Entering Photography competitions is a great way to set yourself a deadline for going out and shooting new subject matter.

Before you enter a competition have a look at previous entries - winners from previous years, it can help you understand how to interpret the titles of the different sections that are available to enter.

Always make sure you read the competition rules properly and make a note of the deadline in your diary, so that you have plenty of time to upload your entries.

If you type into google "photography competitions 2017" it will bring up lost of competitions of various themes available to enter, the best thing to do is start with a subject matter that you have the most interest in, birds, wildlife, landscapes, gardens, food, pets etc there are competitions for all manor of subjects to suit everybody, it's not just the national competitions, often you will find comps more locally too.

Whilst you may think that you have a great photo that you can enter - and you may well have -  into a comp, it's also great to get out and shoot something fresh and really think about the title of the competition you are trying to win.

Make sure that the image you are entering is well composed, sharp when enlarged to 100% and that there is nothing in the frame distracting from the main subject matter.

The image below got highly commended in the BBC/Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of The Year in the Landscape section of their competition.

I also go runner up in the black and white section of Professional Photographer of the year 2015 with this horse image

Check how many photos you can enter into each section, but don't just enter any image because you're allowed 6 entries, make sure each image is justified and worthy of entry before you submit it. If you have to think of titles for your photos this is also something that you should give proper time and thought to. I look forward to hearing from you about your competition entries and all of the winning images you shoot this year. Good Luck folks.