Enter your travel photos to win in our competition!

The penultimate round of our Amateur Photographer of the Year competition is now open for entries! The theme for Round Nine of APOY is Travel so we want to see your best travel photos, from close to home and abroad.

Experiencing cultures different from our own is exhilarating, and the sights and colours of new places provide plenty of inspiration for our photography. Distilling such experiences into a single image is a huge challenge, as it’s tempting to include as much as possible in the frame, so try to only include what really matters. It also goes without saying that showing respect for the people and traditions you might encounter is more important than any photograph, so if someone makes it clear they aren’t comfortable with your camera, walk away.

Your guest judge for Round Nine Travel: Bella Falk

Your guest judge for Round Nine, Travel, is Bella Falk, a multi-award-winning travel blogger, writer, photographer and documentary director based in London. In 2024 she won Trade Feature of the Year at the Inspire Global Media Awards and in 2023 was awarded Blogger of the Year and Best Blog Post at the British Guild of Travel Writers’ Awards. She has travelled to over 70 countries across all continents, and been published in BBC Travel, National Geographic Traveller, and more. See her work at www.passportandpixels.com

Guidance for entering APOY 2024, Travel

See some of our people-related guides and inspiration features to help you with your entries:

ENTER APOY ROUND NINE, TRAVEL, HERE!

Inspiration for your APOY 2024 Travel entries

If you’re planning to enter our Travel round, take these tips from four of our top ten photographers from previous years

Trevor Cole, Donegal

Nikon D850, 24-70mm at 24mm, 1/25sec at f/3.5, ISO 6400

Quiescence in the south sudan cattle camp apoy 2023 round two travel winners — Image: Trevor Cole

This serene image placed Trevor in ninth place in last year’s round. The judges said: ‘We are left wanting to anthropomorphise this scene, thinking of the cattle as a group of people resting around the fire at the end of an arduous day. And yet, look more closely, and you’ll see the figure of a man behind the fire.’

Trevor says: ‘This image was taken at a Mundari cattle camp in Terekeka, South Sudan. I used a Nikon D850 with a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. I used auto ISO (7200) as it was pre-dawn and the light was beginning to slowly materialise. My travel images are always handheld. Composition is an imperative in the cattle camps as it is easy to focus on the subject and forget the “edges” of the composition. Cutting off hooves can, for example, impair an image.

Despite being early in the day, the camera picks up the golden light which heralds the dawn to come. The light from the fire together with the Mundari herdsman, who has slept overnight with his cattle, add further substance to the image and give it a focal point. I called the image “Quiescence in the camp” as the camp was almost totally asleep and a very tranquil scene prevailed. All cattle camps in South Sudan are similar. The fires burn at night, the herders care for their cattle in a symbiotic way and it’s a cyclical existence. This image is intended to epitomise this unique “camp ecosystem” where everything is connected and sustainability truly exists.’

Kirsty Simpson, Essex

Nikon D750, Tamron SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Di VC USD G2 at 26mm, 1/15sec, at f/9, ISO 3200

Baobab Alley at Sunrise APOY 2023 Round Two Travel winner — Image: Kirsty Simpson

Kirsty won last year’s round with this gorgeously mysterious shot. Judges said: ‘The peachy-blue early-morning light that suffuses the image gives it an other-worldly quality, with the unique silhouettes of the baobab trees fading into the distance. The six figures provide a superb sense of scale and the separation between each of them is spot on.’

Kirsty says: ‘We had arranged a sunrise trip to Baobab alley during our trip to Madagascar. There was amazing light at about 4am. As we were setting up our tripods a group of ladies were on their way to the local market. We asked if they would mind waiting a few moments so we could photograph them. Thankfully they didn’t mind. It was still very low light and I wanted a full depth of field, so the shutter speed and ISO had to be managed quite carefully.’

Graeme Youngson, Aberdeenshire

Canon EOS 70D, EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II at 29mm, 1/2000sec at f/7.1, ISO 320

Bo - Kaap Scene in cape town — Image: Graeme Youngson

Graeme’s strikingly seen and composed image bagged him sixth place in 2023. The judges said: ‘Some great observational skills have gone into this picture. Filling nearly the whole frame with one colour is bold, as is composing with the main points of interest at the edges of the frame.’

