Dates for Nationals 2010?

[TracyeGibson]

Anyone know the dates (especially the case deadline) for Nationals this year? I am trying to get my calendar set up!

[Keith_A_Howe]

Tracy
The rules for 2010 are susposed to be uploaded soon to the ppa website. I do not know the exact dates but I am pretty sure we are looking at the middle of May. I will post the dates as soon as I know them.
Keith

[Keith_A_Howe]

Dates are offically April 29th, 2010 as per a message from current PEC Chairwoman Helen Yancy.
Keith

[TracyeGibson]

Thanks Keith!
Is that the print case due date or the first day of judging?

[Keith_A_Howe]

Print case due date. Judging is in June.

[Mark_Levesque]

Dates are offically April 29th, 2010 as per a message from current PEC Chairwoman Helen Yancy.

At this rate, it will be before the NHPPA convention by next year.

[TracyeGibson]

Alrighty! Thanks!

[Keith_A_Howe]

At this rate, it will be before the NHPPA convention by next year.

Why should that be a concern? The districts do need to take place before the international competition but when individual states want to run their competitions is and should be strictly up to them. I would think a state competition would logically act as a warm up for their regional / district competition and the district would be the precursor to the international competition.
Keith

[Mark_Levesque]

Why should that be a concern?

Given that there has been a concerted effort to increase participation in print competition (to the point where you will no longer have to actually submit prints), it seems a little odd to institute a schedule which puts certain photographers at a disadvantage. This isn't the case of a state changing when it holds its competition and expecting PEC to accommodate that change. It is a state with a long history of having its convention at a certain time, and over the last couple of years the changes in the national schedule have negatively impacted participants from that state. With the national competition in July, there was plenty of time to obtain feedback from the state competition and implement it prior to sending prints in to national. Last year, in order to get to national on time, it was necessary for us to ship the prints out the day we got back from convention to avoid paying the late fee. With the current schedule, we will no longer have that option. We will have to send our cases off prior to our convention or have to pay extra. With the cost of print competition being what it is, we are at a financial disadvantage relative to photographers from other states since we can no longer include the same images in both state and national competitions unless we want to hold the prints for a whole year or print two copies of the same image. Of course, with the digital format, in the future we will be able to just email off some files, but for those of us who feel strongly that print competition is and should be about prints, it is of little comfort.

I would think a state competition would logically act as a warm up for their regional / district competition and the district would be the precursor to the international competition.

That is how it is for most of the country, but not those of us in the northeast, where our regional has been the first competition AFTER nationals. And we submit any sealed prints the following year.

Now that is changing as well. Our region is being assimilated into a larger geographic area, and presumably it will be held prior to nationals. But for this year, those of us who participated in our last regional will be ineligible for ANY seals for all of 2010. Again we are being put at a disadvantage relative to our peers. We COULD send a case to the new regional competition, but we would not be eligible for seals, so it seems like a lot of expense for very little gain.

It's just disconcerting to be an active participant in all levels of competition, and see that on the one hand PEC is trying hard to encourage people to participate by lowering the barrier to entry by allowing digital submissions, and on the other hand seemingly being insensitive to the adverse consequences, financial and otherwise, that their decisions are causing to one particular group of photographers. That's all. It's just a lot easier to see the unfairness when you are getting the short end of the stick than when someone else is getting it.

[Ron_Jackson]

I heard a rumor that the location is in Atlanta this year? Is that correct? Doesn't matter since I won't be able to attend even if it were in Daytona.

Also, is there an official link to download the entry forms and rules for this year?

Keith, as a judge, do you judge any catagory they put you in or do you always just judge in Open?