the desire to bring more attention to works that may not fit neatly into easily defined categories, a belief in the significance of dialogue, and an effort to make participation accessible by not asking you to pay an arm and a leg for the chance to possibly maybe have your work seen.

Eligible are all art forms relating to, or gaining inspiration from the world of nature. Landscapes, skyscapes, flowers, vegetables, fruits and animals are all eligible. Human images are permitted only as an elemental part of the natural environment. All artist interpretations of the natural world from the realist to the abstract and conceptual will be reviewed and considered.

THE AWARDS

Nominees vie for 48 title awards representing the best work of the year. Receiving a Global Photo Awards is a mark of distinction judged by the most trusted names in the business.

WHY ENTER?

Global Photo Awards will put your work in front of the most influential people in the industry. Winning photographers see visible results including international exposure and worldwide career opportunities with winning photographs showcased on this website, in a worldwide traveling exhibition and published in a Global Photo Awards Book for 2012

Even professional artists sometimes get lost in the art-school loop, and forget that mastery is not the only content of their artwork. Those who manage to overcome this simple drive often leverage mastery and pure dedication to the light the eye sees, while also elevating the work to a level beyond, to one of enlightenment, even from the simplest of subjects. It is this, the distillation of precious insight from our tangible world, discerned first through meticulous observation, that The Observed sets out to explore, present, and document.

Manifest continues its eighth season with a project intended to feature and explore a wide variety of works made from direct observation. While the first assumption may be that pure objective realism is the expectation, Manifest is also eager to see just how artists make work, even non-traditional art, still using the process of looking, working, and looking again. We are curious just how this is done in the world today.

This show is open to any and all traditional and non-traditional visual arts genre and media, including video, photography, etc. Photographers should note that it is a foregone conclusion that most photography is made via observation through the camera lens. Excellent photographic candidates for this exhibit will speak even more than usual to the process of observation.

Competition categories include.

ALL CAMERA’s – REFLEX & COMPACT CAMERA’s

THE GREENFORCE COMPETITION : Picture has to show a Green Force Light and can be a creative shot, wide angle shot, shot with model, ……

MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY: Pictures of small subjects ( nudibranchs, shrimps,..)  and close-ups (eye of a fish, details).

THE FISH PORTRET COMPETITION: Picture of a fish

THE NUDIBRANCH & SEASHELL COMPETITION: Only pictures of nudibranchs & seashells.

WIDE ANGLE PHOTOGRAPHY: Any wide angle picture reflecting Dahab’s unique environment.

HUGYCUP PHOTOGRAPHY TROPHY: A serie of 10 pictures photographers choice which will be evaluated together !

HUGYCUP ABOVE WATER AMBIANCE PHOTOGRAPHY: Photo best expressing the HUGYCUP competition & atmosphere above water !

Only COMPACT CAMERA’s

MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY compact camera: Pictures of small subjects ( nudibranchs, shrimps,..)  and close-ups (eye of a fish, details).

THE FISH PORTRET COMPETITION compact camera: Picture of a fish

PORTFOLIO PHOTOGRAPHY compact camera: Photofolio of 3 pictures a photographer’s choice.

FINE ART/ REPORTAGE / FASHION / DOCUMENTARY / LANDSCAPE / WILDLIFE / PORTRAITURE /

This award comes as a tribute to and in recognition of Luis Valtueña, Flors Sirera, Manuel Madrazo, and Mercedes Navarro, Médicos del Mundo aid workers killed in Rwanda in 1997 and in Bosnia in 1995 while performing their duties as international humanitarian aid workers.

Their memory serves to ensure that each year victims of injustice are brought to light. Give them a voice through your gaze. And in doing so, together, we can bring injustice to an end.

Entries must be related to humanitarian action, international cooperation and social exclusion –human rights violations, armed conflicts, natural disasters, refugee and immigrant populations, socially excluded groups, etc. –and/or to efforts aimed at building a fairer, more egalitarian world.

PHOTO SUBJECTS:
• Ocean weather: waves, storms, rain, fog, lightning
• Beaches, shores, estuaries, tide zones, tide pools
• Tropical and temperate reef ecosystems
• Shallow-shore and deep-water environments
• All living things that depend upon the oceans: fish, mammals, birds, plants, etc., in or near the water
• Natural feeding, breeding, and other behavior
• Geologic processes or features on seashores or in the ocean
• People enjoying the ocean environment
• Submersibles and mini-subs
• Sunken vessels
• SCUBA, hard hat, and free diving, snorkeling

The theme for this year’s competition is “If 8 million acted like this …”, and we want you to send us a digital image of something in the capital which highlights the positive steps that individuals can take to make a difference in London. Our Judges will be looking for originality, intelligence and a sense of humour that fits the Peasoup style.

