Official Rules

Summary

Enter one photograph showing people, places, events or everyday life in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Choose a photograph already published on NIPNews, or upload and publish a new one first. All photographs must meet NIPNews publication requirements.

Important: Once you submit your contest entry, your selection is final. You cannot withdraw, remove, replace or edit the photograph or any of its details, including its caption and description. Closing date to be announced.

Your caption and description matter. The Editor-in-Chief will consider not only the photograph itself but also how clearly and accurately you explain what it shows, where and when it was taken, and why it is significant. The Editor-in-Chief will select one winner after the contest closes. There is no public voting and no entry fee.

By entering, you agree to the contest Official Rules and the NIPNews Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Official Rules (version official-2026-10-15.)

1. Contest name and sponsor

The Fairfield County Photo Contest (the "Contest") is organized by NIPNews LLC, 70 Old Hill Road, Westport, CT 06880 ("NIPNews", "we" or "us").

Participation is free. No purchase, payment or entry fee is required to enter or to win.

These Official Rules govern the Contest. They apply together with the NIPNews Terms of Use, Privacy information and Policies & Guidelines. If these Official Rules conflict with those documents on a matter specific to the Contest, these Official Rules control for the Contest.

2. Who may enter

You may enter if you hold a personal NIPNews account that is permitted to publish photographs under the NIPNews Terms of Use and Policies & Guidelines at the time you enter. Accounts whose contribution privileges are restricted or suspended may not enter.

There is no contest-specific minimum age and no separate guardian account. The age, account, consent and privacy rules that apply to ordinary NIPNews contributions apply to the Contest; the NIPNews Terms of Use require account holders to be at least 13 years old.

Where you live does not affect eligibility. Eligibility depends on where the photograph was taken, as described in Section 3.

Only individual contributors may enter, from their personal NIPNews account. Organization accounts may not enter.

NIPNews staff, contractors and their households may not enter. This includes NIPNews's Editor-in-Chief, all NIPNews employees and staff, NIPNews contractors, and members of the household of any of them. When you enter, you must confirm that you are not one of these people. NIPNews refuses entries from accounts it knows belong to NIPNews staff, whether or not the confirmation is given. The EIC may also determine that an entry is ineligible because of a staff, contractor or household relationship, and records the reason. Such an entry is not displayed, cannot win, and still counts as the entrant's one entry.

3. Where the photograph must be taken

The photograph must document a place, event, activity or subject located in Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Eligibility is decided from the photograph's place as recorded in NIPNews's place records. The photograph's place must be one of the following, or a place NIPNews records inside one of them:

• Fairfield County, Connecticut;
• the Fairfield County municipalities of Bethel, Bridgeport, Brookfield, Danbury, Darien, Easton, Fairfield, Greenwich, Monroe, New Canaan, New Fairfield, Newtown, Norwalk, Redding, Ridgefield, Shelton, Sherman, Stamford, Stratford, Trumbull, Weston, Westport and Wilton.

A village, neighborhood, park, landmark or other place (for example, Cos Cob or Southport) qualifies only when NIPNews's place records show it inside one of those municipalities.

Free-text descriptions, tags, camera location data and the photographer's residence do not by themselves establish eligibility.

If a report that a photograph's date or location is wrong is accepted for review through NIPNews's Report / Request Review process, the entry is hidden from the Contest and cannot be entered or selected until NIPNews staff resolve the report. If a photograph's place is corrected to a place outside Fairfield County, the entry is no longer displayed and cannot be selected. If the place is later corrected back into Fairfield County, the entry is displayed again, unless it has been disqualified or removed for another reason.

4. Entry period and closing date

The Contest opens for entries when NIPNews publishes these Official Rules and opens entry on the contest page.

At launch there is no closing date. NIPNews's Editor-in-Chief ("EIC") may later set a closing date and time. NIPNews will announce it on the contest page before it takes effect. The EIC decides how much notice to give.

The closing date and time are stated in Eastern Time (America/New_York) and shown prominently on the contest and entry pages. A photograph must be published and entered before that time. There is no grace period for photographs that are still being uploaded or are not yet published. Entries submitted at or after the closing time are not accepted.

