GUIDELINES

Luca Memorial Photo Contest is organized, hosted and administered by Luca Chiarabini Memorial Association, a non-profit organization. No purchase is needed to participate in our Contests.
Read about our 🔥Concept🔥.

The Contest covers:

three activities:
- New Explorations
- Official Meetings
- Any other situation (W·O·W!: category)
two sports:
- Caving
- Canyoning

...summing a total of five categories:

Cave Explorations
Canyon Explorations
Cave Meetings
Canyon Meetings
W·O·W!: Wonderful Outdoor World

The Contest categories explicitly include and accept:

CANYONS: Icy, wet and dry canyons

CAVES: Rock, ice/glacier, and underwater natural/coral caves or man-made abandoned underground structures and mines, as well as urban caving.

The Contest runs in STANDARD ROUNDS every 3 months and a FINAL ROUND for the year.

STANDARD ROUNDS: every 3 months

VOTING PHOTOS:
- anyone can vote for the photos in the internet gallery.

SUBMITTING PHOTOS: photos can be submitted in any of the 5 categories

1. Caving MEETINGS
2. Canyoning MEETING
3. Caving EXPLORATIONS
4. Canyoning EXPLORATIONS
5. W·O·W!: Wonderful Outdoor World

JURY: the Jury will be selected by Luca Memorial. To learn more click here.

PHOTOGRAPHERS: $500, for the winner photo elected by a Jury in each category.
- 5 winning photographers, unless a category is declared deserted.
MEETINGS: $3.000 to be shared among the meetings where the winner photos have been taken.
- 1 or 2 winning meeting organizations, unless a category is declared deserted.
VOTERS: $200 for a random chosen voter among voters of the winning photo in each category.
- 5 winning online voters, unless a category is declared deserted.

FINAL ROUND: once a year

VOTING PHOTOS: anyone can vote for the photos in the internet gallery.

PHOTOS: the top 15 photos in each category of each standard round will compete again in a FINAL round for the Photo of 2020 winner.

JURY: at least 30%, maximum 50%, of the Jury will be composed by previous voters and photographers. To learn more click here.

PHOTOGRAPHER: $5.000, for the photo of the year elected by a Jury
- 1 absolute winning photographer.

VOTER: $500 for a random chosen voter among voters of the absolute winner of the year.
- 1 absolute winning internet voter.

NOTE "Prizes are not accumulative": for any winner already receiving for any reason any sponsorship, prize or compensation during the year by Luca Memorial, the already received sponsorship, prize, or compensation will be deducted from the new prize, and only the additional part (if any) will be awarded to the winner. Prizes are not accumulative, if the same person wins more than one prize, only the maximum prize will be awarded.

All winners can obtain their prize in cash by bank transfer. However they will be offered the option to exchange it for goods and services by same or higher value among an offer of Luca Memorial associated partners who are present in their country of residence.

To take the prize in cash or in other offered compensations, is a decision to be taken exclusively by the winner.

The list of possible exchanges to be offered will vary according to availability of service, as well as winner interests:
Never tried Caving or Canyoning before? Never visited La Reunion, Ticino or Australia on a private Caving or Canyoning tour? Maybe you will have the opportunity to choose!

ENTER CONTEST

can take part as VOTERS, any person with internet:

access the photo gallery and cast a vote for your preferred photo
cast a maximum of 3 VOTES per day (resets at midnight CET time)
each photo can be voted only once, and vote is irrevocable
come back any day throughout the contest duration to cast more votes
achieve a VOTER BONUS (learn more here): x2 chances of winning. How?:
- use a BONUS CODE from a Luca Memorial FRIEND entity (learn more here).
🏆 VOTERS matching the winning photos selected by the Jury, will enter a certified random draw.
- up to $$500 for the VOTER (see prizes overview here)

ENTER CONTEST

can take part as PHOTOGRAPHERS submitting photos:

