NATURE PHOTO COMPETITIONS
A photo competition can be a springboard to success.
We photographers want to show our work. One of the best ways to gain wider publicity is to do well in photo competitions. The feedback from competitions and audiences helps us develop our artistic eye and technical skills. The publicity can also work in favor of nature conservation. In theory, getting your images out to the public can be quick and easy, but in reality it’s more difficult. After you’ve shot the material, you need to go through it, select those worth saving (be brutal) and delete the rest, process the RAW files, then archive, edit, save, and publish them. This entails quite a bit of work. As described earlier, your channels for showcasing your work are community sites, forums, photo agencies, websites, talks, exhibitions, promotional material, magazines, books, and nature and wildlife photo competitions, which we will explore in this chapter.
When you compare the amount of work invested with the publicity gained, it can be said that success in a nature photo competition has the best input-to-output ratio, but the success will not come easy. Nature photo competitions have an important role in the evolution of nature and wildlife photography because wholesome competition encourages the competitors to push the boundaries in their search for the fresh and the novel—to evolve. Also, the competitions offer the photographers a forum in which they can compare and evaluate their skills and vision, while the audience has an opportunity to see the best of contemporary nature photography.
Before deciding whether to take part in a competition, I study the entry rules with these points in mind:
1. I find out why the competition has been organized and what rights the organizers want to the images that are entered. If they want more than the right to use the images in promotion and marketing of the competition, I do not enter. (Some rules state that by entering, the participant forfeits all rights to the submitted images. Needless to say, I do not enter such competitions.)
2. If the main theme, categories, or awards are not specifically itemized, the competition is probably not worth entering.
3. If I decide to enter, I read every detail of the rules and instructions. I was once disqualified after my image was chosen as a category winner because I read the rules carelessly and missed a clause that later caused my image to be disqualified. I learned my lesson and now read the rules very carefully, even when the competition is familiar, because there may be changes to the rules every year.
While I read through the rules, I pay special attention to the following questions:
What type of images are the organizers inviting to the competition, and what were the winners like in previous years? Some competitions seem to choose the same style of image every year, even if the jury changes. If the names of the jury members are published before the entry deadline, it can be useful to have a look at who they are and what type of trends they favor in photography, or more importantly, what types of photos never seem to do well.
Bohemian Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus), 2003 winner
Eurasian Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula), 2005 winner
The International Wildbird Photographer was an international photo competition organized in Britain from 2003–2008. The authors of this book won the title in consecutive years with the following images. The awards brought the photographers publicity that opened new doors and opportunities.
Red-throated Loon (Gavia stellata), 2004 winner
How many categories can I enter, and what is the maximum number of images I can submit?
What are the technical requirements? What is the required size of the high-resolution digital files? What is the maximum cropping ratio?
Regrettably, the technical requirements often seem to reflect an insufficient level of technical understanding among the organizers. Understandably, they want the entries to be as big as possible so they can be published in all kinds of media, exhibitions, books, and newsletters—both digitally and in print. This is, however, an area that requires specific expertise, and the organizers don’t always seem to realize that they should make sure someone on the team has it. Yes, pixels can give some indication of the potential uses of the digital file, but maximum print size has more to do with the size and quality of the camera sensor; pixels are not equal in all cameras. Competition rules often state a requirement for minimum pixels, but cropping within the required pixels is unlimited. Also, you may see a minimum requirement of 6 megapixels, but the cropping is limited to 20 percent of the original, which does not seem very logical. As competitors we must comply with the rules, but we can also hope that one day somebody checks the size requirements and gets them right.
What are the ethical requirements? Make sure that the images you enter meet the criteria defined by the organizers.
What kind of digital adjustments are allowed?
Apart from the artistic categories, the organizers of nature photo competitions want to see images that accurately match the events seen through the viewfinder. The rules do not always explain in detail what can be done to the digital file. It’s the organizers’ responsibility, and it is in their best interest, to select competent judges who can tell a fake image from an authentic one. The organizers will request to see the original RAW file of images that make it to the final round of judging, and if the competition entry greatly differs from the RAW file, the entry may be disqualified.
How are the entries sent to the competition?
Entering competitions is almost exclusively digital, which is the easiest and fastest method. I take part only in competitions where entries are sent digitally.
Can I enter an image that has been awarded in another competition? Most organizers would like to have previously unseen images as their competition winners, because of the novelty value, but on the other hand, a lot of high-quality material might then be missing from their competition.
What is the competition closing date? Based on empirical findings among my peers and myself, 9 out of 10 competitors seem to submit their entries during the last week before the deadline. You may want to be smarter, because uploading your images can take longer in the final days, or the servers may get overloaded and crash at a critical moment, meaning that you do not get your images submitted before the competition closes.
When are the results announced? This is important, if you consider taking part in another competition where the rules state that a previously awarded image is not eligible. Even if the results from your first competition are not yet public but you have been notified that your image won, you cannot enter that image in the next competition if the rules forbid it.
Photographers send their images to nature photo competitions wanting to win, but it’s good to remember that you are vying for awards in art; hence, the approach is a matter of taste, which isn’t easily measured and is widely varied. There is no such thing as the best image, only the opinion of a certain jury over a limited sampling; there is no one wildlife photographer who is the best. But each competition has a lot of great images, and to reap the awards photographers need a hefty dose of luck. And be patient; don’t lose faith even if the awards seem to avoid you. After all, this is just wholesome, friendly rivalry.
Good luck!