Illustrating the great game of bridge is hard; but as we seek to bring new players into the game, strong visuals are essential. That is why we are looking for new images that convey the fun, drama and excitement of bridge. Provide us with a winning picture and you can win not only honour and prestige (and our gratitude) but also some cash towards your next camera lens, smartphone, or bridge congress!
What you can win
We have three prizes you can win:
Top prize £300
Second prize £150
Third prize £50
Background: why photographing bridge is difficult (or, things to avoid)
There is no getting away from it: a picture of people sitting round tables looking intently at cards does not in general make a compelling image that invites people to join in. The key issue perhaps is that the interest of a bridge game is all in the things that you cannot easily see: the tension of a contested auction, the agonising over whether to play E or W for the missing Queen of hearts, the joy of making a difficult three no trumps or a marginal small slam.
Some other considerations:
We like images that are inclusive in every sense. We resist images that might tend to confirm stereotypes about bridge and the kind of people that play the game.
If you look at the images we have used on our website at https://www.ebu.co.uk/ you will find that many of them (not all) are close-ups of cards or show just someone’s hand holding cards or a pen. We do this in order to avoid implying that any one particular type of person plays bridge.
This does not mean, never include people or people’s faces; it means being thoughtful about finding images that will have wide appeal.
We like images that convey colour, emotion, and good humour.
We like images that are effective in a variety of sizes, possibly cropped to fit with other content.
How to enter
You may submit up to 10 images which should be in JPG or PNG format and a minimum resolution of 1200 x 800 pixels. Images should be submitted electronically either by email attachment to tim@ebu.co.uk or by sharing a link from Dropbox, Flickr or other online service. Non photographic artwork is fine provided it is your own work. You may submit a photograph of the artwork on the understanding that we may need the original later either for review or to obtain the best quality digital copy.
It is a condition of the competition that the EBU is given a perpetual non-exclusive royalty-free license to reproduce the submitted images in any media including print, web, broadcasting and video. We are glad to credit the photographer or artist if requested. However if the image contains recognizable people, they must have given their consent for us to use the image for bridge marketing and we require the photographer to assure us that this is the case.
If in the opinion of the judges there are not enough pictures of the required standard we reserve the right not to award the prizes or not to award all the prizes.
The deadline for submissions is 31st March 2024.