Clean Coasts’ 13th annual Love Your Coast photography competition has official opened for entries!
The Love Your Coast competition asks for amateur photographers to capture and celebrate the uniqueness of our coastal communities, environments, or waterways such as its stunning coastline, beautiful beaches, epic cliff faces, and raging rivers.
Cork has some of the most spectacular coastlines in the world and we want to encourage people to get out their cameras this summer as they explore the Irish coast and capture its beauty.
2021 was a great year for Images from Cork, as we saw two Cork photographers score top places in two categories. Michael Goulding won third place in the category Coastal Landscape for his image entitled Epic, taken on Mizen Head in County Cork. Cork photographer, John Hall scored second place in a new category called Creativity and the Coast for his photo entitled Foggy Morning at Scilly, Kinsale, taken in Scilly, Kinsale, Co. Cork.
Moreover, Marcela Gleixner with her A seashell found on the Garryvoe beach in Cork was also shortlisted in within the top 10 images for the Creativity and the Coast category, as well as Dan Lettice with the image Breaching Common Dolphin taken in Reen Pier, Union Hall, Co. Cork and Derek Bolton with the photograph titled My Bubble taken in Barlogue, Baltimore, Co. Cork were among the top 10 photographers in the Wildlife and Underwater Category. Finally, David Keeley with his Clontarf Bridge taken at Cork Harbour was one of the top 10 photographers for the Coastal Heritage Category.
Photographers have until 9 am on Monday the 29th August 2022 to submit their best images in one of five categories to be in with the chance to win a prize fund of €5,000 across all categories.
The categories for this year include:
1. Wildlife and Underwater
2. Coastal Landscape
3. People and the Coast
4. Coastal Heritage
5. Creativity and the Coast
Each year Love Your Coast draws in a large amount of interest from Ireland’s amateur photographers, coastal enthusiasts, and conservation and biodiversity-minded. Clean Coasts have ensured there is a diverse range of categories so there truly is something for everyone!
Photographers are encouraged to explore new and different methods and angles in capturing the coastal regions and wildlife and would discourage photographing of locations and species that have been heavily submitted in previous years.
Working with communities on the ground, Clean Coasts’ mission is to help foster pride in our coastline, supporting Clean Coasts communities, groups, and volunteers to tackle issues affecting their local area. This competition provides an opportunity to view the coast and our waterways that the Clean Coasts programme works to protect from a completely different perspective and see the beauty captured therein.
Clean Coast manager Sinead McCoy stated:
“The Clean Coasts programme works with communities and supports them in their efforts to protect our coastline. What the Love Your Coast Photography competition does is augment this work by showcasing our breathtaking coastline which helps foster and inspire both the public and communities to protect it into the future."
Visit our website to find out more about the competition and how to enter at: https://cleancoasts.org/our-initiatives/love-your-coast/
Be sure to head to our Exposure page to see a gallery of all the shortlisted top 10 images from 2021: https://cleancoasts.exposure.co/love-your-coast-2021
