Summer Stills is a mini photography competition for students enrolled in school in Aotearoa, running over the 2023-24 school holidays!

The entries have been put into two shortlists -
with a Top 10 Junior entries, and a Top 20 Senior entries.
Voting has now closed for selecting the winners.
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The winners will be announced at 12pm on Friday 9th Feb.

Thanks to our friends at FUJIFILM -
The 1st Place Senior & Junior will win FUJIFILM X-S20 + XF15-45mm kit
The 2nd Place Senior & Junior will win  FUJIFILM instax Evo + instax mini film 20pk
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RESULTS

1ST PLACE - SENIOR SECTION
Millicent Heslop
Woodford House

2ND PLACE - SENIOR SECTION
Iris Rogers
St Hilda's Collegiate

1ST PLACE - JUNIOR SECTION
Riané Smit
Miramar Christian School

2ND PLACE - JUNIOR SECTION
Sophia Halsey
Northcross Intermediate

ENTRY PROCESS / RULES

∙ Summer Stills is free to enter and open to any student years 1-13 nationwide.

∙ RQP is a youth development company who works with school aged students - as such, all entrants must be enrolled in an NZ school in 2024 (including home school and correspondence school).
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∙ Students can submit multiple entries.
Please note that any students who are selected for national finalist voting (top 15 in the junior or senior section) will only be selected once regardless of how many entries they have submitted. 

∙ Juniors (years 1 - 8) must enter into the Junior Section.
Seniors (years 9 - 13) must enter into the Senior Section. 

∙ Images must be original and taken by the entrant no earlier than Monday 18 Dec 2023.

∙ If your photo is of a person or people - this needs to abide by the NZ laws around taking photos of people (more information in T’s & C’s). 
The best way to make sure you're photo is all good to submit is to (if possible) ask the people in the photo.

∙ Entries must not contain any offensive or illegal content.

∙ Post-production editing is permitted on all photos. 

∙ Images can be portrait or landscape and must adhere to upload guidelines of minimum 3MB and maximum 10MB. If your image is selected as a top contender, we may contact you to get a more high-resolution print file, specifications 300 DPI and 2500 pixels on short edge minimum size.

∙ By submitting an entry, Rockquest Promotions Ltd, and its various platforms including but not limited to Stills, and affiliated sponsors and partners including but not limited to FUJIFILM, have permission to use, reproduce, publish and exhibit image/s, your name and school for promotional and display purposes. Copyright of the original image belongs to the photographer.

∙ All entrants agree to abide by the Terms and Conditions when entering.
These can be read below. If you are under the age of 18 - in your entry form we will ask you to have a parent / guardian sign off on these T’s and C’s too. 

TERMS & CONDITIONS


‍By entering Stills, you agree to abide by the following terms and conditions:

ELIGIBILITY
1. All contestants must be enrolled in a school for at least 15 hours a week for 2024. If you decide to leave school (sign out) during the course of the competition for the upcoming 2024 school year, you become ineligible to continue. You can change schools during the competition.
(School means secondary, area, intermediate, primary, official home school or correspondence school.)

2. All contestants must be no older than 19 years of age on 26 Jan 2024 (ie - you are not eligible if you turn 20yrs old before the competition close date). 

ENTRIES
3. Entries must not contain any illegal content.

4. If your photo is of a person or people, you need to make sure your photo is in keeping with NZ laws (link below to NZ Police).
If your photo is taken of someone you know, make sure they are aware that you are submitting the photo into Stills (if it is of a young person, you should make sure their parent / guardian is aware). 
This is also relevant if the picture is taken in a public place - and it’s always a good rule to have as a photographer to check someone is ok with having their picture taken before you take it! 
NZ POLICE
‍5. Entries must not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks or any other intellectual property rights of any third parties.

6. In regards to censorship - while not wanting to put constraints on the creative process of entrants we would like to point out that images that could offend may not have commercial potential and therefore may not suit this competition. Judges for this event are drawn from NZ’s creative industry. Entrants are urged to consider this point carefully. 

7. In the entry process there is a section where a signature confirms you accept these terms and conditions (signed by a parent or guardian for students under the age of 18). 

8. By submitting an entry form you are confirming that your image meets these rules, and that failure to meet these t’s & c’s will result in your images being eliminated from Summer Stills. 

9. By submitting an entry, Rockquest Promotions Ltd, and its various platforms including but not limited to Stills, and affiliated sponsors and partners including but not limited to FUJIFILM, have permission to use, reproduce, publish and exhibit image/s, your name and school for promotional and display purposes. Copyright of the original image belongs to the photographer.

FAQ

Does my entry need to fit a category brief?

Nope! Normally in Stills we do ask Senior students to enter into a category, but because Summer Stills in just a fun mini-comp for the summer holiday, we're keeping it open ended!

We do ask that you enter photos taken between the dates of entries opening and closing (18 Dec - 26 Jan), and that you enter into either the Senior or Junior section.

What camera do I need to use?

You can use any camera you like! When you upload your photo, you will need to let us know what kind of camera you used, but there are no rules or restrictions. Experiment with different shooting styles and equipment, or keep it simple with a cellphone camera. We would also love to see unusual photos taken on film, GoPros or polaroid!

Do I have to edit my photo?

We encourage you (particularly Seniors) to give editing a try - small tweaks to colours, exposure levels, filters and crops can make a huge difference.
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You don’t need to, though - especially if submitting the image without editing is a deliberate creative decision.

Who are the judges?

This is going to be a bit different than normal, because we want you to be involved!
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We'll have a panel of professional photographers view the entries and select a pool of national finalists in both sections. Those 30 images will then be available for online 'peoples choice' voting (10 Junior and 20 Senior).

Because this is just a fun mini - comp there will not be feedback sent out (as per Stills normally).

Can I enter more than one photo?
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You can enter as many photos are you like! They will be judged as individual entries.

Please note that any students who are selected for national finalist voting (top 15 in the junior or senior section) will only be selected once regardless of how many entries they have submitted.