Terms and conditions

These are the rules. We've written them so you can read them in ten minutes, and there's a short version first. The short version is a summary; if anything in it ever differs from the full terms, the full terms apply. Last updated: [date]. Nothing below changes after entries open on 12 October 2026 except to fix a typo, and any fix is listed at the bottom with the date.

The short version

• It's a photography competition judged on skill. No draw, no vote, no luck.
• One theme: Movement. Any aircraft photo you took on or after 12 October 2024. One frame, no composites, no AI.
• 18 or over, whatever your experience. Open to the UK, the EU and the US only.
• Register for the free workshop by Thursday 8 October and you've got one free entry. Extra entries are £7 for one or £20 for three. Accelerator members have three included. There is no limit on how many you enter.
• Entries open on Kolab on Monday 12 October at 08:00 and close on Saturday 31 October at 23:59 GMT. That date doesn't move.
• Judged blind by Rich Cooper, Aled Phillips and [independent judge] against five published criteria. Rich and Tom pick a shortlist of twenty first.
• One winner in the UK picks £2,000 of new kit from Clifton Cameras. A winner in the EU or the US gets €2,000 or $2,000 in cash by PayPal instead.
• Results by email and on coaponline.com on Monday 9 November at 11:00. Winner and the twenty are contacted the day before.
• You keep your copyright. We get a narrow licence to show your photo in the competition gallery and results, credited, and you can take it down after results.

Full terms

1. Who's running this

1.1 The competition is run by COAP Online Limited, company number [company number], registered office 30-34 North St, Hailsham, BN27 1DW, United Kingdom ("we", "us", "COAP Online"). Contact for anything about the competition: team@coaponline.com.

1.2 Clifton Cameras supplies the prize. Clifton isn't running the competition and these terms are with us, not them.

2. What this is

2.1 This is a skill competition. Entries are judged by a panel against the criteria in clause 8 and the winner is the entry the panel scores highest. There's no random element at any stage, including tie-breaks.

2.2 By entering you agree to these terms. If you don't agree with something, don't enter.

3. Who can enter

3.1 You have to be 18 or over on the day you enter.

3.2 The competition is open to photographers of every experience level. It doesn't matter whether photography is your hobby or your job.

3.3 You have to live in the United Kingdom, a member state of the European Union, or the United States. The competition is not open anywhere else and is void where prohibited. What you win depends on where you live, and clause 9 sets that out in full.

3.4 You can't enter if you're one of the judges or live in the same household as one, or if you work for or contract to COAP Online, or if you work for Clifton Cameras.

3.5 Members of the Aviation Photography Accelerator can enter, and clause 5.4 explains your included entries.

4. Dates and times

4.1 The dates:

What	When
Free workshop, three evenings online	Tuesday 6, Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 October 2026 at 19:00 BST
Last time to register for the workshop (and get the free entry)	Thursday 8 October 2026, 23:59 BST
Entries open on Kolab	Monday 12 October 2026, 08:00 BST
Clocks go back	Sunday 18 October 2026, 02:00. Every time after this is GMT.
Entries close	Saturday 31 October 2026, 23:59 GMT
Shortlist of twenty and the five reserves asked for their original files	Wednesday 4 November 2026 at 18:00, 72 hours to reply (Saturday 7 November, 18:00 GMT)
Winner and shortlist told privately	Monday 9 November 2026
Results published	Monday 9 November 2026, 11:00 GMT
UK winner to have chosen their item by	Tuesday 24 November 2026
UK equipment prize delivered	Within 30 days of the winner confirming their choice
EU and US winner to give us a PayPal address by	Monday 16 November 2026
EU and US cash prize paid	Within 14 days of the announcement, so by Monday 23 November 2026

4.2 The closing date and time won't change. Not for a low number of entries, not for a high one, and not for a problem with Kolab (clause 16 covers that). The only exception is something outside our control that makes it unavoidable, and even then only in a way that doesn't disadvantage anyone who's already entered.

5. How to enter

5.1 Your free entry. Register for the free workshop at coaponline.com/competition by Thursday 8 October 2026 at 23:59 BST and you get one free entry. It's tied to the email address you registered with. From Monday 12 October, log in to Kolab (kolab.social) with that email address and your free entry will be waiting. A Kolab account is free.

