“I sound like a broken record but yet again I have been bowled over by the high level of the submissions we have received. We are really proud of this year’s calendar and feel that we have compiled together some fantastic photos featuring the most striking and interesting locations within the city.”

Our Strong Island Calendar is back and it has been redesigned for 2017. The calendar features photography submitted throughout 2016 from some of the best local photographers including Howard Hurd, John Neil and Johnny Black.

It’s fair to say that a lot of hours go into producing our calendars. It’s not simply choosing what might normally be conceived as the best photos, but paying close attention to how the photos work on the page with each other and making sure there is a unified theme. The theme may well be colour, composition or subject, but whatever it is, we endeavour to create not just a spread of beautiful photos, but a calendar that is so well considered in presentation and style that you might not even notice necessarily just how nice it is because it simply works.

Each calendar is printed on 300sgm (350gsm Cover) Fedrigoni Arcoprint. This wood-free paper has a high-tech, cool white base guaranteeing excellent printability and is held in very high regard in publishing and printing industries. The guys at RIPE certainly delivered with this paper stock. It not only looks amazing as the print finish is second to none, but it feels really premium. Using an in house HP Indigo 7800 digital press it sets the standard for premium quality digital print. Using liquid ink rather than dry toner powder, the print quality is on par with traditional lithographic printing with the benefits of less waste, which is of course good news for the environment. The RIPE guys know their stuff. Check them out HERE.

Again, a proportion of the profits from the calendar will go to the Alzheimer’s Society Portsmouth based services. They are the UK’s leading care and research charity for people living with dementia and their carers.

If this has inspired you to get involved next year then you will be happy to hear that we are already taking submissions for our 2018 calendar. If you’ve taken a photo that you’d like to submit then you can email your submission via calendar@strong-island.co.uk. If you’ve taken a photo on Instagram that you’d like to submit for consideration then all you need to do add the hashtag #SIC2018.

There are no limits to how many you submit, the only rule is that the image must be relevant to Portsmouth. We would love to see more submissions from all over Portsmouth, not just our favourite Southsea landmarks. Please share this with friends who you think might be interested in getting involved.