There are a total of 8 competitions a year:
- 1st Open – Print Maurice Jebbett Trophy
- PDI Chairmans
- 2nd Open – Print J L Peel Trophy
- PDI Osbourne & Beeby Trophy
- Mono – Print Derek Buckley Cup
- PDI Rob Laycock Memorial Cup
- Image of The Year – Print Dovedale Cup
- PDI Lawrence Avery Cup
There are 4 additional competitions. Themes for these are voted for by members before the start of the season.
Any trophy awarded remains the property of the club. The overall winner may keep it at their home until it is requested back by the competition secretary which is generally a month before the AGM.
Entry
Competitions can only be entered by fully paid up members.
There are two types of competition.
A set subject or theme which you must adhere to.
An open competition where you may enter images on any subject. However there maybe other restrictions imposed.
Each competition is made up of Prints and PDI.
Up to 3 images per member in each category may be entered.
Members to indicate on submission of entries which images they would be prepared to drop should the situation arise where the club has an exceptional number of entries in either category.
All PDI images and a PDI of any print entries to be submitted to the Competition Secretary no later than midnight on the Saturday preceding the competition. Prints to be submitted on the night of the competition.
To be fair to all entrants the Competition Secretary is not permitted to accept new entries after the closing date unless the meeting date is changed or the entry system failed.
Ownership
Any image can be entered into a Club Competition as long as you own the copyright, you took the image!
Images should be entirely your own work. Composite images must be ALL your own work. Use of images from any other source are not permitted. For example a substitute sky is permitted if the sky was taken by you.
Date Image was Taken
We encourage members to continually improve and would ask that images entered into competitions are no more than 3 years old as explained below.
This should be a capture date AFTER 1st January of the year three years prior to the start of the season. Eg images for 2026-27 should have a date on or after 1st January 2023. Be aware, some competitions may specify different dates. These changes will be notified in advance of the relevant competition.
For a composite image, using images with different dates, the earliest of the dates of the component images must be taken as the starting point for acceptance.
Changes to Your Image
You may make changes to your image or apply any other post processing unless the competition specifically instructs not to do so. (eg nature/wildlife)
USE of AI
AI is allowed to improve the technical quality of your image. Noise reduction and sharpening is allowed and is now quite widespread.
AI is also allowed where a software tool utilises AI as part of the removal process
( Cloning) however thishould be restricted to no more that 5% of the image. This is not allowed in Wildlife Competition images.
Generative AI is NOT allowed Generating any content in your image, not taken by the entrant at the time the image was captured is not allowed.
It is the entrants responsibility to ensure images are produced in line with PAGB guidance currently October 2023 and any subsequent guidelines.
Single Use Submissions Policy
This policy ensures fair opportunity , fresh content in each internal competition and a level playing field for all members.
Substantially similar – Two entries are substantially similar if the overall content, composition, or subject matter remains essentially unchanged, even if minor edits are applied.
Minor edits- Include cropping, colour, contrast or exposure tweaks and converting to monochrome. These do not create a new entry.
Core Rule
Each image may appear only once in any internal competition.
An identical or substantially similar image counts as the same entry.
The exception to this will be the Image of The Year where the top scoring images of the internal competitions will automatically be entered.
MEMBER RESPONSIBILITIES
Maintain a personal log of all images you have entered.
Before submitting, verify that your new entry isn’t substantially similar to any past submission.
FLEXIBILITY AND APPEALS
The competition secretary will review borderline cases with understanding.
Allow reasonable accommodation for genuine mistakes.
Consider brief appeals if similarity is debatable.
Judging
All competitions will be judged by an outside judge on the night unless otherwise stated.
At the judge’s discretion all images will be given a mark from 1-20. Based on the quality of the image, the judge will award scores of 18,19 and 20 to those images considered, in their view, deserving a higher score. More than one image can be given scores of 18 and 19 but only one can receive 20 marks and declared overall winner in that section (PDI or PRINT). Award of marks is always at the judges discretion and are final.
The Judge will be advised, by the club, of the range of scores allowed and the subject criteria for each competition and also a percentage or number of scores expected. The judge may vary marks up and down, at his discretion, depending on his view of the quality of the images presented.
How to Enter
There are no restrictions on the size of print entered. However prints are required to be mounted.
Maximum mount size 50×40 cm ( 20” x 16”)
Minimum mount size A4 29.7 x 21 cm ( 11.7” x 8.3”)
The title of the print should be written on the back of the mount.
A PDI of the print should be e-mailed to the competition secretary at
ashbournecameraclub@hotmail.co.uk together with details of the title of the print in the following format IMAGE TITLE by Your Name
Digital Images should be 1600 x 1200 pixels.
The image should be in jpeg format .
The title should be in the following format IMAGE TITLE by Your Name
Your entries should be e-mailed to the competition secretary at
ashbournecameraclub@hotmail.co.uk
Further information regarding the submission of prints and pdi images can be found in the clubs guidance to Preparing and Entering Competitions.
Please also read Competition Guidelines Similar Images which can be found here.
Taryna Herbert. Chair. Agreed AGM 13th May 2026
