Photographic Competition Rules


Bird Club Digital Photographic Competition 2023

Images to be taken only up to the closing date in December of the current year.

Entries to be emailed to Dave Thomas at dave@cadar.ltd.uk and MUST follow the codes for the categories below. *An email per category would be acceptable e.g. Bird Club Comp. 1 of 6, with your complete list of entries sent on a word document or in the body of the email. 

Up to 4 images can be entered into one category with a maximum number of 24 entries per person across categories C01 - C13, C14 Captioned Photos does not count in the total.


The Rules

All photographs must accurately reflect the images as they appeared in the viewfinder, nothing should be added to or removed from an image. Normal processing of RAW image files and minor adjustments to colour and contrast are acceptable.

MINOR digital adjustments including tone, cropping (including straightening or reversing an image), sharpening, noise reduction and general minor cleaning up e.g. dust spots is permitted providing this complies with the competitions principles of authenticity so that it does not deceive the viewer or misrepresent the reality of the nature of the image.

While minor digital adjustments are allowed, adding or removing objects or parts of an image is not permitted.

Information regarding any post-processing to any image may be queried during shortlisting or pre-judging.

Images should be entered in JPEG format no larger than 1.5 Megabytes and should NOT contain any text or borders. *Images slightly over this size won't be rejected however there may 
be restrictions on email size imposed by your provider.

An image may be REJECTED if, in the opinion of the judge, it appears the image has:
  • Been taken in such a way that Wildlife Law or animal welfare requirements may have been breached.
  • Protected species or habitats have been compromised or the image  has been taken in an irresponsible way.
  • The image is of an animal or plant etc. in captivity, e.g. at a Butterfly farm, Zoo, Wildlife/ safari park/ Kew gardens etc. All images should be of wild creatures and flora.
If you are licensed to take images or visit areas which might otherwise be unlawful you may be asked to show that license, please advise upon submission.

In the category Birds or Animals in their Habitat the subject should be no more than 12% of the entire image.

Original images must be available to the Judges if requested.


The categories are as follows: (Please use these codes only, not e.g. Northants Birds, Mammals)

C01 Northants Birds 

C02 Northants Birds in Flight

C03 British Birds (taken away from Northants)

C04 British Birds in Flight (taken away from Northants)

C05 Foreign Birds

C06 Foreign Birds in Flight

C07 Mammals

C08 Other Vertebrates

C09 Butterflies, Moths & Caterpillars

C10 Other Invertebrates

C11 Plants & Fungi

C12 Birds or Animals in their Habitat

C13 Habitats & Landscapes

C14 Captioned Photos (max of 3 and not judged and can be any aspect of nature or the Bird Club, manipulation rules do not apply). 

Photos must be labelled as per the following system:

Category Number - Photographer's Name - Subject Name - Where the photo was taken, for example:

C01 Bob Gill - Kingfisher - Pitsford Res.

No other information is required and photos labelled differently might not be entered into the competition. 

Each image submitted per category must be a different species (e.g. not 3 x different Little Egret photos for Northants Birds)

Judge/s will pick their category winners, 1st, 2nd & 3rd and from those their top 5. The audience will pick the overall winner from those 5 on the night.


The Northants Bird Club reserves the right to publish any entries on its website and or its newsletter.

Closing date for entries - 20th December.

2 comments:

  1. Can a British Bird be taken in another country eg a Red-backed Shrike taken in Georgia and entered in the British Birds category?

    ReplyDelete
  2. No. British Birds are for photos taken in the UK excluding Northants. Treat Eire as foreign.

    ReplyDelete