Photo of the Month

About POTM (Photo of the Month)

This a chance for all members to submit four of their favourite photos, taken at any time, just so long as it is their own work. It can be of any subject or style you like, colour, black and white etc.

This is not supposed to be particularly competitive, but a chance for people to show their photos for other members to pick their five favourites. The photos are displayed anonymously on Flickr, with all exif data stripped out, so no one knows who took each one – although once you get to know each other’s styles, it is fun trying to guess! We also show the photos as a slideshow at the club once a month. The monthly Top 5 chosen images are added to the website, just for kudos, no prizes. It is interesting to note that the voting is extremely varied and most photos usually get at least one vote, so it’s always worth entering! It’s all down to personal and individual taste.

Each December, we have ‘Photo of the Year’ and the top five images from each month that year are entered.

Don’t be shy about entering if you are a newcomer to the club as it’s far from unknown for newbies to get placed the first time they enter. Also don’t worry if you think you are not up to the standard of others in the club, because the judging is not like a  professional judge, but just down to personal taste of the members. If your image is visually pleasing or interesting, people will vote for it regardless of whether it was a lucky shot or you didn’t think you knew what you were doing! Also, having the best equipment isn’t necessary (although nice to have!) as members have been placed when using compact cameras or even a phone.

It is also not necessary to know much about enhancing your images on the computer, eg using software such as Photoshop. Some winners have used Photoshop and other such software to great effect, but more winners haven’t used anything at all – apart from a camera!

How to enter

You photos need to be submitted to Phil Critchlow. You can either bring them in on a memory stick to the club by the second Thursday of each month or email them to him.

Please make sure that your image isn’t huge, but no shorter than 2048 pixels on the longer edge. If you do not know how to resize an image, please speak to Phil or myself and we will try to advise.

Also, if you can add your initials at the beginning of the name of your image, this will help Phil a great deal. Your entry is still anonymous, but it helps him identify the Top 5.

How to vote

After all the photos have been submitted, Phil uploads them to a Flickr set. Afterwards he sends an email to everyone in the club with a link to this set – if you have not received any emails from Phil, please let us know and we will make sure that you are added to the mailing list.

Click on the link that Phil sends to you and enjoy looking at the entries! Pick your favourite top 5 and email your votes back to Phil. It is far better if you can email your votes to Phil in advance of the club night so that he can prepare the results ahead of Club Night.. The deadline for votes is  17:00 hrs. on the last Thursday of the month.

On the last club night of every month, there is a slideshow of the entries so that we can see them on the big screen,.the top 5 voted for are announced, and each photographer can let us know a little about the photo.

To see previous winners of Photo of the Month, please click here.

Phil puts a lot of work into POTM and we would like to thank him for his much appreciated effort.