Thursday 7 August 2014

24 Hours in Bristol 2014 Competition

This is a competition that’s open to everyone, it does cost to enter and you can pay for extra images to be included and you get allocated a time slot that one of the images must be taken in.

Last year was the first time the competition was run and photographers had from midnight on the Saturday till midnight on the Sunday, I got the slot from midnight till 1 am! The weather was terrible with it being cold and raining added to the torment.
Like most I decided to photograph in the city centre and around the docks, a lot of photographers did same thing, and one of the finalist actually took a photo from the opposite side of the docks from me.
Hundreds of photographers took part in the event and were from all over the country and from Europe as well, it was a great event and I knew that if it was to happen again that I would take part.

There are lots of photographic competitions to part in, and in my view it worth having a go to gain experience and having the chance to have your work in a gallery for all to see.

This year the event is being run from the midday on the Saturday till midday on Sunday, I think this is a better way to do it and makes life slightly easier for all. We didn't have much of ID to say we were doing the event but this year supplied with proper ID's so that if anyone gets stopped by the police in the early hours of the morning, they will know what their up to as the council and police are made aware of the event and the Bristol Lord Mayor, is very much behind the event.

I'm not sure if this kind of competition is run in others cites in the UK or abroad, but it’s a great thing to get involved in and helps to promote your city. Over a thousand images were taken last year and I'm sure that a lot more will be taken this year.

For me, I want to have images that cover the morning, afternoon, evening and night. So over the last couple of weeks I've been looking and Google maps and travelling around all over the place to try and find something new and part of Bristol. I guess I'm lucky as I live in Bristol and have the time to look, while others maybe are just coming along for the weekend will find it slightly difficult to maybe get outside of the city centre and know where to go.

Last year images where landscape and street photography images, but I'm looking to try and find something different or to maybe photograph something in a slightly different way that’s more creative. 

One tool that I've found fantastic to use for knowing where the sun is going to set or rise is called TPE - The Photographers Ephemeris App, there’s also an Android version as well as a desktop version. Where ever you are in the world, you can drop a pin on the map and it will show you where the sun will rise of set as well as when there's a full moon. You can even go to a date in the calendar and see what time and where the event will happen. The app cost about £4.00 but worth the money as you can work out before you turn up at a location where sun will be at that exact time of day, its brilliant.

There's still time to register for the event and to find out more you can visit their website which is http://www.24hoursinbristol.co.uk.


Thanks for reading, AndyD 

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