The next Year End Award presentation will be on June 8, 2026
Year End Awards
A list of the winners can be found here.
The Puget Sound Camera Club’s fiscal year ends in June of each year. We use this opportunity to have our annual meeting where officers are elected, and awards are given for photographic achievement. In advance of this meeting, members are encouraged to enter their best images from the previous year to be judged by others outside the club. Based on these findings, awards are given out in a variety of categories.
The list of awards include:
Rules for Entry:
Digital Images and Print Year End Awards
Digital images and prints that were entered during the previous May through April are eligible to be entered in the Year End competition. Each member is allowed to submit up to three images in each medium:
A total of three (3) entries are allowed for digital images. They may have been entered in any of the Digital categories (Assignment, Open, Creatures, Monochrome, Creative/Altered).
Minor revisions of your original entry is allowed. Examples of acceptable revisions include fixing color and contrast issues, removal of small elements, straightening horizon lines and similar. Unacceptable revisions would include converting from color to black and white or vice versa, radical cropping such as changing the image from portrait orientation to landscape, adding or removing large elements in the scene. The competition directors have the discretion to tell you whether a change is allowed or not. Note: all revised images should be submitted as a new image with the title updated with Version 2, V.2, or similar appended to the end. (example: Mount Rainier V.2). Do not take down the original image.
There are special instructions for submitting images to the 2024-2025 Best Digital Image of the Year competition. Use the instructions found here.
A total of three (3) entries are allowed for prints. They can be either color or monochrome. They may have been entered in any of the Print categories (Assignment, Open, Creatures, Creative/Altered, Monochrome).
You may NOT enter the same image in both the Digital and Print Year End competitions even if you did enter it in both during the competition year. You will need to choose which competition (digital or print) you wish to enter it in.
Images entered in a previous Year End competition shall NOT be submitted to this year’s Year End competitions.
Note: the entries need to be entered in the same medium they were originally entered in. If you entered them as prints during the year, you need to enter them as prints in the year end competition. If they were entered as digital images, you need to enter them in the digital year end competition. Prints may be reprinted if the original entry is no longer available or in good condition.
Ray Thorsteinson Memorial Award for Photojournalism
Two (2) entries are allowed for the Ray Thorsteinson Photojournalism Award.
Photojournalism images shall consist of pictures or sequences with informative content and emotional impact, including human interest, documentary, and spot news. The journalistic value of the photograph shall be considered over pictorial quality. In the interest of credibility, photographs which misrepresent the truth, such as manipulation to alter the subject matter, or situations which are set up for the purpose of photography, are unacceptable in Photojournalism. The award is named for a past member who was known for his excellence in the genre.
This award is given each year for the best Photojournalism picture taken by a club member during the last competition year (May to April). It is not a requirement that the image must have been shown at a club meeting. The competition is digital only. Two submissions are allowed each year and do not have to have been submitted to any other PSCC competition in order to be eligible. Normal digital size requirements apply.
To be eligible the submission must conform to the Photographic Society of America (PSA) Photojournalism definition:
“Photojournalism shall consist of storytelling pictures or sequences such as are seen in the news media, including human interest, documentary, and spot news. In the interest of credibility, contrived situations or photographic or digital manipulations which alter the truth are not acceptable. The journalistic value of the photograph shall be weighed more than the pictorial quality.”
Paul and Shirley Kovac Award for Creativity
One (1) entry is allowed for the Paul and Shirley Kovac Award for Creativity.
This award is created out of affection and respect for the late Paul and Shirley Kovac, former members of the club, remembered for their skilled, innovative photography as well as their service to the club. The award is to honor exceptional creativity in digital photography.
That creativity can be demonstrated by elements of any of the following attributes: imagination, novelty, ingeniousness, inspiration, freshness, inventiveness, vision, fantasy, resourcefulness, cleverness and unique artistic expression.
The competition is digital only. One submission is allowed each year and does not have to have been submitted to any other PSCC competition in order to be eligible. Normal digital size requirements apply.
Judging of entries will be done by a judge approved by the PSCC board. The judge shall not be a current or former member of PSCC. The PSCC president will designate a club member to convey the entries to the competition judge and to receive the judge’s decision in time for the award plaque to be engraved and presented at the club’s annual awards banquet. In addition to selecting the entry to receive the Kovac Award, the judge – at his or her discretion – may designate up to two other entries for Honorable Mention. Recipients of Honorable Mention designations will receive award certificates.
Monochrome Print Award (new for 2026)
Two (2) entries are allowed for the Monochrome Print Award.
The Monochrome Print Award is given to the best monochrome print. “Monochrome” means “one color”. A monochrome or black-and-white print consists of one color (white is not a color but an absence of color). Award criteria include photographic excellence as well as printmaking skill. Subject, technical quality, visual impact will all be considered as well as choice of paper and overall presentation. Images need not have been previously entered to our monthly competitions but can if the maker chooses. Images cannot have been entered in any of the other Year End competitions.
George Ferrara Mentor Award
The president will appoint this award to a club member who excels in educating and mentoring other club members. The award is named after late charter member George Ferrara, who spent most of his life mentoring and educating photographers at PSCC and elsewhere.
Lucille Ainsworth Service Award
The president shall present the Lucille Ainsworth Service Award to a club member who went above and beyond in serving the club over the previous year.
The award is named in honor of Lucille Ainsworth, one of the founders of the PSCC and long-time president.