Photography Contests, Ongoing and Free: Monetary Prizes and Kudos

Photography contests are a great way to actually improve your digital photography, as well as gain some recognition for your work. It's best to enter them in the spirit of learning, and whereas it's always nice to win, at the upper point of the judgment, the choice of winner can be a bit arbitrary, especially in something as subjective as photography itself.

Some offer monetary prizes, while others simply offer the kudos of being placed first second or third, in a recognized photography competition. In my view, the experience and recognition gained, is actually far more useful long-term than any short-term monetary gain.

Winning, or being placed as one of the runners-up, can certainly help with promotion of your work as a photographer; and also show potential clients, who may know next to nothing about photography, that commissioning you for a project would be a good choice.

So what follows are a selection of ongoing photography contests open to professionals and amateurs alike, that can help you practice your photography, and also get you recognized as a photographer who is also up-and-coming. All of the following are open all year round.

BBC Photography Competition

The first one we'll look at is the BBC's (British broadcasting corporation) photography contests. This one is a weekly photography contest open to all. Each week they give a particular theme to interpret as you wish. You simply email in your submission, and see if it's featured after the deadline.

Honestly, not being featured in this photography competition shouldn't worry you too much, as to be honest, the quality of some of the chosen photographs is questionable from a technical photography point of view. But it's nice to be be featured anyway, and it certainly can't hurt.

Open to: All

Entrance Cost: Free

File Requirements: JPEGS, Not over 10MB

Prize: Your photo featured on the BBC 'in pictures' website page

Summary: A nice little competition with a world-wide recognized news provider. Getting featured will give give bragging rights and will look nice on a photographers resume too.

Go here for: the BBC Photo Competition

The World Open Photography Competition

The world open, is as it suggests, one of the photography contests open to anyone in the world. This world-wide online photography contest boasts one of the largest yearly monetary prizes out there at $50,000 (kind of), for the final winner. But if you look a bit closer at the actual prize though, it's actually $25,000 shared between finalists, half chosen by a group of panelists, and the the other half by people on social networking sites.

The other $25,000 is for a live photography contest by invite only, so not much point including that as part of the prize money (save for their own promotional purposes). Each image submitted will cost you, but you will be given a page to display your work. They currently accept five different categories of submissions: action, street, nature, people and one 'open' category for anything you choose.

Open to: All

Entrance Cost: Starts at $16 dollars for one image, then as a sliding scale the more images you submit. For example, ten images will cost you $48 at this time of writing.

File Requirements: Undisclosed on entry page

Prize: A share of $25,000, depending on how many finalists. The chance to possibly be chosen for the further $25,000 prize for the live competition... although they do not make it clear on their site, that the invited photographers will be be chosen from the site itself.

Summary: This may or may not be worth entering depending on your point of view. The rather oblique wording in relation to the initial 'hoora' about the yearly $50,000, that goes down to essentially $25,000, and then further still as it will be shared, doesn't really sit well with me.

The further obscure wording as to where the photographers for the live competition will be drawn from, seems a bit strange too. I'm not saying this competition is bogus, I'm only saying go in with your eyes open.

This is the only 'paid' competition I include on this page, simply because the prize 'may' be high.

Go here for: the World Open Photography Competition

Pixoto Photo Duel Photography Competition

Pixoto.com offers an innovative photography contest that covers 15 categories. Image are submitted, and then through a process of 'dueling', (i.e, two photo's are put side-by-side, and the public votes on them) and they then move onto the next stage. You can enter as many images as you want, as long as the images are not multiple images of the same subject.

They offer cash prizes to the winners of up to $150, dependent on how many people enter for the particular category.

Open to: All

Entrance Cost: Free

File Requirements: JPEGS or PNG, at least 900px width or height

Prize: Monetary prize of up to $150

Summary: A great ongoing photography competition. Possibly not much recognition from winning, but worthwhile taking part in just the same.

Go here for: the Pixoto's Photography Competitions

The 'Kodak Picture of The Day' Competition

The 'Kodak picture of the day' photography contest is a simple concept, and a simple competition. You submit your photo, and then if it's chosen, it appears on Kodaks site as the picture of the day, and that's all there is to it. There is no monetary prize, but there is the benefit of being able to put on your resume 'winner of Kodak's picture of the day competition'.

Open to: All

Entrance Cost: Free

File Requirements: Undisclosed

Prize: Purely for the kudos

Summary: Worth doing depending on your point of view. Be aware that if you enter this competition that you are agreeing to the following: 'I hereby grant Kodak, and others with Kodak's consent, the right to copy, distribute, publish, display and otherwise use the photo and text for purposes of the Picture of the Day program or for any advertising or publicity on behalf of the program or similar future programs

Go here for: the Kodak Photography Contest

National Geographic Photography Competition

Now what photographer doesn't want to say their photo has been published in National Geographic? Very few I'd say. Well this photography competition offers just such a chance. National Geographic's ongoing photography competition gives you the chance to have your photo published in their magazine. That's the prize, and the kind of prize that can kick-start careers in fact.

Open to: All

Entrance Cost: Free

File Requirements: No photoshop altered photos accepted. Minimal alterations for tone and sharpness are OK, but they basically want 'as the eye see's it'. See their photo guidelines page for more info. JPEG, at least 1,600px length or width, no greater than 5MB.

Prize: Possible publication in the National Geographic magazine. Purely for the kudos (and this is some kudos it must be said.)

Summary: If you're not already established as a professional photographer, this is one of the great photography contests. Obviously the competition will be high, so submit only high quality images that are suitable for the kind of pictures they publish.

Go here for: National Geographic Monthly Photography Contests

Whichever photography contests you decide on entering, just make sure you are fully versed on how they will be able to use your images afterwards.



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