Wiki Loves Earth is an annual photography competition themed around the natural world. Wikimedia UK first took part in the competition in 2021 when Wales blazed the way. In 2023 we partnered with Wikimedia Community Group Ireland to support the competition in Northern Ireland for the first time. Since they entered in 2020, the Irish community group have been doing outstanding work running the competition, enabling photographers to add beautiful shots of our natural world to Wikimedia Commons.

A total of 363 photos were submitted to the competition; all of them are openly licensed meaning they are free to use and can illustrate Wikipedia. The competition is a great way to share photos of places that are important to you. The judges elected ten winning photos, which can be viewed here.

First place goes to a photograph of Tollymore Forest Park by Ryan Mcdonald, featured at the top of this blog. The long exposure on this shot captures the motion of the water as well as autumnal colours of the foliage.

In second place is Cuilcagh Mountain by Carl Meehan. Carl’s photo captures the landscape on a spring day. The mountain is a Special Area of Conservation and has a 2,500-hectare park on its northern slopes.

The Mourne Mountains are an Area of Natural Beauty, and depicted here by our third place photo taken by Conall. This photo juxtaposes the mountains in the background with the coastline in front.

The natural world changes from season to season, but climate change poses a threat to our environment and its durability. Extreme temperatures, drought, or rainfall all disturb the balance that has cultivated these environments and biodiversity. The photos submitted to the competition capture the state of our natural world at a point in time, and remind us what we stand to lose.
We hope to expand the competition across the UK in 2024, bringing more opportunities to appreciate our environment. Until then, you can also explore the entries to the Northern Ireland competition on a map.

The post The winners of Wiki Loves Earth 2023 in Northern Ireland appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

For the second year running, Wales had the second highest number of photos submitted to the Wiki Loves Earth competition. We’re so grateful to and hugely impressed by the entrants, who added over 5000 images of the Welsh National Parks and other protected areas, such as Sites of Scientific Interest. 50 countries took part, and once again Germany took the lead. This year the organising nation, Ukraine, came a close third with 4541 photographs. The list of all countries can be found here.

Before the international judges view the photos, a local panel in each participating country chooses a shortlist. Wales had a truly impressive top 10, which can be viewed here. Congratulations to all of the winners, and here’s a look at the top three:

Out of 5026 images, the top spot was awarded to Rufus Davies, who captured the image featured at the top of this blog. The action shot of two billy goats clashing heads was taken on a cliff face in the Ogwen Valley, located in the Eryri National Park (previously called Snowdonia). Not only is it impressive that Davies managed to get such a great shot, but the colours and composition of the photo are stunning.

The second place goes to Dwalad for their captivating photo of a glassy lake in Cwm Idwal – in the Glyderau range of mountains – of Darwin fame.

The third best photograph from Wales is this image of a grey heron, paused while fishing for small fry in the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley by WelshCarebear.

We were delighted that Northern Ireland also took part in the competition for the fourth year running, which for the first time Wikimedia UK helped organise. Like the Welsh Portal on Commons, the Northern Ireland portal was also bilingual, as we continue to strive for representation of native languages on wiki sites. This year, Northern Ireland’s number of photographs jumped fivefold, from 72 to 363!

Ultimately, the aim of adding photographs to Wikimedia Commons is so they are used and seen. Be it on Wikipedia articles or in another medium entirely, openly licensing images helps the Internet be more informative and useful for all of us. Images from WLE in Wales are among the most frequently added to Wikipedia articles. The numbers are still rising, but 27% of last year’s Welsh photos have been used, and in the few months that this year’s have been up we’re seeing a similar pattern of usage.

Wikipedia has over 335 languages, and the respect to the diversity of languages shown by the Wiki communities globally is excellent and inspirational. This is true of Wikimedia UK (if I may say so), where the conservation of that rich diversity is one of our main columns. The number of Welsh photographers was up from last year from 30 to 52 entrants, submitting over 5000 images for Wales. We have an International Football Team here in Wales, and it’s clear that Welsh photographers feel that WLE is the World Cup of photography competitions!

