Entries are now open for the second year of the Trustpower Photographic Exhibition, with organisers expecting thousands of entries after the success of the inaugural year.

Downtown Tauranga Project Manager Sally Cooke is delighted the event is on again.

'After an immensely successful inaugural event, with thousands of people making a trip to the city centre to see the winning photographs displayed along The Strand, we are thrilled to announce that entries are now open for the 2018 Trustpower Photographic Exhibition.”

Sally is expecting the second year of the event to be even bigger than the first. 'We were overwhelmed with the success of the inaugural event - it exceeded all expectations with over 1740 entries and the quality and quantity of entries was astounding.

'So we are absolutely delighted to be able to launch the second year of this initiative. It provides a unique opportunity to showcase both our creative talent and our region and it makes for a fantastic city centre exhibition.”

This year's prize pool is as impressive as the first, with $10,000 in prizes up for grabs. 'Once again we have some amazing prizes and profiling up for grabs for the winners,” says Sally, 'including the supreme prize of the trip to London, Paris, New York or Rome worth up to $3000 thanks to the generosity of House of Travel Tauranga and Downtown Tauranga.

'The Trustpower Photographic Exhibition was such a privilege to run last year because we did it in partnership with Trustpower, Downtown Tauranga, Media Works, UNO. Magazine and The Weekend Sun. It was a true partnership approach from planning to the staging.

'We all owned it and proactively contributed to the success of it. That made it incredibly rewarding to be a part of. We were just delighted this year when Trustpower, as lead sponsors, confirmed they would be involved again.”

Once again amateurs and professionals are encouraged to enter and this year under four new categories: Our people, Celebration, Nature & Landscapes and Digital Manipulation.

The competition section of the initiative is now open and entrants will have until January 9, 2018 to enter. A judging panel will then select the winning photos that will be displayed in a large outdoor photographic exhibition on The Strand from January 26 to March 25 next year.

Judges will be looking for entries from people of all ages, from amateur to professional and hope to see diversity in the photos.

Prizes will be awarded for first and second in the four categories, plus judges will award prizes for a Young Photographers' section (18 and under). Once the exhibition opens, there will also be a People's Choice section, where the public will be asked to vote for their favourite photo.

Full details and entry can be found by visiting: www.downtowntauranga.co.nz/trustpower-photographic-competition