CAPA Judge Certification Program
The Director of the Judging Program is responsible for the CAPA Judging Program which includes the Judge Certification Program.
CAPA offers a distinction of “CAPA Certified Judge” to individuals who meet and maintain a high standard for judging. With this designation, you will be permitted to identify yourself as a CAPA Certified Judge when judging photography competitions at local camera clubs or other organizations. It also allows you to judge at CAPA regional and national competitions.
On becoming a CAPA Certified Judge, your name is entered into the national CAPA Judging database and you can be called upon by local camera clubs and the Director of Competitions to judge a specific competition.
CAPA Certified Judges may not receive payment for their services, however; expenses in undertaking an in-person judging may be reimbursed. Camera clubs and the CAPA Director of Competitions may provide an honorarium to the individuals called upon to judge.
The CAPA Certified Judge designation is valid for 5 years from the date of issue under the following conditions:
- Membership in CAPA must be maintained while a CAPA Certified Judge;
- To have your certification renewed, you must successfully complete Judges Refresher Training prior the end of your certification period;
- Agree that CAPA has the right to suspend and/or revoke the CAPA Certified Judge designations if:
- a. You fail to maintain your membership in CAPA, and/or
- b. You reach the expiration of your 5-year certification period without completing the requirements for certification renewal, and/or
- c. There are unresolved issues or concerns regarding your decorum brought to the attention of the President of CAPA, the Director of Education, and/or the Director of the Judging Program.
BASIC REQUIREMENTS
To begin the Judge Certification Program, you must:
- 1. Be a current CAPA member;
- 2. Have successfully completed the CAPA Judging Course within the past two years;
- 3. Apply to the Director of the Judging Program, and
- 4. Be willing to have your name entered into the national CAPA Judging database as a “CAPA Trained Judge”
PROCESS FOR BECOMING A CAPA CERTIFIED JUDGE
you must:
- 1. Contact the Director of the Judging Program at judgingdirector@capacanada.ca
and indicate that you:- Want your name added to the national CAPA Judging database as a “CAPA Trained Judge;” and
- Are interested in being evaluated with the objective of becoming a CAPA Certified Judge.
- 2. Complete in full the Judge’s Information form which will be provided to you by the Director of the Judging Program, including indicating what photographic genre you are interested in being evaluated on.
The Director of the Judging Program will discuss with you three options with which you can proceed in becoming a CAPA Certified Judge. Depending on how well you perform in your initial choice you may be required to undertake some combination of these options.
- Option A – Receive a series of pre-judged images in one or more photographic genre that you feel comfortable in judging and are able to provide constructive comments on.
This option is a self-paced process where you:
- a. You receive the images;
- b. view each image, record your score and associated comments for each image; &
- c. email your comments back to the Director of the Judging Program.
With this option, you are able to be assessed on a wide range of photographic genres. Following solely this option you must satisfactorily judge a minimum of 4 different series of pre-packaged images within 18 months.
- Option B – Volunteer your services to camera clubs in your area. In so doing, you can serve as one of the three primary judges or as a 4th judge. Two of the three primary judges MUST be CAPA Certified Judges. The local club may undertake their competition judging in-person or remotely on-line. If an in-person competition, one of the two CAPA Certified judges must have been asked ahead of time to evaluate you during the competition and will be willing to provide CAPA with their views on your judging abilities.
A 4th Judge is one whose scores are not tabulated in determining the winners of a competition.
For each competition, you must record your scores and comments about each image. Shortly after the competition you will forward to the Director of the Judging Program the following:
- a. a copy of your scores/comments for each image;
- b. the names and email messages of the primary judges; and
- c. a copy of all the other judges scoring sheets (scores/comments) which you shall obtain from the club’s competition coordinator.
In addition, the evaluation conducted by one of the two CAPA Certified Judges must be forwarded by that judge to the Director of the Judging Program.
Following solely this option you must satisfactorily judge at a minimum of 6 competitions within 18 months.
- Option C – Volunteer to be a 4th judge for a national CAPA Competition. With this option, you will:
- a. Be contacted by the Director of Competition (competitions@capacanada.ca) and asked to be a 4th judge in a forthcoming national CAPA Competition (‘remote-judging’);
- b. have some experience with the photographic genre being judged;
- c. enter your score and comments online; and
- d. judge four national competitions.
After each competition, the Director of Competitions will forward all the recorded scores/comment to the Director of the Judging Program for his/her review.
This option is NOT normally available in your initial phase of being evaluated. Generally, you first must have satisfactorily judged once or twice under Option A and/or B.
Regardless of the option agreed to, the Director of the Judging Program will evaluate the scores/comments you have provided, as well as the evaluation(s) from CAPA Certified Judges. The Director of the Judging Program will provide you feedback and suggestions to assist you in your progress toward becoming a CAPA Certified Judge. At the discretion of the Director of the Judging Program, you may be required to complete some combination of the above options.
Only when the Director of the Judging Program and the Director of Competition are satisfied that you meet the CAPA judging standards will you be appointed to the designation of a CAPA Certified Judge.
The President of CAPA, the CAPA Director of the Judging Program, and the Director of Education also monitor the judging scores/comments for all national CAPA Competitions to ensure consistency and that scoring is maintained within an acceptable variance level.
Any questions that you may have about our judging certification program, please contact the Director of the Judging Program at judgingdirector@capacanada.ca