Photo competition guidelines


Each photo should fit into one of the classes below. Flowers are optional. 

When you email your entry, please put your name and the photo category in the email. Richard will display the photos on the website without names, so that voting is unbiased.  If you know a valid name for the plant, please include that in your email, too. If you know the species is rare or special, please tell us.

Please send entries to Richard, using the "webmaster" email address above.

You can enter as often as you like. Send ONE photo per email so that our email systems don't choke.

These are the classes in the competition:—

  1. A cactus portrait [single cactus species, not flowering]
  2. A succulent portrait [single succulent species, not flowering, that is not a cactus]
  3. A view of several cacti or succulents
  4. Cacti or succulent flowers 
  5. Wild or in habitat [eg Copiapoas in Chile]
  6. Creative or open [any image of cacti or other succulents not fitting the above classes, from close-ups to unusual photographic treatments]
  7. People and pets [with cacti and succulents] 


Prizes will be awarded for each class winner as well as a members’ choice. Prizes will be Bunnings cards in small denominations.

The winning entry in each class will feature in Capital Cactus.

You may submit photos into any class. By submitting a photo, you show you will abide with these rules and accept all judgements as final. 

Your photographs can be colour or monochrome digital images.  Both are eligible. All files should be in JPEG format with a maximum of 3,000 pixels for the longest side.  (The word "portrait” refers to the style of picture not the orientation of the image.) lmages originally captured on film should be scanned and entered as a digital image.

Images may be lightly digitally manipulated (e.g. cropping, sharpening, merging bracketed exposures, stacking macro—photos). Blemishes may be cleared up, but combining multiple images into something that never existed is not allowed in classes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. (eg adding a flower to a non-flowering plant). Captions or labelling of photos, e.g. valid names may be included, and can be very helpful.

All images submitted must be yours.  ie They must be the work of the individual submitting them and must not have been published elsewhere or have won a prize in any other photographic competition. It is the responsibility of each entrant to ensure that any images they submit do not infringe the copyright of any third party or any laws and they are their own work. Prior display on the World Wide Web does NOT constitute publication for the purposes of this competition, so you may re-use images you've put on Facebook.

Copyright for all images submitted for this competition remains with the respective entrants.  (The images stay Yours.)

Also, each entrant grants the Cactus and Succulent Society of the ACT the right to use any or all of the submitted images in the Newsletter, on our website or in any other promotional material. We will acknowledge each photographer.