West Wickham Photographic Society

Competition Rules

The general rules for competitions can be found in the Member’s Handbook, and any queries should be address to a committee member.

The club members and their Committee have agreed the following additional rules/guidelines.

Bob’s Project
  • The objective of Bob’s project is to encourage members to take new photos, practicing techniques which may be outside their normal way of working.
  • There will be 5 or 6 ’rounds’ of Bob’s project each season.
  • At the start of each round, the club will have a brief discussion to determine the ‘rules’ for that round. For example when the topic was portraiture, the club decided that the portraits were to be of humans.
  • There will be a period of about 6 weeks for members to take images. During this period there may be workshops and outings organised focussing on the current topic.
  • At the end of each round, members are invited to bring in a selection of their images and discuss them with the members. These images should ideally be limited to those taken since the launch of that round.
  • Images shown to the club as part of Bob’s Project can subsequently be entered into club competitions as either DPI or mounted prints.
  • Images shown to the club as part of Bob’s Project do NOT count to limit of an image being entered 3 times.
Bob Z Challenge Trophy
  • The members wanted to remember all the work done for the club by our late chairman, Bob Zwolinsky, by an  annual competition, the Bob Z Challenge Trophy. Bob introduced the idea of club members looking at different genres of photography throughout the season in order to broaden their photographic skills, which we normally refer to as Bob’s Project. So it seems appropriate to link the competition to topics covered in Bob’s Project.
  • It’s a DPI competition entered online in the normal way.
  • It will be judged by the members present on the night, by a simple voting system
  • Each member may submit ONE image in each of the topics covered during the season.
  • The images should have been taken during the season.
  • They do not have to been discussed as part of a Bob’s project evening, as long as they are good illustrations of the topic
  • Images may have been entered in any of the current season’s competitions in any format. 
Chair’s Challenge 2025
  • This is a new competition for 2025, which will run during the summer break and be judged by the Chair in September
  • The Club’s Chair challenges the members to take a new image on each of 6 set subjects.
  • The following are the 6 set subjects for the Chair’s Challenge 2025:-
    • S hadows
    • U ndulating
    • M echanical
    • M usic
    • E mpty
    • R ed
  • The images must be taken during the summer break, i.e. between 1st June and 31st August.
  • One image is required for each of the set subjects, but members do not have to attempt all of the set subjects.
  • It’s a DPI competition entered online in the normal way.
  • Each member may enter ONCE, with the entry consisting of up to 6 images
  • Although creativity and a wide interpretation of the set subjects is encouraged, the Chair will have the final decision if there is any dispute on the whether an entry is valid.
  • Judging will be on the 16th September.
  • Images entered into this competition may subsequently regarded as ‘new images’ and entered into future club competitions in any format.Images may have been entered in any of the current season’s competitions in any format. 
Larter Cup
  • This is an annual inter-club competition between Beckenham Photographic Society, Bromley Camera Club and West Wickham Photographic Society.
  • Each club will submit a panel of 6 colour PDIs and a panel of 6 monochrome prints, plus one tie-breaker monochrome print. Each panel should consist of work by 6 different members, although a single member can have a print and a PDI entered. No work should have appeared in a previous Larter Cup competition.
  • Prints and PDIs will each be marked out of 10 by the judge, and the combined score will determine which club is awarded the Cup. In the event of a tie, the judge will select one from the relevant tie-breaker monochrome prints.
  • Monochrome prints must be mounted to the FSLPS standards on 50cm x 40cm mounts. PDI copies of monochrome prints must also be submitted 

Natural History
  • This is a DPI competition, so a maximum of 5 entries per member are allowed, each entry having a maximum size of 1400 wide by 1050 high (pixels)
  • This is competition for NEW images, i.e. those which have not been entered into a competition before (excluding showcase competitions, Bob’s Project and the Chair’s Challenge)
  • A NATURAL HISTORY image shall have for its subject a living organism other than a human person(s). It does not matter whether the subject is ‘wild’ or ‘cultivated’. The image should be primarily concerned with the object given by the title. The object should be a clear and sharp mage within the picture area.
  • The secondary parts of the picture area may be used to give the object’s setting or provide supporting evidence such as the size of the object. The secondaryareas of the picture need not be sharp or can be left plain. In any case, the secondary areas should not detract or surpass the object given by the title of the image. 
  • Composition, whilst important, should notbe the primary consideration. With animal pictures that include eye(s), it is helpful if the eye(s) have a single catch light. A picture of a domesticated animal should avoid being a picture of the ‘family pet’ but be of the animal alone. Avoid contrasty lighting that may give burnt out highlights or a lack of detail in shadow areas. Provided the title makes it clear, close ups of only a (small) portion of the whole object may used.
  • In general, images of birds or animals taken by natural history photographers are often criticised if they don’t show behaviour. So ‘birds sitting on a twig’ are often criticised unless the bird is doing something such as eating an insect.
  • With natural history images you can only do minimal post -processing. For example, Adjusting the exposure is fine but changing the background is frowned upon.

Small print Competition
  • This is a showcase competition for UNMOUNTED prints, maximum size A5, no minimum size.
  • This is competition for NEW images, i.e. those which have not been entered into a competition before (excluding showcase competitions, Bob’s Project and the Chair’s Challenge)
  • No names, titles or identifying marks to be put on the back, so that they can be judge anonymously. A random number will be affixed to the back by the print secretary.
  • There are 2 classes, colour and monochrome
  • Each member may enter up to 5 entries in each class (up to 10 prints in total)
  • The objective of this competition is to gain feedback on your new images from fellow members. The competition is judged by members votes.
  • Images can subsequently be entered into club competitions as either DPI or mounted prints.
  • Entry to the small prints competition does NOT count to limit of an image being entered 3 times.
Tryptic Competition
  • This is a DPI competition, so a maximum of 5 entries per member are allowed, each entry having a maximum size of 1400 wide by 1050 high (pixels)
  • Each entry will consist of 3 images within 1 image. The layout is at the discretion of the author.
  • A 4th image may be used as a background to enhance the presentation, but must not be a significant part or distract from the 3 principle images.
  • However, the background can be a part of the tryptic if there are only 2 images in front of it.
  • For this competition, images which have been used before, even if they have won or been placed in a competition, may be used as part of the tryptic. This includes images that have previously been entered as prints.