Prints should be entered in 4 out of 6 categories of the entrant’s choice.

The 2025-2026 season categories are:

Creative – defined as Altered Reality. There must be a change to an original image, although the main content should still be identifiable. Artwork or computer graphics generated by the entrant may be included as part of the image. The image cannot have been constructed by computer.

Landscape - Images of inland, coastal or maritime scenes.

Natural History – Images conforming to the definition of Nature, which is as follows:
▪ May depict landscape, geologic formations, weather phenomena, and extant
organisms as the main subject matter.
▪ This includes subjects in controlled conditions, such as zoos, game farms, botanical
gardens, aquariums or enclosures.
▪ Scientific bands, scientific tags or radio collars on wild animals are permissible.
▪ Processing of the captured image, by cropping, exposure adjustment, colour
correction, noise minimisation, dodging/burning, HDR, focus stacking and
sharpening, is allowed.
▪ Cloning of image defects and minor distractions, including overlapping elements, are
permitted.
▪ Photographs of anthropology or archaeology, human created hybrid plants, cultivated
plants, feral animals, domestic animals, or mounted specimens are ineligible, as is
any form of manipulation that alters the truth of the photographic statement.

Architecture - An Architectural image must have the primary emphasis on either the interior or exterior of a building or architectural structure.

Macro - A macro image must portray either a small subject (such as an insect) or a small part of a larger object (such as a leaf on a tree) in great detail. The subject is not limited to the natural world.

Street - Informal, candid portraits of people and incidents in public places.

Monochrome Competition

Any monochrome image entered in either class of the monthly competitions or in either class of the annual competitions, scoring 9 or over, shall also be eligible for the monochrome trophy.

In the first section of his talk, Nick discusses mining photography that he researched to inform him about his own approach to the project. He also explains what free mining is and how he published a book of his work (there should be a few copies still available to purchase at the talk). After the break he will go through a number of his images, how he shot them and the challenges he faced. He finishes by talking about postproduction and printing, showing physical examples from his F panel which the audience is also encouraged to look at throughout the evening.