About the competition
In 2025 year, the Partners and Affiliates competition is once again open to Advocates, Ambassadors and Affiliates exclusively, offering the same great prizes as the main competition, but open only to our nearest and dearest. To ensure there is no whiff of impropriety, this competition will be judged by an external third party.
Competition Dates
The competition is open now, and closes on the 30th of June 2025 at 11:59pm. Judging will commence on Tuesday, 1st July 2025, with all finalists notified from Monday, 28th July 2025. If finalists cannot be reached within 5 business days of initial outreach, their entry will be deemed invalid and another finalist will be selected in their place.
Prizes
There are 4 x Category Prize Winners: (i) Landscape (inclusive of the genres: landscape, seascape, and astrophotography); (ii) Nature & Wildlife; (iii) Portrait; and (iv) Open. Each category prize winner will win a Sony Store Voucher redeemable at store.sony.com.au for Sony Digital Imaging product/s to the value of $4,000.00. The following items are excluded: SEL600F4GM, SEL400F28GM, CineAlta BURANO, CineAlta VENICE/VENICE 2. Sony may, at its sole discretion, extend exclusions to any future product release as yet publicly undisclosed.
Categories
As this is a much smaller competition than the Alpha Awards proper, we have narrowed it down to four categories. We will be interpreting each category as permissively as possible while still keeping it coherent for the judges, so please enter whichever category you think fits your work best.
A photo of a subject, usually human, who is aware of the photographer and participating in the creation of the photo. Judging in this category will reward photos that reveal more than just the surface of the subject. Candid photography is not considered in this category.
This category is unrestricted and photos can be of any genre.
A photo of a place and/or thing. Photo compositing in this category for technical purposes will not be penalised. This category is intended as a catchall, and astro/seascape images are encouraged here.
Wildlife is a sub-category of Nature; images should be of a living thing. Wildlife is open to images that are not caught in the more specific Bird Life and Sea Life Categories.
As in the more specific subcategories of Nature, judges are looking for unique or uniquely beautiful captures. Consideration may be given to difficulty of capture, effective use of equipment and technique, and above all, the impact of the image.
Judges
TBC
Images featured above were shot by category winners of the Alpha Awards Photo Competition 2024. Photo credits are listed in order of appearance: Wedding, Ben Sowry; Landscape, Mike Hobbert; Sport, Blake Pickup; Creative, Mike Hobbert; Seascape, Ji Deng; Editorial, Sim Chong; Youth, Jarvis Smallman;
Terms and Conditions
Terms and Conditions
- Instructions on how to enter and the prizes form part of these Terms and Conditions. Participation in this promotion is deemed acceptance of these Terms and Conditions. This promotion (“Alpha Awards - Partners & Affiliates”) is a competition for certain partners and affiliates of Sony in which entrants submit photography for the chance to win a prize as a category winner in a number of categories as determined by the judges.
- Entries to the Alpha Awards - Partners & Affiliates are open to individuals who are Australian and New Zealand residents, and:
- must be over the age of 18 years;
- are currently contracted to Sony as a brand Ambassador or Advocate; and
- have been contracted to work for Sony within the last 18 months of the competition submission period;
- Employees of the Promoter and their immediate families are ineligible to enter;
- Final decision on the entrant’s eligibility lies solely with Sony.
- A maximum of five entries per person will be accepted.
- All dollar values in these Terms and Conditions refer to Australian dollars.
- The Alpha Awards - Partners & Affiliates competition commences at 9:00 AM AEDT on Monday, 27th May 2024 and closes for submissions at 12:00PM AEDT on Monday, 24th June 2024. Judging will commence on Tuesday, 1st July 2025, with all finalists notified from Monday, 28th July 2025. If finalists cannot be reached within 5 business days of initial outreach, their entry will be deemed invalid and another finalist will be selected in their place.
- There are 4 x Category Prize Winners: (i) Landscape (inclusive of the genres: landscape, seascape, and astrophotography); (ii) Nature & Wildlife; (iii) Portrait; and (iv) Open. Each category prize winner will win a Sony Store Voucher redeemable at store.sony.com.au or Sony’s stores at Castle Hill, Chatswood or Parramatta for Sony Digital Imaging product/s to the value of $4,000.00. The following items are excluded: SEL600F4GM, SEL400F28GM, CineAlta BURANO, CineAlta VENICE/VENICE 2. Sony may, at its sole discretion, extend exclusions to any future product release as yet publicly undisclosed.
- Winners for the Alpha Awards – Partners & Affiliates will have a maximum period of 6 months to select their Sony product/s to the corresponding retail value offered for their prize.