Graeme says: ‘The Bo-Kaap is an amazing, colourful area of Cape Town in South Africa, with contrasting vibrant colours everywhere. It is a multicultural neighbourhood known for its brightly coloured homes – many of which date from before the 1850s. It’s a very popular destination for tourists. The trick then – as with any popular spot for visitors – is to try to avoid the obvious “postcard” type shots.

‘Here, the challenge was to get an interesting composition which didn’t have too many distracting colours and details in it. I often use conventional compositional techniques – the so-called “rules”– because they can work well. But the big risk is that your photos can be become a bit repetitive, predictable, and formulaic if you use them all the time. I am therefore tempted to try out some different, more unusual and hopefully dynamic approaches to composition.

‘With this shot I positioned the camera so that the four elements of the photo were towards the edge of the frame, to provide something a bit unexpected and to force the viewer to look towards the frame’s edges. The boy and the car are facing in different directions – again pointing the viewer towards the edges of the photo.

‘I decided to use only one predominant colour to remove distractions and to streamline the scene. The portion of the red car mirrors the colour of the wall. I wanted a simple but bold shot of a very colourful part of the world.’

Tommaso Carrara, France

Leica Q2, Summilux 1:1.7/28 Asph, 1/320sec at f/11, ISO 100

arriving in Essaouira to a plethora of luggage carts through the pedestrian streets — Image: Tommaso Carrara

Tommaso was fourth in last year’s round. The judges said: ‘The men and their trolleys are perfectly placed, giving a sense of being together but apart at the same time. The placement of trees and shadows is perfect, too.’

Tommaso says: ‘I was scouting the city of Essaouira and walking towards the medina (the old part of the town) when I noticed what seemed like a perimeter wall. I thought it could be a good background, then I stumbled upon a few palms. Suddenly I saw in the distance a porter coming my way, then another one coming from the opposite direction. I ran towards what I thought could be the middle point where they would cross paths. These workers, who assist tourists on their arrival in Essaouira, are characteristic, especially when buses arrive from neighbouring towns. It’s almost a monochromatic image and that is what I was drawn to, other than, obviously, the moment itself.’

The camera club award

Do you belong to a camera club? You can accumulate points for your society when you enter APOY, and after all the ten rounds are complete, the club with the most points will win a superb ViewSonic X1-4K projector worth £1,500, with image quality powered by advanced 3rd generation LED technology that offers a 60,000-hour lifespan without lamp replacement. In addition, the member of the winning club who contributed the most points to their club’s overall tally will win a ViewSonic ColorPro VP2786-4K monitor worth £1,000.

The Young APOY award

For the fourth time, we are running an APOY Young Photographer of the Year competition, to encourage our up-and-coming snappers. Entrants should be 21 or younger by the competition’s final closing date of 31 December 2024. All the categories are the same as for the main contest – simply select the Young APOY option on Photocrowd when you upload your images. Entry is free. Each category winner receives a one-year Adobe Photography Plan subscription, worth £120. The overall Young APOY winner receives a £500 voucher to spend at Camera Centre UK*.

What you could win

APOY prizes:

The winner of each round of APOY receives a voucher for £500 to spend at Camera Centre UK*. In addition to this, the winner of each round will also receive a one-year subscription to Adobe’s All Apps plan, worth £660. The runner-up of each round will receive a one-year subscription to Adobe’s Photography plan, worth £120. The overall winner after ten rounds wins a £1,000 voucher to spend at Camera Centre UK.

Young APOY prizes:

The winner of each round of Young APOY receives a one-year subscription to Adobe’s Photography plan, worth £120. The overall winner of Young APOY will receive a £500 voucher to spend at Camera Centre UK*.

Camera club prizes:

The camera club with the highest number of points after ten rounds will receive a 4K ViewSonic projector worth £1,500, while a ViewSonic monitor worth £1,000 will go to the club member who contributed the most points to the winning club’s final points tally.