Image Challenge Dates for 2025

Note:

• Meetings indicated with an asterisk (*) are Zoom meetings. Only digital images can be submitted for these competitions
  
• Submission deadline is 11.30 pm on the 'Submission Deadline' date listed above. This cutoff is enforced by Visual Pursuits and it is not possible to upload or change images after this time

Definition of Themes for 2025

At any of the monthly image challenges you may enter an image in the set theme competitions (print or digital competition) or you may enter an image in the open competitions (print or digital). Across all image challenges for the month, you may enter up to two images.

The themes are:

January - Minimalism 

Like other forms of minimalist art, minimalist photography is about stripping a subject down to its essence. Create an innovative image that cuts through the clutter and leaves only the essential element.

February - Black and white

Black and white photography is a genre that captures images using only shades of grey, ranging from pure black to pure white. It totally excludes the use of colour, allowing the focus to be on composition, light, texture, and emotion.  Tonality plays an important role as it determines how grades of grey tones interact with each other.

March - Open Nature

NZ or overseas - we intend this category to cater for those images you would like to enter in a “Natural History” competition but can’t because of the restrictive nature of the techniques involved. You may use any photographic technique you like here, but when finished, your image must look natural. Only scientific names or common names to be used as titles.

We are using the PSNZ definition: 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 photograph must be weighed more than the pictorial quality while maintaining high technical quality. Human elements shall not be present, except where those human elements are integral parts of the nature story such as nature subjects – such as barn owls or storks – adapted to an environment modified by humans, or where those human elements are in situations depicting natural forces, such as hurricanes or tidal waves. Scientific bands, scientific tags or radio collars on wild animals are allowed.

Photographs of human created hybrid plants, cultivated plants, feral animals, domestic animals, or mounted specimens are NOT eligible, as is any form of manipulation that alters the truth of the photographic statement. No techniques that add, relocate, replace, or remove pictorial elements except by cropping are allowed. Techniques that enhance the presentation of the photograph without changing the nature story or the pictorial content, or without altering the content of the original scene, are allowed, including HDR, focus stacking and dodging/burning. Techniques that remove elements added by the camera, such as dust spots, digital noise and film scratches, are allowed.  Stitched images are not allowed. All allowed adjustments must appear natural. Colour images can be converted to grey-scale monochrome.  Infrared images, either direct-captures or derivations, are NOT allowed.

Images entered in Nature sections meeting the Nature Photography Definition above may have landscapes, 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.

N.B. Landscapes in Nature need to showcase some natural feature, which is explicit in the title.

April - Patterns

In nature or man-made

May - Triptych

A triptych, when applied to photography, is a group of three pictures. It could be three photographs mounted in a frame, closely associated pictures displayed near each other or three parts of one image. Each image must be distinctly separated from the others. The subject of a triptych is an important defining characteristic. The pictures should have a common theme. This could be a story, similar compositional elements, colours, similar subject matter – anything that draws the pictures together as a group.  The group should be stronger than each part.

June - Creative (On Zoom)

Creative photography is a technique by which you combine different shapes, colours, and forms of ordinary moments and turn them into creative arts using your photography skills. This type of photography demands a unique way of seeing things, it projects an innovative image, altered from reality. A creative image may contain alteration such as distortion that is intentional and used to show a different aspect from the usual world view.

July - Portrait (On Zoom)

Any genre of photography provided that the subject of the image is undoubtedly the person or persons being depicted.

August - Triangular composition (On Zoom)

This is NOT about finding triangles in your scene, taking photos of triangles, or shooting things that are triangle-shaped.  Rather, we are visualizing triangles in our scene that will shape our general composition. This may or may not include actual triangle shapes, but the focus is on the composition.

September - Architecture

Architectural photography refers to the art and practice of capturing and documenting architectural structures, spaces, and elements through the medium of photography. It involves the careful composition, lighting, and framing of buildings, structures, and their details to convey their aesthetic qualities, design principles, and the intended experience of the architectural space. The building element must be the dominant subject in the image.

October - Chaos

Disorder or confusion

November - End of Year