- To enter individuals must:
- Read, understand, and complete the online entry form (“Online Entry Form”) located at www.sony.com.au/alphaawards;
- Upload photos taken on a Sony branded camera and lens
- Maximum 5 submissions per person;
- Two files must be uploaded per image ;
- A finished JPEG under 5MB in size, and
- An original image direct from camera with metadata intact;
- Own the rights to any images they submit and have obtained all model releases for identifiable persons featured in any images. If it is found that the entrant has submitted any image they do not own the rights to (and/or have not obtained all model releases for identifiable persons featured in any images), their entry will be deemed invalid. Sony will not be liable for any legal action taken against such entrants by the rightful owner of the image (and/or legal action against such entrants by identifiable person(s) who claim that a release was not given);
- Give Sony permission to use the submitted images for the purposes of promoting and exhibiting Alpha Awards - Partners & Affiliates. Where possible, such usage will include full photo credit. This includes:
- Promotional license for a period of up to 24 months from the opening of submissions. Usage of finalists’ and winners’ images may be used for (but not limited to) online, promotional materials, in-store point of sale materials, news media, and social media; and
- License to publicly exhibit, in perpetuity, at Alpha Awards Exhibitions held domestically and internationally. Such exhibitions may include;
- Conventional gallery display
- Online gallery display
- Display in Out-of-home advertisement media (bus stop, train station, billboard, etc)
- Purpose-built out-of-home displays
- Other implementations at the exhibitor’s discretion
- ensure the images are of minimum required resolution - images under 12 megapixels, or less than 4000px on longest side, may not be accepted; and
- declare that the photos submitted by them are their own work and all rights relating to those photo assets belong to them alone.
- The use of generative AI in the Alpha Awards to create artificial elements which become a focal point of the image is strictly forbidden. The acceptable use of generative AI tools should be minor and supplementary in nature, and images that make extensive use of these tools may be judged unfavourably or disqualified. Within the Creative category, the use of generative AI tools is allowed and encouraged as a tool to enhance photographic content. Images generated entirely from written prompts are not eligible for submission in the Alpha Awards. Submissions to the Creative category require at least one original contributing image from a Sony camera to be considered.
- At the time the Online Entry Form is submitted, individuals will receive an email from the Promoter (to the email address used for Sony Scene account creation), to confirm that their submission has been successful.
- Any entrants that are unable to complete the entry process online can contact the Promoter by sending an email to SonyScene.SANZ@sony.com to arrange an alternative method of entry submission.
- The Promoter reserves the right, at any time, to verify the validity of entries and individuals (including an entrant’s identity, age and place of residence) and reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual who the Promoter has reason to believe has breached any of these Terms and Conditions, tampered with the entry process or engaged in any unlawful or other improper misconduct calculated to jeopardise fair and proper conduct of the Promotion.
- The Promoter’s decisions in relation to the Promotion (including but not limited to selection of finalists and prize winners) are final and no correspondence will be entered into.
- Errors and omissions may be accepted at the Promoter's discretion. Failure by the Promoter to enforce any of its rights at any stage does not constitute a waiver of those rights.
- If there is a dispute as to the identity of an entrant, the Promoter reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to determine the identity of the entrant.
- If this Promotion is interfered with in any way or is not capable of being conducted as reasonably anticipated due to any reason beyond the reasonable control of the Promoter, including but not limited to technical difficulties, unauthorised intervention or fraud, the Promoter reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to the fullest extent permitted by law to disqualify any entrant, modify, suspend, terminate or cancel the Promotion, as appropriate.
- Nothing in these Terms and Conditions limits, excludes or modifies or purports to limit, exclude or modify the statutory consumer guarantees set out in the Australian Consumer Law of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), as well as any other implied warranties under the ASIC Act or similar consumer protection laws in the State and Territories of Australia or, where relevant, the statutory consumer guarantees set out in the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and the Fair Trading Act 1986 in New Zealand (“Non-Excludable Guarantees”). Except for any liability that cannot by law be excluded, including the Non-Excludable Guarantees, the Promoter (including its respective officers, employees and agents) excludes all liability (including negligence), for any personal injury; or any loss or damage (including loss of opportunity); whether direct, indirect, special or consequential, arising in any way out of the promotion.
- Except for any liability that cannot by law be excluded, including the Non-Excludable Guarantees, the Promoter (including its respective officers, employees and agents) is not responsible for and excludes all liability (including negligence) including, but not limited to, in relation to any personal injury; or any loss or damage (including loss of opportunity); whether direct, indirect, special or consequential, arising in any way out of: (a) any technical difficulties or equipment malfunction outside the Promoter’s reasonable control; (b) any theft, unauthorised access or third party interference; (c) any entry that is late, lost, altered, damaged or misdirected (whether or not after their receipt by the Promoter) due to any reason beyond the reasonable control of the Promoter; (d) any tax liability incurred by a entrant; or (e) taking/use of a prize.
- The Promoter collects personal information ("PI") in order to conduct the promotion and may, for this purpose, disclose such PI to third parties, including but not limited to agents, contractors, service providers and prize suppliers. Entry is conditional on providing this PI. The Promoter will also use and handle PI as set out in its Privacy Policy, which can be viewed at https://www.sony.com.au/section/contactusprivacypolicy. The Privacy Policy also contains information about how entrants may opt out, access, update or correct their PI, how entrants may complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles, the New Zealand Information Privacy Principles, or any other applicable law and how those complaints will be dealt with. All entries become the property of the Promoter.
- The Promoter is Sony Australia Limited (ABN 59 001 215 354) of Level 7, 73 Miller Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060.
