More Fall Photo Contest Entries

CaliforniaFallColor.com previously posted a report on Cotton Carrier’s Fall Photo Contest.

This is a contest in which visitors to the site vote for their favorite fall color photo. The winner receives a canvas print of their photo, a Cotton Carrier G3 camera holder and recognition as a photographer.

To vote or enter the contest (Deadline Nov. 15), go to CottonCarrier.com. Following are additional photographs submitted by CaliforniaFallColor.com contributors. To see all photos entered, search “Photo Contest”.

We encourage all readers to vote for their favorite.

Note: The contest’s official rules have been changed since first reported, to reassure entrants that they will retain rights to submitted photographs.

Cotton Carrier had originally used boilerplate language in its official rules – provided within the contest template – that allowed Cotton Carrier to use the photographs, but that was never their intent and contradicted what they had communicated to us.

A revised rule now states, “Acceptance of prize constitutes permission for Cotton Carrier LTD to use winner’s name, likeness, and entry for purposes of advertising and trade without further compensation, unless prohibited by law.”

This limits exposure only to the winner and allows the winner to not accept the prize and thus not interfere with any rights it may have assigned to a stock agency, removes language of which some photographers were concerned and removes our concern about the original language which allowed Cotton Carrier to use all photographs submitted.

The object lesson learned from this instance is to always read contest rules carefully, as entering could give away your rights to your work.

Photo contests should never result in diminishing ownership or commercial rights to images for photographers. Instead, they should only seek to recognize excellent work, which is what Cotton Carrier intended. 

We are indebted to those photographers who alerted us that Cotton Carrier’s initial promise to photographers that they would retain rights to their submissions was not supported by the contest rules, and to Cotton Carrier for being a stand-up company that supports photographers, recognizing the problem and quickly changing the official rules to assure that entrants are treated fairly.

Now, let’s go and vote for a winner.