THIS bonny baby was among the first in the queue to have her portrait snapped for the 2012 Worcester News Baby of the Year competition.

Wearing their cutest outfits, little ones posed in front of the camera yesterday on the first day of entries at Lychgate Mall, Cathedral Plaza, Worcester.

Each is vying to be crowned the county’s top tot and win hundreds of pounds worth of prizes.

Perfect Picture photography will be snapping away in the shopping centre all week between 10am and 4pm, up to and including Saturday.

Photographs will be taken for free and parents will be invited back a week later to view and choose their favourite pictures, which will be then entered into the competition free of charge.

The competition will be judged in three age categories: 0-9 months; 10-18 months; and 19-36 months.

A winner will be chosen from each category, with one of them being crowned overall champion.

The top prize is a free home studio shoot worth £1,500. The remaining category winners will receive a shoot worth £750, while two runners up in each group will be presented with a 16in by 12in framed print.

A full-colour supplement will appear in your Worcester News at the end of March and readers will then vote for their favourites. The votes will decide the top 10 in each category and a panel of judges will decide the winners.

Last year, more than 400 tots entered the competition and 16,000 readers texted, phoned and posted their votes.