5. How to enter

• Step 1: Sign in to your NIPNews account.
• Step 2: Choose one of your photographs that is already published on NIPNews and meets these Official Rules. You may also upload a new photograph through the normal NIPNews upload process; it must complete every normal NIPNews check and be published before you can enter it. Starting an upload from the contest page does not enter or reserve anything.
• Step 3: Review the entry confirmation page, including the warning that your entry is final.
• Step 4: Accept these Official Rules by checking the acceptance box, confirm that you understand your entry is final, and confirm that you are not an employee, staff member or contractor of NIPNews, or a member of the household of any such person.
• Step 5: Select Submit Entry.

Before you submit, the confirmation page lists everything that becomes final, and you must confirm it. By submitting, you also agree to the NIPNews Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Your entry records your acceptance of the version of these Official Rules that is current at the moment you submit; if they change while you are entering, you are asked to review the new version first. Your entry exists only when Submit Entry succeeds. Repeating the submission (for example by clicking twice) never creates a second entry. An unpublished photograph, a pending upload or an abandoned entry is not an entry.

6. One entry per contributor

Each contributor may submit one entry in the Contest.

Once you have submitted an entry, you cannot submit another one, even if your entry is later disqualified, becomes ineligible or is no longer displayed. The limit applies to your account itself, so changing your email address, name or photo credit does not allow another entry.

Each photograph may be entered only once.

7. Photograph requirements

To be entered, a photograph must, at the time of entry:

• be published on NIPNews;
• belong to the entering contributor's own account;
• carry the contributor's public photo credit (a photo credit shown with the photograph);
• not be an Anonymous contribution;
• satisfy Section 3 (Fairfield County);
• have no change (by the contributor or by NIPNews) awaiting NIPNews review;
• meet the NIPNews Policies & Guidelines, including the requirement that documentary photographs represent reality and are not fabricated, AI-generated or materially AI-altered.

Anonymous photographs are not eligible. An entry would connect an Anonymous photograph to its contributor's account, which Anonymous contribution is designed to prevent. Your choice of Anonymous contribution for other photographs is not affected.

8. Your entry is final: permanent photograph lock

Once you submit your entry, it is final and cannot be undone.

After submission, you cannot:

• edit the photograph, its image, subject/caption, description, place, capture date, photo credit or attribution, tags, privacy choices or any other details;
• withdraw, remove, replace or delete the entry;
• withdraw, unpublish or delete the photograph;
• enter a different photograph.

This applies immediately, even while the Contest is still open, and it continues after the Contest ends. It also continues if your entry is disqualified or becomes ineligible.

The exceptions in Sections 13 and 14 (account deletion, privacy rights, legal obligations and NIPNews moderation) still apply.

9. Your copyright and the permissions you give

You keep the copyright in your photograph. Entering the Contest does not transfer ownership.

Your photograph is already published under the license you granted NIPNews for ordinary contributions in the Terms of Use.

By entering, you also give NIPNews permission to display your photograph, its photo credit, subject/caption, description and place as part of the Contest, on NIPNews only:

• on NIPNews;
• in the NIPNews contest gallery;
• in the NIPNews announcement of the Contest's winner;
• in promotion of the Contest on NIPNews itself.

These are the only contest-specific permissions. Entering does not give NIPNews any right to use your photograph outside NIPNews beyond the license already granted in the Terms of Use.

By entering, you confirm that you have the right to submit the photograph and to grant these permissions.

10. Content that may be disqualified

An entry may be disqualified, or a photograph removed from the Contest, if it:

• does not meet these Official Rules or the NIPNews Policies & Guidelines;
• was not taken in Fairfield County, Connecticut, as described in Section 3;
• is fabricated, AI-generated, materially AI-altered or otherwise misrepresents reality;
• infringes another person's copyright or other rights, or was submitted without the right to do so;
• contains false, misleading or deceptive information, including about what, where or when the photograph shows;
• is unlawful, abusive, harassing, threatening, exposes private personal information, or impersonates another person or organization;
• was entered through fraud, manipulation or interference with the Contest.

11. Judging

There is no public voting. The EIC alone judges the entries and selects the winner, and decides in their discretion.

In judging, the EIC considers:

• documentary value;
• community interest;
• originality;
• visual impact;
• storytelling;
• the accuracy and usefulness of the photograph's subject/caption and description.

Your subject/caption and description matter. The EIC considers how clearly and accurately you explain what the photograph shows, where and when it was taken, and why it is significant.

