September 16 - 23, 2006

$30,000+ in prizes
Party, Dive, Learn and Shoot DIGITAL - Beginners or Pros!


Cayman Islands Digital Madness -- Participant Guidelines by Stephen Frink


1. How are photos submitted? - Each location Photo Pro will have a USB jumpdrive to transfer contestant's shots to their master computer. Participants will be expected use their personal laptop computers to scale images to an approximate size (10 inches on the longest dimension at 72 dpi, saved as JPG. Cropping is allowed, but no more than approximately 20% crop. Extreme crops, for example, cropping horizontal to vertical is not allowed.) for the daily review and competition submission.

Each Photo Pro will have access to a master computer where each photographer will have a folder, by name. Images will be added to their folder as the week goes on, and contest images will be drawn from this pool of selects.

The images submitted for contest will be in the contestant's name, renamed so that we can identify whose shot and category of competition. Naming protocol for images as follows: LastName_FirstName_Category.jpg

2. When are photos submitted? - Photos can be submitted to the Photo Pro at their discretion, during the course of the week, but will be collated for final judging no later than 24 hours in advance of the judging event. Specific time to be announced. It is the responsibility of each Photo Pro to organize their guests' images and submit on CD or USB memory card. Final judging will be done from master computer, projected to screen in darkened room via digital projector.

3. Can you edit your photos? Yes, editing is part of digital workflow. Editing for removal of backscatter, levels adjustment, color adjustment, minimal saturation enhancement is acceptable, and in fact expected. Creative Photoshop techniques such as addition/deletion of subjects is not allowed, but black and white is a powerful creative tool, and will be considered as a permissible Photoshop effect for this competition.

4. What measures will be taken to ensure that all photos are taken during the event? - All digital images will have embedded metadata. We will check the metadata on any winning entry. It will have the date it was taken, camera, lens, etc. If any winning entries have metadata that suggest it was taken previously, all entries from participant will be disqualified. All winning entries must be prepared to provide original unenhanced RAW or JPG as a function of prize receipt. Note -- Contestants may wish to make sure their camera's calendar is correctly set, as per instructions in camera owner's manual.

5. What is the judging criteria? Judging is inherently subjective, but will no doubt include composition and technical excellence; creativity; degree of difficulty in terms of subject selection, lighting, or execution. Furthermore, we emphasize we are celebrating the natural beauty of Grand Cayman, and images that communicate this criteria will be weighted more heavily.

6. Competition categories:

  • Creature Feature (macro or normal lens image of marine life of the Cayman Islands)
  • The Big Picture (wide-angle image featuring Cayman underwater seascape, with or without divers)
  • Every Picture Tells a Story, but it takes 6 to Win (A 6 image portfolio that tells the story of the Cayman dive experience, topside and underwater)
  • Scuba Diving's Underwater Icon (a single image category ... Imagine you are being asked by Scuba Diving magazine to submit a single image that tells the story of the Cayman dive experience at a glance, judged by Scuba Diving magazine's publisher, Debbie Edwards, and a representative of Cayman Island's Department of Tourism)
  • The Cathy Church Remedial "Worst Photo" Award -- This is all in good humor, but Cathy Church will personally select the single image she deems the worst photo submitted, and award that lucky shooter personal photo instruction.


    • 7. Is there a limit on the number of photos submitted per category per participant? - Yes, three per person per category.

    8. Do Point-and-Shoot cameras compete against D-SLR systems? -- Yes, this contest honors creative excellence, regardless of photo equipment.

    9. What are the prizes -- The prizes include, but are not limited to, travel, dive watches, and scuba equipment awards from the following:

  • Light and Motion
  • Mares
  • Oris Limited Edition Dive Watch
  • StormCase
  • Pinnacle Wetsuits
  • Princeton Watches
  • Deep Outdoors
  • Atomic Aquatics
  • Scuba Hides
  • Digital camera from Olympus
  • Divetech/Cobalt Coast Resort diving & hotel package for two
  • Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point diving & hotel package for two
  • Sunset Divers/Sunset House diving & hotel package for two
  • Nekton Cruises live-aboard diving package for two
  • Airfare from a Cayman Airways


    • 10. Are there marine conservation criteria? Applicable to all entrants and entries: As per Conservation Rules established by EPIC®.

  • Marine life should never be stressed or endangered for the sake of a photo. Entries exhibiting the following behavior will be disqualified:
  • Divers visibly damaging the environment (e.g. gear dragging, kicking up sand)
  • Animals with signs of stress (e.g. puffed puffers, inking octopus)
  • Animals moved to an unnatural environment or risky location
  • Animals being fed (especially artificial food from divers, stingray encounters shall be within the guidelines of Cayman Islands Watersports Association)
  • Marine life being touched (e.g. coral polyps, seahorse tails)
  • Divers exhibiting poor buoyancy control


    • Dive operators on Grand Cayman have always been conservation-minded. They respect the marine life. Photographers should too. Imagery showing even inadvertent damage gives divers a bad name; as such it should never be shown. Conservation rules will apply and the judges' decision will be final.

    Photographers retain all copyrights to their images, but agree that contest entries may be used in web, trade show, and print reportage of this specific event, and promotion of future Cayman Digital Madness events. No other uses of competition photographs are authorized or implied, without written consent from participating photographers. Photographers will be given the opportunity to expand potential use of their images by signing permission form, to be provided on location.

    Images on this page are © Stephen Frink/stephenfrink.com