DO YOU have photographs of a day out at Beeston Castle? If so, staff at the clifftop castle want your images – and you could receive a year’s free pass to the site as a reward!

Staff at the English Heritage site are hoping to create a photomontage of the castle – essentially, a large image made out of literally thousands of smaller images – to go on display at the castle site, but need to collect more images to create a detailed final image.

“The photomontage works by taking thousands of images, analysing them for their predominant colouration, and then re-arranging them in such a way that when you look closely at the image, you can clearly make out its component parts, but when you take a few steps back, a whole new image is revealed,” says Beeston Castle’s marketing assistant, Katharine Wrigley.

“We had some stunning aerial photos taken of the castle earlier this year, so we’re hoping to recreate the ‘peregrine’s eye’ image using this technique.”

Unlike many photo competitions, they are not merely looking for stunning views of the site itself, but just about any photograph is eligible, as long as it was taken during a visit to the castle. As the photographs will be used in a tiny format – less than the size of a postage stamp – photographs taken on mobile phones or captured from video will be just as welcome as those taken with more expensive digital cameras.

“Beeston Castle means so much to so many people – from those who come to enjoy the views from the top, to wildlife and bird spotters, and parents who use the hills of the site as a great way of using up excess energy in their children,” explains Katharine,” and it is images showing just about every daytime use of the castle that we are looking for – whether it is a snapshot of your children on their day out, or a close-up of a butterfly that happened to land close by. The more images we have, the more detailed the end photomontage can be!”

Indeed, contributors are welcome to send through as many images as they like of their day out. Every week until the end of October, one contributor will be chosen to receive a 12 month family pass for Beeston Castle, so that they can return as many times as they like to the ruin and woodland park over the next year. Everyone submitting images will receive a discount voucher valid against a future visit to the site.

Although the work will involve the analysis of colour balance in thousands of images, this is largely done by computer, with an artist then using a human eye to add the final flourishing touches to the artwork.

The image collection has already started, and will remain open until the end of September, when the leaves on the trees will have started to turn, adding more colour options to the photomontage artist.

“When the final image is complete, we’d love people to come back and see if they can spot the images they submitted in the final work!” adds Katharine.

Anyone wishing to send photographs for inclusion on the photomontage, should email them to beestonphotos@fim.org.uk before 31 October 2010. Please restrict the file size of each image to no more than 1MB.