The Austin PPA’s Monthly Image Competition is held January through October. It is open to both APPA members and non-members as described below. Current members of APPA must have their dues paid by the submission deadline to compete.

APPA members can be awarded first, second or third place in the monthly competitions. Members may also earn points in monthly competitions toward our Photographer of the Year (POTY) annual awards.

SCHEDULE

Monthly membership meetings are typically held the third Monday of each month.

• The competition window will open the first day of each month and close at midnight, the Thursday before the monthly meeting.
• If a change to this schedule is needed, it will be announced on our events page.

LOCATION

Monthly meetings are typically held at Precision Camera and Video, 2438 W Anderson Ln., Austin, TX 78757. Other locations around town are used from time to time. Check the Events page on the website to confirm the location each month.

ENTRY FEES

GENERAL 

The Austin PPA’s monthly image competition is judged independently by two judges recruited each month from the pool of trained jurors published by the Professional Photographers of America (PPA).

• Judges will evaluate the images for the month and enter their scores independently. Scores will be averaged together to arrive at the final score for each entry.
• • One judge will provide scores and critiques. A second judge will provide scores and a tie breaker called judge’s choice.
  • The tie breaker is the judge’s first, second and third choice among the APPA member entries. It does not have to be tied to the judge’s scores, only to their personal preferences.
  • In the event of a tie, the speaker’s/judge’s choice will be used to break the tie.
  • If the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd choice selections do not break the tie, then the maker with the highest individual score will win the placement.
  • If a tie is still not broken, two winners may be awarded placement at the discretion of the image competition director.
• If the number of critiques ordered is more than the first judge can provide, the second judge may be invited to provide a portion of the critiques ordered.
• • Critique fees will be passed on to the judge providing the critiques.
  • If a guest speaker is scheduled for the monthly meeting and they are a PPA trained juror, that speaker may be recruited to serve as our second judge to supply scores.
  • The speaker will also supply the tie breakers among the member entries and will be called the speaker’s choice.
  • A speaker may also be called upon to supply critiques if the number ordered is more than the first judge can provide.

• Images will be judged based on the Professional Photographers of America traditional 12 Elements of a Merit Image.
• • All submitted images will receive a score and participants can order critiques for any images submitted. 
•  Judges will use the traditional (PPA) 100-point scoring system.

Exceptional	100-95
Superior	94-90
Excellent	89-85
Deserving of a Merit	84-80
Above Average	79-75
Average	74-70
Below Exhibition Standards	69-65

COMPETITION RULES

• Digital entry files must be sized so the longest dimension is 4000 pixels. (All entries must be digital files.)
• Each file must contain an embedded color profile of either sRGB or Adobe RGB1998 and be saved at a JPEG quality setting of 10. 
• In most cases, total file size should not exceed 3.5 MB. 
• Larger files will be accepted when necessary, so long as they are JPEG/10. 
• Digital files are to be named Image_Title (use _ for spaces, e.g. See_Spot_Run.jpg).
• All Images must be titled. Untitled images will be disqualified. 
• The entrant's name, business logo or other maker identification shall not appear anywhere in or on the face of the entry
• No two Images may be of the same subject.
• APPA's Artificial Intelligence Rules apply to all APPA image competitions for all participants.
• There must be at  least 3 entries to constitute a monthly competition.

ELIGIBLE MEMBER IMAGES 

• APPA members may resubmit images from prior monthly competitions provided they have not earned first, second or third place or speakers’/judges’ choice awards.
• Member images that earned a merit level score but did not earn an award may also be resubmitted in another monthly competition.
• APPA member images that have earned a merit level score at prior annual APPA competitions are not eligible for awards again. 
• APPA members may not submit images previously submitted to and considered merit-worthy at SummerFest (Texas State), Southwest (Regional), and PPA / IPC(National/International).

Members must be present at the business portion of the monthly meeting to qualify for placing or to earn points toward our annual awards.

• Members do not need to be present at the program planned for after the business meeting.
• Non-members are not required to attend monthly business meetings or planned programs.

