The Grand Valley Image Battle (GVIB) competition is held once a year as an inter-club competition with other clubs in South-Western Ontario. Participating clubs rotate hosting duties for the competition. Recently, the participating clubs have included Brant Camera Club, Fergus and District Camera Club, GRIPS, Guelph Photographer’s Guild, Highland Glen Camera Club, and Woodstock Camera Club.
Judging is performed by a set of three independent judges, organized by the host club. The winner of the competition is the club with the highest cumulative score.
Each club enters 20 images, increased from 18 images in 2022, and a club’s entry can be a mix of digital images or prints, in any proportion. This is an open category competition, so any subject, processing technique, etc. is accepted. Images should have a title as the title will be announced during the image’s presentation and a carefully selected title can impact judging.
Image Standards
Digital Images
Files must be saved as JPG.
The colour format must be sRGB for projection standards.
Images must be resized to maximum 1920 pixels wide and maximum 1080 pixels high. Therefore a horizontal image can be no larger than 1920 wide by 1080 high and a vertical image can be no larger than 1080 wide by 1080 high.
All images must be presented in their proper orientation.
Images will be shown as submitted. They will not be resized, rotated or adjusted.
Please name digital files using the following protocol: photographernameHGtitle.jpg
Example:
Sally_BlackHGDesperation_of_Form.jpg
Sam BrownHGSoaring to New Heights.jpg
Prints
** for 2023, prints will not be included in the competition
Prints must be no smaller than 80 square inches (for example, 8×10 or 7×14 or 6×13, etc.) and no larger than 16” × 20”.
Images must be mounted on a clean, firm board (such as white or black foam core), measuring 16” × 20”. Mats are optional, but must be white or black only, and if a mat is not used the image must be FIRMLY adhered to the mounting board.
Prints may be made from film (slides or negatives) or digital files and may be commercially or maker printed. However, the entrant must do all digital processing.
No identification is to be visible on the front of the image or mat.
Identification must be on the back of the mounted print in the upper left hand corner with the following information:
-
- Title
- Name of maker
- Name of club
- An arrow indicating the top of the print.
A digital copy of your printed image is required, sized and formatted for display as above (see digital images), so that the image may be projected for the audience while the print is being judged.
GVIB History
The Grand Valley Image Battle started in 1974 as the “Golden Triangle Slide Battle.” During the first few years, the competing clubs were Brant Camera Club, Fergus, Galt Camera Club, Guelph Camera Club, Highland Glen Camera Club, and Hiway Market Camera Club, all located in the Grand Valley watershed. The first club to win bragging rights and the trophy was the Guelph Camera Club. The Cambridge Camera Club participated; it is unclear when we lost the Cambridge, Galt, Guelph, and Hiway Market clubs.
Clubs from Halton Hills, Orangeville, and Stratford joined in the early 2000’s and, by 2006, Brampton, GRIPS (Grand River Imaging & Photographic Society), Maitland Valley, and Woodstock clubs also joined. With the increased popularity of digital cameras, the digital photos were added to the prints and slides in 2007, when the competition was hosted by Highland Glen Camera Club. In 2008 the competition was renamed to the Grand Valley Image Battle. Slides were dropped in 2009 and entries are now print and digital photos.
Some time after 2012, we lost the Orangeville and Maitland Valley clubs but the Guelph Photography Guild rejoined the GVIB. In 2018, the Stratford Camera Club closed after 55 years due to the lack of volunteers. In 2023, the Halton Hills Camera Club closed after 37 years, also due to the lack of volunteers.