Pay-To-Enter Competitions

Last night I was looking at a site that listed photography competition details and was surprised to find that quite a number of these competitions required an entry fee to be paid. The fee they were asking for wasn't a token amount, but quite a considerable sum in several cases.

I feel a bit disillusioned about this. I wonder if these competition organizers are genuinely interested in photography, or is it just yet another way of making money out of hopeful individuals?

What are your thoughts on pay-to-enter competitions?

Mike

Mike-DT6 wrote in post #6228165
What are your thoughts on pay-to-enter competitions?

Venues to display the entries cost money. Web sites cost money. Advertising costs money. Judges often cost money. Big name judges often cost even more money. Keeping out the "riffraff" so that judges can focus on entries from serious competitors is also a factor.

These competitions have sponsors as well. I would have thought the sponsors would cover the costs, or even - perish the thought - the organizers could absorb the costs and benefit from the increased publicity that their competition brings.

Maybe I'm not being realistic here, but I think it turns the competition into a lottery rather than it being a photography competition.

Plenty of other organizations have free-to-enter competitions.

Mike

Paying to enter is often valid, as judges and administrators need to be paid, and is entirely valid especially for professional competitions. On the other hand it can be a scam. The other scam is to let anyone enter, have no fee, then have everyone win. The scam part is they sell books at a high price, and everyone buys 1-10 copies to give their friends.

The professional competitions I enter charge per image, but that's how I progress towards the master level qualification. The Kodak Gold I also enter is free, but the only thing you win is to say you won a kodak gold award.

Yes, I've read about those book scams on here.

Maybe when I'm a bit less of a cheapskate I might consider pay-to-enter competitions, but I still don't like the idea of having to give someone money!

Mike

I am just starting to look into competitions myself. I mostly think about these competitions about the way I look at road races. My wife and I pay up to $100 a race to enter something that occasionally pays back the entry fee in gift certificates if we do well. I would expect to make money every once in a while on the competitions, but I wouldn't set out with the goal of just making a financial profit this way.
Enjoy the ride and pay what you can afford.

I view competitions as a way to gain recognition for skills and ability, rather than a way to profit financially, so the prizes are largely irrelevant to me.

Mike

A department (tourism, I think) of the State of Iowa held a photo competition last year that was free to enter. What did the winner get? Absolutely nothing. In fact, to enter, the "winner" had to agree to give up ALL ownership and rights to the photograph if their's was chosen. It would become the sole property of the state and would be used on brouchures, etc. They even made sure the photographer understood they wouldn't even get a credit.

photoguy6405 wrote in post #6231170
A department (tourism, I think) of the State of Iowa held a photo competition last year that was free to enter. What did the winner get? Absolutely nothing. In fact, to enter, the "winner" had to agree to give up ALL ownership and rights to the photograph if their's was chosen. It would become the sole property of the state and would be used on brouchures, etc. They even made sure the photographer understood they wouldn't even get a credit.

In other words the worst sort of "competition" i.e. simply an image grabbing exercise, sadly I suspect there are way too many gullible folk that will enter anything just to say "heh they used my picture".....talk about taking advantage

I always have a good look at the terms and conditions. Most seem to want the use of your photo for up to two years for promotional purposes in relation to their competition.

The competitions based in America seem to have far more terms and conditions compared with the ones based here in the UK.

Mike