Canon Online end of year report 2022

By John Hawkins PSNZ Canon Online Coordinator

Summary

PSNZ Canon Online continues to be a popular competition for PSNZ members. Coordination of the competition was handed over from Paul Willyams to John Hawkins during Round 2 this year.

The number of authors participating was down a little from last year; any suggestions on how to grow the number of PSNZ members participating would be appreciated. The number of entries in each round was fairly consistent, with the exception of two rounds, and 25% of authors entered all six rounds.

Statistics

Round winners:

Each winner received a PSNZ Canon Online trophy and Canon will send each winner an A3 size print.

Top Ten

Each round had ten entries awarded to be in the Top Ten. A total of 44 authors were selected in the top ten (17% of participants) and of those, ten made the top 10 twice, and three made the top 10 three times. This indicates that a small group of authors who entered most, if not all, rounds, were the most successful but not necessarily dominant.

Aggregate Winner

Barbara Lee APSNZ is the winner of the PSNZ Canon Online Photographer of the Year with 26 points.

Judges

All judges provided constructive feedback, both in general and for the top 10 images. Although all judges noted that selecting the top ten, from large numbers, was not an easy task, they all returned the results promptly. One judge was unable to participate in the competition but provided plenty of advance notice for a replacement to be found.

All judges were accredited PSNZ judges. The judges for this year were:

Round Judge

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Administration

Paul Byrne

Tony Gorham

Elizabeth Passuello

Karen Lawton

Ian Walls

Sheryl Williams

After picking up the reins from Paul during round 2, I set about streamlining the process to fit my capabilities. Like Paul, I use bulk emails, plus I incorporate mail merge to provide individual content when notifying entrants of the results.

I also use the PSNZ Facebook page to post reminders and have set up reminders through mail merge emails which includes an update of their overall points for the year. The JotForm system is generally smooth and straightforward. There are however a number of authors entering two or more entries in a competition. I started out notifying the authors but stopped doing so due to the numbers. Occasionally, images haven’t been attached to entry in the zip file. I have contacted the entrant when this was just one in a round but have had to ask Toya to check when there were more. The format of column H in the excel file can prove a challenge when removing all the illegal characters but is the only onerous task. Sometimes the author incorrectly enters their email address and or name. It would be great if the entry system could be linked to the PSNZ member database to provide the name, email and honours accurately. This is important because it ensures that the author's aggregate is accurate, and not split over 2 or more similarly named authors. Now that Canon have agreed to sponsor the competition again for 2023, I will start approaching judges. I note that the entry forms are open on the website.

It’s great to see that Canon have offered to send all 2022 round winners an A3 size print. I have provided all the details and images to Aston Moss for processing.

John Hawkins, PSNZ Canon Online Coordinator