Competitions and salons

The Club holds regular internal print and PDI (projected digital image) competitions for members to enter. However, many others are also available.

Battles with neighbouring clubs

Our Club occasionally holds battles with neighouring clubs, either at our premises or theirs.

These are usually great fun to attend.

Clubs

The NWPA hosts an Interclub Print Battle and a PDI Interclub Battle. We enter these as a club, selecting images/prints from among our members.

The top two clubs from these 'battles' are invited to represent the NWPA at the PAGB’s Print Battle and PDI Battle. Members can attend these events to see high quality images from the UK.

Individuals

As a club member, you may also enter the following:

  • The NWPA Members’ Competition. Our members did rather well in 2025. 

  • The PAGB Master of Print. Accepted prints (of a very high standard) are shown in an exhibition in Birmingham. Successful entrants receive a badge, and their names are added to the roll of honour. 

Distinctions

You may apply, as an individual member of the club, for one of the PAGB’s distinctions. Badges are awarded and permit you to show letters after your name.

The five levels are:

  • the Badge (BPAGB)
  • Credit (CPAGB)
  • Distinction (DPAGB)
  • Excellence (EPAGB)
  • and Master (MPAGB). 

These awards are achieved by entering a panel of images to the twice yearly adjudication sessions. They are run by national associations around the UK, on a rota basis, and judged by six of the PAGB adjudicators.

It can be a lifetime’s achievement to attain the top one, and takes many years.

Salons

You may wish to enter one of the many salons held by camera clubs around the world, under the patronage of FIAP.

These are judged by a panel of judges, with the highest scoring entries accepted for the exhibition.

Some of our club members have achieved high marks in these. Many are jointly sponsored by the PSA (the Photographic Society of America).

The British Photographic Exhibition also runs salons, along the same lines as above, but open only to photographers from the UK.

Both of these salon organisations award distinctions, earned by continual success in the exhibitions, on an incremental scale.

Links

Links to most of these organisations can be found on the Umbrella bodies page (page opens in a new browser tab).