Why not sign up for the 2021 FOIRP Competition and see your photo on the front of the Gazette? Details of how to do this are below. There will be winners each quarter and an Overall Winner at the end of the year who will appear on the 2022 FOIRP Calendar!

For 2021 Friends of Ilkley Riverside Parks is launching a photographic competition. Ilkley’s Riverside is home to a huge range of wildlife, flora and fauna, so why not try capturing it and entering our competition?

Photographs should be taken in the area surrounding the River Wharfe as it passes through Ilkley between Ilkley Tennis Club and Ben Rhydding Gravel Pits Nature Reserve on Coutances way. Photographs do not need to feature the river however they should be taken in the vicinity. Entries captured in Middelton Woods will be included.

There will be 4 separate competitions broadly representing the seasons of 2021 with the intention to reflect the changing nature of the Parks throughout the year.

Entries should be emailed to foirpphotocompetition@gmail.com in a JPEG format and the email should include the full name of the entrant as well as their age.

Entry is open to all, but those under the age of 18 should have received permission from a parent or Guardian.

Entries to the winter competition, they should be submitted by midday on the 1st of March.
Entries for the spring category should be entered by midday on the 1st of June.
Entries for the summer competition should be submitted by midday on the 1st of September.
Entries to the autumn competition should be submitted by midday on the 22nd of October.

The top 20 submissions from each season will then go to an online poll circulated to FOIRP’s social media pages, people will then be able to vote on their favourite image, with three final winners for each season. Out of the three final winners of each competition at least one will be from an entry submitted by a U16. The polls will be circulated in the week after the submission window for that season has closed. After the Autumn winners are decided, there will be 12 final winning images for inclusion in the Friends Of Ilkley Riverside Parks calendar 2022. Out of the 12, FOIRP subscription members will vote for an overall winner to appear on the front cover of the calendar; to join FOIRP please visit the membership page of our website.

By submitting an entry you agree to the terms and conditions below. All enquiries should be sent to foirpphotocompetition@gmail.com with the word “enquiry” in the subject.

Terms & Conditions

1. Friends of Ilkley Riverside Parks decision as to the eligibility of individual photographs will be final.

2. Photographs entered must be taken in the defined area in the competition summary.

3. Entries should be submitted to the email in the competition summary in JPEG format, the email should include the full name of the entrant and their age.

4. The photographs will be judged through the following process: the 20 photographs for each season will go forward to an online poll, there will be three winners for each season, with one winner being from an under 16 entrant. Chosen in October 2021, one of the 12 winning photographs will be chosen as the overall winner by a poll of FOIRP members.

5. The best 12 photos in the opinion of the online polls shall appear in the Friends of Ilkley Riverside Parks calendar 2022, By entering the competition all entrants grant Friends of Ilkley Riverside Parks the right to publish and exhibit their photographs.

6. All entries must be the original work of the entrant. The entrant must be the sole owner of the copyright in all photographs entered and must have obtained the permission of any people featured in the entries. Where a property, belonging to someone other than the photographer is featured, or it has been taken on private land the photographer must seek permission.

7. We are looking for original photographs, so entries must not have won any competition prize previously and entrants must not be professional photographers.

8. Entrants whose photographs are one of the final 12, also agree to take part in post–competition publicity. No fees will be payable for any of the above uses.

9. By entering, entrants will be deemed to have agreed to these rules.

10. Friends Of Ilkley Riverside Parks is not accountable for the actions of those entering this competition.

11. Entrants must not do anything to cause distress to any animal or damage its habitat, whilst trying to take a photograph.

12. Submissions by those under the age of 18 should have received permission from a parent or Guardian.

13. To be included, all entries should be submitted by the date and times in the summary above.

14. Submitted photographs do not have to be taken during the time the competition is running, they can be ones you have taken previously. Though they should be of good image quality.

15. The competition is open to all amateur photographers.