Amateur Photographer is proud to be a media partner of the prestigious Landscape Photographer of the Year. As creative director Paul Sanders explains, there are a lot of changes to this year’s competition
The long-established Landscape Photographer of the Year competition is now open for 2023 entries until 31 May, and has undergone some of the biggest changes in its 15-year history. We met up with ceative director Paul Sanders who is also a highly respected landscape photographer, to find out about some of the changes to this year’s contest. ‘I came on board in late October last year, having been a judge of the competition for at least the past six or seven years,’ Paul explains. ‘One of the things that always struck me as a judge was that the entries were all very similar. When I spoke to the founder, Charlie Waite, about coming aboard, I was keen to keep the traditional backbone of the competition but to open it up to people who are more expressive about their landscape photography.’
New categories
As Paul explains, there are several new categories in this year’s contest. ‘First up is the Impressions of the Landscape category, which enables people to submit ICM (intentional camera movement), multiple exposures, multimedia – if you write or draw on your pictures as well as printing them out, you can now enter them, too. We have also updated the Network Rail Lines in the Landscape category, so it’s called My Railway Adventure. Now you can include images of any kind of railway, including heritage ones. Trains make such a beautiful subject in the landscape. You can incorporate all the architecture and infrastructure, too – the category is wide open so long as it includes some element of rail travel.’
Another new category is Intimate View (macro and close up). ‘This is for people who don’t feel the big landscape but love all the details, the rocks, the seaweed, the flowers… All those tiny details that many of us miss as we focus on setting our tripod down and getting the wider landscape. So, there’s now a category for people who love the tiny landscape – this is important as landscape photography can mean very different things to different people. ‘I am also excited about the Bird’s Eye View category, which is just for drone photography. We have been getting more and more drone entries in the past few years, but they seemed at odds with the Classic View category. Drone photography has come a long way – Idon’t do it myself – but is growing all the time, particularly amongst young people. ‘Then there is the