For Cave or Canyon MEETINGS CATEGORY complying with the requirements (read them here):

submit maximum 3 PHOTOS per day
only minor adjustment in brightness, contrast and color saturation are allowed
PHOTOS must be taken at the meeting
PHOTOS must be submitted during the meeting duration days
for each PHOTO obtain at least 5 votes from internet public
try to obtain the PHOTOGRAPHER BONUS (learn more here): 1 EXTRA JURY vote on all your photos. How?:
- have 3 or more friends that never participated before to join the Contest through a REFERRAL LINK (learn more here).
- use a BONUS CODE from a Luca Memorial FRIEND entity (learn more here).
🏆 the winning photos selected by the Jury, will award a prize to the PHOTOGRAPHER as well as the MEETING where the photo was taken.
- up to $5.000 for the PHOTOGRAPHER (see prizes overview here)
- up to $3.000 for the MEETING ORGANIZATION (see prizes overview here)

For Cave or Canyon EXPLORATIONS & W·O·W! CATEGORY complying with the requirements (read them here):

Any participant in an Exploration during the current year can submit the photos he took during the outing.
The exploration beta/topo must be shared publicly before current year end.
submit maximum 3 PHOTOS per day
only minor adjustment in brightness, contrast and color saturation are allowed
for each PHOTO obtain at least 5 votes from internet public
Achieve a PHOTOGRAPHER BONUS (learn more here): 1 EXTRA JURY vote on all your photos. How?:
- have 3 or more friends that never participated before to join the Contest through a REFERRAL LINK (learn more here).
- use a BONUS CODE from a Luca Memorial FRIEND entity (learn more here).
🏆 the winning photo selected by the Jury, will award a prize to the PHOTOGRAPHER.
- up to $5.000 for the PHOTOGRAPHER (see prizes overview here)

Luca Memorial reserves the right to benefit specific organizations, events, or people considered as FRIENDS, given them some extra advantages in contribution for their promotion of Luca Memorial activities and projects.

The special advantages, called BONUS, can apply to PHOTOGRAPHERS submitting photos or VOTERS voting photos.

Any PHOTOGRAPHER submitting photos will have available a unique REFERRAL LINK:

with this link, active participants can invite other NEW PHOTOGRAPHERS to join Luca Memorial Contests
WHEN a NEW photographer use this link to successfully join our contests for the first time...
AND IF the new photographer submits valid photos that are accepted...
THEN a counter is increased for that unique referral link.
When TOTAL REFERRALS of a link is equal or more than 3, it will receive a BONUS:
🥇+1 EXTRA JURY point
The bonus is applied to all photos of the photographer owner of the link at every future Judging round during the rest of the current year.
The bonus is not accumulative with any BONUS CODE, photographers can have a maximum of only +1 extra Jury vote.
🏆 all bonuses are reset after current year end.

BONUS CODES:

Learn more about LUCA MEMORIAL FRIEND entities here.

A participant of a FRIEND event or federated member of a FRIEND entity will receive a BONUS code directly from his event or federation. This bonus code will have the form of a hashtag, in example: #2020RIC.

🥇

VOTERS and PHOTOGRAPHERS can update their registered user account at Luca Memorial contests using this BONUS code. From that moment till the end of the current year, these users will have a special benefit being applied each time a Judging round takes place in Luca Memorial contests.

If a new partnership is established with an event or federation by Luca Memorial, then they are considered FRIENDS from that moment on.
The FRIEND entity will provide its members directly the BONUS CODE they need to use in Luca Memorial contests.
All bonuses are valid only for the current year, and they are not valid anymore after year end. Only one bonus code can be active. You can overwrite the bonus code at any moment.

⚠️

When a participant with a bonus code wins, the FRIEND entity whose bonus code was used will be required to confirm that the winner was entitled to use the bonus code (i.e. was registered at the meeting, is still a federated member, ...)
If the FRIEND entity does not confirm in 3 working days the validity of the winner, the winner will be disqualified and a new winner will be picked.
Disqualified participants are banned from Luca Memorial Contests for life. Zero Tolerance is applied to cheating.

