I.  Eligibility

A.) Contestants must be 18 years old or older and U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents (green card).
B.) Forest Preserve District of Will County (FPDWC) employees, Board members, and The Herald-News employees and their immediate family members are not eligible to participate in the contest. Immediate family includes only spouses, parents, and children.
C.) Professional photographers who receive all or a major part of their income from photography are not eligible to participate in the contest.
D.) The FPDWC reserves the right to verify, in its sole judgment, winner eligibility.
E.) Rules are subject to change without notice but will be posted at ReconnectWithNature.org.

II. Contest Entry / Photograph Submission

A.) Contestants must submit their entries via the on-line upload tool at ReconnectWithNature.org. No prints will be accepted.
B.) Each contestant is limited to five (5) contest entries.  
C.) Submitted photographs must be taken within a Will County Forest Preserve.
D.) Minor digital enhancements for cropping, red-eye removal, filters, and corrective functions are permitted, but images that have been judged to be altered in any significant manner will be disqualified. Contestants are not permitted to place borders, frames, or backgrounds around their images or to place watermarks, dates, signatures, or copyright images onto photos.
E.) If a submitted photograph contains a recognizable person, the contestant must have permission to distribute the photograph from the subject or, in the case of a minor, the subject's parent or guardian, and must provide written permission to the Forest Preserve District upon request.
F.) Photographs must be appropriate for posting on a public government Web site and The Herald-News Web site. Obscene, provocative, or otherwise questionable content will not be considered. The FPDWC retains sole discretion as to what constitutes inappropriate content.
G.) Contest entries must be uploaded via the on-line upload tool at ReconnectWithNature.org by 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time on November 30, 2010.

III.  Photo Format

A.) Digital photographs may be submitted in .jpg or .gif formats.
B.) Photographs must be color.
C.) Photographs may be either in vertical or horizontal format.

IV.  Judging

A.) Judges base their decisions on the following qualities: focus, lighting, composition, impact, creativity and storytelling.
B.) Photos received are reviewed by a panel of FPDWC staff for basic qualification, and are then judged by a panel of The Herald-News photographers.
C.) The decisions of the judges are final.

V.  Use of the Photos

A.) In the event that ownership of any photograph submitted to the FPDWC is contested in any manner, the FPDWC reserves the right to disqualify the photograph from the contest.
B.) Entries that fail to comply with the Contest Rules will be disqualified without notice.
C.) Upon submission of a photograph for contest entry, the contestant grants the FPDWC and The Herald-News non-exclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license rights to use, reproduce, distribute, and publish submitted photograph on their Web sites or in newspapers, publications, brochures, and newsletters and for other marketing and promotional uses. The FPDWC recognizes that the photographer owns the image and the copyright to the photograph. Upon submission of a photograph for contest entry, the contestant also grants the FPDWC and The Herald-News the right to use the contestant's name, city, and state of residence in promotions and other publications.

VI.  Prizes

A.) The first-place winner of the contest will have his or her photo published in The Herald-News and receive a digital photo frame (Approximate Retail Value U.S. $150.00).
B.) The second-place winner of the contest will have his or her photo published in The Herald-News and receive a certificate for one free picnic pavilion rental with the Forest Preserve District of Will County (Approximate Retail Value of up to U.S. $100.00). Some restrictions apply. Rental is subject to availability.
C.) The third-place winner of the contest will have his or her photo published in The Herald-News and receive a $50 gift certificate to Borders bookstores and a Forest Preserve District of Will County walking stick (Approximate Retail Value U.S. $56.00).
D.) The prizes are nontransferable, and no cash alternative is available.

VII.  Legal Conditions

A.) By entering the contest, participants warrant that their entry materials are original and do not infringe on any third party’s rights, and that they have obtained any necessary permissions from any third party if a third party or third party’s property appears in the photograph. The FPDWC reserves the right to disqualify any entry if it finds in its sole discretion that any of the foregoing warranties are not true. Decisions of the FPDWC shall be final and binding.
B.) By entering, participants release and hold harmless the FPDWC and The Herald-News, their affiliated organizations, and each of their directors, officers, employees, attorneys, agents, and representatives from any and all liability for any injuries, loss, claim, action, demand, or damage of any kind arising from or related to the FPDWC or The Herald-News, any prize won, any use of the entry materials by the FPDWC and The Herald-News, the warranties participants make, any misuse or malfunction of any prize awarded, participation in any FPDWC-related activity, access to and use of the FPDWC’s  and The Herald-News Web sites, the downloading or uploading and/or printing of material from said sites, or participation in the contest.
C.) Any attempt by an entrant or other individual to deliberately damage any Web site or undermine the legitimate operation of the FPDWC or The Herald-News is a violation of criminal and civil laws, and should such an attempt be made, the FPDWC and The Herald-News reserve the right to seek damages to the fullest extent permitted by law.
D.) The FPDWC and The Herald-News are not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by Web site users or by any equipment or programming associated with or utilized by the FPDWC or The Herald-News, or by any technical or human error that may occur in the processing of submissions to the FPDWC, including but not limited to any misprints or typographical errors. The FPDWC and The Herald-News assume no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, photographs. The FPDWC and The Herald-News are not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer equipment, servers, providers, computer on-line systems, software, or failure of e-mail on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any Web site, including injury or damage to participant’s or to any other person’s computer related to or resulting from participating or uploading images or information in the contest.
E.) All federal, state, and local taxes, fees, and surcharges on prize packages are the sole responsibility of the winners.
F.) If, for any reason, the FPDWC and The Herald-News are not capable of completing the contest as planned, including, but not limited to, by reason of infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes beyond the control of the FPDWC and The Herald-News that corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of the contest, the FPDWC reserves the right at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the contest.
G.) The Forest Preserve District of Will County and The Herald-News are not responsible for lost, damaged, late, or misdirected photographs, or for uploading connections, garbled transmissions, unauthorized intervention, or technical malfunctions.

VIII. Contact

A.) Questions and inquiries regarding contest rules or technical matters, including problems uploading photos, can be e-mailed to webmaster@fpdwc.org.


Return to the Entry Form.