BWPA opens its doors to entry

The British Wildlife Photography Awards has opened to entry for it's 2015 competition.  Now in it's sixth year this competition has quickly established itself as one of the best wildlife photography competitions in the world.

Wildlife photographer and TV presenter Chris Packham said "Each year the British Wildlife Photographer Awards generates an incredible catalogue of splendid, exciting, imaginative and artistic images, proving beyond doubt that we have the richest palette of life to celebrate in our own backyard.

Anyone passionate about protecting and preserving wildlife will be inspired by the British Wildlife Photographer Awards which, in its sixth year, has done more than any other award to raise the profile of British wildlife."

This year the overall winner of the competition will receive £5000 and each category winner will receive a Canon Powershot G7X.

For more information and entry guidelines visit the BWPA website here.

Sony World Photography Awards - Entry opens

The Sony World Photography Awards has opened its door for entry to the 2015 competition.  The awards, organised by the World Photography Organisation is claimed to be the 'largest and most comprehensive' competition in the world.

For the first time today it has been announced that there will also be an award for images taken by smartphone.

For more information visit the Sony World Photography Awards Website.

Closing Date is 27th February 2015.

Photography Events 2015

Amateur Photographer Magazine are publishing a Photography Events Calendar on their website.  The calendar covers the period from January to May and will be updated on a regular basis.  It included details of exhibition and major competition deadlines.  A useful resource for anyone wishing to see or do more with their photography.

The calendar can be found here.

Terry O'Neil Award winners announced

The winner of the Terry O'Neil Award has been announced.

For this competition the photographer must submit a series of images with a short narrative.  The categories include reportage, documentary, landscape, wildlife portrait or fine art.

This years, winner, Giorgio Bianchi won the award for his images of violence and unrest in Kiev.

Terry O' Neil said "Giorgio’s work is amazing. It’s world-class and I think he is going to go on to do even greater things in the future. This year the Award attracted the highest quality entries in the nine years since it was established. Judging this year was the toughest yet but immensely rewarding and exciting."

Sarah Gilbert of the Guardian who sponsors the event said "Giorgio Bianchi’s winning series has everything you could ask for: The big perspective, close intimate moments, and a visual narrative that captures the emotions, exhaustion and the physical chaos of fighting, dying and surviving on the frontline."

UK Photographer Rob Pearson-Wright won the Mobile Device category for his series entitled Universal Language.

All the winning essays can be seen here. 

Taylor Wessing Prize sparks debate

Yesterday we posted about the announcement of the winner of the Taylor Wessing Prize.

It would appear that the winning image has sparked quite a discussion with Amateur Photographer posting a poll about David Titlows image.

The poll asks ‘What do you think of this year’s Taylor Wessing Awards winner?’ with the options including ‘It isn’t a portrait and it isn’t very good either’; ‘I have no strong option about the winning image’ or ‘It’s a good picture but there were better entries that should have won’.

At time of writing there had been 218 votes with ‘It isn’t a portrait and it isn’t very good either’ being the most popular option with 114 votes (52%).

To see the poll and vote visit Amateur Photographer

Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize winners announced

The winner of the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize has been announced.  The winner David Titlow said about his image entitled Konrad Lars Hastings Titlow ‘Everyone was a bit hazy from the previous day’s excess. My girlfriend passed our son to the subdued revellers on the sofa – the composition and back light was so perfect I had to capture the moment.’  The picture was taken after a midsummers celebration.

Titlow is a musician turned fashion and advertising photographer and has been commissioned by the Guardian, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and Vice magazine, among other publications.

His portrait wins him £12,000 and will be the feature picture in an exhibition and opens to the public, at the National Portrait Gallery, London, on Thursday.

Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, called Titlow’s photograph “a fascinating and compelling image.

The Taylor Wessing Prize images and information can be found here

More of David Titlow’s images can be found here





The Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition has opened for entry submission it has been announced by the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

The competition has also had new sections added this year.  These include:

·        Skyscapes - A section for land or cityscapes that have an astronomical theme to them.

·         Our Sun

·         Our Moon

·         Stars and Nebulae

·         Planets, Comets & Asteroids

·         Galaxies

Dr Marek Kukula, public astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich and judge in the competition said: ‘Over the last six years of the competition we’ve seen some really exciting and beautiful themes and subjects emerging from the astrophotography community. We wanted the competition to reflect the photographers’ interests and so we’ve created the new categories around them.

People & Space Rinner Up 2014 (c) Julie Fletcher

This will really showcase the full range of amazing pictures that are coming in each year and I’m really looking forward to seeing the entries in 2015. As always, there are bound to be some surprises.’

Entries must be submitted by the deadline of April 16. Winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Royal Observatory on September 17 with an exhibition to follow.

For more information visit www.rmg.co.uk/astrophoto