Here are the rules for this year’s competition. I am entering four from my year in photos.

COUNTRYFILE PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION 2011

The title for the BBC Countryfile Photographic Competition 2011 is “Best In Show”. There are 12 different classes:

Farm Life
Landscapes
Birds
Working Animals
Water Worlds
Country People
Wildlife
Leisure & Pleasure
In All Weathers
Insects & Spiders
Plant Life
The Lighter Side of Country Life

The photo the judges declare best in each class will appear in the Countryfile Calendar for 2012 sold in aid of Children In Need. The overall winner – as voted for by Countryfile viewers – will be declared “Best in Show”. The judges will also choose their favourite entry.
You can enter up to four photos in total but you must declare which class you want each photo to be judged in. Each photo can only be entered in one class. The closing date for entries is Friday 12th August 2011. The person who takes the winning photo gets to choose from a range of the latest photography equipment to the value of £1,000. The person who takes the photo the judges like best gets to choose equipment to the value of £500. Last year’s calendar raised almost £1.2m for Children In Need. Please read the rules before entering.

COUNTRYFILE PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION 2011: RULES
1. The title of the BBC Countryfile Photographic Competition 2011 is “Best In Show”. There are 12 different classes you can enter photos in. They are: Farm Life, Landscapes, Birds, Working Animals, Water Worlds, Country People, Wildlife, Leisure & Pleasure, In All Weathers, Insects & Spiders, Plant life, The Lighter Side of Country Life. The theme of each class is open to individual interpretation but entries must have the countryside or the natural world at their heart. Photos of domestic animals (ie pets), zoo animals and cultivated plants are not eligible. Images of British wildlife in captivity must be declared as such. The BBC’s decision as to the eligibility of individual photographs will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.
2. Photographs entered must be taken in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.
3. Entrants can submit up to four photos in total as prints, in colour or black and white. Entrants must state which class each photo is to be judged in. Each photo can only be entered in one class. Electronic images cannot be accepted.
4. Images may be digitally enhanced to remove spots or scratches, but not manipulated. Entrants can enhance the picture to make it brighter, clearer etc, but not manipulate the content. BBC Countryfile and the judges reserve the right to exclude any image they believe may have been excessively treated so as to alter its authenticity.
5. The competition is open to UK residents only (including residents of the Channel Islands and Isle of Man). Employees of BBC Worldwide or the BBC, as well as their immediate families are not eligible to enter. Entrants under the age of 12 years need to have parent or guardian consent to enter.
6. Entrants must not be professional photographers and, for the purposes of this competition, a professional photographer will be considered to be someone who makes more than half their annual income from the sale of their photographs.
7. Entrants must mark each photo with their name, address, contact telephone number (both daytime and evening) and which class it is being entered for.
8. The BBC will only ever use personal details for the purposes of administering the scheme. Please see the BBC’s Privacy Policy: http://www.bbc.co.uk/privacy
9. Entries should be sent to: Countryfile Photographic Competition 2011, BBC, The Mailbox, Birmingham, B1 1RF.
10 The competition closes at midnight on Friday 12th August 2011. Entries received after this date will not be considered.
The BBC cannot accept any responsibility for any problem with the postal service which may result in any entry being lost or delayed. Proof of sending is not proof of receipt.
Entries will not be returned so please remember to keep a copy. Unsuccessful entrants will not be contacted and no feedback on any entry will be provided.
11. All photographs will be judged on the following criteria:
Composition
Technical ability
Originality
Commercial appeal
12. The photographs will be judged through the following process:
Stage One
A judging panel comprised of previous finalists of the Countryfile photographic competition will review all entries and select a long-list of approximately 3,600 photographs, based on the above criteria. The long- list will comprise a maximum of 300 photographs in each class.
Stage Two
A second panel of judges will then review all the entries on the long-list and select the best photo in each of the 12 classes based on the above criteria. The panel will also select their overall favourite.
Each of the shortlisted entrants will be contacted by a member of the BBC production team within a week of judging which is scheduled for Wednesday 17th August 2011.
If after reasonable attempts a shortlisted entrant cannot be contacted, the BBC reserves the right to offer the place on the shortlist to the next best entry.
Stage Three – The Public Vote
All 12 finalists (“Best In Class”) will be featured on the ‘Countryfile’ programme on BBC1 and the audience will be asked to vote for their favourite. The winner will be the entry which receives the most votes in a telephone vote. It will be declared “Best In Show” and is the overall winner of the competition.
13. The prize will consist of £1,000 worth of photography vouchers from an outlet selected by the winner. The entry selected as the overall favourite by the judges will also receive £500 worth of photography vouchers from an outlet selected by the entrant. The prizes are as stated and cannot be deferred or transferred. There will be no cash alternatives.
14 The finalists (together with a further fourteen photographs to be selected from the entrants by the judges and/or the BBC) shall appear in the Countryfile Calendar 2012, to be sold in aid of the BBC Children in Need Appeal and the Finalists may also be published in the BBC Countryfile Magazine.
15. In the event of a technical problem or evidence of impropriety with regard to the viewers’ vote, the judges shall have the final decision. If the viewers’ vote results in a tie, the judges shall have the casting vote. The judges’ decisions will be final and no correspondence can be entered into.
16. All entries must be the original work of the entrant and must not infringe the rights of any other party. The entrants must be the sole owner of copyright in all photographs entered and must have obtained permission of any people featured in the entries or their parents/guardians if children under 16 are featured. Further, entrants must not have breached any laws when taking their photographs.
17. Prior to submission, entrants must not have offered any of their entries for sale, been paid for any publication of any of their entries or won or been a runner up in any other photographic competition with any of their entries.
18. Entrants will retain copyright in the photographs that they submit to the BBC. By entering the competition all entrants grant to the BBC the right to publish and exhibit their photographs on television and on the BBC’s website. Entrants whose photographs are one of the finalists or selected
to appear in the Countryfile Calendar 2012 pursuant to paragraph 11 above grant to the BBC (including BBC Worldwide and other publishers authorised by the BBC) the further rights to publish and exhibit their photographs in print, on their respective websites or in any other media. No fees will be payable for any of the above uses. Entrants whose photographs are one of the finalists also agree to take part in post- competition publicity. While we make every effort to credit photographers, including in printed reproductions of their work, we cannot guarantee that every broadcast use of the photographs will include the photographers’ names.
19. By entering, entrants will be deemed to have agreed to be bound by these rules and the BBC reserves the right to exclude any entry from the competition at any time and in its absolute discretion if the BBC has reason to believe that an entrant has breached these rules.
20. The BBC reserves the right to cancel this competition or alter any of the rules at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, and if circumstances arise outside of its control.
21. If the winner is unable to be contacted after reasonable attempts have been made; the BBC reserves the right to either offer the prize to a runner up, or to re-offer the prize in any future competition.
22. These rules are governed by the laws of England and Wales. This competition is administered by the BBC.
23. The BBC’s code of conduct for competitions applies to this competition. You can read more about it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/advice/interactivity/co de
Please take your photos responsibly. Here’s some information that should help:
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/regulation/wildlife/licences/appexamp les.aspx (see photography section)
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/enjoying/countrysidecode/default.asp x
http://www.rpsnaturegroup.com (see code of practice)

Good luck!

The internet has stacks of cute pictures and videos of young animals. Perhaps more interesting, and certainly rarer, are pictures of animals nearing the end of their time on earth.

Photographs by Isa Leshko. Eight more here.

Here be some of the flowers we saw this morning on a walk near Steep. I don’t know their names but I know their beauty and delicacy.

Sorry, wrong season:

Stink magnet: