Photographer of the Year

    The Novice Photographer of the Year (NPOTY) and Principal Photographer of the Year (PPOTY) competitions take place every year during the CPA calendar season.

    During the judging of all five rounds of the NIPA Interclub Competition, across the colour print, mono print and projected digital image (PDI) sections, Novice work will be judged separately to Advanced work.

    All images placed during the five rounds of competition will have points attributed. Please note that other club competitions do not apply.

    The following rules apply:

    1. To be considered a Novice, members must meet the Novice Definition which can be found in Annex B of the NIPA Competition Rules, available on the NIPA website.
    2. A competitor cannot be considered a Novice if they have gained two or more starred images. To assist with classification NIPA have produced a list of all starred images awarded from 1968 to the present. The list of NIPA Starred Images is available on the NIPA website.
    3. A CPA member with two NIPA Stars at the start of a new season (prior to Round 1), or with other qualifications as laid out in the Novice Definition, will be considered an Advanced worker and eligible for the PPOTY.
    4. A CPA member with one NIPA Star at the start of a new season (prior to Round 1) will be considered a Novice worker and eligible for the NPOTY.  
    5. If during the season a Novice worker reaches a total of two NIPA Stars, they will no longer be considered a Novice at NIPA; however, they will still qualify for the NPOTY within CPA for the remainder of the season. Images will continue to be judged along with the other Novice images and will score points for the NPOTY. Images selected to go forward to represent CPA at NIPA will be considered as Advanced work.  
    6. Scores attributed to placed images in both PPOTY and NPOTY are as follows:
      1st place – 10 points
      2nd place – 8 points
      3rd place – 6 points
      4th place – 4 points
    7. All scores awarded for placed images are irrespective of whether the image then goes forward to represent the club at NIPA. The winner is the member with the highest score after Round 5.
    8. Following the judging of each section, where Novice work will be judged separately to Advanced work, the judge will select four images from the Novice work and four images from the Advanced work.
    9. From this selection of eight colour prints, eight mono prints and eight PDIs, the judge will be asked to select four from each section to go forward to represent the club at NIPA.
    10. To meet NIPA rules, of the four images per section, a maximum of three images may be Advanced work. The judge must therefore select at least one image from the Novice work but may select up to four.