The post The winners of Wiki Loves Earth 2023 in Wales appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

This year, in Wiki Loves Earth, editors from all over Wales went out into protected areas such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty etc with cameras clicking in all directions! At the end of the day, for the number of images, Wales received the Silver Medal on the international podium for photographers, out of 36 nations. The judging at the international level now begins.

Last year’s 1,892 photos now look meagre compared to this year’s massive 5,041 images! The 10 best images will now go through to the final, but as far as numbers are concerned, Wales came second out of 36 nations, with Germany first, Kazakhstan third, Brazil fourth, and Russia fifth. Small is beautiful!

To many photographers, taking an aesthetically pleasing image, technically correct, and visually stunning are important. To me, as one of the editors (in my own time, of course), it’s equally important that we have lots of images which illustrate Wikipedia articles and which document all aspects of our natural environment. Quality and quantity!

For the second year running, the National Library of Wales, Menter Mon and Wikimedia UK organised the competition. Within weeks, we had new partners, including the Welsh Government, all three National Parks: Eryri (Snowdonia), Pembrokeshire and the Brecon Beacons as well as the Ramblers. Other existing partners included Natural Resources Wales and Llên Natur, the largest Welsh language nature society. 

The National Library’s Open Data Manager, Jason Evans said, “The National Library of Wales is thrilled to be able to work with Wikimedia UK to support this fantastic competition for the second year in a row. Once again the standard of photography and the number of entries has been exceptional. It is so important to capture and record the ever-changing beauty of our natural environment and to make that content freely available to all.”

WLE 2022 was a quick snapshot of the rich diversity of one small corner of our global biosphere: a record of flora, fauna and fungi, as they were in the summer of 2022. Future snapshots could be used to show the differences in the biosphere, and the impact of climate change. If Wikipedia could better illustrate this change, we could help negate the effect. So let’s get these images on Wikipedia articles, and make a difference!

The winning image in Wales is by User:Mjw999, featured above. It shows Three Cliffs Bay within the Gower Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in South Wales. Judges Iestyn Hughes and Simon Evans, both prominent local photographers, felt that the image captured the diversity of this beautiful landscape, which includes fresh water streams, a salt marsh and towering limestone cliffs.

In second place this year is User:Naff14 with a well executed shot of a Puffin on Skomer Island, collecting flowers for his nest building.

And in third place, the judges agreed on a more abstract image of a rock on Rhossili Beach on the Gower by User:Suntooth. The judges felt that the image invoked the power of the wind and sea whilst the patterns in the sand echoed the branches of trees.

Also highly commended was the following image of footprints in the sand dunes at Gronant by User:ClwydRuth. The judges were keen to include this image as a way of raising the profile of the important but little known habitats of Gronant Dunes.

The ten best images can be seen here and will now represent Wales in the international competition. Best of luck to all our photographers!

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This year, for the second time, Wales is taking part in the international photography competition ‘Wiki Loves Earth’ organised by the Wikimedia movement. Founded 9 years ago as a focus for nature heritage, the competition aims to raise awareness of protected sites. The Welsh campaign is also organised by Wikimedia UK, the National Library of Wales and WiciMon.

Robin Owain who leads the Wikimedia UK projects across Wales said “This year, our key supporters include the Welsh Government, the Ramblers Association and all three National Parks! We are calling on people across Wales to share their photographs of nature: flora, fauna and fungi!”

This is one of the largest photography competitions in the world focusing on National Parks, Sites of Special Scientific Interest and all protected areas. Robin explained “The biodiversity and geology of Wales is unique, and this competition allows Welsh photographers to share our protected areas on a world stage. 

Other organisations who will be supporting this exciting competition include Natural Resources Wales, all three National Parks: Eryri (Snowdonia), Pembrokeshire and the Brecon Beacons, Ramblers (Cymru), and both Edward Llwyd and Llên Natur  nature societies.

Examples of past winners can be seen at http://wikilovesearth.org and last year’s Welsh winners can be found here.

