How to enter the AMB Photo Awards

The AMB Photography Awards presented by Shimano are open to enter, and we have four new categories to enter this year. Don't be put off by any of the lingo, these categories are a way to divide up images and find an overall winner for the Photographer of the Year who has a complete skills set.

We asked pro photo guy Tim Bardsley-Smith to break down the four categories, so if you're shooting for the competition you know exactly what Tim is looking for. Along with our Editor Mike Blewitt, and Art Director Robert Conroy, Tim is one of the main judges.

Light

"Light is just about everything in a photograph, in it’s simple form a photograph is the capture of light on a digital sensor or light sensitive emulsion like film, glass, metal plates or just about anything you can paint silver halides onto," said Bardsley-Smith when we asked him about this category.

"It is easily the single most important part of a photograph, without light you have no image. However, you can choose to really use the light to help tell your story and this is what we are after."

So does that mean it can't just be #lightbro?

"Whether it’s a silhouette, sun lit dust trail or either one of the auroras setting the sky alight. Light really needs to be the hero of the image. You could use additional “artificial” light in the form of strobes or street lights. You could also just use the natural light of the sun or even it’s reflection off other celestial rocks like the moon and stars. You could even use a combination of all of the above and throw in refracted rainbow and I’d be super impressed. What I’m getting at though is, it really needs to be more than just a #lightbro lens flare moment."

Composition

"This is easily the biggest determining factor in creating a great photograph or an ordinary photograph. Composition is the first thing you should think about before you even lift the camera to your eye. It’s also one of the more complicated and interpretable elements of any photograph."

How are you framing the subject – and where do you want people's eyes to go?

"With so many variables and rules… The rule of thirds, utilising negative space or filling the frame, leading lines that draw the viewer in or using elements within the photograph to frame your point of interest. All these things can make a viewer stop and pause to take the image in."

Movement

Movement is an essential part of mountain biking. But this isn't just pan shots says Tim.

"In mountain bike photography movement is something you’re going to need to know how to work with. There are many ways to show or enhance the sense of movement. With the most traditional being a panning shot. This involves selecting a slower shutter speed, usually 1/40th of a second or slower and moving your scene with the rider leaving the rider relatively sharp with the background blurred. You can then expand on this by either twisting your frame whilst following a subject in a circular motion known as a radial pan. You can also use zoom lenses to create some zoom blur in a similar scenario."

"However slow shutter speeds are not the only way to great the sense of movement. Elements like roost, dust or rocks flying can give a great sense of movement as we associated these with a sense of speed."

Close Up

"It’s all in the detail… picking one small point of a subject can give an intense reaction and understanding of the story your trying to tell," says Bardsley-Smith.

"Using a macro lens will allow you to get incredibly close to your subject and may help, but it’s not necessary. Just using a really wide aperture will give you a shallow depth of field and help you single out any element you wish to use. It could be a shoe lace, a chain link, a tyre tread left in the dust."

"There are literally thousands of elements that help make our amazing sport what it is and you just need to choose one and make it the hero."

So there you have it – four descriptions and suggestions of what and how to shoot for your entry. With $5000, a Shimano group set and other bits, and of course infamy in the mountain bike world on the line… what's stopping you?

Get your entries in now!