5.2 Extra entries. From Monday 12 October you can buy one extra entry for £7 or three extra entries for £20 at coaponline.com. The price is the same all the way through to 31 October. Entries are credited to the email address you buy with. Clause 7 covers payment and refunds.

5.3 There is no maximum. Enter as many photographs as you like, whether the entries are free, bought, or included with membership. Entries are per person, not per email address, and you must enter under your own name. If you set up more than one account, every entry you've made is disqualified.

5.4 Accelerator members. If you're a member of the Aviation Photography Accelerator when entries are open, three entries are included and appear on your Kolab account automatically, keyed to the email on your membership. Members can still use the free entry from registering for the workshop, and can buy as many more as they like. Included entries aren't refundable or transferable and have no cash value.

5.5 One photo per entry. You can't enter the same photo twice, or two frames from the same burst that are effectively the same picture. If you do, we'll keep the first and remove the rest.

5.6 If you registered, bought or joined with different email addresses, email team@coaponline.com and we'll merge them by hand. Do it before the last day.

5.7 To enter you'll need internet access and a free Kolab account. Kolab is a photography platform owned by Tom Dalton, one of COAP Online's founders. The Kolab account itself is governed by Kolab's own terms and privacy policy; the competition is governed by these terms.

6. What you can enter

6.1 The theme is Movement: prop blur, panning, vapour, heat haze, anything that shows the aircraft going somewhere. How well the photo answers the theme is one of the five things it's scored on. [Confirm theme with Rich.]

6.2 Any aircraft, anywhere, any camera including a phone. The photo must have been taken by you on or after Saturday 12 October 2024.

6.3 It must be a single photograph. No composites, no HDR merges, no focus stacks, no stitched panoramas, no exposure blends, no frame grabs from video.

6.4 Editing. A judge comparing your original file to your entry should see the same photograph, better finished. Allowed: cropping, straightening, lens and perspective corrections; exposure, contrast, white balance, colour, curves, clarity and dehaze; dodging and burning, global or local; sharpening and noise reduction, including AI-based tools, provided they don't add anything that wasn't in the frame; removing sensor dust spots; black and white conversion, toning and moderate vignetting. Not allowed: adding, moving, duplicating or removing any aircraft or part of one, any person, vehicle, bird, cloud, vapour, smoke, sky or background element; sky replacement; generative fill, generative expand or content-aware fill on anything other than dust spots; any image wholly or partly generated by AI.

6.5 Nothing on the image. No name, signature, watermark, logo, border or text. Judging is blind and any of these identifies you, so the entry is removed before it reaches a judge.

6.6 File. JPEG, [longest edge at least 2,000 pixels, no more than 20 MB], with the EXIF data left in. If you make the shortlist we'll ask for your original file (the RAW, the out-of-camera JPEG if you shoot JPEG, or the original phone file) and you'll have 72 hours to send it. No original file, no place in the twenty.

6.7 It must be your own work, and you must own the copyright. Clause 13 has the promises you make about it.

7. Paying for extra entries

7.1 One extra entry is £7. Three extra entries are £20. Prices are in pounds sterling [and include VAT / and no VAT is charged because COAP Online is not VAT registered]. There's one price from 12 October to 31 October; no early bird, no codes.

7.2 When you buy, you tick a box that says: "Add my entries straight away. I understand that once I've used an entry I can't cancel it for a refund." Because you've asked for the entries immediately, the 14-day cancellation right you'd normally have for something bought online doesn't apply to an entry you've used (uploaded a photo against). It does apply to entries you haven't used: email team@coaponline.com within 14 days of buying and we'll refund them.

7.3 We don't refund entries that are disqualified under clause 15, or entries that go unused because you didn't upload in time.

7.4 Buying extra entries doesn't improve your chances beyond having more photos in the competition. Every entry is judged the same way, and one entry is enough to win.

