Kid's-Eye View of the Park Photo Contest

See the winners of this year's contest.

(announced 1/9/2012)

Love visiting Balboa Park and the Zoo and taking photos of everything you see? Enter the Kid’s-Eye View of the Park photo contest to win an HP Photosmart Printer, a week-long Summer Camp at the Museum of Photographic Arts, a Behind-the-Scenes Tour of the Museum of Photographic Arts, a Family 4-Pack to the Zoo’s Safari Park, tickets to other major park attractions, gift certificates, and more!

The Kid’s-Eye View of the Park contest, sponsored by Balboa Park Central, will give school-age kids the opportunity to show their skills and enjoy a fun activity in the Park with their family. Entries will be separated into two categories according to age: 6–11 and 12–17.

Participants are encouraged to submit their best photo of Balboa Park’s landscape, animals, architecture, or attractions. Photos that include any identifiable persons will not be eligible. Photos will be judged according to creativity (50%) and photographic quality (50%).

Please see the full contest rules below.

How to Enter

Contest begins on November 1, 2011. Ask your parent or guardian to upload your photo (one entry per person) using the online form by December 15, 2011, at 5pm.

Photos must be in JPG format and can be no larger than 3 MB in size with a vertical pixel dimension (height of the photo) of at least 500 pixels. Photos that include any identifiable persons will not be eligible.

You will be asked to write an artist statement explaining what the photo means to you in 50 words or less.

Entries will be judged by a committee from Balboa Park Central, the Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA), and the Balboa Park Online Collaborative. This committee will choose the winning entries. All decisions of the judges are final and binding.

Prizes (both age groups)

Winners will have their photo digitally displayed for one month on both MOPA’s Local Photography Program monitor and the Balboa Park website. Each winner will also receive a MOPA gift bag.

Additional prizes for winners include:

First Prize

Age 12-17: An HP Photosmart Printer, Behind-the-Scenes Tour (including the art storage vault) of Museum of Photographic Arts with the Executive Director, and a Family 4-pack of Passports to Balboa Park.

Age 6-11: A week-long Summer Camp at the Museum of Photographic Arts, Behind-the-Scenes Tour (including the art storage vault) of Museum of Photographic Arts with the Executive Director, and a Family 4-pack of Passports to Balboa Park.

Second Prize (both age categories)

A Family 4-Pack to the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park.

Third Prize

Age 12-17: Family 4-Pack to the San Diego Air & Space Museum and a gift bag of merchandise from the museum’s store.

Age 6-11: Family 4-Pack of Gallery/IMAX admissions to the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center and a $20 North Star Science Store gift card redeemable at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center.

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Contest Rules

• Entrants must be between 6 and 17 years old at the time of submitting.

• The Contest is open to residents of San Diego County. Entrants must be legal residents of the United States only.

• One entry per person.

• Photos that include any identifiable persons will not be eligible.

• The Contest is not open to employees, agents, or representatives of Balboa Park Central (the “Sponsor”) or any of its parents, subsidiaries, sister companies or affiliates, or any member of their immediate family. Immediate family includes only spouses, parents, and children.

• Entries that are lost, late, misdirected, illegible, unintelligible, or incomplete, for any reason, will not be eligible.

• Balboa Park Central is not responsible for computer system, hardware, software, or program malfunctions or other errors, failures, or delayed computer transactions or network connections that are human or technical in nature. Furthermore, Balboa Park Central is not responsible for: (i) lost, misdirected, misplaced, illegible, unintelligible, incomplete, or late entries or (ii) any act, failure to act, or delay regarding the transmitting or processing of entries. 

• Deadline for photo submissions is December 15, 2011 at 5pm. Photo must be submitted electronically as an email attachment along with all required information and can be no larger than 3 MB in size with a vertical pixel dimension (height of the photo) of at least 500 pixels.

• Images should be submitted in JPG format. Digital images will not be returned.

Image Modifications:
Minor digital enhancement is permitted, but images that have been significantly modified or appear unnatural will be disqualified.

Not Permitted:

• No borders or frames may be added to images.

• No watermarks, signatures, or copyright notices may be added to images. All winning images will be displayed with the photographer's name.

• Adding or replacing elements in an image is not permitted.

• Artistic filters are not permitted.

Permitted Modifications:

• Images may be cropped and rotated as necessary as long as the rectangular format is maintained and the size is within the specifications above.

• Images may be resized as long as the aspect ratio is maintained.

• Spot editing.

• One-step enhancement (such as "AutoFix", "QuickFix", "Auto Levels", etc.).

• Use of filters to sharpen, soften, blur, despeckle, or remove noise.

• Use of corrective functions to improve the natural appearance of the image, such as levels, contrast, brightness, curves, intensity, tone, hue, saturation, lightness, value, color balance, and tint.

• By entering, you represent that your photograph is your own original creation, that it has not been copied from others, and that it does not violate the rights of any other person or entity. Any intellectual property infringement, misuse or plagiarism of another person’s work in any form or state will result in immediate disqualification and forfeiture of eligibility to receive all awards, recognition and prizes.

• By submitting your photo to the Kid’s Eye View of the Park contest, you give Balboa Park Central and its partners an irrevocable perpetual royalty-free right (with or without attribution to you)to use, reproduce, modify, publish, distribute, and otherwise exercise all copyright and publicity with respect to those photographic images at the sole discretion of Balboa Park Central for any purpose, such as, but not limited to, press and media communications, without further compensation to you.Entry materials will not be returned.

• By entering the Contest and/or accepting a prize, to the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to release and agree to hold harmless Balboa Park Central and its prize sponsors, judges, officers, employees, representatives, agents and any party associated with the development of the Contest from any and all liability for any injuries, losses, damages, legal claims, costs, demand or action of any kind, including death, arising in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from acceptance, possession, use or misuse of a prize or participation in this contest. To the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify Balboa Park Central against any liability, claims, demands, losses, damages, costs and expenses (in each case, whether direct or indirect) resulting from any act, default or omission by you and/or a breach of warranty by you, or any breach, non-observance or omission of these rules by you, whether negligent or otherwise. In addition, by entering, you agree that Balboa Park Central and its partners shall have no liability for any accidental disclosure or identification of any entrants.

• To the extent permitted by law, the rights to litigate, to seek injunctive relief or to any other recourse to judicial or any other procedure in case of disputes or claims resulting from or in connection with this Contest, are hereby excluded, and you expressly waive any and all such rights.

• Balboa Park Central, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to disqualify any person tampering with the submission or voting process, the operation of the website, www.balboapark.org, or who is otherwise in violation of the rules.

• Balboa Park Central reserves the right to cancel, terminate or modify the Contest if it is not capable of completion as planned due to, for example, infection by a computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention or technical failures of any sort. In no event will Balboa Park Central be responsible for any damages or losses arising out of access to and use of the websites or the downloading from and/or printing material downloaded from said site. Sponsor is not responsible for lost, late, incomplete or misdirected entries.

• There shall be no substitutions for the Prizes except by Balboa Park Central, in which case a prize of equal or greater value will be substituted.

• If any provision(s) of these Contest Rules are held to be invalid or unenforceable, all remaining provisions hereof will remain in full force and effect.

Enter Now!

Credit: Fountain image by Ryan, 13. Butterfly image by Holly, 16. Both were winners of last year's Kid's-Eye Contest.