in such a way that it either misrepresents actual events, or deceives the intended audience, in any context in which the truth of the image is assumed. Creative manipulation, when performed, must be fully disclosed to the end user.
4. Truth in Captioning - Photographs deliver information, which should be both accurate and honest. Inaccurate or dishonest captioning reduces the effectiveness of the image as a tool for conservation, subverts its message and undermines public trust.

Technical requirements for preliminary selection:

• The image format is JPEG.
• Dimensions: for horizontal works – 1400 pixels horizontally; for vertical works – 1400 pixels vertically.
• The file size should not exceed 600 KB.
• The name of the image file must correspond with the name of the artwork (for example, the work "Black Bear" should be saved as Black_bear.jpg).
• To ensure correct color reproduction, you must embed the work profile in the exported file by selecting the appropriate option when saving the image.

Technical requirements after entering the finals:

• The format of the provided images is JPEG (with the maximum quality of compression), TIFF.
• Processed images must be accompanied by the original RAW file for the needs of technical expertise.
• The name of the image file must correspond with the name of the artwork (for example, the work "Black Bear" should be saved as Black_bear.jpg).
• The size of the work should allow printing in at least the 30x45cm size with a resolution of 240 dpi. If the image size is not sufficient to maintain the proper quality for exhibition size printing (80х120 cm), it is not recommended to "stretch" the image by use of the editing programs. In case of artwork moving into the finals, such processing will be conducted under the guidance of the Festival Technical Expert.
• To ensure correct color reproduction, you must embed the workspace profile in the exported file by selecting the appropriate option when saving the image.

List of ALLOWED methods of digital image processing by the use of editing programs:

• Technical retouching, including changing exposure, contrast, saturation, sharpness and white balance.
• Small background corrections to remove random objects. For example, the author at the time of shooting was not able to notice the alien object or the photograph was taken from the only possible angle, which did not allow the removal of the extra element from the frame.
• Cropping. The use of this technique is limited by the requirements for the size of the final result described in paragraph 4 of the Technical Requirements.
• Creating "stitched" panoramas. The Technical Expert of the Festival reserves the right to prevent the artwork from getting into the finals in case the panoramas are low-quality, including violation of geometry, color and/or other stitching defects.
• Creation of HDR-files visually not differing from the traditional photo. The use of this method is only permitted to expand the dynamic range in shooting complex scenes.
• Conversion of the image into black and white, subject to all the rules described in these requirements.

The official competition languages are Russian and English.

The winners of the competition will be exhibited in Moscow and St. Petersburg during Autumn 2019.

There is no entry fee to participate!

Eligibility

Anyone may submit his/her works to participate in the competition. Authors from any countries can participate in the contest without restrictions.

Entry fees

Tags

Official website