External Competitions
Each season we compete against other photography clubs in a number of events. The programme 2023-2024 comprises of two Surrey (SPA) inter-club competitions and seven other events, details listed below. Approximately 10% of our best images will be entered into these competitions split between print and digital images.
All club members are welcome and encouraged to attend any of the external competitions. These are great opportunities to get a broader view of the images being produced by other clubs.
Mike Klein is our External Competitions Secretary this season. A sub-committee of club members provides valuable input into the process of selecting images. Guildford tries to vary the images used from competition to competition in order to maximise the number of images used through the season.
Our entries are selected mainly from images obtaining high scores in our internal competitions from all classes – Club, Intermediate and Advanced.
Images need to stand out from other similar images, they need to be eye-catching, technically perfect, beautifully composed and ideally have an emotional impact of some kind. It is important to note that the Club class images can be as successful in external competitions as those produced by Advanced class members.
At the SPA AGM, held every year in October, there is also an individual competition for club members for prints and PDIs. This is especially good for seeing how your images rate across different clubs.
In addition, there is an SPA biennial exhibition, also for prints and PDIs. Entries are the responsibility of the photographers, the club only organises the receipt and delivery of the prints.
External competitions allow members to show their images to a wider audience and to gain confidence and experience in their work.
All club members are welcome and encouraged to attend any of the external competitions. These are great opportunities to get a broader view of the images being produced by other clubs.
Mike Klein is our External Competitions Secretary this season. A sub-committee of club members provides valuable input into the process of selecting images. Guildford tries to vary the images used from competition to competition in order to maximise the number of images used through the season.
Our entries are selected mainly from images obtaining high scores in our internal competitions from all classes – Club, Intermediate and Advanced.
Images need to stand out from other similar images, they need to be eye-catching, technically perfect, beautifully composed and ideally have an emotional impact of some kind. It is important to note that the Club class images can be as successful in external competitions as those produced by Advanced class members.
At the SPA AGM, held every year in October, there is also an individual competition for club members for prints and PDIs. This is especially good for seeing how your images rate across different clubs.
In addition, there is an SPA biennial exhibition, also for prints and PDIs. Entries are the responsibility of the photographers, the club only organises the receipt and delivery of the prints.
External competitions allow members to show their images to a wider audience and to gain confidence and experience in their work.
External Competition Schedule
Please see the following table for details of this coming season’s external competitions.
External Competition Entries for 2023-24
Concorde Trophy
The Concorde Trophy competition is hosted by a different club each year. This season Woking Photographic Society will be hosting the competition. Nine clubs compete, each club enters 6 prints with no more than 2 from one club member. Judging is on the night, marked out of 10 and the winner is the club with most marks overall.
SPA ICC Print Competition
The SPA Inter-club Print Championships are held each year in November. There are two categories;
Open and Nature.
Open comprises 16 prints, a minimum of 4 of which must be monochrome. A minimum of 10 authors are required with a maximum of 2 images per author.
Nature category comprises 8 images with a minimum of three authors and a maximum of three images from any one author.
Three judges award scores ranging between 2 and 5 resulting in a maximum overall score of 15. For each category the club with the highest aggregate number of points wins.
Open and Nature.
Open comprises 16 prints, a minimum of 4 of which must be monochrome. A minimum of 10 authors are required with a maximum of 2 images per author.
Nature category comprises 8 images with a minimum of three authors and a maximum of three images from any one author.
Three judges award scores ranging between 2 and 5 resulting in a maximum overall score of 15. For each category the club with the highest aggregate number of points wins.
PAGB (Photographic Alliance of Great Britain) GB Cup Trophy
The PAGB GB Cups for Projected Images are held each January. Clubs enter directly, without any pre-qualification. Awards are made to the winning Clubs. A number of awards are declared for individual images and groups of images. There are two categories; open and nature.
Open category comprises 15 images produced by at least 6 photographers, with no more than 4 images from any photographer. Nature images may not be included. The winning Club is determined from the total for all 15 Images.
Nature category requires a minimum of 3 Nature Images and a maximum of 21 Nature Images. No more than 3 Images can be entered from any photographer. The 10 highest scoring Images will determine the total Club score.
The judging is just like the SPA ICC competitions – very fast judging and scores from the judges are between 2 and 5.
Open category comprises 15 images produced by at least 6 photographers, with no more than 4 images from any photographer. Nature images may not be included. The winning Club is determined from the total for all 15 Images.
Nature category requires a minimum of 3 Nature Images and a maximum of 21 Nature Images. No more than 3 Images can be entered from any photographer. The 10 highest scoring Images will determine the total Club score.
The judging is just like the SPA ICC competitions – very fast judging and scores from the judges are between 2 and 5.
Albany Cup
The Albany Cup competition is organised and hosted each year in February by Guildford. Seven other local clubs are invited to enter a panel of four print images. These images are judged individually out of 10 points in a random order during the first half of the evening. During the break clubs assemble their prints on boards into panels and during the second half of the evening these are judged out of 40 points. The club with the highest aggregate number of points is the winner.
The Windlesham and Camberley Challenge Trophy
This PDI Competition was introduced by Windlesham and Camberley Camera Club specifically for Non-Advanced photographers, who normally compete in internet competitions, to gain experience by competing at inter-club level. An experienced judge is asked to provide comprehensive feedback, and entrants are encouraged to attend the event to benefit from the judge's comments.
The competition is between 6 clubs with 8 PDIs from 8 non-advanced photographers from each club. Images are awarded marks up to 10 and the club with the highest overall number of marks is declared the winner.
The competition is between 6 clubs with 8 PDIs from 8 non-advanced photographers from each club. Images are awarded marks up to 10 and the club with the highest overall number of marks is declared the winner.
Bracknell Nines
The Bracknell Nines Club Competition is organised and hosted by the Bracknell Camera Club. A total of 9 clubs each submit 6 PDIs for judging on the evening each marked out of 10. The club with the highest aggregate number of marks for their 6 images is declared the winner.
Surrey Advertiser Rosebowl
The Surrey Advertiser Challenge Trophy (Rosebowl) Competition is hosted each year by Woking Photographic Society. The competition is for a set of five projected images from five different photographers. Images are judged prior to the competition on the criteria of coherency of the set and overall quality of both individual images and of the set viewed as a whole.
Woking Silver Jubilee
This competition is hosted annually on a rota principle by the participating clubs; Farnborough, Guildford, Windlesham & Camberley and Woking. The competition is for a set of ten printed images per club from different photographers with no more than two images per author. The images are judged out of 10 on the evening and the club with the highest aggregate score is presented with the Silver Jubilee Trophy.
SPA ICC PDI
The SPA inter-club PDI Championships are essentially the same as the SPA ICC Print Championships. There are two categories; Open and Nature.
Open Comprises 16 prints, a minimum of 4 of which must be monochrome. A minimum of 10 authors is required with a maximum of 2 images per author.
Nature consists of 8 images with a minimum of three authors and a maximum of three images by any one author.
Three judges award scores ranging between 2 and 5 resulting in a maximum overall score of 15. For each category the club with the highest aggregate number of points wins.
Open Comprises 16 prints, a minimum of 4 of which must be monochrome. A minimum of 10 authors is required with a maximum of 2 images per author.
Nature consists of 8 images with a minimum of three authors and a maximum of three images by any one author.
Three judges award scores ranging between 2 and 5 resulting in a maximum overall score of 15. For each category the club with the highest aggregate number of points wins.