Many of our new members are struggling with the requirement to write some comments to accompany their competition entries. This is an important aspect of competition photography and provides a chance to catch the judges attention with helpful information that might not be obvious at first glance. To help new members I have republished this Forum post.

Images submitted to competition galleries may have requirements in addition to meeting the theme. For some time there has been an additional requirement in the rules asking members to provide the reason why the photographer has entered the image in the current competition. Most entrants satisfy the first requirement of meeting the theme, but many do not not attempted to explain why they entered the image in the comp. The intent of this additional requirement is to encourage members to think about the qualities of their image that make it worth entering in the comp. If you like, it is asking members to self-critique their entry and to explain why it is a worthy entrant. There can be many reasons why an image is a worthy entrant, for example it might show some interesting or unusual behaviour, it might have some special lighting effect that makes it particularly attractive, or the timing might capture some exquisite moment, and of course it might be some or all of these as well as other positive attributes both aesthetic and technical. If you ask yourself ‘what do I like about this image?’, then you will be on the right track. If your answer is that this image has merit because of A, B and C, then tell us about A, B and C in your comments. If you struggle to find any reason other than it satisfies the theme, then maybe you should reconsider entering the image in the comp. If you are wondering what makes a good comp image then I recommend you read the judges responses to this question on the BirdLife Photo Awards website here . In general terms you need to think about the following: is the subject interesting, is it a pleasing composition, is the lighting special or attractive, and does the timing capture a special moment. All competition entries need to have some of these attributes and we want you to tell us about them in the comments submitted with your image.

Ian Wilson
Competition Moderator