Calling shutterbugs of all ages. The Focus on Open House Melbourne (OHM) Photography Competition gives you the chance to win some fantastic prizes and have your images published. All you have to do is snap away at OHM sites over the weekend of July 28 and 29.

What you need to do

Just take some photos of OHM sites on July 28 or 29, upload them to the OHM group on flickr.com by 9am AEST on Monday August 6, 2012, and fill out the online form.  

Go to the Focus competition page for the full competition rules and entry form.

Judging is now taking place

22/08/2012 -Morning all. We are anxiously awaiting the results from the judges for the photo comp. They are still reviewing the 3,000+ images entered and we will have the results announced as soon as we can. It may not be until tomorrow or Friday.
The winning images will be posted on our website and announced here.

Entries will be judged by renowned architectural photographers on the basis of three criteria - creativity, quality of photography and significance to the Open House Melbourne theme of good architecture. 
Tips from the Judges are below.

Prizes will be awarded to the best photos in five categories:

• Exterior
• Interior
• Detail
• People/crowds and
• Series (up to five images of the one building). 

2012 Key Dates

July 28 and 29 – entrants to take photographs of OHM sites during the OHM weekend.
August 6 – competition closes at 9am (AEST).
August 22 – winners will be notified by email and announced on the OHM website.

Prizes

The winner in each category will:

• receive a selection of inspirational photography books
• have their winning photo published on the OHM website 

UPDATE: Michaels Camera Store will be hosting a public exhibition of the winners in their gallery in October 2012.

In addition, the winner of the best exterior category will be offered the opportunity to take the exterior photographs for the OHM 2012 program and website. 

How To Enter

• To enter the Focus on Open House Melbourne competition, you must:
• Take a photograph on Saturday July 28 or Sunday July 29, 2012, (the OHM weekend);
• Fill in an application form on the OHM website to receive your entry form number;
• Log onto www.flickr.com and sign up for a Flickr account (if you are not already an account holder);
• Join the Flickr group at here ; and
• Upload your photograph(s) to that Flickr group by 9am (AEST) on Monday August 6, 2012, with titles in the format YOUR ENTRY NUMBER_SITENAME_CATEGORY_IMAGE NUMBER. For example, if your entry is a photo of the exterior of the Orica building and your entry form number is 032012, the title would be: 032012_Orica_EXTERIOR _1).

Entries must be received by 9am (AEST) on Monday August 6, 2012.
Five submissions are allowed for each category, per entrant.  
Click here to enter and for the full competition rules.

Tips from the Judges

• Composition 
  The best images are those that have compositional merit and considered thought.  Spend some time thinking about this. Look at your alignment, perspective correctness and intersection of elements. If you choose to tilt up or shoot abstraction, do it with strength and consideration.
• Light
  Do some pre planning for light conditions, particularly for exteriors. There is a great program call TPE that can be used to work out the suns position on any address. See http://photoephemeris.com/ - It's free for the desktop download.  You don't even need to leave the house.
• Edit your work
  Carefully choose the best images. This is a particularly useful tip for series work. We consider some great works in the series section but they can be  let down by including less powerful images.  Just put in the best.  Remember a series should have a fluid, cohesive look.
• People / Crowds
  This is a section that has the least entries, but ironically a day that has the most potential for great people shots.  This is where it would be great to see some more entries.  This is where you can be loose and capture some interesting shots of the way crowds or individuals work in spaces. 
• Entry Categories
  Really think about the category that you enter a shot in. If it is a detail, enter it in the detail section. In the interiors section we are looking for more consideration of the spacial aspects of the interior
• Photoshop
  Hang back on those filters. Use photoshop sensitively and with thought. 

The complete set of submitted photographs from previous years are on our Flickr page.