REQUIREMENTS

• Entrants must have captured and created the original exposure or exposures. 
• All processing, manipulation, printing or rendering must have been done by the entrant or under their direct supervision.
• No entry will be eligible if it has been made under the supervision of an instructor or as a class assignment. All images submitted must be self-directed. Images created in an educational environment under direct supervision from an instructor are ineligible.
• Any entry that has been created from an existing photograph, portrait, graphic or any other artwork produced by another person is a violation of the competition rules and will not be judged, accepted or displayed. 
• All entrants must have obtained and have access to all necessary releases (model or property) and agree to hold APPA harmless against all claims and liabilities arising out of APPA's display, publication and promotion or other use of each image submitted to APPA.
• If an entry, in the good-faith opinion of the APPA, violates copyright, trademark or any other applicable law, that entry shall be disqualified.

ENTERING

• Entries and payments must be made through the Print Competition website at www.printcompetition.com. Entries will not be officially registered until the competition entry fee is paid. Images entered without the entry fee will be disqualified. 
• Participants must register for an account on the printcompetition.com website.
• Visit the APPA YouTube video on setting up an account and entering images on the printcompetition.com website.
• Standard and premium memberships are offered on the website. Click here for current membership pricing.

• Once you have created an account click on the Austin APPA link beneath the profile section. The Austin PPA logo will be displayed along with all the other guilds with open competition events.
• • Be sure you select "Austin" APPA vs. "Arkansas" APPA. You can enter the Arkansas competition but it will not be part of an Austin competition.
• Click on our logo and scroll down the page. You will be asked if you are an Austin PPA member and if this is your first time entering.
• Click on “Create New Image.”  Enter a title and select a category.
• 2026 categories are Portrait, Nature and Illustrative, and are all combined into one group for monthly awards.
• If you want to purchase a critique, check the box and click to upload your image.
• Once your image is uploaded you will receive an email confirmation.
• If you need to replace the image, click on the upload button again and select a different file.
• Click the payment button.

AWARDS

Members who participate in monthly image competitions are not required to be present to receive scores and critiques. However, members must attend the business portion of the monthly meeting (or the portion of the meeting where the results are presented) to receive ribbons or to receive points toward Photographer of the Year (POTY) awards.

• For participation, competing members will receive one (1) point toward the POTY award for participation. This is only 1 point per month whether the makers submit 1 or 2 images in the monthly competition. 
• For placement, competing members will receive 3 points for first place, 2 points for second place and 1 point for third place based on the combined scores of at least two judges. Ribbons will be presented for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places.

• For speaker's/judge's choice, members will earn one (1) additional POTY point.
• Only the highest-ranking speaker's/judge's choice earns the extra point.
• A ribbon is also awarded to the first-choice image maker.

• For images that earn a merit level score (80 or above), members will earn one additional point toward POTY. This is in addition to participation, placement or speaker/judge’s choice points.
• Non-members are not eligible for ribbons or points toward any awards but will receive scores and critiques (for premium members).

CRITIQUES

Judges will submit 3-to-5-minute critiques and funds collected are sent directly to them.

• Video critiques are not guaranteed. Some judges only produce audio critiques.
• • Recordings will be uploaded to the printcompetition.com website where only the audio portion of critiques will be posted.
  • Judges are reminded to assume makers do not receive a visual critique and to avoid language that relies on seeing a judge pointing to elements within an image.
  • If a judge forwards a video critique to APPA, it will be forwarded to the maker.
  • Judges do not know who the makers are when they produce critique.
  • Premium members on printcompetition.com will receive an email announcing that an audio file has been posted. The message may say that there was a judge’s debate regarding your image, however, the recording may be only your paid critique.
  • Discussions are typically only posted on printcompetition.com if there is a challenge in a live competition.
• Premium members can listen to critiques from the Past Entries page in your account (see the link in the top right corner of your account).
• Premium members can also listen to critiques through the archive pages and listen to critiques on images entered by other photographers.

• Critiques are due the Friday after the monthly membership meeting where results are announced.

 * Students and staff membership members can compete, earn scores and order critiques, but they cannot earn points in monthly or annual competitions toward Photographer of the Year awards.

For questions contact the competition director at:  competition@austinppa.com

10/9/2026 VAL