Congratulations go to Lois Webb from all of the members of Nottingham Outlaws for recently attaining a Distinction award from the PAGB. This is a significant challenge and one that Lois addressed head on, below are her words & thoughts on how she actually approached the sittuation.

“The APM (Awards for Photographic Merit) are available to members of Clubs affiliated to the PAGB (Photographic Alliance of Great Britain) through their Federations. There are five levels of awards. Having been awarded my CPAGB (Credit) in 2015, I am delighted to have achieved success this April and have gained the next level of DPAGB (Distinction). 

The 1^st print competition of 2026 was held on Thursday 26^th March 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 of the same year and all points scored in the rounds contribute towards the Outlaw of the year print league table. 

The judge for this round of the competition was Bob Galley who is a member of Newark & District Photographic Society. There were two categories for Bob to judge, the Open category and the Themed category which was “Portraiture”. In total there were 29 entries in the open and 27 in the themed.

The Open competition again attracted a wide variety of genres of photography including sport, nature, landscape, artistic nude & architecture. The themed competition had many stunning portrait images and Bob said that this was going to be a very difficult competition for him to judge because of the quality of the work.

Lester Woodward’s image “Pink Madness” was chosen for the front page of the NEMPF exhibition catalogue 2026. Lester is seen here receiving his award from NEMPF Chairman Gary Langley.

The Outlaws continue to go from strength to strength and awards like this demonstrate the level of commitment and effort that the club & individuals invest in their photography and competition events.

Lester receiving his award from Gary Langley NEMPF Chairman.

The Outlaws photographic competition year is now in full swing and this is the second projected digital image (PDI) competition so far, with a further three to follow. Competitions are held every month and are alternated between PDI’s and mounted Prints.

This month’s competition had approximately thirty images entered into each of the competition categories. The Outlaws competitions are certainly very popular with the membership, to the degree that a limitation had to be invoked otherwise there was insufficient time to display and critique the work.

The judge for this evening’s competitions was Phil Peat from Ilkeston Photo 2000 Camera Club. 

Phil was made very welcome and there were two categories for him to judge, the Open category and the Themed which for April was “Reflections”. 

NOPS members were fortunate to be invited to a training session with Nottingham Roller Derby at Southglade Leisure Centre in Bestwood. Four members attended, and what began as a simple visit quickly turned into a thoroughly enjoyable and eye‑opening afternoon. From the moment we arrived, the team made us feel completely at ease. They took the time to show us where it was safe to stand, how to move around the track without getting in the way, and when it was appropriate to step closer for photographs or shift position as the action unfolded.

The 1^st print competition of 2026 was held on Thursday 26^th March 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 of the same year and all rounds contribute to the Outlaw’s print league table. 

The judge for this first round of the competition was Ben Lumley who is a professional sports photographer, you can see his work by following this link, benlumleyphoto

Ben joined us earlier this year to give a presentation on his sports photography accompanied by a number of his images. This was a first for me where we have had a judge that is not on the NEMPF circuit and it would be interesting to see how he scored the images presented to him along with his critique. There were two categories for Ben to judge, the Open category and the Themed category which in this instance was “Sport”. We had a fantastic response to this competition and there were 36 entries in both the open and the themed.