About

About the Competition

The competition aims to represent landscape photographers who recognize the power that comes from truthful depiction of the natural world, whether shooting digitally or on film. While other competitions may allow complete freedom in digital manipulation, this competition is for photographers who choose to work within the more traditional bounds of the medium, while still expressing themselves creatively. It addresses the idea that the unique quality photography has over other artistic mediums is its grounding in reality. The competition showcases the skill of these photographers in revealing the wonder of the natural landscape.

One of the most powerful aspects of a great landscape photograph is its ability to transport the viewer to relive a moment in time, distant location, or smaller scene, through the eyes of the photographer. This helps the viewer to engage with the subject matter, understand the relationships the photographer wanted to express, and allow photographs to support the case for conservation.

By constraining our photographs to represent the natural world in a truthful manner, we create trust in our artform’s unique position to pair real experiences with artistic creation. This does not preclude the use of editing tools such as Photoshop which, when used sensitively, can enhance the viewer’s experience without misleading them. We are also looking forward to seeing work that has been produced on film!

The competition was set up in 2021 by four landscape photographers – Tim Parkin, Matt Payne, Rajesh Jyothiswaran and Alex Nail – to create a platform for photographers depicting the landscape in a natural way.

About The Organizers

Tim Parkin, Matt Payne, Alex Nail and Rajesh Jyothiswaran are a group of photographers with different approaches and backgrounds joined by their passion for realism in photography. Each joins the competition from a different perspective.

Tim Parkin

Scotland, UK

Tim Parkin is the founder and editor of On Landscape magazine, now in its two hundred and twenty sixth issue. His own photography is a mix of digital and large format film and he also runs a drum scanning business and offers darkroom services for hybrid printing.

Tim joins the Awards after being a judge over twenty times for various competitions, including the UK’s Landscape Photographer of the Year, the International Landscape Photographer of the Year and Environmental Photographer of the Year. He is also a consultant for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year in rule development and image authenticity checking. His background in these competitions has helped to develop the judging process.

Matt Payne

Colorado, USA

Matt Payne is a landscape photographer living in Durango, Colorado, USA. Much of his photography has focused on his life-long goal to climb the one-hundred highest mountains in Colorado which he completed in 2017. Matt is a co-founder of the Nature First Photography Alliance.

Matt hosts a weekly podcast dedicated to landscape photography called “F-Stop Collaborate and Listen,” where he has meaningful conversations with other landscape photographers all over the world. It’s through his podcast that he has heard a range of perspectives on post-processing. His views have gradually moved towards a strong preference for promoting realistic images.

Alex Nail

Somerset, UK

Alex Nail is a landscape photographer with a love of multi-day backpacking in mountainous areas. He is best known for his work in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland, Iceland and the Drakensberg Escarpment of South Africa. He runs adventurous photography workshops usually involving camping in remote locations. He is a qualified Mountain Leader and was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society.

Alex joins the Awards as a long-term vocal proponent of realistic landscape photography, engaging in debates in podcasts and online.

Rajesh Jyothiswaran

California, USA

Rajesh is a landscape photographer based in Northern California.  His love of photography began with documenting Texas’s native flora, and has since expanded to include everything from macro images of plant life to astrophotography of distant celestial objects. . Regardless of what he might be photographing, his artistic philosophy remains constant –  to share his view of the scene in an objective, realist, and natural way. His images have been published in magazines and displayed at several exhibitions including London’s Royal Botanic Gardens.In addition to his photography, he also teaches workshops specializing in both astrophotography in the landscape and the flora of unique habitats such as the flowers of the western deserts and the cypress swamps of the southeastern US.