Photography competition

The competition is open to anyone of any age with the following exceptions:

• Individuals directly involved in organising or judging the competition
• Professional photographers. For the purposes of the competition, this is defined as anyone who earns more than half their income through photography

If you are under the age of 18 you must have permission from your parent or guardian to give us your name and address/contact details. By submitting an entry for the competition, your parent or guardian is deemed to have given such consent and to agree to the use of the entry as described in these terms and conditions. Please let us know on the entry form that you are under 18 and you must provide your parent or guardian’s email address and phone number; this is for safeguarding purposes only and is not a part of our judging process.

• Images must have been taken in Worcestershire and the location/s noted on the entry form.
• Images must be in landscape orientation. WWT reserves the right to crop and enhance the photographs for reproduction in the calendar and other media if required.
• Images must be capable of being reproduced at A4 size. They should be at a digital resolution of 300 pixels per inch (image dimension of 3600 x 2400 pixels / 12” x 8”). JPEG or TIFF file formats are accepted.
• Images should be labelled with a title and your name.
• Images must not have won an award in another photographic competition at the time of entry or by July 2025 when the winning images are announced.

• Photographs that capture Worcestershire’s natural world. From gardens to nature reserves and from the everyday wildlife to the rare – behaviour, action, beauty, images to inspire and enthuse others.
• Judges are looking for ‘natural’ photos so please avoid the use of post-camera effects and too much post-processing. Please remove watermarks.
• Images of animals raised in captivity, held in captivity or pets are not eligible.
• Submissions that appear to WWT to have been created in a way that breaches wildlife law or that compromises the safety or welfare of the animal or habitat are not eligible. WWT may ask for further information about the photographic methods and the welfare of the subject. If you submit images of protected species, please specify whether you had a licence at the time of photography. Please ensure that you adhere to any rules on that may be in place at the location of your photography. For information about best practice, see the Nature Photographer’s Code of Practice.

• Applicants may enter up to six images.
• Entries must be submitted digitally via the competition website.
• By submitting images to the WWT photography competition, each entrant confirms that:
  • Each entry is their original work and that they own the copyright and any other intellectual property rights of each image.
  • They have the consent of any person pictured in an image (or the consent of a parent/guardian in the case of someone under 18).
  • They have not licensed or disposed of any rights in the image that would conflict with uses to be made by WWT.
  • They have received any necessary permissions from the owner(s) of objects, including buildings, included in submitted images for the usage rights required by WWT and will indemnify WWT against any claims made by any third parties in respect of such infringement.
• The deadline for entries is Monday 7th April 2025

Judges will select images based upon technical skill, diversity, originality and creativity. Judging is undertaken by WWT staff alongside Pete Walkden and Jason Curtis, previous winners of the competition.

The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence will be entered into concerning the judging and organisation.

Judging will take place between April and July 2025. Winners will be contacted by email or telephone by the end of June 2025. Winners and runners-up will be contacted before their success is announced publicly. Results will be shared by WWT in July 2025 and MUST NOT be shared by winners or runners-up before that time, in person or social media.

By entering the competition, you grant WWT a non-exclusive, irrevocable licence to reproduce, enlarge, publish or exhibit, on any media, the images for any purpose to further its charitable aims and objectives. This will include but may not be limited to:

• In a calendar
• On the WWT website and social media
• In magazines and other WWT publications
• In conjunction with partners and local media to promote the competition and WWT’s work
• On greeting and Christmas cards as well as other merchandise to raise funds for WWT’s work and charitable aims.

WWT will make every effort to ensure that name credits are given to any photograph published in any medium for any purpose.

We will keep your details securely to enable us to administrate the competition, use your images and contact you with news directly relating to the competition. Entrants have the ability to opt-in to our monthly e-newsletter via the entry form. Details of this are available at the opt-in stage and entrants are able to unsubscribe at any time via the ‘unsubscribe’ button with the e-newsletter.

We value your privacy and promise to keep your personal details safe and secure. We will never sell your data. You can read our privacy policy.

• By entering the competition, entrants will be deemed to have agreed to be bound by these terms and conditions. Breach of the conditions will void their entry.
• Entrants agree to providing a quote for their image/s should they win and to cooperate fully with reasonable publicity to promote the competition and calendar.