Coming Soon: The Singletrack Forum Photography Competition 2024

It’s coming back! Last year’s inaugural Forum Photography Competition was so popular we’re going to do it again. No prizes, just internet points, good vibes, and the chance to smile at something nice on the internet.

Here’s how it will all work – pay attention, there are a couple of tweaks to last year’s format to hopefully make things a little clearer:

1. There are five categories. You can enter as many categories as you like, but please choose which category your photo best fits into – do not enter the same photo into multiple categories. The categories are:

• Just Riding Along (This picture must include someone on or with a bike. That’s the only rule.)
• Gnarpooning (Action/radness/racing/tricks type ‘rad’ shots.)
• Out There (Scenes from out on rides, no bike riding included. Can include bikes against fences, empty landscapes etc.)
• Bike Life (The incidentals that sum up life as a rider. The muddy faces, the grimy hands, the sandwich on a hill. Atmospheric or humorous shots that make you think ‘yup, that’s what bikes make happen’.)
• Open (Anything within the rules of the forum and decency that doesn’t fit into the categories above. This is the place for your finest non-bike related images.)

2. Your photos should have been taken in the last 12 months, and can be from a phone, a still from a video, a fancy pants camera – whatever. This is a competition for all, not just the full kit brigade.
3. You can enter more than one photo into any one category, but be selective – pick your best shots, don’t overwhelm the audience with loads.
4. Obviously the image has to be yours to post.

I want to enter, what do I do?

For now, just go and look through your photos and start deciding which images will fit which categories. Then look out for the category entry stories, which will be appearing from 21st December.

Then, you’ll upload your image in the comments for that category story. One image per comment. If you want to include a sentence to say where/what it is, fine, but no giant stories please. Obviously the image has to be yours to post.

If you want to upload more than one image, you need to do it in separate comments posts, so that each photo has a separate ‘golden token’ beside it that can be used for voting.

If you’re a Singletrack Subscriber, there’s a simple image upload option – just click the photo icon and add your image.

If you’re not a Singletrack Subscriber, you’ll need to use an image hosting service. There’s a good explanation of how to do that here.

How do I vote?

Only Singletrack Subscribers can vote! The first round of voting will be done using the ‘golden tokens’ to the left of each post. You can only click a token once, but you can click as many tokens in a thread as you like. So you can vote for as many photos as catch your eye.

OK, and then what?

We’ll be publishing a story each day until all of the categories above are open. Then you’ll have until 5th January to upload your entries and collect votes. Remember to check back and vote for any late entries that have been added to each thread!

On 6th January, we’ll work out which three images in each category have the most votes. That will give us three finalists in each of the five categories. We’ll put those finalists in a story and out to the public vote, for maximum internet glory!

And, whatabout…

That’s it for rules. Unless we make some others up. This is meant to be fun, nothing serious! Enjoy looking at the photos, we look forward to seeing them all.

Remember: don’t chat in the comments thread for the entry posts or ask questions. It should just be a glorious string of photos in the comments section. This is the place if you have questions or want to debate the rules (oh, please don’t…) etc.

Here are last year’s winners for some inspiration.