Any photographs you have taken in the past can be uploaded during June, with prizes at both country and national level to the winners. Robin added “The competition is open to everyone. We play rugby and football on the world stage, therefore we ask our friends, volunteers and staff to take photographs on that international stage, and at the same time exhibit their photographs of our diverse countryside.”

Read more about Wiki Loves Earth 2022 in Wales here on Wikimedia Commons.

More on Wiki Loves Earth can be found here.

Further information & images press@wikimedia.org.uk

About Wikimedia UK here

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UK based Punjabi writer and photographer, Amarjit Chandan opened up images from his archive. Aside from images photographed by him, the archive includes images from his father, Gopal Singh Chandan, a full-time photographer and other public domain images. 

Amarjit Chandan has a Wikipedia account of his own and has tried himself adding images to Commons in the past years. Punjabi Wikimedians User Group approached him to see what help he needed, also asking if he’d be interested in releasing further content. 

Punjabi Wikimedians User Group collaborated with Wikimedia UK to execute this project. As the collection had a connection to both affiliates, it felt like a great opportunity to collaborate. Amarjit Chandan was more than glad to give his photographs but he needed support to create multilingual Metadata regarding the photographs, handling the captions and helping with the upload. Multilingual metadata was important to include as it helps the Punjabi community to search and access the data easily. User:Gurdeepdali who is an independent photographer worked as an online Wikimedian-in-Residence for the project.

As of 19 June 2021, a total of 471 images have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and at least 54 distinct images (11 % of the total images) are being used across languages and projects with the maximum images being used on Punjabi Wikipedia followed by English Wikipedia and Wikidata. More photos followed. 

Aside from helping illustrate articles on Punjabi personalities on Punjabi and English Wikipedias, the images help capture lives of Punjabis across three continents. Chandan was born in Kenya where his father was a political activist as well. He moved to India at the age of eleven in 1957 and eventually migrated to the UK in 1980.

In 2020, both collaborators were excited to start work on it then in 2020, but the pandemic, COVID-19, meant we couldn’t run in-person events that were planned for this. We still went ahead with the wiki content work, and Punjabi Wikimedians are currently planning to organise an online editathon to add more photographs to relevant Wikipedia articles. You can get in touch with gillteshu@gmail.com or sonichotian@gmail.com for any future plans, and we welcome any multilingual editors who can help add the images to articles in various languages.

If you’re interested in how you can get started with your own cultural heritage project as part of a GLAM organisation, we’ve got a series of free webinars for any cultural heritage professionals. There’s just two more webinars in 2021, on the 9th November and the 2nd of December, sign up here.

The post UK based Punjabi artist opens up his archive appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

This year Wales is taking part in the international photography competition ‘Wiki Loves Earth’ organised by the Wikimedia movement. Founded 9 years ago as a focus for nature heritage, the competition aims to raise awareness of protected sites globally.

Robin Owain who leads the Wikimedia UK projects across Wales said “Today we’re excited to be launching Wiki Loves Earth 2021 in Wales. This is one of the largest photography competitions in the world focusing on National Parks, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Sites of Outstanding Natural Beauty and all other protected areas. Robin explained “The biodiversity and geology of Wales is unique, and this competition allows Welsh photographers to show the beauty of their landscape, the flora and fauna of their protected areas on a world stage.”

Organizations who will be supporting this exciting competition include Natural Resources Wales, Pembrokeshire and Snowdonia National Park, the Welsh Mountaineering Club, Edward Llwyd nature society, National Library of Wales, Wikimedia UK, WiciMon and others.

Jason Evans, National Wikimedian at the National Library said, “”The National Library of Wales is thrilled to support this competition, which will encourage people to explore and document Wales’ diverse wildlife and landscapes. This aligns with our commitment to community engagement and will complement our current Welsh Government funded project to support the improvement of Welsh language data and mapping services.”

This year, the international winning photos will represent two categories — landscapes, including individual trees if it has a preservation order, and macro or close-ups of animals, plants, fungi etc. Examples of past winners can be seen at #WikiLovesEarth. For instructions on how to upload, Google ‘Wiki Loves Earth 2021 in Wales’, or follow this link.

