Clean Coasts’ ‘Love Your Coast’ photography competition opens today

Calling all photographers, grab your camera and get snapping around county Dublin as Clean Coasts’ ‘Love Your Coast’ photography competition opens today!

You’re all invited to capture the uniqueness of our coastal communities, environments, or waterways and you have till 9 am on the 30th August 2021 to submit your best images.

Nigel Motyer, Territorial Seals, Dalkey Island, Co. Dublin

Last year’s “Territorial Seals” by Nigel Motyer (above) and “The Fish Shop” by Andrew Watchorn (below) were two entries snapped in county Dublin that came second in the Wildlife and the Coast and Coastal Heritage, respectively.

Andrew Watchorn, The Fish Shop, Coal Harbour, Dun Laoghaire

“Low tide” by Garr Cleary, taken in Malahide, won first place in the People and the Coast category.

With some of the most spectacular coastlines in the world, make sure you bring your camera as you explore the Irish coast this summer and capture its beauty.

There is a prize fund of €5,000, up for grabs across five categories: Coastal Heritage, Coastal Landscape, People & the Coast, Wildlife & the Coast and finally we are delighted to introduce our new category Creativity and the Coast.

The competition receives thousands of entries that fit happily into our existing categories, but we also receive pictures that transcend categories or labels and are simply stunning pieces of art in their own right.

We want to take the opportunity to facilitate the creatives amongst us to showcase their capacity to create beauty and joy with this new category.

Every year this competition draws a large amount of interest from Ireland’s amateur photographers, coastal enthusiasts, and the conservation-minded.

There is a diverse range of categories ensuring there is something for everyone.

This year across all the categories our Judges are also encouraging photographers to explore new 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.

The Love Your Coast competition aims to celebrate Ireland’s diverse waters by capturing its stunning coastline, beautiful beaches, epic cliff faces, and raging rivers.

The competition is being launched tonight with an online event “Behind the Lens – A Photographer’s Perspective” hosting some of its top photographers over the years in conservation and chat about some of their top submissions and the stories behind them.

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.

Submissions will open at 6 pm this evening.

Visit Clean Coasts to find out more about the competition and how to enter.