Competition Themes for 2025

[Tim Mayo]

With another year almost behind us it's time to decide on our monthly competition themes for 2025. I don't know about anyone else but I'm quite enjoying the themed approach to the competitions. It's nice to see a wider variety of shots instead of the majority of competitions being dominated by wildlife, as was mostly the case before we introduced themes.

Looking back over the past 12 months some themes definitely proved more popular than others.

B&W: 40 Entries
Animals: 24 Entries
Reflections: 20 Entries
After Dark: 16 Entries
Mechanized Machines: 14 Entries
Close Up - 13 Entries
Motion - 12 Entries
Patterns: 11 Entries
Long Exposure: 11 Entries
Food: 11 Entries
Landscapes: 7 Entries
Festivities: 3 Entries (still 3 days left)

My proposal would be to keep the following themes again for next year:

Animals
Reflections
After Dark
Mechanized Machines
Close Up
Motion
Patterns
Long Exposure

That just leaves us with 4 new themes to come up with.

I'm thinking for December we could go with: "your favourite shot of the year", which would just leave 3 new themes to come up with.

I'd also propose that we drop the 3 month entry window of the current month and past two months. Although this might encourage more members to get out and shoot rather than relying on older shots, I just think it's limiting entries too much. I'm not restricting the entries like this over on the Canon forum that I run and some months have seen more entries than here even though there are less members over there.

Thoughts below please

 

[Sdawes]

I think the 3 month entry window can be restrictive , I have had a few health issues of late so not been out with the camera much hence not enough " new material " to enter , also some of the subjects might mean that photographers may only have taken one or two images that fit a particular theme if its not their usual genre, but again the few images they may have may have been taken prior to the three month window hence they cannot submit them . Just my thoughts .

 

[iain clyne]

What about Action.

 

[GvilleRick]

How about Sports or Music.

 

[Richard A]

I reckon 2 or 3 open subjects throughout the year would be good. I wouldn't like to see no restriction on time of taking the photo but maybe in the last 12 months.

 

[Killtimer]

Cityscape/Street, Still life or, for a real challenge anything totally unedited and unprocessed.

 

[DaveC Oz]

I like Richards idea of open format topics during the year. I also like the idea of extending the time limits without going fully open. There were a couple of times where I had photo's this year that fit the monthly competitions, but fell outside the time limit. Both times they were shots that were not repeatable within the allotted time frame for various reasons. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[Angus Cameron]

I agree with Richard also, a few open subjects would be good and maybe all photos within the last 12 months or previous and current year.

Angus.

 

[iamdlewis]

Theme suggestion = intentional camera movement

 

[Unframed Dave]

Theme suggestion = intentional camera movement

Good one, bit of creativity required.

 

[alexpler]

B&W (I don't understand why it's not included already, being the most successful by far and it had the most interesting approaches)
Cityscape
Travel
Home (we always go out for shooting, so it'd be a challenge to find something interesting without going out)

I like the "favourite shot of the year" for December. And I think deleting the 3 months window will improve the participation. Sometimes it happened that I had a fitting shot for a theme but I had took it earlier that year.

 

[Richard A]

B&W is always a good theme & Cityscape. I think Travel is a bit hard to define though.

 

[evacguy]

With another year almost behind us it's time to decide on our monthly competition themes for 2025. I don't know about anyone else but I'm quite enjoying the themed approach to the competitions. It's nice to see a wider variety of shots instead of the majority of competitions being dominated by wildlife, as was mostly the case before we introduced themes.

Looking back over the past 12 months some themes definitely proved more popular than others.

B&W: 40 Entries
Animals: 24 Entries
Reflections: 20 Entries
After Dark: 16 Entries
Mechanized Machines: 14 Entries
Close Up - 13 Entries
Motion - 12 Entries
Patterns: 11 Entries
Long Exposure: 11 Entries
Food: 11 Entries
Landscapes: 7 Entries
Festivities: 3 Entries (still 3 days left)

My proposal would be to keep the following themes again for next year:

Animals
Reflections
After Dark
Mechanized Machines
Close Up
Motion
Patterns
Long Exposure

That just leaves us with 4 new themes to come up with.

I'm thinking for December we could go with: "your favourite shot of the year", which would just leave 3 new themes to come up with.

I'd also propose that we drop the 3 month entry window of the current month and past two months. Although this might encourage more members to get out and shoot rather than relying on older shots, I just think it's limiting entries too much. I'm not restricting the entries like this over on the Canon forum that I run and some months have seen more entries than here even though there are less members over there.

Thoughts below please

Not sure why Black and White is not on the list??? I suggest the following additional themes in order of preference, as it happens. most are also categories in the Sony World Photography competition:
1) Black and White,
2) Street, (this is a category in the Sony World Photography competition),
3) Land and City Scape (this is a category in the Sony World Photography competition),
4) Creative (this is a category in the Sony World Photography competition),
5) Natural World and Wildlife (this is a category in the Sony World Photography competition which caters for a quite an open field).

I'm personnally not a fan of the 'Open' category, I think it lacks the spirit of a group challenge. It's been really interesting to see what everyone comes up with on each of the themes.

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

I like Alex's idea of "home" because that could be inside the house, or the house itself, or still life, or Macro; could get very creative...

 

[Tim Mayo]

Not sure why Black and White is not on the list??? I suggest the following additional themes in order of preference, as it happens. most are also categories in the Sony World Photography competition:
1) Black and White,
2) Street, (this is a category in the Sony World Photography competition),
3) Land and City Scape (this is a category in the Sony World Photography competition),
4) Creative (this is a category in the Sony World Photography competition),
5) Natural World and Wildlife (this is a category in the Sony World Photography competition which caters for a quite an open field).

I'm personnally not a fan of the 'Open' category, I think it lacks the spirit of a group challenge. It's been really interesting to see what everyone comes up with on each of the themes.

Oops. It was supposed to be. I somehow missed off our most popular theme!

 

[Tim Mayo]

Thanks for your feedback everyone. I've taken it on board for this years themes. It's always hard to please everyone but hopefully people will enjoy the following themes. Some repeats from last year but also some new themes to mix it up a little.

• Jan: Black & White
• Feb: Natural World and Wildlife
• Mar: Creative
• Apr: Action
• May: Mechanized Machines
• Jun: Land and City Scapes
• Jul: At Home
• August: Close Up / Macro
• Sep: Long Exposure
• Oct: Street
• Nov: After Dark
• Dec: Your Favorite Shot of 2025

The restriction on the creation date has also been removed, apart from December which hopefully goes without saying.