2020 Winners Announced
The Categories
Submissions must be identified as being under one, and only one, of the following categories, although the same image may be submitted more than once under different categories. All photos must have a clear mountain connection and be submitted under one of the following categories; submissions may come from any part of the world. To be eligible for a prize, images must not have won a prize in a competition open to the public before judging.
Mountain Adventure & Sport – Presented by F-Stop:
Photos of people engaged in climbing, running, hiking, or any other sport;
Mountain Culture and People:
Photos of people, who are not engaged in sport. Perhaps making a meal, or someone you came across on the trail;
Mountain Landscape:
Photos of the natural setting, possibly with people, but the people are not the core subject;
Mountain Painting:
We are happy to announce a new category for paintings and other non-photographic art. Take a photo of your work, and submit. As far as possible, we will judge on the merits of the art piece rather than the quality of the photograph, but a good quality photograph will make it easier to appreciate the piece in question.
Additional Prizes:
Grand prize:
Best of all submitted images.
Best of BC:
Best image taken in British Columbia by a photographer based in British Columbia.
Best of Environmental Stewardship:
Best image depicting environmental stewardship or with an environmental message.
Youth Prize – Presented by Beau Photo:
Best image taken by a photographer 16 years or under at the closing date for submissions.
Other additional categories may be announced later.
VIMFF photography competition is officially listed with photocontestinsider.com
The Jury:
Blake Randall
Blake grew up in British Columbia, Canada on the sleepy Sunshine Coast and now calls Vancouver home. Over the past few years he has fallen in love with photography, which combines the outdoors and a creative outlet.
Justa Jeskova
Justa was born and raised in communist Czechoslovakia. In 1998, she decided to follow her dream and moved to BC, Canada because of hockey instead of starting her work career as a Wood Sciences and Technology Engineer. She discovered mountain biking after making the move to Whistler when she photographed her first Crankworx. Ten years on, she no longer chases hockey players and still can’t change a bike tire but what she lacks in mechanic skills is made up by her passion behind the lens and innate ability to hunt down money light.
Corey Rich
Corey has built a life and career around his passions for travel, adventure, and telling stories with his camera. With a background in rock climbing and photojournalism, Rich’s work spans a range of genres, from iconic still imagery for leading editorial publications, to television spots and films, to directing high-production-value commercial projects for Fortune 100 companies.
VIMFF 2020 Photo Competition Partners
Thank you to F-Stop for generously donating the prizes for the the Mountain Adventure and Sport category.
Thank you to Beau Photo for generously donating the prizes for the the Youth category.
Thank you to InBiz for being our print partner and beautifully printing the winning photos for the annual photo exhibit.
Frequently Asked Questions
What file formats can I submit photos in?
You can submit your photos in JPG, GIF and PNG formats. If your file has the extension JPEG, you can rename it to JPG; however, if a file is submitted with the JPEG extension, we cannot process it. Files in TIFF, BMP or raw formats are too large and/or difficult to manipulate, so we cannot accept them.
Remember that you cannot have a watermark, signature, or similar names on the photos, except for paintings, where you can have your signature.
Do you accept mail-in or email entries?
Unfortunately, given the volume of submissions, we can only accept entries through our website.
I would like my image to be considered in multiple categories. Is this allowed??
Of course! Just submit it in your favourite category; when we review the submission we will also categorize it in a second category if we feel it would fit. If we don’t feel your photo fits into the category you submitted it in, we will move it to a category we feel it does fit.
Why do you charge an entry fee?
There are two reasons for charging an entry fee. We obviously need to cover our costs in running the competition – the technical platform, printing, trophies, etc. But, more importantly, we want to make sure that we give our full attention to the best photos – by charging a small fee, we hope that people will be sending us their best work. Our aim is to find a balance where people can easily submit their best work.
Can I get a reduced entry fee?
We offer discounted rates to a number of clubs and groups around the world… ask your camera club if they have talked to us. We are also partnering with high schools in Vancouver and the Sea to Sky Corridor to gain entries into the youth category – if your school is not yet participating, please contact us a photos@vimff.org.
You only provide five slots on the entry… am I allowed to enter more photos?
Yes! We would love to see as much of your work as you want to share. The five photo limit is for technical reasons. If you want to enter more, enter the first five, then go back in and enter the remaining photos.
I don’t have a credit card, or PayPal… is there another way to pay for my entries?
Unfortunately, we do not have any other way to receive the funds. The best option would be to ask a friend to make the payment, and then refund them in cash.
What is the deadline for submissions, and when will finalists and winners be announced?
The deadline for submissions will be announced when submissions open, but will be in late January or early February. Finalists will be chosen by ahead of the main Festival. Winners will be told in advance of the Festival’s Photography Night that they have won, but not which prize, and asked for some additional information about their work – each photographer will receive two complimentary tickets to Photography Night. The winners will be publicly announced at the Photographic Night, and some winners will be asked to accept their prize on stage, if they wish.
Where can I see the winning images?
The winning images will be announced at our Art & Photography night during the VIMFF festival and shown at all shows afterwards. They will be highlighted on the VIMFF website and officially exhibited at the VIMFF Summer Series (announced soon).
I want to host an exhibition!
Fantastic! The Exhibition is one of the newer aspects of the competition, and we are looking at ways to grow it. Please contact us by email: photos@vimff.org.
