University of Sunderland students asked to judge BBC Look North's weather photograph competition

Photography students from the city’s university have been asked to cast their creative eyes over this year’s entries into BBC Look North’s popular weather picture competition.

The group of University of Sunderland first year students were asked to help judge viewers’ entries from April this year with the winning photo, which has to portray spring, featuring in the BBC Look North Weather Calendar 2025.

The calendars are sold to raise money for Children in Need.

Nicole Selby, who is studying Photography, Video and Digital Imaging at the University, said: “It is an honour to be a judge for such a well-known competition.

“I was able to look for photography techniques such as depth of field, composition, leading lines and the exposure of the overall image. 

“A winning photo for me would help me as the viewer feel as though I was there in the moment the image was taken, as if I’m looking through the lens of the camera.

“For me, photography is about capturing a moment or telling a story without using words and I feel the winning photo successfully achieved this.”

The competition sees hundreds of viewers send in their photos each month representing the weather from across the North East and Cumbria. Some are featured at the beginning of the weather broadcasts, and they are all sent to an external judge, who picks the winner. The students were joined by senior weather presenter for BBC North East and Cumbria, Paul Mooney.

He said: “The BBC Look North weather picture competition is in its 22nd year and is still as popular as ever with our viewers.

“We try and keep the feature as varied and interesting as possible and one of the ways we do that is by inviting guest judges from a range of backgrounds with a range of experience.

“We thought it would be great to have some young people share their enthusiasm and knowledge for photography and our beautiful region, hence our invite to the University of Sunderland photography students to help out by choosing our winning image for the month of April.”

Video and Digital Imaging student, Emily Saunders, added: “I was delighted to have the opportunity to be a judge. It was exciting to see everyone’s different takes on the photographs and what people are interested in taking photographs of.

“It was a great filming experience with Paul Mooney. He made us feel at ease and comfortable with talking about the photographs.”