Abbotsford Photo Arts Club

Assigned Topics 2026-27

Each month carries an assigned topic, giving members a shared theme to interpret through their own creative lens. November and January are tied to official CAPA competitions, each with its own themes, editing rules, and entry requirements, shown in the expandable sections below.

Look for the CAPA Competition badge on months with additional national-competition requirements.

September 2026
The Letter D

Photograph anything that starts with the letter D, such as a door, daisy, dog, or duck. Focus on perspective, texture, and shape.

October 2026
The Colour Blue

Photograph anything blue, focusing on texture, shape, light, and perspective.

November 2026
CAPA Competition
CAPA - Fine Art↗

Fine art photography is the deliberate use of the camera or smartphone as a creative medium to express the artist's unique ideas, emotions, and messages. The initial image must be camera-captured, though it may be enhanced through a photo post-processing application, but without the use of generative AI digital creations or the enhancement of the image with generative features.

Unlike conventional photography, fine art transcends mere documentation or representation by employing innovative techniques and artistic vision to convey deeper meaning.

The challenge for the photographer is to create an image that challenges perspectives, evokes emotional responses, and communicates personal or universal truths in ways that are distinctly their own.

Themes▶

Submitted images must fall within one of the following themes:

Abstract & Creative Vision - Transform subjects through pure abstraction or creative manipulation. Use shape, colour, light, composition, perspective, or context to create non-representational or surreal images that prioritize artistic vision over literal documentation.
Human Form & Expression - Transform the human subject beyond traditional portraiture using creative lighting, composition, perspective, or post-processing to convey emotion, narrative, or universal themes.
Landscape - Transform natural or built environments through creative interpretation that transcends scenic documentation. Employ innovative techniques and artistic vision beyond beautiful captures.
Motion & Time - Capture movement, change, or the passage of time through long exposures, intentional camera movement, multiple exposures, or other creative techniques that render motion as visual art rather than frozen action.
Still Life - Artistic arrangement of inanimate objects, including altered-reality compositions. Use lighting, depth of field, perspective, and creative techniques to find beauty in ordinary things or transform them into impossible scenes. Includes manmade objects (vases, clothing, consumer products) and natural objects (flowers, food, rocks, shells).
Editing Criteria & Eligibility▶

Prior to submitting any photo in a CAPA competition, all entrants must first read the CAPA Eligibility Criteria relating to image submissions. Read Eligibility Criteria Here

Permitted Editing Techniques
  • All In-Camera Techniques: Any adjustments made directly within the camera during image capture.
  • On-Camera Techniques: Utilizing on-camera features and settings for image enhancements.
  • Post-Processing Techniques: Editing the image using post-processing software.
  • Sky Replacement: Permitted, but the replacement sky must have been captured by the same photographer submitting the image into the competition.
  • Triptychs (an image of three separated images contained in a single image) are permitted in this competition.
  • Lightroom and Photoshop presets (including adaptive presets) are permitted, as they adjust existing pixels rather than generating content. See the CAPA Eligibility Criteria for details.
Editing Techniques Not Permitted
  • Images without photographic origin: images that are entirely generated electronically with no photographic origin.
  • Frames, borders, pin-lines, and mats: the photograph must not contain decorative elements like frames, borders, pin-lines, or mats. This includes the edges and markings of scanned film. When the frame is integral to the captured image, for instance a window or door frame captured by the camera, it is permitted. The only exception is for triptych images.
Original Files & Metadata Protection▶

For all CAPA competition entries, photographers must:

  • Retain your original captured images.
  • Perform all editing on copies, never the originals.
  • Keep originals accessible for quick retrieval if verification is needed.
December 2026
Windows

Photograph one or more windows. Window photography uses windows as a framing device, a surface for reflections, or a light source to blend interior and exterior scenes, creating layered and often moody narratives. It merges the subject with the surrounding environment, using reflections to create a "view within a view," or by capturing life on either side of the glass.

January 2027
CAPA Competition
CAPA - Inspirational Colour↗

This competition and its themes invite photographers to showcase their creative skills, using colour as a vibrant medium to capture dynamic, outstanding, stunning, thoughtful, and thought-provoking images.

