By Heather Canton
Publisher, Crown City Magazine
Crown City Magazine is proud to support the arts and our local surfing community with this year’s SURF Photo Contest happening now! Photos will be accepted through this Friday, June 2, and voting will begin next week with winners announced at a special party on Sunday, July 11 from 2 to 5 pm at Emerald C Gallery. Photographers can enter two separate divisions for amateur and professional photographers. If enough entries are received, two more divisions for photos taken outside of Coronado and local surf artwork may be created.
Photos are voted on by judges selected by the Crown City Magazine team. Magazine contributors, advertisers, community partners and many local groups and organizations were invited to be a part of the voting process. Judges were of all different ages and consisted of both surfers and non-surfers. Each judge invited to vote has a strong connection with Coronado and the panel is mostly made up of Coronado residents, local surfers, Coronado civic group members and City of Coronado employees.
Over the years, the contest voting process has become very complex to ensure a fair outcome. In short, each photo is assigned a letter and number, and the works are arranged in a random order to lessen the chance for judges to know who took the photos. Photos are then sent to judges via email, and judges respond to the email with their votes, which are counted by the Crown City Magazine team.
This contest is meant to be a fun event for the whole community, but the impressive skill level of both the surfers and professional photographers who participate give the contest a level of seriousness and respect for the sport, as well as the art of photography.
All photos submitted in the contest have the chance to be published in Crown City Magazine. Many will be published in the annual August Surfing Issue. Winners also receive incredible prizes from local contest sponsors. Winners will be announced at a special party open to the public at Emerald C Gallery from 2 to 5 pm on Sunday, June 11.
Emerald C Gallery was the perfect venue for our very first party last year, allowing both the celebration of winners and the display of their photos. The Coronado Ukulele Club did such wonderful job playing surf tunes for us at the party. We couldn’t be more grateful to these two sponsors for making this such a special and unforgettable event.
For more information on entering the contest or becoming a sponsor, visit the SURF Photo Contest tab on our website CrownCityMagazine.com for Official Rules, Timeline and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
Thank you to everyone who takes part in this annual event! Stay tuned for our 2nd annual Best of Coronado Photo Contest planned for this fall.
Hope everyone has a fun time celebrating the local surf community with us and sharing in our slight obsession with the ocean, beach life and surf culture. See you at the party!
Heather Canton is a proud islander dedicated to Crown City Magazine’s mission to celebrate Coronado and give recognition to the people, groups and organizations who make the community great.