Pixiq

As the awards of several photographic competitions relating to the environment were announced this month, it seemed timely to ponder who gains from them. The prestigious Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year (EWPY) competition, which dates back almost half a century, and was formerly known as the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year (BBC WPY) is billed as an international showcase for the best of nature photography.

Across the other side of the Atlantic, the Windland Smith Rice International Awards, which were inaugurated in 1996 as Nature's Best International Photography Awards, are now well established with the best images exhibited each year in the Smithonian National Museum of Natural History.

For the winners, substantial prize money certainly helps in today's strained economic climate, but the press and television publicity for the winning photographers may, in the long term, be worth so much more, with undreamed of commissions. Having a well designed website is one thing, but traffic needs to be directed to it.

Both winners and runners-up of the Veolia EWPY competition can glory in their images being showcased in a prestigious exhibition that opens at London's Natural History Museum then tours worldwide, plus an accompanying book.

Owned by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine, the spin-off gained from this exhibition is huge, not only for the hire fees for the touring exhibition, but also the sales of the book, cards, prints at the exhibition and online, plus associated merchandize with royalties going to the photographers. The world tour 'inspires thousands to see wildlife with new eyes'.

When I was one of the judges of the (then) BBC WPY, no digital entries were acceptable, because of the fear they could be manipulated. However, the organizers soon realized that for the standard of entries to be maintained, digital entries would have to be allowed. In a similair way to the dodging and burning required in a traditional darkroom to produce an exhibition print, a limited amount of post-production is allowed on the RAW files, but one of the entry conditions is that the original RAW files have to be made available of all the winning entries.

Another competition rule is that no model animals are allowed. The winning image of the 2009 Veolia Environnement WPY competition was a perfectly lit nocturnal shot of a wolf leaping over a gate. After much debate, including the opinions of wolf experts, the judges reconvened and disqualified the photographer because the wolf was believed to be tame. One plus point from this episode – now referred to as Wolfgate – is that the press coverage has helped to raise the profile of the ethics involving the photography of tame or so-called model animals at game farms.

Now that the exhibition requires larger prints, a new rule was introduced this year that bans entries shot on digital cameras under 10 megapixels (MP) – although only one photograph taken with a camera with more than 10MP has ever won this competition before 2010.

Here I have touched only on competitions that relate to the environment, but with a whole website devoted to photo competitions http://www.photocompetitions.com and also Jeff Wignall's book Winning Digital Photography Contests – why not give it a go?  My impetus came after I received a generic email from Nature's Best encouraging past magazine contributors to enter their IPA. About to go abroad, I hadn't time to sift through hundreds of possible shots, so I popped two dupes (pre-digital days) in a FEDEX envelope and forgot all about them. Months later I had a call saying I had won the Animal Antics category so would I come to Washington?

In many ways major competitions are a win-win situation for everyone. But before you enter, be sure to check you retain the copyright of your images and study past winners to see the preferred approaches – documentary or more creative. Whichever approach, originality is key – whether it be exceptional lighting or animal behaviour – to stand any hope of arresting the judges' attention.

One final word of advice: don't be so enthused with a previous winner and attempt to replicate the shot (it does happen!) –  that won't impress the judges!

To sum up:

• Read the T & C carefully
• Select the competition subject or category carefully
• Check what post-production is allowed
• Be original
• Don't mimic past winners
• Take time to draw up a short-list of entries, then whittle them down