8. How it's judged

8.1 The judges are Rich Cooper (COAP Online), Aled Phillips (Clifton Cameras) and [independent judge], [credential]. [Independent judge] has no contract with COAP Online or Clifton Cameras, isn't a member and isn't entering. Tom Dalton (COAP Online) administers the competition and helps with the shortlist but doesn't score.

8.2 Judging is blind. During the shortlist and the scoring, the judges see each photo and an entry number and nothing else: no names, usernames, captions, upload times or camera owner details.

8.3 The five criteria, each scored 1 to 10 by each judge, all equal:

• Sharpness where it matters
• Use of light
• Composition
• Sense of movement (the theme)
• Impact

8.4 Shortlist. On Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 November, Rich Cooper and Tom Dalton go through every eligible entry blind and pick twenty, plus five reserves in order. The independent judge then reviews that selection, can look at anything left out, and can swap an entry in. The twenty is fixed by 18:00 on Wednesday 4 November.

8.5 Original files. The twenty and the five reserves are asked for their original file and have 72 hours, to Saturday 7 November at 18:00. We check the original against the entry for the rules in clause 6. If an entry doesn't pass, or the file doesn't arrive, it's withdrawn and the next reserve moves in. Before withdrawing an entry for an editing question we'll tell you what we found and give you 48 hours to explain.

8.6 Scoring. Between Thursday 5 and Sunday 8 November each judge scores each of the twenty on the five criteria, alone, without seeing the other judges' scores. The winner is the entry with the highest total out of 150.

8.7 Ties. If two entries have the same total, the independent judge's own scores for those entries decide. If those are equal too, the independent judge compares the tied entries directly and picks one, and records the reason. Nothing is ever decided by chance.

8.8 The panel's decisions on scoring are final. We'll always tell a shortlisted entrant why an entry was withdrawn, and you can complain under clause 20, but we won't re-score.

8.9 The scores, the shortlist marks and the judges' notes are kept for two years. They're the record that this was a competition judged on skill. We don't publish individual scores.

9. The prize

9.1 There is one prize. What it is depends on where the winner lives, and the winner does not get to choose between the two.

9.2 Winners in the United Kingdom. One item of new photographic equipment of the winner's choice, to the value of £2,000 including VAT, from Clifton Cameras' stock at the time the winner chooses. A lens or a body, whatever the winner wants up to that value. If the chosen item is unavailable, we supply an alternative of equal or greater value. There is no cash alternative for a winner in the United Kingdom, and if the winner chooses an item worth less than £2,000 the difference is not paid out. Clifton Cameras delivers to a UK address at no cost to the winner within 30 days of the winner confirming their choice.

9.3 Winners in the European Union. €2,000 in cash, paid by PayPal within 14 days of the winner announcement on Monday 9 November 2026, provided the winner has given us the PayPal address to pay by Monday 16 November 2026. There is no equipment alternative.

9.4 Winners in the United States. $2,000 in cash, paid by PayPal within 14 days of the winner announcement on Monday 9 November 2026, provided the winner has given us the PayPal address to pay by Monday 16 November 2026. There is no equipment alternative.

9.5 The prize will be awarded whatever the number of entries. It cannot be transferred or sold on to someone else before it is supplied or paid. Equipment cannot be exchanged with Clifton after it is supplied, except under Clifton's normal returns policy for faulty goods.

9.6 Any tax on the prize is the winner's responsibility. We do not deduct anything from a cash prize, and PayPal's own fees, if any, are outside our control. If we cannot pay a cash prize because the winner has no PayPal account that can receive it, we will agree another method with them in writing, and the 14 day period runs from that agreement.

9.7 The twenty shortlisted entrants are named publicly and their photos are shown in the results. There's no prize for the shortlist beyond that, and we're saying so now so nobody is disappointed later.

9.8 Equipment prizes are subject to any manufacturer's warranty in the normal way. We're not responsible for the kit once Clifton has supplied it.

10. Telling the winner and the twenty

10.1 On Monday 9 November we'll email the winner and the twenty at the address on their entry, and phone the winner and anyone shortlisted who gave a number. We log every attempt.

