Enter your best landscapes to APOY 2024!

Round Five of Amateur Photographer of the Year 2024 (APOY) is now open for entries! The theme for this round of APOY is Landscapes so we want to see your best seascapes, urban, mountain and country scenes.

A good landscape image transports the viewer to the very spot where you were standing when you took the shot, allowing them to drink in the same sights as you. More than almost any other category, landscape is about light, and the two are almost inextricably linked. Good light – whether it’s the sun bursting through a dramatic cloud formation, or the soft illumination that comes just before dawn – has a transformative effect on the landscape, and can lift an ordinary scene to something spectacular.

ENTER APOY ROUND FIVE, LANDSCAPES, HERE!

Deadline: 12th August 11:59pm BST

Round Five, Landscapes, guest judge: Paul Sanders

Your guest judge for Round Five, Landscapes, is Paul Sanders, a fine-art photographer and former picture editor of The Times. His approach to landscape photography is one of mindful connection. After looking at nearly 20,000 images every day during his years at The Times, now his own work is made in response to his emotional and spiritual reactions to the locations he visits. See more of his work at www.discoverstill.com

APOY 2024 Landscape Inspiration

If you’re planning to enter our Landscapes round, take these tips from four of last year’s top ten photographers

Lynn Fraser, Muir of Ord

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, 100-400mm at 400mm, 1/320sec at f/6.3, ISO 100

deep azure sky, with the gold strip at the bottom and the two pylons — Image: Lynn Fraser

Lynn came fourth last year with a minimal shot that’s all about the dramatic light. The judges said: ‘As Lynn herself says, you don’t always need to travel far for a dazzling shot – and this was taken from her back step! The frame needs nothing else, as it’s all about that astonishingly deep azure sky, with the gold strip at the bottom.’

Lynn says: ‘I love to travel the world to see and experience the landscapes of different countries. Getting caught up in the wonders of our world, it can be all too easy to overlook what is on our doorsteps. This image is a reminder to look closer to home because it was, quite literally, taken from my back doorstep. It’s a scene I look at each time I step out of the door; a scene that constantly changes depending on the weather.

‘I always think of it as where the sky meets the earth and on this particular day, with the afternoon sun lighting up the barley and the darkening sky threatening rain, that meeting looked incredibly dramatic. I had stepped outside, saw the intense colours (a photographer’s dream) and immediately went back inside for my camera. Using the longest lens I have, I isolated a telegraph pole within the frame to give a sense of scale and a minimalist effect. One of those rare days where I didn’t have to work too hard for an image.’

John Seager, Bristol

DJI Air 2S, 22mm, 1/730sec at f/2.8, ISO 110

drone shot of the Cono de Arita in Argentina apoy 2023 landscape winner — Image: John Seager

John won last year’s landscapes round with his drone shot, taken in Argentina. The judges said: ‘We rely on photography to give us a different view on the world, and that’s exactly what this does. It plays with our sense of perspective and scale, while his choice of time of day is perfect.’

John says: ‘I made this image during a trip in July 2022 to an area known as the Puna de Argentina, a high-altitude region in the far north-west of Argentina with surreal landscapes formed by volcanic activity and erosion. One of the features of the Puna is the string of enormous salt pans that stretch out under the foothills of the Andes chain.

‘This image is of El Cono Arita, a spectacular geological formation where erosion has shaped this conical structure that seems to be lost in a vast desert of the Salar de Arizaro. Legend has it that the name Arita means “sharp” in the ancient Aymara language.

‘I had visited this site before and knew that the early evening sun casts a long shadow on the salt pan. Using a drone, I was able to capture the magnificent sight of Arita and its shadow on that beautiful, cloudless evening.’

Tony North, Manchester

Nikon D500, 11-16mm at 12mm, 211sec at f/3.2, ISO 1250

Blue Tajinaste mountain landscape in mallorca at night — Image: Tony North

Tony came third in last year’s landscape round with a spectacular night shot. The judges said: ‘The clouds creeping into the right-hand side of the image are almost spooky in their progress, while the intensely purple flowers in the foreground help anchor the scene.’

Tony says: ‘This image was taken in May 2022, at the top of the volcano on La Palma in the Canaries. La Palma has the clearest skies in Europe; this, along with the dramatic scenery, makes it ideal for astrophotographers.

‘I drove up around 2pm to explore. Many hours later I had my spot: a sweeping view of the mountains, with the blue Tajinaste Azul flower in front. Using my Photographer’s Ephemeris app, I knew the arc of the Milky Way would be where I wanted it around 2am.

‘At 10pm, when blue hour light illuminated the scene, I took some foreground shots. At 2am I took the same foreground shots, and separate sky shots using a star tracker (iOptron Sky Tracker). A star tracker rotates the camera at the same speed as the Earth, tracking the stars as they move. This allows a much longer exposure, and so more richness of colour and detail.

‘The 2am foreground shots turned out to be useless. It was so dark that the detail-to-noise ratio was poor. In processing therefore, I used the blue hour shots for the foreground.

‘Post processing was complicated, as I had to stitch the foreground and sky shots separately, then match these two panoramas together. I also raised shadows, enhanced detail and clarity, and reduced noise.’

Nigel Watson, Bude

Canon EOS 7D Mark II, 24-105mm at 24mm, 1/1250sec at f/7.1, ISO 640

aerial view of Dune 45 in Namibia — Image: Nigel Watson

Nigel secured seventh place last year with a well-seen semi-abstract. The judges said: ‘Nigel has met the challenge of framing in such a situation extremely well, with the curve of the dune leading the eye from bottom left to top right, while the contrast created by the early-morning light gives a sense of real depth.’

Nigel says: ‘I was on holiday with my wife in Namibia and I was particularly looking forward to seeing the iconic Dune 45, which is in the Sossusvlei area of the Namib Desert. When there, I initially took a number of photos from ground level of the S-curve as well as taking pictures of some people who were climbing up the dune. However, there was an opportunity to take a light aircraft flight to view the various dunes from above. The flight was in the early morning, which is ideal to get the dark and light sides of the dune.

‘With any such photo opportunity, it is always important to ensure that the camera settings were reviewed, and the lens is pristine clean, particularly after being in a desert area with breeze, sand and dust to contend with. I set the focal length of my EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM to 24mm and pushed the ISO to 640 as clearly the plane was moving quite fast, and I needed to get
a sharp picture.’

Guidance for entering APOY 2024, Landscapes

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

ENTER APOY ROUND FIVE, LANDSCAPES, HERE!

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.