Rivers4Life Photography Competition
From macro images of microscopic life to marvellous mammals, from waterfalls to water voles – we’re launching a competition to find the best photographs of our Yorkshire Dales rivers and wildlife, to be included in our Rivers 4 Life exhibition, which is our project funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to players of the National Lottery!
We would love you to share with us your favourite photos taken in the catchments of the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust which includes the rivers Swale, Ure, Nidd, Wharfe and Ouse, and associated tributaries. We are looking for amazing images showing our beautiful rivers and streams, along with the wildlife found in and around our rivers. Please do not include people in your images.
All entrants will be in with the chance to feature in the Rivers4Life summer exhibition taking place at the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes from late June to early September 2026, and in a future Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust calendar! If your photo gets selected for use in the calendar, you’ll receive a free copy.
There will be four stages for the competition, covering all the seasons:
Spring – photos taken between March and May
Summer – photos taken between June and August
Autumn – photos taken between September and November
Winter – photos taken between December and February
For each of the 4 seasons, a shortlist of 5 photographs will be selected for inclusion in the exhibition. From these, a public vote will choose the top 12 to feature in our 2027 calendar!
Please upload your photo(s) using the form below.
See further below for the official rules. Please read these before entering.
If you have any questions, please e-mail [email protected]
Entry Form – Spring 2025
Rivers 4 Life Photography Competition Rules
1. All photos must be original work, taken by the entrants. No third party may own or control any materials the photo contains, and the photo must not infringe upon the trademark, copyright, moral rights, intellectual rights, or rights of privacy of any entity or person. Any image that has been generated by a computer or created by artificial intelligence is not eligible.
2. The Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust reserves the right to exclude an entry from the competition at any time if it has reason to believe that an entrant has breached these rules.
3. Photographs must have been taken in the catchments of the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust – see the map on our website for details. Please do not include any people in your photographs.
4. The competition is open to both amateur and professional photographers.
5. The competition is FREE to enter. Entries are limited to 5 per person for each season.
6. Entrants under the age of 18 must receive permission from a parent/guardian and by submitting an entry, they are confirming that they have permission.
7. Entrants retain copyright in all photographs submitted to the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust as part of this competition. However, by submitting an entry, each entrant grants to the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust the right to reproduce, enlarge, publish and exhibit, on any media, the images for any purpose directly connected with the work of the organisation (e.g. for social media, website content, and educational materials), with appropriate acknowledgement to the photographer. No fees will be paid for the above uses. The Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust will make every effort to credit photographers in every reproduction of their work, although it cannot guarantee that individuals/organisations will not reproduce images from our website etc. and re-use them without credit.
8. Submitted photos may also be used, with credit, in a future calendar that will be sold by the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust. All profits from the sale of this calendar will go towards the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust, but photographers whose photos are included will be offered a free copy.
9. Submitted photos must not have been previously published or have won prizes elsewhere.
10. Watermarks, names or other information identifying the image creator or copyright holder, their representative, or any institutional affiliations or publications, must not be visible in the images themselves.
11. Submissions will not be accepted after the closing date published for each stage of the competition:
Spring: closing date 5th June 2025
Summer: closing date 5th September 2025
Autumn: closing date 5th December 2025
Winter: closing date 5th March 2026
