Competitions

All members are encouraged to enter competitions, whatever their level of experience. New members may find the idea daunting but competitions are an excellent way to improve your image-making.

Constructive feedback from experienced visiting judges is often very useful and it can boost your learning process to see your work on display and being discussed.  Competitions are also a good incentive to keep working on your style, technique and new ideas but if you decide not to take part that’s fine; you can learn a lot just by looking at other members’ images and hearing the judge’s comments.

The current schedule comprises six regular competitions during the season – three with a set subject and three ‘open’ competitions with no set theme – and the scores from those are totalled at the end of the season.

Each of those six regular competitions has a Print and a DPI (Digital Projected Image) section and you may enter up to three images in each.

2022 award winners Seamus Whelan, Alan Taylor, Andrea Thrussell, Stuart Alexander and Barry Hennedy
2022 trophy winners at the 2022 presentation dinner:
Seamus Whelan, Alan Taylor, Andrea Thrussell, Stuart Alexander and Barry Hennedy

There are also two standalone competitions during the season – ‘The Mike Goldie Trophy’ and ‘Digital Art’ – which have their own trophies.

The season’s finale is the ‘Image of the Year’ competition, for which members may re-submit a maximum of three digital and three print entries that were previously entered into that season’s competitions.


The set themes for 2023-24 (in order) are:
Nature’s Patterns
Abandoned
Roads, routes and pathways

For those who like to plan ahead, the set themes for 2024-25 in order will be:
Metal
After Dark
Animals

The theme for the 2023 Mike Goldie Trophy, as selected by 2022 winner Brian Green, is ‘Timepieces’. Bring up to three entries on a USB to the first meeting in September 2023.


Competition Rules

2021 trophy winners
Most of the trophy winners at the 2021 presentation dinner:
Paul Thomas, Sue Clegg, Louisa Harris, Barry Hennedy, Andrea Thrussell and Gwen Tuck
2020 Trophy Winners at the presentation evening
Trophy winners at the 2020 presentation evening: Brian Green, Jason Quayle, Andrea Thrussell, John Keelan, Georgina Shaw, Lesley Cullen and Lynn Ryan.