Any photographs taken in the past (even on a phone) can be uploaded during June, with prizes at both country and national level for the winners. Robin added “The competition is open to everyone. We ask our friends, volunteers and staff to put Wales on the international map by entering their photographs of our beautiful and diverse country.”

Read more about Wiki Loves Earth 2021 in Wales here on Wikimedia Commons.
More on Wiki Loves Earth can be found here.

Cystadleuaeth Ffotograffiaeth Byd-Eang Ar Natur – Cymru’n Cystadlu

Mae Cymru’n cymryd rhan eleni yn y gystadleuaeth ffotograffeg ‘Wiki Loves Earth’ (Wici’r
Holl Fyd yw’r enw Cymraeg) a drefnir gan y mudiad rhyngwladol Wikimedia, mam Wicipedia!

Ymhlith y sefydliadau eraill fydd yn cefnogi’r gystadleuaeth y mae Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru, Parciau Cenedlaethol Eryri a Phenfro, Clwb Mynydda Cymru, Cymdeithas Edward Llwyd, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, Wikimedia UK, WiciMon ac eraill.

Yn ôl Robin Owain sy’n arwain gwaith Wikimedia UK yng Nghymru, “Mae heddiw’n ddiwrnod cyffrous iawn, gan ein bod ni’n lansio Wici’r Holl Ddaear 2021 yng Nghymru. Dyma un o’r cystadlaethau ffotograffiaeth mwyaf yn y byd sy’n canolbwyntio ar Barciau Cenedlaethol, Safleoedd o Ddiddordeb Gwyddonol Arbennig, Safleoedd o Harddwch Naturiol Eithriadol ac ardaledd warchodedig eraill.” Esboniodd Robin “Mae bioamrywiaeth a daeareg Cymru’n unigryw, ac mae’r gystadleuaeth hon yn caniatáu i ffotograffwyr o Gymru gofnodi ac arddangos ei harddwch: y tirwedd a’r golygfeydd, a chyfoeth yr amrywiaeth bywyd sydd yma: anifeiliaid, ffwng a phlanhigion.”

Ymhlith y sefydliadau eraill fydd yn cefnogi’r gystadleuaeth y mae Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru, Parciau Cenedlaethol Penfro ac Eryri, Clwb Mynydda Cymru, Cymdeithas Edward Llwyd, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, WiciMon a Wikimedia UK.

Dywedodd Jason Evans, Wicimediwr Cenedlaethol Cymru, “Mae’n bleser gan Lyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru gael cefnogi’r gystadleuaeth hon, a fydd yn annog pobl i archwilio a dogfennu bywyd gwyllt a thirweddau amrywiol Cymru. Mae hyn yn cyd-fynd â’n hymrwymiad ni i ymgysylltu â’r gymuned a, bydd yn ategu ein prosiect presennol, a ariennir gan Lywodraeth Cymru, i gefnogi gwella data a gwasanaethau mapio yn y Gymraeg.”

I gael hyd i’r cyfarwyddiadau sut i uwchlwytho, a rhagor am ymgais Cymru, Gwglwch Wici’r Holl Ddaear 2021 Cymru, neu dilynnwch y ddolen: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2021_in_Wales

Gallwch uwwchlwytho lluniau rydych wedi eu cymryd unrhyw bryd yn y gorffennol, neu fynd ati o hyn tan ddiwedd Mehefin, ac yn ôl Robin, “Gall unrhyw beson gystadlu, gan ddefnyddio camera eu ffôn neu gamera pwrpasol! Be sy’n bwysig ydy ein bod yn cystadlu, fel cenedl ar lefel rhyngwladol!”

Dolen i wefan Cymru: yma ar Comin Wicimedia

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By UK Wikimedian and copyright enthusiast Geni

Spoiler:Its a terrible broken system which is part of the reason Wikipedia went copyleft in the first place. Please note that this is not legal advice. If you want that, ask a lawyer or, given the mess some bits of the law are in, 5 supreme court judges.

To be honest, this would be better titled “what you can upload photographs of without Commons rightfully complaining”.

The first thing you have to consider is: is the subject of the photo 3D or 2D? 2D and 3D subjects are dealt with very differently so see the relevant section for the subject you are interested in (objects with more than 3 dimensions are probably the same as 3D objects but there is no caselaw).

3D subjects

The good news is that the UK is one of the most liberal countries when it comes to photographing 3D objects (formal term freedom of panorama). If its on 3D and on permanent display in a public place then you are free to photograph it. This covers buildings, statues, dolls and basically anything else that’s 3D (although the exact reasons why may vary).

To break it down a bit, permanent display means no specific plans to remove the subject at some point. Public place means places the general public regularly has access to. So things like market squares, museums and the more open type of church would be fine but a private house or factory would not be (and yes this can result in the weird situation where you can’t upload a photo of a figurine taken in your home but could upload a picture of an identical one on display a museum).

One exception to all of this is that it assumes the item is under copyright in the first place. If the author has been dead for 70 years or the subject is in the public domain for some other reason then the location of the object and its permeance doesn’t matter. A second exception is that it only applies to items that qualify for copyright at all. Under UK law functional items (tools machinery, clothing etc) that don’t rise to the level of artistic craftsmanship don’t qualify for copyright. Unfortunately the term “artistic craftsmanship” is only defined through caselaw and even then pretty poorly. Of the nominal standards, the easiest to work to involves judging author intent. If it appears that the author was trying to create an artwork then the subject is more likely to qualify for copyright than if it did not. For example a highly decorative lampshade might well qualify for copyright but a standard fluorescent strip light mounting would not.

2D subjects

While the UK may be liberal with 3D objects its very much the reverse with 2D. Photos of paintings, murals and graffiti (and any other 2D work) are copyright infringements if the original work is under copyright (which unless the author has been dead for 70 years it usually would be).

Incidental inclusion

The UK has an explicit allowance for incidental inclusion. Wikimedia Commons users tend to interpret this as meaning

that if something is not the subject of the photo you don’t need to worry about it. Graffiti on a building (where the photo is of the building) or a temporary sculpture in the corner of a village square are not an issue. Photos where those were the focus of the image would be a problem. Full details can be found at Commons:De minimis (the rough US equivalent).

The unreasonably difficult photo contest

If all this copyright stuff is boring or depressing then I can offer you the unreasonably difficult photo contest where none of the subjects present a copyright issue.

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Wiki Loves Monuments UK, part of the world’s biggest photographic contest, has announced the winners of this year’s competition. The UK competition is organised and voted on by members of the Wikimedia community in the UK, and seeks to encourage photographers to upload their images to Wikimedia Commons, the media-sharing sister site of Wikipedia, where content is shared on Creative Commons Open Licenses and is freely available to use by anybody.

Competition organiser Michael Maggs announced the winners on the Wiki Loves Monuments UK site over the weekend and explained the judges decisions to award the main prizes.

First prize

Michael Maggs: “The judges appreciated the wonderful colour-palette that the photographer has captured with the early-morning light, and the real skill and care that is evident in the composition.”

Second prize

File:Bass Rock with lighthouse and gannets.jpg

Michael Maggs: “Although Bass Rock is a well-photographed subject, the judges picked this image out for its unusual and varied lighting which brings out the details of the upper rock surface, the clouds of birds in flight, and the photographic angle which allows the lighthouse to stand out clearly.”

Third prize

Michael Maggs: “The judges liked the use of a low camera angle and late afternoon sunshine to enhance the presence of this powerful monument. They also appreciated the photographer choosing a lesser-known site.”

Commended

Arnol Blackhouse

Clifton Suspension Bridge and the Observatory in Bristol, England

High tide at Newport transporter Bridge

Leasowe Lighthouse Frozen Fields

Perch Rock Lighthouse Gold

This year the judges have awarded only five commendations, as they did not feel there were sufficient images of prize-winning quality to award the usual seven. We are accordingly submitting a total of eight images this time.

If you want to see all 10,438 images submitted to Wiki Loves Monuments this year, you can find them in this category on Wikimedia Commons.

Congratulations to the winners of the top prizes, and especially to MHoser, whose winning entry receives a prize of £250. Wiki Loves Monuments will return in September 2020, and we strongly encourage photographers to consider taking photos of monuments throughout the year which they can submit next September.

The post Wiki Loves Monuments UK 2019 winners announced appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

I’ve known tara Beall for a while – our paths first crossed when I was the Wikimedian in Residence at Museums Galleries Scotland, working with Glasgow Museums, and we were organising an editathon to do with the Showpeople of Scotland, with whom tara had worked for some years. (Their lifestyle and culture is once again under threat, due to regeneration plans in Govan, which would affect one of their permanent yards). Months later she came to an editathon which was focussed on improving the article on (Scottish political activist, rent strike organiser and one of Glasgow’s first woman councillors) Mary Barbour, and then we ran an editathon at the Glasgow Women’s Library with tara’s Strong Women of the Clydeside (SWaC) project team, and then another (also for SWaC) at the Mitchell Library when I was Wikimedian at the Scottish Library and Information Council.

It was at that point that we started to talk about her new project, based in Dumfries, which would focus on the stonecarving heritage of the area. Wouldn’t it be great to include a Wiki element to this, she asked? Well yes, I thought.

“Creative heritage projects almost always have websites, but the information they generate is not sustainable – who is looking after the sites five years on? Often, the information generated by publicly funded projects is lost (from the digital realm) after a few years … Wikipedia is a key knowledge platform, and an excellent way for us to deliver an international audience to our local heritage project (and vice versa).” (tara s Beall)

A few months later, we were in Dumfries, and tara is pointing me towards a pub – well, actually, she’s pointing me to the incredible carving on the building that houses the pub. I snap a picture to use later in the workshop as an example. Looking around, I can see that it’s not the only example of this kind of work in the town. In fact, it’s not even the only example on this street.

When it comes to community heritage, it’s all too common to see excellent digital outputs disappear shortly after the project finishes – websites that expire, apps that aren’t maintained, content held on a third-party commercial service that’s bought over and subsequently vanishes… and so it’s been good to work with organisations that see the potential in using open licensing, and engagement with the Wikimedia projects, to ensure more sustainability in the dissemination of their digital outputs. I was grateful to be able to input into Historic Environment Scotland’s Archaeology Programme’s “Sharing Our Stories” document, which offers advice to those groups looking to make the most impact in sharing the results of their project.

The Dumfries Stonecarving Project aims to promote the rich stonecarving heritage of the area, and includes practical taster sessions, summer schools with local young people, an exhibition, and workshops and ‘stonecarving quests’ with photography groups to record some of that heritage. Using Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia, the project seeks to give this heritage a global audience, disseminating it through channels which have longevity, and which can, through tools like Magnus Manske’s GLAMorgan, give them insight into where their content is being used.

“We are also delighted to be offering workshops to local photography clubs (like the Dumfries North West Photography Club) where they can learn about Creative Commons licences, and best practice for uploading their images to Wikimedia. And because the images are shared under an open licence, everyone can enjoy the beauty of our sandstone heritage. Dumfries has an amazing history of stonecarving, and a wealth of local buildings with incredible carvings on them — from ‘green men’ to gargoyles. Working with Wiki will allow us to get a large number of local people engaged with these histories and interacting with Wikipedia – getting local people involved in preserving their heritage.” (tara s Beall)

And so it’s later on that evening, in a community centre very close to Lincluden Abbey – voted one of Scotland’s favourite “Hidden Gems” during Dig It!’s 2017 Scotland in Six campaign – that I find myself chatting away to a keen group of photographers, who had the week previous walked around their town, taking some incredible pictures of listed buildings. I tell them a little about Wikimedia Commons, and the other Wikimedia projects, show them how to upload, how to use the Wiki Loves Monuments interactive map, and away they go. That evening we uploaded 80 pictures to Commons, and by a few days later, that number stood at over 170. You can see their pictures here, in a category that includes pictures of Dumfries, but also of other buildings and monuments in Scotland that the group had photographed. There are some great pictures in there, some of which have now been added to pages on English Wikipedia, including that for Dumfries itself. Over 15,000 people have read that article since.

That session was the first of a few that we’ll be running over the next few months, and I’m really excited to see what comes next!

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Chris has written a short blog post on the Wiki Loves Monuments website explaining how he took his winning image.

The 2018 contest

Wiki Loves Monuments is the world’s biggest photographic competition, with a total of 260,607 images submitted to the 2018 competition from all over the world. In the UK, 13,185 images taken by over 500 photographers were entered.  The competition aims to gather high quality, openly-licensed images of historic sites from all over the world.

The contest is an incredible opportunity to document and preserve our heritage for future generations, and this year saw a particular focus on the capture of internal shots, as well as of those sites which were lacking a freely-licensed image in Wikidata, the knowledge base which sits behind Wikipedia.

Among this year’s winners are three castles (all in Wales), two lighthouses (New Brighton and Bass Rock), and one museum (Arbroath).

This year saw a marked increase in submissions from Scotland, with over double the number of entries submitted this year than in 2017.  Wikimedia UK worked with Historic Environment Scotland’s publicly-available database of listed buildings and scheduled monuments to add over 27,000 new eligible items to Wikidata, vastly improving the coverage of Scotland.

PIctures submitted to this year’s contest are already being used to illustrate Wikipedia articles, and Wikimedia UK would like to extend their warmest thanks to all those who submitted entries, helping to significantly improve access to this knowledge.

The top ten UK winners now go forward to the international judging stage of the contest, where they will compete against the best images from some 55 other countries. The first, second and third placed UK winners receive £250, £100, and £50 respectively, with seven Highly Commended winners receiving £25 each.

Additional prizes have been awarded for the best three images from England, from Scotland and from Wales. Archaeology Scotland has also sponsored a special prize for the best photograph of a site in Scotland: a free 1-year membership including the Archaeology Scotland Magazine as well as access to their learning resources.

One of the competition’s judges noted that the quality and variety of images submitted continues to increase:

“Each year the standard of entries for Wiki Loves Monuments UK rises. Browsing through the long list of almost 250 images was made enjoyable and easy because of the quality of the images and the variety of locations from across the British Isles on display, narrowing it down to a shortlist of just 10 was a much harder process. It is a real pleasure to have been involved in the judging of this competition and to see the skill and dedication of the winning photographers recognised.”

Find out more about the prizes on the Wiki Loves Monuments website.

Winners

[slideshow_deploy id=’4443′]

The winners are as follows. Click the title for access to more details and high resolution copies on Wikimedia Commons.

UK winners

• 1st: The Cloisters at Gloucester Cathedral
• 2nd: Sunrise at West Pier (Brighton)
• 3rd: Hardknott Roman Fort (Cumbria)

UK highly commended

• Carreg Cennen Castle
• Dinefwr castle at sunrise
• Farnborough Portable Airship Hangar at Sunset
• Humber Bridge
• New Brighton Lighthouse
• New Brighton Shelter
• Walthamstow Dogs

Scotland

• 1st: Arbroath Signal Tower
• 2nd: Wemyss Bay railway station concourse
• 3rd: Bass rock lighthouse

Wales

• 1st: Dinefwr castle at sunrise
• 2nd: Carreg Cennen Castle
• 3rd: Paxton Tower

England

• 1st: The Cloisters at Gloucester Cathedral
• 2nd: Sunrise at West Pier (Brighton)
• 3rd: Hardknott Roman Fort (Cumbria)

Special prize

The most prolific photographer of “new” UK historic sites was Paul the Archivist, who uploaded more than 200 pictures of sites which hadn’t previously been represented in the database.

For the complete list of the UK award winners and shortlisted images, well as access to high-resolution copies, see the winners’ page on Wikimedia Commons.

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