The rules

Free. No purchase, ever. Open worldwide to anyone aged 18 or over. Three photographs maximum per person. Once a photograph is submitted it cannot be edited; if you need one taken down, write to benjamin@cam-strap.com and we will remove it.

One category, open to everyone with any camera, including a phone. There is no equipment requirement of any kind and nothing to buy.

We refuse an entry that is not the entrant's own photograph, that is AI generated or AI extended, that was taken outside 1 August to 15 October 2026, that has been retouched beyond normal development, that shows a recognisable person who has not agreed to appear, or that was obtained by disturbing an animal. Normal development means exposure, contrast, colour, crop, straightening and dust removal. It does not mean compositing, or adding or removing anything.

Derry Caulfield scores every entry blind, and she is the sole judge. She sees the photograph, its title, and the one line you write about where and when. She does not see your name, your email address or any follower count. She does read that line, so a country written into it is a country she sees. Approved entries also appear in the public gallery, credited, before judging begins, so this protects against her knowing whose work it is by accident rather than against anyone determined to find out. The criteria are the light, weighted double, then the moment, then the craft. Her decision is final.

Derry Caulfield is the sole judge, and her school, Learn How To Photograph, is the headline sponsor of this award. Camstrap and Derry Caulfield are partners in promoting photography. Buying anything from Camstrap or from her cannot improve an entry's chances. Her students, and anyone who has taken one of her workshops, may enter on the same terms as everybody else. Blind judging hides a name; it does not stop a judge recognising a photograph. Where she recognises an entry, from a workshop she ran or in any other way, she says so, and Camstrap reviews that entry's placing before any prize is awarded.

The People's Choice prize is decided by a public vote on the twelve finalists, open from 22 October to 28 October. One vote per person per day. Votes cast by duplicate, automated or incentivised accounts are removed, and a vote already counted may be withdrawn if it is later found to be one of those. Voting is not judging: it decides one prize and has no effect on the jury's decisions. If two finalists finish level, the head judge decides.

Twelve prizes. The grand prize is a private portfolio review with Derry Caulfield, one hour over video, to be scheduled by the winner within three months, plus the Camstrap field kit: a Nomad backpack, a Trek harness and a Magclip. The people's choice winner receives a Trek harness, and each of the ten other finalists receives a Magclip. Prizes are not exchangeable for cash. Any local import duty is the winner's.

You keep the copyright. You give Camstrap the right to show your entry in the Last Light gallery and when announcing results, always credited to you. If you finish in the top twelve, that permission extends to Camstrap's marketing for two years. These rules are the terms of this award: where they and Lumière's general site terms differ, these rules govern your entry.

Your email address is used to run the award and to tell you the result. The newsletter is a separate box you tick yourself, and it is never a condition of entering.

This award is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram or Meta.

Questions go to benjamin@cam-strap.com. The award is run by Camstrap, Saussan, France.