Notes #1 : Important Contest Dates

We have as of now 80 registered participants for #nogearnofear (registration closed 12am Eastern, Apr 26, 2016).

As we came to the end of the #nogearnofear registration deadline, I thought I will highlight some general contest house-keeping details everyone should pay attention to. It will help me tremendously in sorting, developing, scanning and creating a catalog of participant photos for eventual judging.

Contest Start Date (May 01, 2016)

Please remember the official date for start is May 01, 2016 but if you are getting an itchy shutter finger, you may give yourself an early start but in the interest of being fair to other participants if you start early, do send in your camera 2 weeks after you begin shooting.

Identification Procedure (Ignoring this WILL disqualify you)

It is absolutely imperative that you follow this step during your shoot to embed your identity in your work.

Now hear me carefully:

• I will be developing each participant's roll by hand and in bulk batches.
• This will mean 6-8 rolls getting developed in a single paterson dev tank.
• Hence it will be hellacious to be able to identify the work of an individual and later match it to a name if there is no way for me to look at the negative and determine whose work it is.
• Unfortunately I won't have time to identify/verify over 80 submissions one at a time.

To solve this problem here is what I am mandating:

• Ideally shoot a white sheet of paper as your first shot that has your name printed clearly for me to identify your roll after I develop it.
• Please use if possible the same name you used to register for the contest.
• If you have already started shooting, do this as the last photo.
• The camera has 27 exposures and the contest requires 24, so you will have a few extra to accomplish this task.

So tough as it may seem, if you fail to shoot an identifying photo as part of the roll (as described above), your entire entry will be disqualified.

Time Available for Contest Shoot (2 Weeks - May 15th 2016 cutoff)

• 2 weeks for you to shoot 4 categories and 6 photos per category - Initially I was hoping we will have 3 weeks but with international participants and anticipated postal delays unfortunately I need to steal back a week from each one of you. Hope you can adjust accordingly.

• Hence Deadline is May 15, 2016 - If you can send in your camera earlier, that will be highly appreciated. Gives me some breathing room and creates a buffer for postal delays.

Submission Deadline (Cameras must reach me June 1st 2016)

June 1st, 2016  is the cutoff for cameras to reach me. This includes time for you to shoot the roll and mail it so that your carrier has time to deliver the camera to the address I specify below.

Remember - 

1. I will reject any cameras that do not reach me by June 1st, 2016 as I intend to start development June 2nd, 2016. 
2. If you anticipate you will need more time to ship, please plan to cut back on the shooting time and send in your cameras early. 
3. I know there may be genuine postal delays and I will accommodate on a case by case basis but please note that this will not be an excuse to consider other situations.
4. I will really really appreciate if you all are considerate as I try and plan to keep the timelines manageable.

Note:

I understand there are situations that cannot be controlled and that shit happens. I will be considerate about these instances and in case something unforeseen happens that affects your situation, don't worry about it, we will work through that.

The idea is to have fun and not have a ton of regulations, but we have to get through a lot of dev, scan and uploads before even judging can happen and hence some of the necessary caveats.

Mailing Address

Please send your contest camera to the following address:

Ribnar Mazumdar
PO Box # 59214
Schaumburg, IL 60159
USA

Remember to pack it carefully and if possible, ship ahead of time to give enough time for your work to arrive before the cutoff of June 01, 2016.