VOTER BONUS: x2 tickets

If a VOTER obtains and uses a VOTER BONUS CODE to upgrade his account, from that moment on, whenever there is a sweepstake among voters...
THEN this specific VOTER will have
🥇DOUBLE chances of winning.

This bonus is equivalent as having two lottery tickets while participating in a lottery, while other participants have only one ticket for the same lottery.

PHOTOGRAPHER BONUS: +1 extra Jury vote:

If a PHOTOGRAPHER obtains and uses a PHOTOGRAPHER BONUS CODE to upgrade his account, from that moment on, whenever there is a Judging round…
THEN this specific PHOTOGRAPHER will have
🥇+1 extra Jury vote
on all his photos participating in the Judging round.

This bonus alone will not make any photographer win the contest. However this bonus will definitively help the person that has it, when two or more photographers have obtained the same score during a Judging round.

STANDARD ROUND JUDGING

The Jury is selected by Luca Memorial. • To learn more click here.

The Jury will vote among all submitted photos that reached at least 5 votes from the internet public before the contest deadline.

Judging process result:

1 Winning PHOTO per category
Ranking of Top 15 photos per category

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Winners will be announced within 20 days after each round conclusion via newsletter, website blog and Facebook page.
For each category will be published :

the Winning Photo, and link to Top 15
Winning PHOTOGRAPHER biography and winning photo circumstances
MEETING biography / EXPLORATION story
Winning VOTER
Jury members
Jury scoring totals (only for Jury members, password protected)

WINNERS:

5 Winning PHOTOGRAPHERS, one in each of the five categories, unless a category is declared deserted: the person who has taken the winning photo.
- Photographers winning a round will be excluded from winning other quarterly rounds during the year, and will compete again only in the FINAL ROUND.
- Photographers can win more than one category in the same round, however prizes are not accumulative (see NOTE).
1-2 Winning MEETING ORGANIZATIONS, unless a category is declared deserted, where the winning photo has been taken for the Cave Meetings and Canyon Meetings categories.
- Meetings organizations winning a round will be excluded from winning other quarterly rounds during the year.
- Meetings organizations can win more than one category in the same round, however prizes are not accumulative (see NOTE).
5 Winning VOTERS, one in each of the five categories, unless a category is declared deserted.: selected by certified random sweepstake among internet voters who voted for the awarded Winning Photo in each category.
- Voters winning a round will be excluded from winning other quarterly rounds during the year, and will compete be eligible to take part as Jury in the FINAL ROUND.
- Voters will be prevented to win more than one category in the same round.
All prizes for winners are not accumulative (see NOTE: Prizes are not accumulative)

FINAL ROUND JUDGING

The top 15 photos in each category of every standard round will undergo a Final Round, with a new internet voting process.

Start and end dates for public voting will be announced via newsletter & facebook to all followers.

The Jury is selected by Luca Memorial, but at least 50% has to be composed by previous participants voters and photographers. To learn more click here.

The Jury will vote among all photos that reached at least 5 votes from the internet public before the FINAL ROUND deadline, among all photos, without distinction of category.

Judging process result:

1 Winning PHOTO OF THE YEAR
Ranking of Top #15 photos of the year

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Winners will be announced within 20 days after judgment via newsletter, website blog and Facebook page.
For PHOTO OF THE YEAR will be published :

the Winning Photo, and link to Top 15
Winning PHOTOGRAPHER biography and winning photo circumstances
MEETING biography / EXPLORATION story
Winning VOTER
Jury members
Jury scoring totals (only for Jury members, password protected)

WINNERS:

1 Winning PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR: the person who has taken the winning photo (see NOTE).
1 Winning VOTER: selected by certified random sweepstake among internet voters who voted for the PHOTO OF THE YEAR during the final round (see NOTE).

Luca Memorial Photo Contest is an idea and initiative of Luca’s close friend Marco Leonini with the support of Luca Chiarabini Memorial, aiming to promote and stimulate that same active spirit, adventurous life, and photographic sharing that were Luca’s passions during his life.