The Outlaws photographic competition year is now in full swing and this is the second projected digital image (PDI) competition this year, with a further three rounds to follow ending in late October.

This month’s competition had nineteen entrants in the Open category and seventeen in the Themed, increasing entrant numbers indeed as members embrace the club competitions.

The current Outlaws PDI league standings (prior to this competition) has Lois Webb & Ray Andrews level on seventy-one points, Malcolm Nabarro, Sue Jackson & Nigel Stewart tying for second place on sixty-nine points, followed closely by Lester Woodward & Lloyd Dunkley on sixty-seven points.

Success for the Outlaws.

Lester has been crowned London Camera Exchange (LCE) Action Photographer of the Year 2025.

The competition is free to enter and consists of a number of different categories.

Ten Finalists are selected for each section, and a winning image is selected; these images are then judged to find an overall winner and runner-up.

The first print competition of 2025 was held at St James church Hall the home of the Nottingham Outlaws. The print competition is run on a bi-monthly basis, through to the final round which is in November and points scored by the entrants contribute to their position in the Outlaw’s print league table. 

The judge for this first round of the competition was Richard Houghton from Market Harborough who has judged at the club previously. There were two categories for Richard to judge, the Open category and the Themed category which in this instance was “Black & White”.

Richard gave a description of the criteria that he would be working to and it went like this, 1 Composition, 2 Focus, 3 Exposure, 4 Storytelling, 5 Impact (a WoW moment!) and finally 6 Impact on the judge.

In total there were twenty-seven entries in the Open category and twenty-nine in the Themed.

February is the start of the Nottingham Outlaws competition year and the first competition is a projected digital image (PDI), over the course of 2025 there will be a further four PDI competitions.

This month’s competition had twenty-one entrants which includes a number of new members, this is of real significance as the club membership continues to grow and goes from strength to strength and the members are enjoying the competition challenges.

The judge for the evening was Sean Taylor from Eastwood Photographic Society, this was Sean’s first visit to the Outlaws and he was made to feel very welcome by all attending. Sean made an initial comment (having taken an initial look) that the quality of the images was very high and this was going to make his selections challenging!

There were two categories for Sean to judge, the Open category and the Themed category which for February was “Steps”. In total there were thirty-eight submission entries in the Themed section and thirty-seven in the Open.

The Outlaws are back at the clubhouse and January see’s the start of the competition year with a unique standalone event which is in both PDI & Print formats. This is a really popular competition with the members as they are both the entrants & the judges. There are no prerequisites regarding categories or themes and generally speaking many of these images are getting their first ever public showing, so it is quite an exciting time.

The evening starts off with a set of score sheets issued to every member with the instruction to choose six images and rank them in order of preference. The images are then projected onto a large screen for all of the membership to see and judge and after several run throughs voting commences.

The Outlaws had some significant successes at the N&EMPF awards ceremony held recently at Patching’s Farm Art Centre near Calverton Nottinghamshire.

Congratulations go to Nige Stewart who has won the NEMPF Cheetham cup for his image White Hall New York City.  The trophy which is new for 2025 is awarded to the selected winning image in the category of mono print. 

Nigel receiving the Cheetham trophy, pictured with Carol Cheetham & N&EMPF President Steve Walters.

Throughout 2024 Nigel has focused on improving his printing techniques, trying out a variety of image styles and using textured paper media. When asked about his win he had this to say. “I felt honoured to have won the Cheetham Trophy and especially as I am the first recipient of this prestigious piece of silver-ware, it means a lot to me. It goes to show what encouragement and advice from my fellow club members can do and here at the Outlaws we have some very knowledgeable members who are happy to share their enthusiasm and offer guidance and advice”.