VOTING for the 2021 Ilkley & District U3A Photographic Exhibition has opened and members of the public are being invited to nominate their favourite photograph.

This year there is an added incentive to cast your vote, as all those who vote will be entered into a prize draw to win one of three £20 book tokens.

On the U3A website there are four online galleries of photographs from which to choose the image you like best. The photos are all taken by members of the U3A’s photographic groups. Members of the groups vary from those who are absolute beginners right through to more accomplished photographers. They have submitted their entries to one or more of six categories.

These are: Street scenes; Beautiful Yorkshire; Weather; Colourful people; The natural world – birds/insects; Water/and or woodland scenes.

The categories have been kept as wide as possible to attract the most eye-catching and appealing images. As a result, members have submitted photos with a wide variety of subject matter, techniques and locations. The Natural World has been the most popular category, followed by Woodland/Water. The organisers of the exhibition are delighted with the standard and variety of the entries.

Exhibition Co-ordinator, Mary Podesta, said: “This year’s competition has been a challenge for our groups. Two photographic groups were able to keep going last year via Zoom and membership has been fairly steady. As usual, members were enthusiastic contributors but because we were locked down for so long and opportunities to get out with cameras were limited, we decided to allow members to submit photos taken at any time, as long as they fitted into one of the six categories we had chosen. We thought quality was better than quantity and restricted each member to two photos. Twenty-seven members finally submitted photographs and we feel the standard is as high as last year or even a little higher.

“It has been a pleasure to collate the Exhibition and as always, our web team, John Hancock and Paul Dobbin, have been an immense help. We hope you enjoy browsing through the photographs.”

To see the Photographic Exhibition, go to the U3A website at ilkleyu3a.org and follow the instructions to access the viewing galleries. An online catalogue is available for more details on the photos. When you have decided on your favourite image, simply email the title and number of your favourite photograph to: Myfavouritephotograph@ilkleyu3a.org. To enter the draw to win a £20 book token, include your name and a phone number. Voting closes on June 7 and there is a limit of one vote per person. You can also meet U3A members at Otley and Ilkley markets on June 5 and 6 when there will be an opportunity to vote and enter the prize draw.