The competition, organised by The Guild, calls on press photographers to enter up to five images in seven categories - sports, royal, news, celebrity, business, photo essay, young photographer and citizen photographer.

The awards are sponsored by BT, Bloomberg, Newscast and SABMiller, the latter offering a £1000 cash prize for the overall photographer of the year. Individual category winners will receive £500 each.

"We've pushed back the deadline for entries to encourage as many submissions as possible and give extra time for photographers to prepare for what is an entirely new natinowide awards event," says Alan Sparrow, the Guild's chairman.

The winners will be announced at a gala evening, hosted by BBC broadcaster Kate Silverton, on 21 September at the Honourable Artillery Company headquarters in the City of London.

For more information, visit www.piced.net.