Club Competitions

Our competitions are intended to be a means to improve one's photography. We hope that members will use them as a motivational tool to better their own work.

The second Monday of each month is competition night. This meeting is always keenly attended: it’s where we get to share our images, see each other’s work, and hear feedback from independent judges on our own images as well as everyone else’s. It’s a great learning experience, and an inspiration to better our photography and challenge ourselves to try new things. A measure of the success of this is the number of members who progress up the grades each year, from Beginners to Advanced to Masters. We encourage you to participate!

The monthly competitions run from March to December, with images for each month’s competition due on competition night the previous month. Points from the March to November competitions accumulate to decide the winner for the year in each grade, and progression from one grade to the next.

Images can be submitted as either print or digital, and entered as either Set Subject or Open. The monthly topics for the Set Subject category are listed below; images submitted as Set Subject must meet the brief for the month’s topic. Any image may be entered as Open. The set subjects often challenge us to try something new, so are worth more points towards your total for the year.

Each club member may submit a maximum of TWO images each month, except for the December competition, which runs a little differently. These can be your choice of two Set Subject, two Open, or one Set Subject and one Open.

See the “Competition Rules” link below for detailed rules and submission instructions, and use the links below when you’re ready to submit. Any questions? Just ask a member at a meeting!

Set subjects for 2025

The set subjects and briefs for 2025 are as follows. You can also download them as a PDF below, which you can save to your phone or print and keep in your camera bag.

Collecting in February for judging in March: Best friends and Open

Best friends: Your images can include humans, animals or both capturing an interplay between both. Have fun with images you feel capture the essence of friendship.

Collecting in March for judging in April: Nature in the city and Open

Nature in the city: An interplay between the natural world and the urban landscape.

Capture an image where there is an interesting interplay between the natural world and the urban landscape. Consider angle, lighting, white balance and the small details to make the interplay contrast or echo the image you capture.

Some tips and examples for city and urban photography by James Maher.

Collecting in April for judging in May: Nature  and Open

Nature: Flowers, birds or other flora and fauna as the main subject.

Our natural world offers an abundance of photo opportunities. This is a wide open brief where flowers, birds, or other flora and fauna are the main subject. Capture the beauty, diversity or even ugliness of the natural world.

Collecting May for judging in June:  Architectural abstracts and Open

Architectural Abstracts: Photograph up close interesting details or patterns on a building.

Collecting in June for judging in July: B&W cool silhouettes  and Open

B&W cool silhouettes: Capture the main subject, human, animal or structure in black and white as a silhouette.

A silhouette can also be any outline or sharp shadow of an object. Using your camera, capture an interesting image to make your main subject the interesting silhouette

Collecting in July for judging in August: Moody landscapes and Open

Moody landscapes: A landscape image emphasizing mood.

Mood is the feeling expressed in a work of art such as a photograph. Create a landscape image (B&W or colour) emphasising mood by considering shadows, creating a lot of contrast to emphasise the curves and edges to contribute to the overall moodiness of your image, consider the RIGHT light and consider keeping things dark but visible, detailed but not overly contrasty.

Landscape photography tips for capturing and creating mood by Visual Wilderness.

Collecting in August for judging in September: Night cityscape and Open

Night cityscape: An interesting perspective on a city or town at night.

Find the 'two or one golden hour/s' - the first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset to find an interesting perspective on a city or town at night. You could find a spot that shows off all the buildings and office lights that are lit. Here is where your tripod could be useful, placing the camera on a tripod, and turning the mode dial to AV (aperture priority) mode; we want f/8 and upwards for a greater depth of field. You could use your camera’s self-timer or a remote to take the photo with absolutely no blurring.

Collecting in September for judging in October: A mysterious stranger and Open

A mysterious stranger: Capture the essence of a person or stranger.

To create a mysterious portrait, consider the location and the quality of the light. Think about using wide apertures and shadowy, blurred backgrounds. You could consider low light, long exposure, and the shallow depth of field to blur the background so you are capturing the essence of the person and their location without showing their face.

Collecting in October for judging in November: Candid portrait and Open

Candid portrait: Capture a candid portrait of someone in everyday life.

Documentary photography is a style of photography that provides a straightforward and accurate representation of people, places, objects or photos that attempt to record the world as it is. You have the opportunity to capture a fascinating candid portrait of someone in everyday life. Please consider the ethics around people photography.

Collecting in November for judging in December at the end of year event: Multiple exposures (ONE PRINT ONLY, NO DPI)

Multiple exposures: Use multiple exposures combining more than one shot in a single frame.

A chance to open your camera shutter more than once to expose your image multiple times, resulting in an image containing the subsequent image/s superimposed over the original. This results in combining more than one shot in a single frame.

In the December competition we also have two additional categories, Club Outings and Best Image. Details will be announced closer to the time; for now, see the December 2024 instructions for an idea of what to expect.