All members are encouraged to enter the competitions, whatever their level of experience. New members may find the idea a bit intimidating 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 taking photographs and working on your style and technique 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 eight regular competitions during the season – four with a set subject/theme and four ‘Open’ competitions with no theme – and scores from those are totalled at the end of the season.
Each of those eight regular competitions has a Print and a Digital (or DPI=Digital Projected Image) section and you may enter up to three images in each.
There are also two standalone competitions during the season – The Mike Goldie Trophy and Digital Art – which are informal and have their own trophies.
The season’s finale is the Image of the Year competition when members enter their best or favourite images taken since 1st January of the year the season starts.
The set themes for 2020-21 (in order) are:
Barriers
Food and Drink
Movement/Motion
Juxtaposition
For those who like to be prepared, the themes for 2021-22 are:
Water
Our Historic Isle
Decay
Metal
The theme for the 2020 Mike Goldie Trophy, as selected by 2019 winner Brian Green, is ‘Flowers’ in memory of the late Mike Goldie.