Last year was one of our strongest contests to date, and we have no doubt that this year we be even better.

The categories in the Digital Camera Photographer of the Year 2011 competition are:
Action & Movement
Creative Licence
Documentary
Family & Friendshop
Fashion
Garden & Plants
Landscapes
Portraits
Travel
Wildlife

The EEF Photography Competition aims to inspire a new public perception of a modern UK manufacturing industry by capturing the industry’s ingenuity, creativity, technology and pride through inspiring photography.

The challenge is to capture this through modern, engaging and inspiring photography which challenges outdated perceptions and which reflects today’s modern UK manufacturing sector.

So, who or what is your modern day manufacturing hero?
We are searching for photographs that show, in essence, the Heroes of UK Manufacturing – from people to places, processes to products and components, the choice is yours.

All you need to do is capture your hero through modern, engaging and inspiring photography and tell us why your photograph shows a hero of modern UK manufacturing.

Categories: Amateur, Professional, 14-19 Year Olds

NEW FOR 2011: PEOPLE’S CHOICE
One category winner will be chosen by you, the readers. Sign into your Popphoto.com account and start voting for your favorite images now.

SUBMISSIONS: The competition is open to work produced from June 2010 — September 2011. All submitted artwork should be of reproduction quality.

Entrants can submit images in any one of six (6) categories: “Action/Sports”,“Animals”, “Cities/Architecture”, “Landscape/Nature”, “People”, and “Objects”.**All entrants will automatically be entered into the “People Choice” category

HOWEVER THE MAIN AIM OF THE COMPETITION IS TO ENCOURAGE YOU TO GET OUT INTO THE COUNTRSYIDE AND SEND US YOUR PHOTOS, SO WE CAN SHOWCASE JUST WHAT THE UK HAS TO OFFER.

*NB IMAGES OF PETS, ZOO ANIMALS, CAPTIVE ANIMALS AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED

No entry fee. We want everyone to have a go, so entry is free.

Images can be of anything, in any style, that shows how climate change is impacting the ecosystem especially in the world around you. The picture could be accompanied by text explaining how the area shown in the picture has changed over a period of time or how the current state is harming the environment.

This year’s awards include four portfolio categories (Natural Elements, Cultures & Traditions, Exotic and Spirit of Adventure) two one-shot categories (Wild Moments and Work, Rest, Play), a New Talent category (Diary of a Destination) and the Young Travel Photographer of the Year award.

TPOTY 2011 is sponsored by Adobe, Cutty Sark, Explore, Tribes Travel, Tselana Travel, Oman Air, Oman MInistry of Tourism, Lexar, Plastic Sandwich, Photo Iconic, Genesis Digital Imaging and Young Photographers’ Alliance.

As well as receiving great prizes, the winners will see their images showcased in a major exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in London in 2012, in the lead up the Olympic Games – fantastic exposure for any photographer. And the winning images will be published in the next TPOTY book, Journey Four.

Judged on the following:
-artistic merit (use of the elements and principles of art and design, as well as artistic impact and story-telling)
-technical proficiency (includes proper use of light)
We’re looking for the best, most visually intriguing photography we can find
We have a distinguished panel of judges. All entries are judged anonymously and are accepted only through our electronically submission system.

By uploading an image, you’ll also be in with a shout of winning a pair of our latest walking boots and a fantastic HF Holiday family walking holiday worth over £1000. Good luck!

Entrants just need to visit the Image Wall to upload their image and all entries will appear on the Hi-Tec website and Facebook page. There is no limit to the number of entries that can be submitted.

Each month a winner will be announced, as chosen by a select Hi-Tec judging panel, and will win a top of the range pair of Hi-Tec walking boots. At the end of the first year all 12 monthly winning photographs will go head to head – with the judging panel choosing an Ultimate winner from the year. The Ultimate winner will win a fantastic HF Holiday family walking holiday worth over £1000.

New contests begin the 2nd and 17th of each month.

Categories:

* NATURE – local landscapes, flora, fauna or other natural scenery.
* LANDMARKS – monument, building, art, architecture, street or any natural or man-made structure that captures the essence of a place.
* LOCAL PEOPLE – scenes of native people, engaged in their local traditions or everyday lifestyles.
* FELLOW TRAVELERS – monuments or the experience of traveling in Mongolia.

Limit: 3 entries per category per participant.(12 total per traveler)

Required on photo:

* Eligible subject matter includes shots of scenery, cultural attractions, local people, a special moment with fellow Travelers – anything that evokes the spirit of discovering Mongolia.

* You must include information about your contact address in your e-mail

* Submitted images should be a minimum of 1024 pixels along the long edge. Images must not include a watermark or border.

