A. Intentional Merges. We are often coached to avoid merging elements within a photograph - for example, the infamous telephone pole growing from someone's head or a horizon line merged with a second photographic element. For this Treasure Hunt category, you'll need to break this rule and intentionally merge two or more elements or lines in the frame.

B. Steps/stairs/stairways. Steps or stairs are to be the major element in this category.

C. Squares. We've done circles, now we're doing squares.

General rules:

1. Four photographs for each of the three categories.

2. Entries due to the Treasure Hunt chairman on or before the May 23rd meeting. Entries can be mailed to Jack at the PDI site DIGITALCOMP@METROCAMERACLUB.ORG or brought to the meeting on a portable drive.

3. Photographs may be manipulated according to the same rules as the PDI competition. Cropping, dodging, burning, and adjustments for contrast and color saturation are allowed; moving elements within or between photographs is not.

4. Entries are to be named using the same general format as for PDI competition with commas separating the fields like so: DTH,CATEGORY,TITLE,FAMILY NAME,FIRST NAME,. So an entry for steps might look like this: DTH,B,STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN,JINGLEHEIMER,JOHN. DTH shows Jack that it is for the Digital Treasure Hunt and not for regular competition, B is the category for steps,the title of the photograph is "STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN" and the contestant is "JOHN JINGLEHEIMER". This year, titles are requested for category A so you can call attention to the merged elements and optional in the other categories.

Good luck and, as always, have fun with your camera.