Photography competition

A kingfisher perched on a branch by the River Avon

Kingfisher by Mark Everett

Get involved

Photography competition

Be part of our 2025 calendar

If you love being out in nature, why not keep a camera of some sort in your hand? 

If you're capturing the wonders of Worcestershire’s wildlife and wild places, we’d love to see your images. Whether your favourite wild spot is a nature reserve, a hidden corner of our towns and countryside or your own garden, keep a camera close to hand to capture the action.

12 lucky photographers will win an A4 space in our 2025 calendar and a copy each of the calendar. Runner’s-up images also feature in the calendar and, of course, all entries help us to promote Worcestershire’s fantastic wildlife.

The whole team is involved in judging and we’re delighted to be joined by professional photographer Pete Walkden and semi-pro Jason Curtis to help with the difficult final decisions.

See below for the entry form along with terms and conditions. The closing date is Tuesday 9th April 2024.

Good luck!

Don't forget...

🐞 Do no harm - the welfare of the wildlife and the wild places always comes first
🐞 Don't get too close - let birds feed their young, move on if they're agitated or calling 'at you'
🐞 Watch your feet - stay on paths (or within designated areas), don't trample flowers to reach more flowers
🐞 Know the law - familiarise yourself with protected species and the laws that protect them
🐞 Know the lure - don't use recordings to attract birds, they can disrupt the behaviour and risk the lives of chicks

Terms and conditions

By entering Worcestershire Wildlife Trust’s (WWT) photography competition, you agree to the provisions of these terms and conditions and to comply fully with them.

The closing date is Tuesday 9th April 2024.

If there are any problems submitting your entries, please email editor@worcestershirewildlifetrust.org

Eligibility

The competition is open to anyone of any age with the following exceptions:

  • Individuals directly involved in organising or judging the competition
  • Professional photographers. For the purposes of the competition, this is defined as anyone who earns more than half their income through photography

If you are under the age of 18 you must have permission to enter from your parent or guardian. By submitting an entry for the competition, your parent or guardian is deemed to have given such consent and to agree to the use of the entry as described in these terms and conditions.

What to enter

  • Images must have been taken in Worcestershire and the location/s noted on the entry form.
  • Images must be in landscape orientation. WWT reserves the right to crop and enhance the photographs for reproduction in the calendar and other media if required.
  • Images must be capable of being reproduced at A4 size. They should be at a digital resolution of 300 pixels per inch (image dimension of 3600 x 2400 pixels / 12” x 8”). JPEG or TIFF file formats are accepted.
  • Images should be labelled with a title and your name.
  • Images must not have won an award in another photographic competition at the time of entry or by July 2024 when the winning images are announced.

What are the judges looking for?

  • Photographs that capture Worcestershire’s natural world. From gardens to nature reserves and from the everyday wildlife to the rare – behaviour, action, beauty, images to inspire and enthuse others.
  • Judges are looking for ‘natural’ photos so please avoid too much post-processing and the use of post-camera effects. Please remove watermarks.
  • Images of animals raised in captivity, held in captivity or  pets are not eligible.
  • Submissions that appear to WWT to have been created in a way that breaches wildlife law or that compromises the safety or welfare of the animal or habitat are not eligible. WWT may ask for further information about the photographic methods and the welfare of the subject. If you submit images of protected species, please specify whether you had a licence at the time of photography. Please ensure that you adhere to any rules on that may be in place at the location of your photography. For information about best practice, see the Nature Photographer’s Code of Practice.

How to enter

  • Applicants may enter up to six images.
  • Entries must be submitted digitally via the competition website.
  • By submitting images to the WWT photography competition, each entrant confirms that:
    • Each entry is their original work and that they own the copyright and any other intellectual property rights of each image.
    • They have the consent of any person pictured in an image (or the consent of a parent/guardian in the case of someone under 18).
    • They have not licensed or disposed of any rights in the image that would conflict with uses to be made by WWT.
    • They have received any necessary permissions from the owner(s) of objects including buildings included in submitted images for the usage rights required by WWT and will indemnify WWT against any claims made by any third parties in respect of such infringement.

Judging

Judges will select images based upon technical skill, diversity, originality and creativity. Judging is undertaken by WWT staff alongside Pete Walkden and Jason Curtis, previous winners of the competition.

The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence will be entered into concerning the judging and organisation.

Announcement of winners

Judging will take place between April and June 2024. Winners will be contacted by email or telephone by the end of June 2024. Winners and runners up will be contacted before their success is announced publicly. Results will be shared by WWT in July 2024 and MUST NOT be shared by winners before that time, in person or social media.

Usage rights

By entering the competition, you grant WWT a non-exclusive, irrevocable licence to reproduce, enlarge, publish or exhibit, on any media, the images for any purpose to further its charitable aims and objectives. This will include but may not be limited to:

  • In a calendar
  • On the WWT website and social media
  • In magazines and other WWT publications
  • In conjunction with partners and local media to promote the competition and WWT’s work
  • On greeting and Christmas cards as well as other merchandise to raise funds for WWT’s work and charitable aims.

WWT will make every effort to ensure that name credits are given to any photograph published in any medium for any purpose.

Data protection

We will keep your details securely to enable us to administrate the competition, use your images and contact you with news directly relating to the competition. Entrants have the ability to opt-in to our monthly e-newsletter via the entry form. Details of this are available at the opt-in stage and entrants are able to unsubscribe at any time via the ‘unsubscribe’ button with the e-newsletter.

We value your privacy and promise to keep your personal details safe and secure. We will never sell your data. You can read our privacy policy.

General

  • By entering the competition, entrants will be deemed to have agreed to be bound by these terms and conditions. Breach of the conditions will void their entry.
  • Entrants agree to providing a quote for their image/s should they win and to cooperate fully with reasonable publicity to promote the competition and calendar.
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Top tips from our judges...

🦉 Learn more about your subject to know when and how to safely take the photo for both you and the subject (keeping a diary can be handy)
🦉 Try to capture the 'moment'
🦉 Pay attention to light and background
🦉 Try photographing in all weathers to help add something different to your images
🦉 Practice, even if it's on something you wouldn't ordinarily take a photo of

2023's winners

Congratulations to the winners of our 2023 photo competition and to Mark Everett whose image of a kingfisher sitting on a hawthorn branch won the public vote to become our overall winner and feature on the front cover of our 2024 calendar.

Read our wild photo winners announcement to find out more about our winners or view our 2023 winning and runners-up photos in the Flickr albums below. You can view all previous winning images in our Flickr albums.

2024 calendar: winners
2024 calendar: runners-up

Thank you

Thank you to all the photographers who kindly donate their images to help us inspire people about the wonders of Worcestershire's wildlife. If you'd like to add your images to our library (credit is always given), please get in touch.