No numerical scoring or weighting is used.

12. Winner selection and announcement

After the Contest closes, the EIC selects one winner from entries that are eligible and whose photographs are published at the time of selection. Eligibility is checked again when the winner is selected and again before the winner is announced, including whether the entrant is known to be NIPNews staff or has been found to have a staff, contractor or household conflict.

A winner is declared only after the entrant has accepted the current version of these Official Rules (Section 15).

The winner is announced publicly on the contest page, which shows the winning photograph and links to it, with its title, photo credit, place and description. No separate private notification is provided.

No prize is awarded. The winner receives public recognition on NIPNews only. There is no cash prize, no physical prize, no certificate or badge, and no other promised benefit.

13. Ineligible winner and replacement

If a winner is found to be ineligible, the EIC may revoke the winner determination and select a replacement from the remaining eligible entries. This applies before or after the announcement.

NIPNews keeps a record of each determination, revocation and replacement, with the reasons.

If a winning photograph must later be removed from public view under NIPNews policies or the law, NIPNews keeps the historical record of the award but does not display the photograph.

14. Account deletion, privacy rights and legal obligations

Your rights under NIPNews's account-deletion and privacy practices take precedence over the entry lock in Section 8. NIPNews's legal obligations and authorized moderation or takedown actions also take precedence over it.

If your entered photograph is removed from public view by an authorized NIPNews takedown (for example for a privacy or legal reason), your entry is not displayed and cannot win while it is removed. If the photograph is restored, the entry is displayed again. Your entry and its history are kept, and it still counts as your one entry.

If your account is deleted:

• your entry becomes ineligible;
• it is no longer displayed;
• it cannot win.

A record that you entered is kept as part of the Contest's history. The one-entry limit in Section 6 still applies.

While an entrant's account is suspended or banned, their entry is not displayed and cannot win. When the restriction ends, the entry is displayed again if it is otherwise eligible.

15. Changes to these Official Rules and re-acceptance

NIPNews may amend these Official Rules, including to make reasonable operational changes, with notice on the contest page where appropriate. Every published version has its own version name and date.

Every amendment requires every existing entrant to accept the revised Official Rules. When the rules change, you will see a notice when you next visit NIPNews, and you can review and accept the revised version.

Your entry, photograph, submission date and public display are not changed while your acceptance is pending. A pending acceptance does not by itself disqualify your entry or remove it from public display. However, a winner cannot be declared until the entrant has accepted the current version.

These version and acceptance rules also apply to any amendment made after the Contest closes.

NIPNews keeps a history of each version you accepted and when. Entrants whose entries have been disqualified, or have become ineligible, are not asked to accept later amendments; their earlier acceptance records are kept.

16. Disqualification and moderation

NIPNews may review any entry at any time. The EIC may disqualify an entry that is fraudulent or ineligible, or that does not meet these Official Rules, and records a reason.

NIPNews's ordinary moderation, correction and takedown processes continue to apply to entered photographs. They may correct or remove information or photographs, and may restrict accounts, under the NIPNews Policies & Guidelines and the law.

A disqualified or ineligible entry is not displayed and cannot win. It still counts as your one entry and cannot be replaced. Its history is kept.

NIPNews's Editor-in-Chief and Editors may correct factual information about an entered photograph, such as its subject/caption, description, place, capture date or tags. They may do so directly or through NIPNews's editorial review, including corrections applied automatically after that review. Every correction is recorded in the photograph's revision history and in the Contest's records, with who made it, when, what changed, and the reason when one is given. Corrections never change the photograph's image or its photo credit, and they don't lift the lock in Section 8 for the contributor. If a correction makes an entry ineligible (for example, by placing it outside Fairfield County), the entry is no longer displayed and cannot win. A correction never restores an entry that was disqualified or removed for another reason.

17. General terms

These Official Rules are governed by the laws of the State of Connecticut.

NIPNews may cancel the Contest. If it does, the contest page shows a cancellation notice with an explanation. No further entries are accepted and no winner is selected, and all entries and records are kept. NIPNews may also suspend or modify the Contest if it can't run as planned, with notice on the contest page where appropriate.

18. Contact and questions

For questions about the Contest, use the Feedback or Report a Problem form, which is linked at the bottom of every NIPNews page.

To report a concern about a particular photograph, use Report / Request Review on that photograph's page.