The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand and OnAsia, Asia's leading photo agency, would like to invite you to participate in the Sixth Annual FCCT/OnAsia Photo Contest.¦

Who's Eligible? Any photographer with images shot in the Asia-Pacific region. Photographers do NOT need to be members of the FCCT, nor do they need to be based in Asia.

What Kind of Photos? Photos must be taken in the Asia-Pacific region. Judges will accept submissions in four categories:

* Spot news - for the best single image photograph taken at a news event in the Asia-Pacific region. No more than five photographs per photographer may be submitted in this category.

* Feature photography - for the best single-image non-news "feature" photograph taken in the Asia-Pacific region. No more than five photographs per photographer may be submitted in this category.

* Photo essay - for the best collection of up to 12 photos on a single topic in the Asia-Pacific region. No more than three photo essays per photographer may be submitted in this category.

* Migration - A special category, sponsored by the Delegation of the European Union to Thailand, for the best single photo or photo essay of up to 12 images focusing on issues related to migration involving Asians, human trafficking, and integration of migrants in Asia. No more than five single images and/or three photo essays per photographer may be submitted in this category.

In addition, the judges will select one Photographer of the Year to recognize either the best single image, photo essay or the most impressive collection of work submitted by a single photographer in 2012.

What Are The Judges Looking For?
This contest aims to promote excellence in photojournalism in the Asia-Pacific region. The judges will be looking for images or essays on topics that impact our lives in significant ways as well as investigative photo-reportage involving important issues, especially where such photography is part of a significant body of work.

What Can You Win?
First-place winners in Spot News, Feature Photography and Photo Essay will each receive: $1,000 cash and one round-trip ticket for economy-class air travel in Asia, courtesy of Star Alliance, the global airline network whose members include Thai Airways and other carriers.

First-place winner, Migration in Asia, sponsored by the Delegation of the European Union to Thailand: $2,000 cash.

Photographer of the Year: a $3,000 cash prize and one round-trip ticket for economy-class air travel in Asia, courtesy of Star Alliance.

Cash awards are courtesy of Indorama Ventures PCL and Diethelm Travel Group in addition to the EU. All winners and finalists will be recognized in a special edition of FCCT's quarterly magazine, Dateline, profiling their work. Winning photos and finalists will also be displayed in a two-month exhibition at the FCCT gallery in Bangkok, including a Friday-night reception attended by local photographers and media.

What's the Deadline?
Photos must be submitted by noon Bangkok time on Friday, December 14, 2012. There will be no extensions. Winners will be announced in early 2013.

Contest Rules:
Photographers can enter the contest by submitting images online to a new contest website: http://fcct.onasia.lightrocketmedia.com/
Images submitted by CD or DVD will NOT be accepted.

The contest rules and detailed submission instructions are available at the website, including a downloadable PDF version.

Format and Size:
All photos MUST be digital images saved in JPEG format. All JPEG images must conform to a minimum size whereby the longer aspect of any image must be at least 3600 pixels and images should be saved at a minimum quality level 10.

Created Dates:
Submissions can be published or unpublished work but MUST have been created between Oct 1st 2011 and the contest submission deadline, Friday Dec 14th, 2012 - 12 noon Thailand time. Photos taken earlier are eligible only if they are part of a photo essay in which a significant portion of the work (more than half of the images submitted in the essay) occurred within these dates.

File Names:
Image file names MUST NOT contain any information about the photographer's name/agency etc. Do not use file names such as Joe_Anyone001.jpg or P.Person_photoessay02.jpg etc. File names such as MigrationEssayOne001.jpg, MigrationEssayOne002.jpg etc would be appropriate.

File Info:
All images MUST contain the following File info (Metadata): Caption, Created Date and Location information - at minimum, location information must list the country where the image was taken. If the files already have these fields filled in, the metadata will be included in the images when the photographer uploads the files; if not, the photographer can edit these fields online once the images are uploaded.

Word or Text Document:
-Each photographer's submission must include a Word or Text document with his or her name as the title. Inside this Word or Text file, photographers must provide a brief biography, full contact information (including address, phone and email address) and a list of all photos submitted.
-If submitting photo essays, the document must include a list of essays submitted that correspond to the folder titles created by the photographer when submitting the entry online, including a short synopsis of each essay. (For example, for a photographer submitting a migration photo essay, the text document should include something like: Migration Essay One / Families Flee Volcano Eruption / This is a story about....and the rest of the synopsis.)
-The Word or Text document MUST be uploaded to the contest website and it should be noted that failure to provide this information may result in disqualification.

General Rules:
-Photographers may submit entries in more than one category, but individual images can only be entered once, either as a single image or as part of a photo essay.
-Individual images entered as part of a photo essay are eligible for an award in other categories but cannot win more than one prize.
-Images must be free of manipulation other than ordinary changes that might be made using conventional darkroom techniques, such as spotting dust and scratches, changing colour balance, conversion to black and white, adjusting contrast and other levels. Composite images and photos with special effects, borders, added backgrounds, and/or embedded names (such as photographer names or agency names) are not permitted. The judging panel reserves the right to request original RAW file(s), slide(s) or negative(s) and/or to disqualify images where post-processing is deemed to have exceeded acceptable photo-journalistic practices.
-Photos must be taken in Asia-Pacific, defined as: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Seychelles, Taiwan, Thailand, Tibet, or Vietnam.

Submissions that do not meet these requirements may not be considered.

Terms and conditions:
-There is no fee for entry; photographers may submit to the contest FREE of charge.
-Photographers retain copyright to any images they submit to the contest.
-By submitting images, photographers agree that the FCCT, OnAsia and its contest sponsors will have the right to reproduce any winning images - with attribution to the photographer - for use in marketing efforts related to the contest, including future contests and on the FCCT and OnAsia websites. The FCCT also has the right to distribute winning images to the media to promote the contest. Submissions cannot be used by the FCCT or OnAsia or other sponsors for any commercial purposes or other uses unrelated to the contest.
-Photographers agree that prints of the winning images may be produced by FCCT and may be exhibited by the FCCT and its sponsors provided that such use is related to the contest.
-Submissions will not be returned and FCCT has the right to destroy/delete all entries.

How to Submit:
Photographers can ONLY submit entries by uploading images online. FCCT and OnAsia will not be accepting images by CD or DVD. Contestants must register on the contest website and follow the instructions that can be downloaded from the website's home page in PDF format, at http://fcct.onasia.lightrocketmedia.com/

Any questions about submissions should be addressed to: info@onasia.com