Our judge this evening for our annual Nature Competition is Peter McCloskey FRPS APAGB
Peter is a past president of WCPF He has judged competitions for us before and we enjoyed his insightful and balanced critique of our images.
PLEASE NOTE
All the rules for Nature Competitions as specified by PAGB, FIAP, RPS, PSA etc apply here so PLEASE read the rules on our website specifically for nature competitions. You can find the full rules for all competitions in our Competition Terms and Conditions document under the "Club" menu on the website but to help you, the specific rules on image content for Nature Competitions are extracted and shown here:
4. NATURE
Nature - As defined by PAGB 2018 - (Stroud Camera Club Nature Competitions draw no distinction between Nature and Wildlife and so the less restrictive rules for Nature below apply):
Nature photography is restricted to the use of the photographic process to depict all branches of natural history, except anthropology and archaeology, in such a fashion that a well-informed person will be able to identify the subject material and certify its honest presentation. The story telling value of a Nature photograph must be weighed more than the pictorial quality while maintaining high technical quality. Scientific bands, scientific tags or radio collars on wild animals are permissible. Photographs of human created hybrid plants, cultivated plants, feral animals, domestic animals, or mounted specimens are ineligible, as is any form of manipulation that alters the truth of the photographic statement.
Processing of the captured image, by cropping, exposure adjustment, colour correction, noise minimisation, dodging/burning, HDR, focus stacking and sharpening, is allowed. Cloning out of image defects and minor distractions, including overlapping elements, are permitted when these do not distort the truth of the photographic statement.
Images entered as Nature can have landscape, geologic formations, weather phenomena, and extant organisms as the primary subject matter. This includes images taken with the subjects in controlled conditions, such as zoos, game farms, botanical gardens, aquariums and any enclosure where the subjects are totally dependent on man for food.
Ethical Considerations. There is one hard and fast rule, whose spirit must be observed at all times: The welfare of the subject is more important than the photograph. This means that practices such as baiting of subjects with a living creature and removal of birds from nests, for the purpose of obtaining a photograph, are highly unethical, and such photographs are not allowed in Nature competitions. Judges are warned not to reward them. Killing or injuring any living thing is not a proper part of our nature photography. The ethical nature photographer should not participate in, nor endorse, the practice of sacrificing a living animal for the purpose of photographing a predator actually killing live prey under controlled conditions. Any behaviour, such as baiting, that alters an animal's normal foraging and is done solely for the purpose of acquiring images is contrary to the field ethics promoted by photography organisations worldwide and we discourage the entry of any such images in SCC competitions.
Aerial Nature Photography. Entrants may not obtain photographs of animals or birds by the use of drones. Participants may photograph scenery/landscapes from drones provided that no laws or regulations are violated in the area where the drone is flown.