Competition will judged by organizers and public comments on internet.

We want you to capture breathtaking and original images which reflect and portray the outstanding wildlife Shetland has to offer. Subjects may include anything that is wild: birds, wild flowers, whales & dolphins, otters, seals etc etc. Please do not submit images of captive wildlife or livestock (sheep, ponies etc etc). Landscapes which portray wildlife in a natural setting (eg. Seabird colonies) are acceptable.

Photographs must be taken in Shetland between 1st February 2011 and 31st March 2012. Images submitted to the competition will be displayed on our image gallery. The limit of photographs submitted is one and the organisers ask that all photos are accompanied by a brief description or a short story about the photograph.

All entries will be judged by Shetland’s most prolific and published wildlife photographer, Hugh Harrop and the Promote Shetland team. The winner will be announced soon after the competition closes on 5 April 2012.

The judges will select around 100 finalists whose photographs will be printed to exhibition standard and planned to be shown at a major exhibition during 2012, with substantial press coverage. The mounting of the exhibition is subject to prevailing circumstances and will be confirmed before the end of 2011.

One finalist will win the title ‘International Garden Photographer of the Year’ and an under 16 finalist will win ‘Young Garden Photographer of the Year’.

Each category will have a winner and two runner-up prizes. An additional prize will be awarded for the best portfolio and there will be two portfolio runners-up prizes.

Each seasonal competition will have one winner and two runners-up.

All finalists and commended photographers will have their photographs shown on the International Garden Photographer of the Year website during 2011 and beyond..

This is the ultimate photo opportunity to inspire and be inspired. Explore your creative directions, pitch yourself against the best in your field, and boost your career in photography.

There are some very attractive Canon prizes to be won including the unique opportunity to spend three days gaining invaluable experience with three of New Zealand’s most prominent photographers.

Your submission will need to include:

* A selection of four original photographic images of professional quality created after 01/01/2011.
* Explain in 500-1000 words what your brief for your portfolio was, and what, and who inspires you as an emerging photographer.
* Confirmation of eligibility from your photography institute or current photographic employer by way of entry application form.

CATCH THE JUDGE’S EYE

Entrants will be judged on demonstration of your ability as a photographer to think laterally. Creativity, originality, print quality and technical expertise will all form part of the judging criteria.

Selected artists will receive a TWO PAGE FULL COLOR LAYOUT of their artwork (a total of 2-4 images), and their contact information in a beautiful full color softbound Best Of book. Plus much more. The competition will be juried by BOAA & Kennedy Publishing founder, along with a small panel of Kennedy Publishing judges.

During 2011, the competition will award four(4) prizes, one every three months, over a period of one year. One finalist will be selected every three months, with a winning photograph for the quarter’s theme, and will receive a prize of $250. The grand prize winner (selected from among the 4 finalist photographs) will receive $1,000 at the end of the competition.

Often, the imagery associated with developing nations captures the misery that accompanies poverty. While it is important that these things are taken seriously and are documented, we believe that developing nations also represent tremendous opportunities for hope. The “I am an Entrepreneur” competition strives to reframe the dialogue around solutions to poverty by infusing the world’s imagination with new imagery that focuses on entrepreneurship. Our objective with this competition is to gather stunning photographs profiling individual entrepreneurs from around the globe.

The five contest categories are drawn from those subjects of special interest to the Smithsonian magazine:

Americana—Events, objects or activities connecting the American people to their history or their cultural heritage.

The Natural World—Animals, plants and landscapes; geological or climatological features; and scientific processes and endeavors.

People—Individuals from all walks of life.

Altered Images—Photographs manipulated for artistic purposes by applying digital and/or traditional special effects (i.e. colorizing, toning, collage, photo composites, HDR, etc.).

Travel—Locales, peoples or activities in the United States and abroad that convey a sense of place.

Judging will be conducted by the editors of Smithsonian. Winning photographs and selected finalists will be published in a summer 2012 issue of Smithsonian. Decisions of the judges will be final.

On a weekly basis, Smithsonian judges will post the best of the incoming entries on our web site in the Editors’ Picks section.

Five category winners will be selected, one for each category. The grand prize winner will be chosen from 50 finalists.
The 50 finalists will be notified of their status by February 28, 2012 and will appear on the web site on March 1, 2012.

We are looking for photographs or drawings of your night’s observing during 2011. Photographs/drawings must have been taken/drawn within 2011 and must not have been previously published or a winner of another competition.

You are allowed to submit up to 5 photographs/drawings maximum.

It is entirely FREE to participate in our Photographer Showcase Contest! The winning photographers will be featured in our Gallery Opening Reception on June 4th 2011 6:00pm-8:00pm. The Showcase will include 50+ winning photographs from roughly 30 winners of our photography competition spanning the East Coast.