10.2 The winner has to confirm by reply that they're 18 or over and eligible under clauses 3.3 and 3.4, and choose their prize by Tuesday 24 November 2026. If we can't reach the winner by then, or they turn out not to be eligible, or they don't want the prize, the next placed entrant wins and we'll publish a dated note on the results page.

10.3 Results are published on Monday 9 November 2026 at 11:00 GMT by email to everyone who registered or entered and on a results page at coaponline.com, and the full gallery of entries opens on COAP Online's Kolab page. We may publish before the winner has replied to us.

11. Publicity

11.1 We'll publish the winner's name, county and winning photo, and the names and photos of the twenty shortlisted, on the results page, in the results email and on our own social media accounts. The Advertising Standards Authority expects promoters to publish or make available the surname and county of major prizewinners so that people can see a real award took place.

11.2 If you'd rather we didn't publish your name, tick the box on the upload form or email us before results are published, and we'll list you as "name withheld, [county]". If you'd rather your entry wasn't shown publicly at all, tick the other box; it'll still be judged. Either way, if the ASA asks us to show that the award was made, we'll show them.

11.3 If you win, we'd like to photograph you with your prize at Clifton Cameras, write a short piece about your photo (aircraft, settings, the story, what the judges said) and use it, with your name, to tell people about the result and about the next COAP Online competition. You can say no to the photo shoot and we'll write the piece without it. We won't use your name or image to advertise any product.

12. Your photos: copyright and what you let us do

12.1 You keep the copyright in everything you enter. Entering doesn't transfer anything to us, to Clifton Cameras or to Kolab.

12.2 By entering, you give COAP Online a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use each entry for the following purposes only: showing it in the competition gallery on COAP Online's Kolab page and on the results page at coaponline.com; if it wins or makes the twenty, showing it in the results email, the winner's post on our blog, our own social media posts about the results, and the members' critique workshop on Wednesday 18 November and its replay; and showing it, as an example of past entries, when we announce the next COAP Online competition. Kolab hosts and displays your entry for us under the same limits.

12.3 We'll credit you by name every time we show your photo (unless you've asked us not to publish your name), and we won't crop it, alter it or add anything to it beyond resizing and converting the file so it displays.

12.4 We won't sell your photo, license it to anyone else, use it to advertise any product, or pass it to Clifton Cameras or anyone else for their own use. If Clifton or anyone else wants to use it, they'll have to ask you and agree terms with you directly.

12.5 The gallery is public and stays up after the competition, as the record of it. Once results are published on 9 November you can remove any of your entries from the gallery yourself, using the remove control on Kolab, or by emailing us, and we'll do it within 14 days. The licence for that photo ends when it comes down, except for anything we'd already published under it, like the results email or the winner's post, which can stay as it is. If you win or make the twenty, we'd ask you to leave that photo on the results page for at least twelve months, because it's the public record that a real competition took place; if you've a reason to take it down sooner, email us and we'll sort it.

12.6 Nothing in these terms affects your moral rights, and we don't ask you to waive them.

13. What you promise us

By entering, you confirm that:

13.1 You took the photo yourself, on or after 12 October 2024, and you own the copyright.

13.2 It doesn't infringe anyone else's copyright or other rights, and if a person is identifiable in it you have whatever permission you need to enter it.

13.3 You took it from somewhere you were entitled to be, and you didn't break any airfield, military, aviation security or trespass rules to get it.

13.4 It meets clause 6, and if we ask for the original file you'll send it.

13.5 Everything you tell us about yourself is true.

13.6 If someone makes a claim against us because one of these turns out not to be true, you'll cover us for it.

14. Your data

14.1 COAP Online Limited is the data controller for the competition. Kolab ([Kolab legal entity]) processes competition data for us under a written data processing agreement. Your Kolab account itself (username, profile, anything you do on Kolab outside the competition) is Kolab's, under Kolab's privacy policy.

14.2 What we collect for the competition: your name, email address, county, confirmation you're 18 or over, a phone number if you choose to give one (used only if you win or make the twenty), your photos and their embedded data, your entry route (free, bought or included), any purchase record, and the judges' scores and notes on your entries.

