Internal competitions
The club runs a number of internal competitions each year; all paid-up members are eligible to enter these and scores are recorded on the leaderboard to find the Photographer of the Year. These competitions are judged by independent judges who provide a useful and always constructive commentary on the pictures entered.
- Projected Digital Image (PDI): Digital images, monochrome or colour, any photographic genre.
- Bamber Trophy (PDI): Entry consists of five colour and/or monochrome images chosen to demonstrate as wide a range of skill and subject matter as possible.
- Set Subjects (PDI): Three competitions a year, topics drawn from suggestions by the members and chosen to take into account the inclusiveness of the subject to all members. Recent topics have included ‘Movement’, ‘Lines and patterns’, ‘Sports and pastimes’, ‘Fairytales, myths and legends’ and ‘Portraits’.
- Colour Print ‘Joe Sipos’ Trophy: Mounted colour print images, any photographic genre.
- Monochrome Print Trophy: Mounted monochrome print images, any photographic genre.
- Themed Print Panel: Five individually mounted colour and/or monochrome prints on a common theme of the entrant’s choice, judged as a single panel on the basis of their technical and aesthetic proficiency and the entrant’s interpretation of the stated theme.
In addition to the leaderboard competitions above, the club also runs a very popular annual informal Pairs competition which matches one experienced and one less experienced photographer who work together to plan, shoot and process a panel of six images on a subject of their choice.
External competitions
Each season we take part in a number of ‘friendly’ competitions against other local clubs that are similar in size to us (Ely, St Neots and St Ives). The focus of these competitions is to showcase images from as wide a range of members as possible, meet up with other local photographers and have some fun – although that’s not to say that these events are not keenly contested!
The club also enters a number of bigger external competitions each season, notably: