We launched our first Photography Competition during National Insect Week 2006 and had a superb response with over 1100 entries from amateur photographers in the UK and around the world. You can see a slideshow of the winning and commended entries at the bottom of our Photography Competition Welcome page.

To celebrate National Insect Week 2008 (23–29 June 2008) the Royal Entomological Society has once again teamed up with the Environment Agency to stage our second Insect Photography Competition, with the Riverfly Partnership providing an additional Riverfly Competition. Our media partner is BBC Wildlife magazine.
 

Photograph © and courtesy of
David Maitland

To take part, all you have to do is to take a photograph of an insect or a group of insects and send it to us as a print. Competitors can submit up to three entries.

There will be two Categories for prizes sponsored by the Environment Agency:

• Best Insect Photograph by a person aged under 18 on 31 October 2008
• Best Insect Photograph by a person aged 18 or over on 31 October 2008

In each Category, there will be a 1st and a 2nd Prize Winner. Runners-up in each Category will receive a formal letter of commendation (Specially Commended, Highly Commended or Commended) from the organisers.

Photograph © and courtesy of
John Hallard

The 1st Prize Winner in each Best Insect Photograph Category will receive a cash prize of £500, and their winning image will be published in the Royal Entomological Society’s bulletin Antenna. The 2nd Prize Winner in each Category will receive a cash prize of £250.

In addition, the Riverfly Competition for the Best Photographs of a Riverfly (adult or nymph of a mayfly, caddisfly or stonefly – see www.riverflies.org for more information) is open to entrants of any age in the Insect Photography Competition. The Riverfly Competition is sponsored by Riverfly Partnership and the Environment Agency.

The 1st Prize Winner in the Riverfly Competition will receive a cash prize of £500, and their winning image will be published in the Royal Entomological Society’s bulletin Antenna. The 2nd Prize Winner will receive a cash prize of £250. Two 3rd Prize Winners will each receive a copy of Sir David Attenborough’s book Life in the Undergrowth signed by the author. Three Runners-Up will each receive a copy of Sir David Attenborough’s book Life in the Undergrowth. The Riverfly Competition judges may also award commendations.

Photograph © and courtesy of
Nigel Widdows

Selected prize-winning images may also be published in BBC Wildlife magazine, and the editors of the Royal Entomological Society’s bulletin Antenna may publish other prize-winning or commended images in addition to those of the 1st Prize-Winners.

Photographs taken with either film or digital cameras are eligible, but must be submitted as unmounted prints – minimum size either A5 (210×148mm) or 8”×6”, maximum size either A4 (297×210mm) or 12”×8”. After judging, the winners and runners-up will be asked to provide copies of digital files or negatives/transparencies, but these must not be sent with your initial entry. The entrant must be the person who took the photograph and owns the copyright.

Photograph © and courtesy of
Heather Buckley

You should attach a label to the back of each photograph (up to three entries per person) with your full name (and title), age (if under 18) on 31 October 2008, postal address, e-mail address (or contact telephone number), and a title or description for the photograph, declaring which Category (under-18, or 18 and over) you are entering, and indicating whether or not you wish the photograph also to be entered for the Riverfly Competition (or – if you are not sure whether your photograph is of a riverfly – that you wish the organizers to decide whether it is eligible to be entered for the Riverfly Competition). For convenience, please use our official entry labels (download a set of three ‘cut-out’ entry labels for the NIW2008 Insect Photography Competition). The label should be affixed so that its top edge corresponds to the top edge of the photograph. Winners and runners-up in the under-18 Category may be asked to provide evidence of their date of birth before their award can be confirmed.

Send your labelled photograph(s) – preferably in a stiffened envelope – to:
       NIW Photography Competition
       PO Box 384
       WEST MALLING
       ME6 9FE
       United Kingdom (for entries posted outside the UK).

The Insect Photography Competition was be launched on Monday 23 June 2008 by wildlife TV presenter and photographer Chris Packham in Chelsea Physic Garden, London, at the start of National Insect Week. The closing date for the competition is Friday 31 October 2008 – entries received at the PO Box after 12 noon on that date will not be eligible.

Photograph © and courtesy of
Stuart MacLaren

The winners and runners-up in the Best Insect Photograph categories will be notified by Friday 28 November 2008. Winners and runners-up in the Riverfly Competition will be notified by Friday 5 December 2008. The confirmed awards will be announced publicly on the NIW website during December 2008.

By entering your photograph(s) in the Competition, you grant the Competition organisers and prize-sponsors a free non-exclusive licence to use the image(s) in their corporate promotion, publicity and publications, and in any promotional material connected to this competition. However, the copyright remains with you as the photographer, and your name as the photographer will – wherever possible – be credited if the image is used.

We regret that we cannot return the submitted photographic prints. The judges’ decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into.
 

 

1. The organisers of the Competition are the Royal Entomological Society, sponsored by the Environment Agency and the Riverfly Partnership, with the BBC Wildlife magazine as media partner.

General

2. The Competition is open to anyone except professional photographers and individuals (or their families) directly involved in the Competition’s organisation.
3. Photographs entered for the Competition should feature an insect (or group of insects) occurring naturally in the situation in which it is photographed. Studio photographs of posed specimens, or photographs of preserved dead specimens, will not be considered. Photographs of other invertebrates (e.g. spiders, woodlice, snails) are not eligible (unless they are present in a composition that primarily features insects).
4. A photograph that has previously won a prize in a major competition (one receiving more than 500 entries) is not eligible for entry in this Competition.
5. Entrants are invited to provide a title or description for each photograph, but these titles or descriptions will not be considered by the judges in reaching their decisions on the award of prizes or commendations. Winners and runners-up may be asked to amend a title or description if it appears to contain an error.
6. Up to three entries per person are allowed. Submissions of more than three photographs by one person will not be considered until and unless the entrant specifies which three photographs are to be entered.
7. The entrant must be the person who took the photograph and owns its copyright.

Categories

8. All eligible entries will be considered for one of the two Categories in the main Competition for Best Insect Photographs, sponsored by the Environment Agency, depending on the entrant’s age (under 18, or 18 and over) on 31 October 2008. Entrants in the under-18 Category whose photographs are selected by the judges as winners or runners-up may be asked to provide evidence of their date of birth before their award can be confirmed.
9. Additionally, photographs will be considered for the Riverfly Competition for Best Riverfly Photographs, sponsored by the Riverfly Partnership and the Environment Agency, either (a) if the entrant knows that their photograph is of a riverfly (mayfly, caddisfly or stonefly) and specifically asks for it to be entered in the Riverfly Competition, or (b) if the entrant is unsure whether their photograph is of a riverfly and allows the organisers to decide (if necessary, after consulting experts in the identification of freshwater insects) whether it is eligible to be entered in the Riverfly Competition.

Submission of Entries

10. Photographs may be taken with either film or digital cameras, but must be submitted as unmounted and unframed prints. Print size must be between a minimum of either A5 (210×148mm) or 8”×6” and a maximum of either A4 (297×210mm) or 12”×8”.
11. A label must be attached to the back of each photograph (up to three per person) giving the information specified in the Instructions for Entry. Wherever possible, entrants should use the downloadable labels provided on the NIW website to ensure that they provide all the required information. Photographs with incomplete labelling cannot be accepted.
12. After judging, the winners and runners-up will be asked to provide copies of digital files or originals of negatives or transparencies for reproduction, but these must not be sent with the initial entry of a print. Original negatives and transparencies will be returned promptly after they have been copied to digital format. Failure to provide these digital files or photographic originals, when they have been requested by the organisers, will invalidate the associated award.
13. Entries should be posted to the address specified in the Instructions for Entry from 23 June 2008. The closing date for receipt of entries is Friday 31 October 2008 – entries received at the PO Box after 12 noon on that date will not be eligible. The submitted photographic prints cannot be returned to entrants.
    

Judges

14. The judging panel for the Competition for Best Insect Photographs, sponsored by the Environment Agency, will comprise: Alastair Driver, National Conservation Manager of the Environment Agency; Prof. Chris Haines, NIW Coordinator for the Royal Entomological Society; and Sophie Stafford, Editor of BBC Wildlife magazine.
15. The judging panel for the Riverfly Competition for Best Photographs of a Riverfly, sponsored by the Riverfly Partnership with its partner the Environment Agency, will comprise: Dr Cyril Bennett, mayfly expert, photographer and fly-fisherman, founding member of the Riverfly Partnership; Peter Lapsley, fly-fisherman, well-known angling journalist, author and photographer; and Prof. Chris Haines, NIW Coordinator for the Royal Entomological Society.
16. The judges’ decisions are final and no correspondence on these decisions will be entered into.
    

Notification of Results

17. The winners and runners-up in the Best Insect Photograph categories will be notified by Friday 28 November 2008. Winners and runners-up in the Riverfly Competition will be notified by Friday 5 December 2008. The organisers accept no responsibility for failure to notify a winner or runner-up in cases where the contact details provided on the entry form are incorrect or no longer valid. The confirmed awards will be announced publicly on the NIW website during December 2008, and published in other media as appropriate. Such announcements will usually give the photographer’s name, age (if under 18), county/province (where relevant) and country, plus the title/description of the photograph, and the description of the prize or commendation.
    

Prizes

18. The prizes in the Best Insect Photograph categories, sponsored by the Environment Agency, are as follows. The 1st Prize Winner in each Category (under-18, or 18 and over) will receive a cash prize of £500, and their winning image will be published in the Royal Entomological Society’s bulletin Antenna. The 2nd Prize Winner in each Category (under-18, or 18 and over) will receive a cash prize of £250.
19. The prizes in the Riverfly Competition, sponsored by the Riverfly Partnership and the Environment Agency, are as follows. The 1st Prize Winner will receive a cash prize of £500, and their winning image will be published in the Royal Entomological Society’s bulletin Antenna. The 2nd Prize Winner will receive a cash prize of £250. Two 3rd Prize Winners will each receive a copy of Sir David Attenborough’s book Life in the Undergrowth signed by the author. Three Runners-Up will each receive a copy of Sir David Attenborough’s book Life in the Undergrowth.
20. Selected prize-winning images may also be published in BBC Wildlife magazine, and the editors of the Royal Entomological Society’s bulletin Antenna may publish other prize-winning or commended images in addition to those of the 1st Prize-Winners.
    

Reproduction and Copyright

21. By entering a photograph in the Competition, the photographer grants the Competition organisers (the Royal Entomological Society) and prize-sponsors (the Environment Agency and the Riverfly Partnership) a free non-exclusive licence to use the image in their corporate promotion, publicity and publications, and in any promotional material connected to this Competition. However, the copyright remains with the photographer and in any such use of the image by the organisers and sponsors, the name of the photographer will be credited – wherever possible – in a by-line, caption, footnote, or acknowledgement.