14.3 What we use it for: running the competition you entered (that's the contract between us); publishing the winner's and shortlist's names and photos as clause 11 describes (that's our legitimate interest in showing a real award took place, and you can object using the opt-outs); and, only if you registered for the workshop under the consent line on the registration form, emailing you about COAP Online. You can unsubscribe from that at any time; competition emails, like results, still come.

14.4 Who sees it: Tom Dalton and Rich Cooper as administrators; the three judges see only photos and entry numbers; Clifton Cameras gets the winner's name and delivery address to supply the prize and nothing else; Kajabi and its payment provider handle purchases under their own terms.

14.5 How long: your photos stay in the gallery until you remove them. Scores, shortlist marks, notification logs and the winner's eligibility confirmation are kept for two years as the record of the competition, even if the photo has come down. The winner's delivery address is deleted once the prize has been delivered.

14.6 [If Kolab hosts outside the UK: Your competition data is stored in [country], under [the UK International Data Transfer Agreement / the UK Addendum].]

14.7 Your rights: you can ask what we hold, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, and object to publication. Email team@coaponline.com. Our full privacy policy is at coaponline.com/privacy-terms. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

15. Disqualification

15.1 We'll remove an entry, and where it looks deliberate all of that person's entries, if: it breaks clause 3 (eligibility), clause 5.3 (multiple accounts), clause 5.5 (duplicates), clause 6 (theme window, single frame, editing, marks on the image, file) or clause 13 (your promises); the original file isn't supplied on request; or the entrant abuses the judges, other entrants or our team.

15.2 Where the question is about editing or the original file, you get 48 hours to explain before we decide, and we'll tell you the decision and the reason.

15.3 If a breach comes to light after results are published, up to Thursday 10 December 2026, we can revisit. If the winning entry falls, the prize isn't supplied, or is returned if it has been, the next placed entrant wins, and we publish a dated correction.

15.4 No entry fees are refunded on disqualification.

16. If Kolab isn't working

16.1 Kolab is our own platform. If it fails for you on the last day and you can't upload, email your photo to competition@coaponline.com before 23:59 GMT on Saturday 31 October 2026, from the email address your entry is tied to, with "Competition entry" in the subject. We go by the time the email arrives on our server. We'll add it to Kolab ourselves and it's judged exactly the same.

16.2 This route is for a fault with Kolab. It isn't a way round the deadline, and it won't rescue an upload that failed because of your own connection with two minutes to go. Give yourself time.

16.3 We won't extend the closing date because of a Kolab fault. That's why clause 16.1 exists.

17. Changes and cancellation

17.1 Once entries open on 12 October 2026 we won't change the closing date, the prize, the criteria or the judging process, except where something outside our control makes it unavoidable, and then only in a way that doesn't disadvantage anyone who's already entered. Fewer entries than we hoped, more entries than we hoped, and problems with Kolab don't count as outside our control.

17.2 If we ever had to cancel the competition, we'd refund every paid entry in full and email every registrant and entrant.

17.3 We won't add extra rules after entries open. If we have to fix an error in these terms, the fix is dated at the bottom of this page and emailed to entrants if it affects them.

18. Facebook, Instagram and Clifton Cameras

18.1 This competition is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Meta, Facebook or Instagram. By entering you release Meta Platforms, Inc. and its group companies from any liability connected with it. Entries are made on Kolab, not on any Meta service.

18.2 Clifton Cameras supplies the prize and one of its staff, Aled Phillips, sits on the judging panel. Clifton doesn't see entries other than as a judge does (blind, image and entry number), gets no rights in any entry, and isn't a party to these terms.

19. Our responsibility to you

19.1 We'll run the competition with reasonable care and skill. We're not responsible for entries that don't arrive because of problems with your connection or equipment, or for anything outside our reasonable control.

19.2 Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law says we can't limit. Beyond that, our total liability to you in connection with the competition is limited to the entry fees you paid us.

20. Complaints and the law

20.1 If something's gone wrong, email team@coaponline.com and we'll reply within five working days. If it's about how the competition was advertised, you can also complain to the Advertising Standards Authority at asa.org.uk.

20.2 These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If you live elsewhere in the UK or the EU you may also be able to bring a claim in your local courts.

20.3 If any part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still applies.

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