Photo competition invites you to show off your favourite corner of Donegal

This summer, bring your camera with you when you are exploring the coast in County Donegal, and submit your best shots for a chance to win from a prize fund of €6,000. 

The Clean Coasts' annual Love Your Coast photography competition has officially opened for entries for its 14th edition. 

The Love Your Coast competition asks for photographers to capture and celebrate the uniqueness of our coastal communities, environments, or waterways such as its stunning coastline, beautiful beaches, epic cliff faces, and raging rivers.     

Ireland has some of the most spectacular coastlines in the world and Clean Coasts want to encourage people to get out their cameras this summer as they explore the Irish coast and capture its beauty. 

This year, the Clean Coasts programme is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and the Love Your Coast competition will be a chance to celebrate this achievement. For the past 20 years, Clean Coasts has been working with communities on the ground, to help foster pride in our coastline, supporting Clean Coasts communities, groups, and volunteers to tackle issues affecting their local area.  

To mark the occasion, a new category has been added to the competition, “Protectors of the Coast”  which will showcase what volunteering on the coast and community spirit is all about. Other changes to this year's competition are the reintroduction of the Underwater category, which was temporarily removed during Covid due to restrictions around diving.  

The competition’s categories this year are: 
Wildlife and Coast
Coastal Landscape 
People and the Coast   
Coastal Heritage   
Underwater
Protectors of the coast 

Photographers have until 9 am on August 28 to submit their best images in one of five categories to be in with the chance to win a prize from a fund of €6,000 across all categories. 

Last year, Darragh Gorman with “Sun Surfer” taken in Bundoran, was awarded the third place in the Creativity and the Coast category. 

Darragh said: “I have surfed and photographed this area more times than I can remember. I have tried for years to get a surfer in action with Classiebawn Castle in the background. It's fairly straightforward to photograph a surfer, a castle and a sunset but lining them all up took some patience and a lot of luck.”  

Moreover, Gary McCall with “Peaty River Meets the Atlantic” shot in Dunfanaghy and  Samantha O'Connor with “Sunset at Fanad Lighthouse, Co. Donegal” capture in the Fanad Peninsula, were shortlisted in the top ten in the Creativity and the Coast and Coastal Landscape categories, respectively.   

 For the past 14 years, the Love Your Coast photography competition has represented an opportunity to view and celebrate the coast and our waterways that the Clean Coasts programme has been working to protect since 2003, and see the beauty captured therein. The competition began in 2010 and has grown from strength to strength since, with entries going from approximately 500 in year one to over 1,100 in 2022 with massive improvement in quality. For 2023, Clean Coasts is looking forward to receiving even more amazing entries. 

Photographers are encouraged to explore new and different 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.  

Clean Coast manager Sinead McCoy said: “Clean Coasts are delighted to be launching the Love Your Coast competition for the 14th year. The competition draws considerable interest from Ireland’s photographers and coastal enthusiasts and over the previous years it has received thousands of entries with the standard getting higher with each passing year. 

“We are delighted to welcome back the Underwater category and excited to introduce the new category Protectors of the Coast. The Love Your Coast competition is a fantastic addition to the Clean Coasts programme as it showcases the stunning environment that our groups work so hard to protect.” 

Entries can be submitted via https://cleancoasts.org/our-initiatives/love-your-coast/ up until August 28.