You will win up to an 11×14 copy of your photograph as well as a spot in the Showcase along with VIP access for you and a guest the entire night. If chosen as a winner, all you have to do is show up to view your winning entry and receive a copy of your winning photograph! You can even bring your camera and photograph models the night of the event.

In addition to the Showcase, there will be Featured Photographers and Featured Models, as well as a special guest Collaborating Photographer, model contests, prizes and camera companies! TAMRON, OLYMPUS and WESTCOTT have already signed on to join us for the night!

Professionals and hobbyists in the photography and modeling industries spanning the east coast will be in attendance, creating an amazing networking opportunity during the opening reception for all involved.

The 2011 Pixum  monthly photo competitions will have the following themes:

* March: Plants & Flowers
* April: Babies & Children
* May: Citylife
* June: Architecture
* July: Sports
* August: SummerZoom 2011
* September: SummerZoom 2011
* October: Animals
* November: Autumn
* December: Black & White

DEADLINE: January 2nd, 2012 12:01pm JST.
The opening reception will be held on Saturday February 4th, 2012 at 19:00. The exhibition will be open from that day until April 1st 2012.

Whether you are a regular APOY entrant or have never entered before, now is your chance to submit an image and see if you can win one of Canon’s flagship cameras.

We’re looking for original, imaginative and technically well-executed images that explore the theme in an exciting way. We have included a table outlining the themes for each round, plus the closing dates and the issues in which the results will appear. In the first issue and online every month we will publish a brief explaining the criteria for that round.

Our judges will narrow down the images to a shortlist of 50, and will look again at the images and award points for creativity, technical excellence and how far the image fulfils the brief. The three images with the most points will win the top three prizes for that round. The top 30 highest scoring images will be published in the magazine at the end of the month and the scores from the top 50 finalists will be added to our league table. The names of the top 50 finalists and their points scores will be posted on our website after each round. The person with the most points after the final round will be crowned Amateur Photographer of the Year 2011 and win £5,000 worth of Canon equipment.

We are interested in all possible aspects of this subject: personal, ecological, social, cultural, historical, political. Seen both in the eye of professional and amateur. We are interested in CHANGES both in the global and private dimension, even intimate. Documentary and metaphorical presentations.

The theme for this year’s Award is ‘Changes’ with photographers being briefed to capture an image that encapsulates all that Changes means to them.

All images must be taken on Fujifilm Professional film  – entry is free and open to all ChooseFilm.com members who can enter as many photographs as they wish.

The Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition^® recognizes outstanding images of life science specimens captured through light microscopes, using any magnification, any illumination technique and any brand of equipment. Each person entering can submit up to five movies, images, or image sequences (such as time lapse series). Entries must include information on the importance or “story” behind the images. Winners are notified in late October and are announced publicly in November. Selected winning images also become part of a traveling exhibit tour of museums and academic institutions.

Through this competition we aim to make the public, too often insufficiently informed, aware of the various advantages that rainwater harvesting offers by providing sustainable access to water. It is in this context that the IRHA and Photojournale invite photographers, professional and amateur alike, to present their vision on the benefits that this celestial resource can have for both humans and nature.

All works submitted through the Rainwater/Eau de pluie/Agua de Lluvia website (thethirstyplanet.com) are automatically eligible for the Raindrops Geneva 2011 – Best Photographs on the advantages of the use of rainwater competition.

Topics or themes for the photographic works can conceptually include the following.

· Water is Life, the essential element that supports human, animal and plant life

· Rain

· Sacred or ritualized use of water or the celebration of rain in spiritual ceremonies

· Thirst, scarcity and drought

· Water distribution, including the politics of water distribution, water as a commodity. Impossibility to provide pipe water in remote regions and the role of harvested rainwater for satisfying of the needs.

· Rainwater Harvesting, the best tool for adaptation to the climate changes (storms, floods, drought)

· Rainwater collection, simple technologies at work, water purification

Do you think you have a photo that represents a city better then the current one? Submit it and your photo will battle against the current photo. Visitors can vote for the best photo and the winner will be the new photo for the city.

The Wetpixel Photo of the Week (POTW) contest will test your both your underwater photography skills and image-manipulation skills.

If you do more to your image than basic color/contrast adjustments and backscatter removal, please note it in your comments. Submitted images may be used and published by Wetpixel LLC to announce and promote Wetpixel photo contests.

Subscribe to an RSS feed of the winning POTW entries! For the tech-savvy, you can embed the current Picture of the Week (or your own submissions) into your webpage or WordPress blog. If you’d like to compete in larger competitions, be sure to check out our annual international photo competition.

To enter a photo, please register for membership (it’s free!).