It is an opportunity to explore areas that may stretch your comfort zone, pushing the boundaries of your creativity.

To keep the focus on the dynamic world of colour, submissions are limited to colour images only. Black and white, monochrome, and infrared images are excluded from this competition.

Themes▶

Submitted images must fall within one of the following themes:

Curves & Lines "Where form meets colour"

Images showcasing the interplay of curves and lines enhanced by contrasting colours, with an emphasis on form and structure. Subjects might include natural forms, botanical shapes, architectural details, or abstract compositions.

Movement & Energy "Freeze it, blur it, chase it"

Images that express motion and energy through colour. Subjects can include sports, dance, urban life, light trails, or natural movement, using any technique from frozen action to long exposure.

Nature's Palette "No artist's brush required"

Images exploring colour in undisturbed natural environments: wildflowers, foliage, fungi, geology, rock, bark, ice, and water.

Colour with a Human Touch "We leave our mark in colour"

Images where human influence makes colour the defining element, from urban streetscapes and architecture to rural structures, farmland, workplaces, and transportation.

Colours of Culture "Colour as identity, memory, and belonging"

Images celebrating cultural identity through colour: traditional dress and textiles, ceremonial attire, cultural rituals, indigenous art forms, body decoration, or people in cultural contexts where colour expresses heritage, identity, or tradition.

Editing Criteria & Eligibility▶

Prior to submitting any photo in a CAPA competition, all entrants must first read the CAPA Eligibility Criteria relating to image submissions. Read Eligibility Criteria Here

Permitted Editing Techniques
  • All In-Camera Techniques: Any adjustments made directly within the camera during image capture.
  • On-Camera Techniques: Utilizing on-camera features and settings for image enhancements.
  • Post-Processing Techniques: Editing the image using post-processing software.
  • Sky Replacement: Permitted, but the replacement sky must have been captured by the same photographer submitting the image into the competition.
  • Triptychs (an image of three separated images contained in a single image) are permitted in this competition.
  • Lightroom and Photoshop presets (including adaptive presets) are permitted, as they adjust existing pixels rather than generating content.
Editing Techniques Not Permitted
  • Images without photographic origin: images that are entirely generated electronically with no photographic origin.
  • Frames, borders, pin-lines, and mats: the photograph must not contain decorative elements like frames, borders, pin-lines, or mats. This includes the edges and markings of scanned film. When the frame is integral to the captured image, for instance a window or door frame captured by the camera, it is permitted. The only exception is for triptych images.
Original Files & Metadata Protection▶

For all CAPA competition entries, photographers must:

  • Retain your original captured images.
  • Perform all editing on copies, never the originals.
  • Keep originals accessible for quick retrieval if verification is needed.
February 2027
The Fraser Valley

This assigned topic is designed to help APAC and members create and submit images of the Fraser Valley that can be used as candidates for our yearly fundraising calendar. Images can be from any season. We will be looking to pair selected images with months in the final calendar. The criteria below is designed to help you create images that will fit the format of our calendar.

  • Images must be from locations in the Fraser Valley, defined as the Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD), as shown on this map, plus the Township of Langley and the City of Langley.
  • Images must be in landscape orientation. No portrait orientation, panoramas, or square crops.
  • Images must be cropped to fit exactly 8.5 x 11 inches, with 11 inches on the long side, landscape orientation.
  • Images must not contain people.
  • Images must be traditional in nature. Abstract, ICM (intentional camera movement), and other artistic treatments are not permitted.
March 2027
Sacred Places

Capture an image of a location that holds spiritual or cultural significance. The aim is to convey the sense of awe, tranquility, and spiritual connection associated with these places.

April 2027
Etched by Time

Time leaves its mark on people, places, and things in many ways. Find it through your camera lens.

May 2027
Group of Three

Find an interesting grouping of three, whether people, objects, animals, shapes, or colours.

June 2027
Convergence

Things that are in the process of coming together, or things that have already come together, like the convergence of two roads, or a place where two things overlap.



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