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2023 Comprehensive Eye Care Section Annual Ocular Photography Contest
The annual Comprehensive Eye Care Section Ocular Photography Contest will be open from May 15th until July 1, at 11:45 PM CST. Winners will be notified by August 1. Optometrists may submit up to two entries per category:
Anterior Segment Category: Lids, Conjunctiva, Cornea, Contact Lens, Iris, Lens, Angle/Gonioscopy, digital color photo
Posterior Segment Category: Vitreous, Optic Nerve, Retina, Color/Red-free photo, Fluorescein Angiography/ ICG, Fundus Auto-fluorescence
The images will be graded by a panel of judges “blind” to the photographer’s name. Each submission will be graded using seven different criteria, each of which is scored 1-10. The criteria used are as follows: Focus, Exposure, Field of View, Difficulty of Capturing Image, Absence of Distracting Elements, Lighting, and Visual Impact (the “wow” factor).
The Grand Prize winner from each category will receive complimentary registration to this year’s Academy meeting and will have the winning image published in the Academy’s Newsletter. In addition to the two Grand Prize winners, the contest will award four Honorable Mentions. All of the winning submissions will be assembled into a photo display at the Academy meeting.
Submission Guidelines
- An American Academy of Optometry online account is required to submit an entry. If you already have an existing account, you may use it. If not, please create an account.
- Emailed submission forms and photos will not be accepted. Late or incomplete submissions will not be considered. If you have any questions, please email contest co-chairs Drs. Melanie Gonzalez-Oliva and Amanda Jimenez Myers at AcademyPhotographyContest@gmail.com.
- To help prepare for a successful submission, review the sample submission form below.
- Image submissions that do not adhere to the following guidelines are not eligible, will be rejected, and the contest entry will be deleted.
- All submissions must be in English.
- Degree/Credential Requirements: Only optometrists (or those with equivalent credentials if practicing outside of the United States) may be designated as the primary designee. This is the person who will receive the prize if selected as a winner. You may acknowledge other doctors, students, or ocular photographers who assisted in the case during the submission process. Include the credentials for anyone you acknowledge.
- Submit images in one of the following formats: PNG, JPG, JPEG, or GIF.
- The images must remain in a non-modified manner, i.e. no enhancements by either proprietary software from which the image was captured or by programs such as Adobe Photoshop™. No 35 mm slides, photographic prints, or neuro-imaging studies will be accepted.
- At least one image must include an intact ocular structure from a human eye. For example, images of a foreign body after removal with no accompanying ocular photos will not be accepted. Corneal topography, anterior or posterior OCT, HRT, GDx, or B-scan ultrasound images may be submitted as supporting images only and are no longer accepted as stand-alone images in this contest. They must be accompanied by an ocular photo as described above.
- Only four images per entry/case will be allowed. Multiple images, either sequential in time (as in a fluorescein angiogram), or using different technologies to image the same entity (as in a color photo and fluorescein angiography), or to fully appreciate the size of the entity may also be submitted but will be limited to four images total per contest entry.
- For the purpose of clarity and aesthetics during display and publication, we reserve the right to make small alterations to winning submissions, including but not limited to photo captions and case descriptions.
- Duplicate entries: Do not re-submit a case to make corrections. If you have made a mistake, please email AcademyPhotographyContest@gmail.com right away and wait for further instructions. Any and all duplicate entries will be disqualified and deleted, and doctors submitting duplicate entries will be disqualified from the contest altogether.
- Photos, captions, and case descriptions must not include any identifying information. This includes practice name, physician name, patient name, date of birth, date of service, etc. No images with identifying facial features will be accepted.
Image submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines will be rejected.
2022 Comprehensive Eye Care Section Annual Ocular Photography Contest
The 2022 contest received 170 image submissions. The submissions were divided into anterior and posterior segment categories, which received 82 and 88 submissions, respectively. Grand prizes were awarded for the anterior and posterior segment categories, followed by four honorable mentions from the combined submissions. Submissions were graded in seven categories, each assigned a numerical value between 1 and 10: focus, exposure, field of view, difficulty of capturing image, absence of distracting elements, lighting and visual impact (wow! factor). The total scores from eleven optometrist judges were averaged to determine the winners.
Special thanks to our judges: Elyse Chaglasian, Alissa Coyne, Crystal DeLuca, Amy Huddleston McDaniel, Caryn LaBuda, Alexis Malkin, Devina Patel, Mollie Saxon, Abby Tang, Karen Wadhams, and Bryan Wolynski.
If you have any questions, please email AcademyPhotographyContest@gmail.com.
