HERE ARE three of the 12 stunning images which were awarded prizes at the GoIreland.com Photography Awards, an annual international amateur tourist photography competition.

The competition focuses on a different theme each year for photographs of Ireland, with the 2010 theme being ‘An Eye for Ireland’. Entrants are also encouraged to use John Hinde’s iconic postcards and images of Ireland as inspiration for their work.

The overall winner was this photograph (pictured above) of a frozen beach at Fanad Head in Co Donegal. The photo, ‘Ice Age’, was taken by Martin Macisovsky, a Slovakian living in Ireland.

Below is one of the runner-up images, called ‘Skerries Harbour by Night’ and taken by Dubliner Paul Nesbitt.

Paramjeet Singh, originally from India and living in Ireland, took this bright Wicklow landscape, which he calls simply ‘Guinness Lake Wicklow Mountains’:

Other prize-winning images feature scenes from a range of counties, including Lough Ramor in Co Cavan and Dungarvan Harbour in Co Waterford. The annual competition is organised by Gulliver Ireland in association with John Hinde Ireland, and the winning photographs will be collected in an original John Hinde calendar.

If you fancy entering your own snaps, the closing date for entries to the 2011 competition is 3pm 15 December, 2011.

Check out the rest of the 2010 award winners on GoIreland.com