About Our Club Competitions
Merit Competitions (PDI and Print)
As a club, we regularly compete against each other in competition. In order to try and keep it fair, our members are divided into three classes (Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced). These are essentially separate leagues for each class to compete in over the course of a season.
Each Merit Competition allows three images per member. Of these, the highest two scores count towards the annual merit total. This encourages members to try something new and adventurous to see how well (or badly) it scores while the “regular” images provide some comfort if the judge just doesn’t appreciate the “risky” image!
Panel Competition (Print Only)
The Panel competition is a set of inter-related prints, normally consisting of an odd number of mounts which are arranged in a set order, designed to be the most pleasing.
Open Competitions (PDI and Print)
The Open Competitions do not have any classes and are usually either a set single subject or have subject divisions.
The Set Subject Competition varies as either the Programme Secretary or Competition Secretary sets the subject for each competition which might be a straight forward subject such as ‘The Beach’ or maybe a more subjective subject like ‘Mood’.
Our Annual competitions are made up of five subjects; General, Landscape, Nature, Monochrome, and Portrait. A winner is declared from each subject and then an overall winner and runner-up of the Year is declared from one of the five subject winners.
In all of the above competitions, an independent judge casts an expert eye over each entry, providing advice and constructive criticism on them individually before awarding a score (out of twenty) and finally deciding on the best image of the night. It might seem, at first glance, that the open competitions are a bit unfair on the beginners who have to compete against members with many years of experience. This is not actually the case as a Beginner or Intermediate entry very often wins.
See other sub-pages under the “Competitions” drop-down menu for more information.
For latest news for our current competitions have a look at the Posts tab.