Digital Interclub Competition Description
Rule Change
New: Nature images should be entered in Nature. Many of you have continued to enter Nature images into Color by changing the image in some way by cloning or deleting. This is not fair to the people who submit their images into Nature without trying to correct the imperfections in the image. Therefore, it has been decided and has been approved by the NECCC Steering Committee that modified Nature images will no longer be allowed in Color. Landscapes, seascapes, waterfalls, cityscapes whether completely natural or modified, with people or houses or nothing in them will still be allowed into Color. A completely natural land or seascape, or waterfall if not modified will still be allowed into Nature. No Nature into Color mainly means birds, mammals, insects, wildflowers. If an insect is on a domestic garden flower such as a bee on an azalea, it would be allowed in Color as the flora is domestic and those images should have always been entered into Color due to the garden flora.
We are doing this because when an image is modified with PS or LR it becomes the perfect image and then it is entered into Color where it goes up against not so perfect domestic flowers, photojournalism, sports, etc. and it always wins, so now we have Nature winners in Color and Nature winners in Nature and no other genre has a chance. This is not fair to the other Color images/makers. That’s why we have a Nature category to separate them from Color images. We are trying to even the playing field to allow more new makers to be successful in competition. There is also the issue of a modified nature image being inadvertently selected by a chairman for entry into another nature interclub competition such as PSA or the Council Challenge. If it was determined that we had entered an ineligible image into one of those competitions, NECCC would be suspended from competitions for a period of three years. If you are going to be a Nature photographer than compete with your Nature images in the Nature category.
It is important that Interclub Competition Directors should be mindful of this new ruling and be the one making the final decision as to which categories images are eligible to be entered.
Entry Form Site and Instructions
Both are the same as last year. Anyone from your club can upload your club’s digital interclub entry, however they and you as chairman for your club need the eight-character password you created last year. If you did not write it down or cannot remember it, please email the directors for that information at
neccc-digital_competition@neccc.org
Categories and Classes
There are three categories: Color, Nature and Monochrome. Clubs are not required to compete in all categories. They may compete in all three categories or in only two, or in only one as they desire. Each category has two classes, Class A and Class B. See Digital Interclub Competition Rules for full details.
Awards
Each Fall, Winter and Spring Competition: Each category in each class will receive one first, second, and third place ribbons to individual makers. Honor Award ribbons to individual makers will be given to 10% of total entries received in each category.
End of Year Awards – Individuals: First, second, and third place photographs in each class of the three categories for all three season’s competitions will be eligible to compete for an award in the Color Image of the Year, Nature Image of the Year or Monochrome Image of the Year competition. In addition, one of the above six Images of the Year winners will be selected to receive the Daniel Charbonnet Memorial Photograph of the Year award. Eligible entries will be sent to a judge outside of New England for judging.
End of Year Awards – Clubs: First place Medal Awards will be given at the end of the season to the clubs having the highest cumulative scores for the three competitions for each category in each class.
End of Year Awards for both Individuals and Clubs will be given at the annual luncheon/ meeting in June or mailed if the maker or club cannot be present.
Club competition directors are strongly encouraged to carefully read the competition rules and the instructions for the electronic entry system to refresh your memory. There have been no changes to the entry form. See the new Rules for the Open category. We encourage you to use the comment box on the entry form to send us messages if something is unique to your entry or if you are making a correction or a change of entry to make our understanding of your entry easier and we will not have to call you to verify the information.
Annual Dues and Interclub Competition Fees may be paid online at https://www.neccc.org/club-dues-fees/. Payment is made by first completing the online form using this link. After selecting the fee(s) you are paying you may select “Pay by PayPal” to pay by credit card or PayPal account, or “Pay by Check” in the Payment Method. The mailing address to send the check is provided at that time. The Digital Competition fee remains the same at $15 per club.
Request club Class assignment. Clubs who have been in Class A for a few years and are listed with year-end totals as one of the five lowest clubs can now move back to Class B if they wish. To be eligible, the club must have competed with a full entry of 4 images per each of the three competitions for the year (total 12 images). The club must then remain in Class B for 2 years before being able to move back up to Class A. Competition directors must be notified by October 15, 2026 that they are moving down a class.
The Digital Interclub Galleries 2018-2023 created by Chane Cullens, HonNEC, is available in the Competitions menu tab. After you click on the menu item, at the bottom of the page, you will see Club Names and individual maker’s names listed (it is alphabetized by the first name). Clicking on any of those will show you all the images of that person or club that has previously been entered. There is also a number after each name showing the number of images in the gallery. We encourage all club directors to make use of this list/gallery for reference when selecting their images for the competitions.
Image entry
Simply upload your images on the online entry system before the closing date. Results will be returned to the club’s contact person(s) by e-mail as soon as possible after the competition has been judged usually within one week of the competition.
No make-ups permitted. Be sure to send your entries well before each closing date so that if there are any problems they can be resolved in a timely fashion.
Each entry will be automatically acknowledged by return e-mail after it has been received by the web site software. Watch for the return e-mail and inquire if the receipt isn’t received within a few minutes. If you do not receive the confirmation email, your entry did not go through. It is important to monitor your entries to be sure they were received and are correct.
If you have any problems with the entry system notify us and we will help. If you make a mistake in the entry let us know so we can fix the files on our end.
Competition Judging Venue
All competitions will be judged live at the Greater Lynn Photographic Association, 564 Boston Street, Lynn, MA on three Saturdays and will be open to the public.
Reminder notices will be sent out well ahead of the competition judging with information about the start time and the judges selected.
Images are not critiqued. Comments are requested of the judges in situations where an image has scored particularly low such as a 7 or an 8. That commentary is sent back to the club with their report card.
Participating clubs will receive a reminder e-mail in plenty of time to submit entries for each competition.
Additional Information
If you have any questions, please contact the NECCC Digital Interclub Competition co-directors:
Susan Mosser, HonFPSA, HonNEC (978-664-2620)
Pam Lintner, HonNEC (617-771-2460)
email us at: neccc-digital_competition@neccc.org
Revised 8/24/26
To get further information about the Digital Interclub competitions, please go to the Competitions pull-down menu at the top of this page and click on Digital Interclub Comp. This will bring you further options for the Description, Schedule, Rules, Entry Form Instructions and the Entry Form.