Alan Townsend Memorial Trophy Competition

Our 2026 competition is named in honour of our late leader. It will be held on  on 5th February 2027. For anyone wanting to enter, please see thee Rules below. Ideally your images should be from 2026.

Our annual competition trophy for images from 2025 and held in February 2026, was won by Steve Parrish (right with judge John Whaler). Our 2024 and 2025 winner, Sue Cross, was second with Paul Lancaster third. Below is the winning set of photos.

Guidance for those entering:

• Three separate pictures on A3 or A4 paper, mounted, and each picture a DIFFERENT GENRE. 
• On the back of each print  write your Member Number, (NOT YOUR NAME) The TITLE and GENRE of each print, followed by  1,2,3,  In the order from left to right in which you want your prints to be exhibited. 
• Please write the details on the back of the entry at the top as you wish it to be seen in case there is any potential for getting it wrong when they are displayed.
• Please don’t be late so we can organise all the prints ready for presentation 

Competition Rules

• The competition is open to any member of Snappers, i.e. anyone attending and paying at meetings.
• Each person may enter only one portfolio of three images
• An entry consists of a portfolio of three images and is open, not tied to any given topic. These must all be of a different genre and not have been used in a Snappers annual competition previously. What is included within some of the genres for the purposes of Snappers competitions has recently been clarified. (See within Clarification below).
• All elements of all images submitted must be the work of the author. NB this must not include any objects not already in the image which have been produced by AI
• All images must be prints, no larger than A3. NB No dimension to be larger than the longest side of A3. This does not include the surrounding mount.
• All prints must be mounted. The mount will not be judged and images fixed to the surface of a mount board will be accepted
• Images will be considered individually on their merits. No account will be taken of the relationship of the images to each other - i.e. it is a portfolio and not a panel of 3
• The winner will be the person who, in the opinion of the judge, demonstrates the greatest overall ability
• The decision of the judge is final
• Images should be brought on the day and handed in on arrival
• The title, genre and member’s number should be written on the reverse of each image to be read out to the judge when the image is presented. No name should appear anywhere on the image.
• No marking is permitted on the front of any image. They will be judged anonymously

Clarification

• Images are not limited to those taken in the last calendar year, since this is impossible to verify easily. Competitors are urged to submit recent work to be critiqued at their current standard
• Genres include portrait, scapes (see below), still life, architecture etc.
• Landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes, skyscapes of any other sort of 'scape' all now come under one genre known as SCAPES 
• NB Architectural photography is focused on a particular building or structure (exterior or interior), paying tribute to the work of an architect, designer or a particular period in history.
• A Cityscape is generally a wider angled shot which is all encompassing and spans a large area of a City, usually including the skyline.
• A technique e.g. colour / mono / long exposure / macro is not a genre. The subject matter rather than the technique used to capture it is the genre so e.g. a long exposure landscape is still a 'scape' for the purposes of our competitions.