The title for the our photography competition is “Love St Helens”. The theme is open to your personal interpretation but we’re looking for stunning photographs of the the town’s landscape, its places or people. It’s really up to you how you interpret it.
Photographs taken in previous years can be submitted. Please indicate when the photograph was taken.
You can enter up to three photos in total. The closing date for entries is 5pm on Saturday 28th June 2025.
GENERAL RULES
1. The title for the St Helens Parish Church’s photography competition is “Love St Helens”. The theme is open to your personal interpretation but we’re looking for beautiful photographs that show off the best of St Helens
Entrants must not cause injury damage or distress to people, places, buildings or anything else, whilst trying to take a photograph. This includes the flying of drones, which should not be flown too close or too noisily to people or private land.
Entrants – including those using drones – must have permission from the landowners to be on their land. They should be ready to provide proof if asked to do so by the competition organisers.
2. Photographs entered must be taken in the metropolitan borough of St Helens
3. Entrants can submit up to three photos in total either in person at the church (a minimum size of 7x5) or via email to engage.minster@churchsthelens.org. Please include, your name, address and contact telephone (and email address if possible), where and when the picture was taken, and a title of the photo.
4. We are aware that digital photography does allow for some image enhancement. You can enter images that have had spots, scratches or other blemishes removed. You can have worked on the colour or enhanced the image for the sake of the composition. You can also crop the image to improve composition. We will not accept composite images - entries that stitch two or more separate photographs together to make one image, or entries that superimpose elements photographed separately onto an image. We will not accept the use of AI during the creation, design or development of the images.
We want you to stay faithful to the spirit of the competition, and never deceive the viewer or misrepresent the aspect of our town’s life being portrayed. We reserve the right to exclude any image they believe may have been excessively treated so as to alter its authenticity.
5. Entrants must not be professional photographers. For the purposes of this competition, a professional photographer will be considered to be someone who makes more than half their annual income from the sale of their photographs.
6. Entrants under the age of 18 will need their parents or guardians to include their details and to give permission to their child’s participation. All contact will be made through the parent/guardian.
7. All photographs will be judged on the following criteria:
Composition
Technical ability
Originality
Public appeal
Is it on theme
The judging will take place as follows:
Stage One
All entries will be assessed in the first instance by members of St Helens Parish Church Engage Team. From this initial process a maximum of 50 of the best photographs will be chosen to go forward for the final judging.
Stage Two
A second panel of judges will then review all the entries on the short-list and select the 12 best, based on the above criteria. The panel will also select their overall favourite. Each of the twelve will be contacted by a member of the engage team within a week of judging. The judging will take place within six weeks of the competition closing date.
8. The finalists shall appear in the Love St Helens Photo Exhibition, in September 2025 to form part of our centenary celebrations.
9. The judges' decisions will be final and no correspondence can be entered into.
10. All entries must be the original work of the entrant and must not infringe the rights of any other party. The entrants must be the sole owner of copyright in all photographs entered and must have obtained permission of any people featured in the entries or their parents/guardians if children under 16 are featured. Where an individual or a residential or commercial property, belonging to someone other than the photographer is featured, or it has been taken on private land the photographer must seek permission and be prepared to provide written consent, if requested. Further, entrants must not have breached any laws when taking their photographs.
11. We are looking for original photographs, so entries must not have won any national or international competition prize previously. For the purposes of this competition, ‘national’ refers to the whole of the UK – or to individual national competitions in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
12. Entrants will retain copyright in the photographs that they submit. By entering the competition all entrants grant to the St Helens Parish Church the right to publish and exhibit their photographs in church, on social media and on our website in perpetuity.
13. By entering, entrants will be deemed to have agreed to be bound by these rules and we reserve the right to exclude any entry from the competition at any time and at our absolute discretion if we have reason to believe that an entrant has breached these rules, acted fraudulently in any way or brings St Helens Parish Church into disrepute. When an entry is submitted by a parent or guardian on behalf of an entrant, the parent and/or guardian shall be responsible for the entrant’s compliance with these rules.
14. We reserve the right to cancel this competition or alter any of the rules at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, and if circumstances arise outside of its control.
15. These rules are governed by the laws of England and Wales. This competition is administered by the BBC.