The Big Bumper Thread of Wildlife Photography Competitions

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The W

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Paul
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Every year when we visit the WPotY exhibition my family ask if I entered and why not. So this year I finally put some in to both that and BWPA. Sadly no success with either, but I'll try to enter more in the future.

Photo competitions are all the rage these days and it seems every organisation is launching their own. So I thought it'd be useful to pull together a list of some of them, and rough deadlines.

BBC/NHM Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
£30, 20 images Closes late Feb. £10k top prize.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/wpy/

British Wildlife Photography Awards
Closes end April. £10 for 2 images to £35 for 40. £5k top prize.
http://www.bwpawards.org/

GDT (Society of German Wildlife Photographers) Nature Photographer of the Year & European Photographer of the Year
NPotY is for members only. 20 images. Closes end Jan.
EPotY is an open competition. 20Euro 20 photos. Closes end-Feb. Top price 2,000Euro.
http://www.gdtfoto.de/content.php?start=ok&lang=en

BBC Children in Need Countryfile Calendar
Unfortunately they seem to hide all information outside of entry season! I best I can find is from 2009. Four images, closes early Sept?
2014 - entry ran 29th June to 25th July.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/features/countryfile/competitionrules.shtml

Nature's Best Intgernational Photography Awards
Seems to be one of the big ones State-side. Closes early June, $25 per 20 photos. Winners exhibited in the Smithsonian.
https://www.naturesbestphotography.com/

RSPB Calendar
Information from previous years removed, so unsure of rules.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/thingstodo/calendar.aspx

British Birds Photograph of the Year
Closes end March, £1000 top prize.
http://britishbirds.co.uk/about/bird-photograph-of-the-year/

Sony World Photography Awards - Nature & Wildlife Category
Free, closes early Jan.
Open: Three individual images.
Pro: Themed portfolio (3 to 10 images). Once enter as Pro, never again in Open.
http://worldphoto.org/about-the-sony-world-photography-awards/

Zoological Society of London Animal Photography Prize
£5, six images. Closes end March. £2k prize for each of the six categories.
http://www.zsl.org/about-us/zsl-animal-photography-prize

Outdoor Photographer of the Year. (Outdoor Photography magazine)
Includes Wildlife, Macro and Underwater categories. £8 for up to 8 images in a category.
http://opoty.co.uk/.

Anyone got any suggestions for competitions of renown, or want to comment on those listed above?
 
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I've entered BWPA, country file and also the ZSL, I'd hope to at least get short listed this year but alas. I've often wondered what the judges look for. This year WPOTY posted a blog on the judging process which has highlighted I am almost certainly not at competition quality yet. This won't stop me entering though as it encouraged me to look at my images from a different point of view.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/wpy/community/blog/index.html?blogPostId=3714

What is worth doing is pick up the portfolios as they come out for inspiration. I'm no avid collector but have 5 (might be 6 actually) WTPTY, 2 BWPA and this years ZSL and the quality of images is always excellent as you'd expect.
 
Just noticed the entry period for this years Countryfile calendar has been and gone! It was launched on the 29th June, and ended on the Fri 25th July.
 
Seems to be a few zoo competitions at the moment.

I'm going to have a crack at a couple of Twycross Zoo's categories, just to help me up my game (taking far too many standard, repetitive shots)
 
Congratulations. I ought to get myself a copy of one of their publications to get a feel for the competition.

British Wildlife Photography Awards have their award evening on the 3rd Sept, so I expect the results to be in the press on the 4th.
 
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Just noticed the results of the Twycross competition being published. Some nice photos, but I don't see the theme coming across in any of them.

"photographs that illustrate the struggles facing animals in the wild and the conservation efforts that are going into preserving wildlife for future generations"

http://twycrosszoo.org/2014-photography-competition-results/
 
TimmyG said:
Lol, guess it's a case of easier said than done ;)
Click to expand...
Yeah, I tried to capture something specific, but just couldn't decide which direction to go ... my entries were 'nice' I suppose, but I can't complain about not getting anything for them ;)
 
Entry is now open for BWPA 2015, closes on 3rd May.
 
WPotY closes a week on Friday.
 
Bird Photographer of the Year - http://birdpoty.tumblr.com/
A new competition to be formally announced at the upcoming Bird Fair. A collaboration between Nature Photographers Ltd (a stock library) and the BTO, sponsored by the AA.
 
The WPY award ceremony is happening now. Watch twitter for the photos as they're revealed or wait for the papers in the morning.
 
The 52nd WPY competition is now open for entries until the 26th Feb
The first Bird Photographer of the Year closes to entries on Saturday
 
Paul don't know whether I mentioned this,before Ive meant too, but thanks for this. i'm not yet of a skillset to enter,but it's really cool going through the links seeing images and plain being aware,so just a quick thanks mate for this thread

take care

stu
 
WPotY closes in a week, and GTD not longer after.
 
Ahh the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition. The annual welshwizard Rantfest - I come out of the junior section frothing with rage every year.

My situation - I had to wait until I was 10 before I got my first camera and I had to make do with a Boots 126.

40 years later and earning enough to part with 42% of my pay to George...I still can't afford those lovely 300mm f2.8 or 500 f3 or Nikkor 200-400 f4 lenses which every year the finalist and winners of the Under 10 category seems to be bejewelled with. Time the Sponsors cracked down on this, I refuse to believe these children bought £4000+ of equipment with their own cash and have so much time at their disposal to sit and wait for the shots. Those with photographer parents seem to have such an unfair advantage over most people who are satisfied with their amateur spec DSLR plus kit lenses.
 
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