Number of Participants: A minimum of 5 participants are required.

Purpose of this Challenge:   Happy New Years! Following the bright colors of the Fall Photo Challenge, the 2025 Winter Photo Challenge has two tasks; documenting the starkness of winter AND presenting your image in Black & White. Attempt to capture scenes in a minimalist-style emphasizing structure or patterns. Subjects can vary greatly from individual features to broad landscapes. Key features of the images should be crisp and stark, largely isolated from distracting backgrounds. Examples of subjects include:

• A silhouette of an old tree or trees against the sky
• Frozen or moving water 
• Macro shots of edges of frozen leaves or other features of plants  
• Telephoto or wide-angle shots of landscapes
• Wildlife

To take advantage of the ever changing weather conditions in East Tennessee, you will have a month for this challenge beginning 01/10/2025 and ending at midnight 02/10/2025. We will use three new judges for this event; they will have approximately 1 week to review and process your images. The winners should be announced by 02/20/2025.  Good luck and enjoy this challenge. We look forward to receiving your images. Stay warm and be safe!

Challenge Procedure:  You must register for this challenge. You will receive a registration confirmation. You may submit up to three images following the guidelines below for file naming, file size, and deadline. Steps will be taken to ensure that the judges cannot identify the photographer when reviewing images. If you have questions, contact Hill Henry, at thillhenry@gmail.com.

Note: Challenge image submissions will be posted (anonymously until after judging) in a Challenge Gallery on the SANP Zenfolio website accessible to the public; winners will be displayed on SANP social media, the SANP website, and in the SANP Newsletter.

Equipment Specifications:

• Camera: Any handheld type of camera is allowed. (Drones are not allowed. :))
• Lens focal length: There are no lens restrictions for this challenge.
• Filters: Neutral density, polarizing, and closeup filters may be used.
• Flash: On-camera or off-camera flash is allowed.
• Tripod: Any tripod is allowed.
• Cell Phone: Any cell phone is allowed.
• Other: The photographer must provide signed model releases from any people recognizable in a photograph.

Photography Technique Specifications: Images can be shot initially in B&W but may also be converted from color images during post-processing. 

Processing Technique Specifications: None

Entering Challenge Images for Judging

Entries must be received by midnight, 02/10/2025. Participants may submit up to three JPEG digital image files, not over 4 MB each. The Participant’s copyright information and the image metadata must be embedded in the submitted image files.

Send your entries to thillhenry@gmail.com. Entries received late, too large, or not in the proper file name format will not be judged. If you want your images displayed on Zenfolio but not judged, clearly state that when you submit the images.

When submitting images, please adhere to the naming protocol carefully. Use the following format:

SANPPC-202502-a-A_Photographer

Where:

• SANPPC stands for ‘SANP Photography Challenge’ (do not change this)
• 202502 is the year and month (month is always two digits)
• a is the participant’s first entry (b = second entry, c = third entry)
• A_Photographer is the photographer’s first initial and last name