Aviation and air sports still live on the edge of mainstream media attention, even though, especially aviation athletes, are among the European and even world elite. Over the past fifty or sixty years, there have been dozens and dozens of valuable medals from European and world championships.
Until recently, aerial photography was the prerogative of a few specialized top photographers, such as Ladislav Sitenský, Karel Masojídek, Otakar Šaffek or Václav Jukl, who were known only to a circle of aviation fans and enthusiasts.
The achievements of aerial athletes are not only easy to photograph, but especially to publish. In recent years, thanks to the amazing technical progress and development of digital photography, a number of talented and high-quality photographers have appeared in our latitudes, who take advantage of every aerial event and devote a lot of time and resources to their work with very good results. Unfortunately, there are very few opportunities for their work to be known to the wider public, which is a great shame!
The Syndicate of Journalists of the Czech Republic, or rather the Club of Aviation Journalists, the Club of Photojournalists and the Club of Scientific Journalists have joined forces and decided to try to change this situation and give these aviation enthusiasts the opportunity to present their work to our public. The choice was made to announce a competition for the best photograph from the aviation environment and then present the results of this competition at a public exhibition. The competition is held under the patronage of the Civil Aviation Department of the Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Czech Republic. The media partners are the magazines Flying Revue, Letectví + kosmonautika and Pilot LAA ČR.
The competition called "Aero FOTO 26" is open to citizens of the Czech Republic and Slovakia and runs until September of this year. At the end of November, the winners of the three basic categories will be announced. The most interesting photos will then be published by the professional press and perhaps other media...
František Kučera, Chairman of the Aviation Journalists Club of the Czech Republic
PHOTO COMPETITION RULES
Competition name:
Aero PHOTO 26 – Czech Republic and Slovakia
1. Photo contest organizers:
– Syndicate of Journalists of the Czech Republic, zs,
– Czech Aviation Journalists Club,
– Photojournalist Club of the Czech Republic,
– Club of Science Journalists of the Czech Republic.
They are announcing the Aero FOTO 26 photo competition for the best aerial photo.
1b. The media partners of the competition are the following magazines:
– Media Journal of the National Council of the Czech Republic
– Flying Revue
– Pilot of the LAA Czech Republic
– Aviation + astronautics
2. Competition dates:
– competition announcement January 8, 2026
– competition deadline: September 15, 2026
– ceremonial announcement of the competition results: November 10, 2026.
3. Contest participants:
– The competition is open to all citizens of the Czech and Slovak Republics.
4. Technical requirements for competition images
– Only images with a longer side of 40 cm in electronic form (from the perspective of further presentation of images, the 40 × 30 cm format is recommended) with a resolution of at least 300 dpi and a size of up to 5 MB will be accepted for the competition.
5. The competition is announced in three basic categories:
1st category: "Airplane from an airplane"
2nd category: "People and aircraft in general" (General Aviation)
3rd category: "Everything that flies" (mostly in flight)
Each contestant can submit a maximum of three images in each category.
5a. Drone images will not be accepted for the competition.
6. Image evaluation:
– An expert jury consisting of professional photographers and journalists will select 15 images from each of the three categories listed.
– The authors of the selected 15 images will advance to the second round of the competition and will be invited to send the selected images to the organizer in two copies on glossy photo paper.
– Images that are not delivered to the organizer by the specified deadline will not be included in the evaluation of the final second round.
– In the second round of the competition, three winning images will be selected in each category.
6a. The organizer reserves the right to announce several special prizes.
7. The results of the competition will be officially announced at the closing ceremony on November 10, 2026.
8. Prices
The winners of each category will receive valuable prizes and a commemorative diploma.
9. Presentation of competition photos
All images selected for the second round of the competition become the property of the organizer. By signing the application, the contestant agrees to their free use for promotional purposes of the competition.
All images from the final round of the competition will be exhibited at a special exhibition in the representative premises of Prague's Václav Havel Airport.
The exhibition will be traveling and will take place in two or three other locations (e.g. the Metoděj Vlach Aviation Museum in Mladá Boleslav). The dates of other exhibitions will be announced at the ceremony announcing the winners of the competition.
10. Competition entry
Please send your application for the photo competition to the following e-mail address: soutez@syndikat-novinaru.cz
Attach a copy of the application form with your signature in pdf format to the submitted images and send it back to the email address soutez@syndikat-novinaru.cz