Photography, videography, and editing must have been performed by the entrant. Images must have been taken in open water (no aquariums). Any subject is acceptable as long as it meets conservation rules and does not exploit a person’s gender.
Eligibility
The competition is open to all amateur photographers and videographers. A professional is considered by this competition to be any individual who earns more than 40% of their income from the sale, production or publication of their underwater photographs, videos or motion pictures. Contest officials and their immediate families are ineligible to enter.
No entry will be accepted that has won best of show or first place in any major competition. Prize-winning entries from previous EPIC competitions are not eligible. No photograph may be entered in more than one category.
Conservation Rules
Marine life should never be stressed or endangered for the sake of a photo. Entries are first screened by a panel of conservation judges. Entries exhibiting the following behavior are disqualified:
- Divers visibly damaging the environment (e.g. gear dragging or 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)
- Marine life being touched (e.g. coral polyps, seahorse tails)
- Divers exhibiting poor buoyancy control
These are the Conservation Rules of EPIC. We encourage you to incorporate these rules in your underwater photo contest.