Savvy shutterbugs should be constantly seeking new ways to advance their freelance photography careers. If you are like me, then you also hope to hang out a shingle someday as a professional photographer. Today I have the technical skills, and the equipment, and with regular exercise I’m gaining more and more experience. The only thing I was missing was a photography community with whom I could share my work.
Over the last few months, I’ve entered my photos into countless photo contests. These challenges are precious because they allow me to create social capital with other photographers, companies and potential clients. My photos are distinctive and memorable. The contests are hosted by companies offering prizes, and they are not interested in art for art’s sake, but rather they hope to engender a reality filled with memorable images associated with their brands. Other publications look for photos to go with their features; and still more promote the prestige of having ‘award winning’ photography decorating their galleries. Submitting my work to these various sites and contests allows me to get my name (and photos) right onto the browsers and human memory banks of the people that are most likely to hire me.
Another advantage of entering online photo contests is that now I’m able to really connect with other photo togs, share resources, compare ideas and composition styles, and network! The marketing capital I’m developing online has truly been invaluable. When people say it’s all about who you know, they’re not lying. These types of loose connections have tremendous potential.
Here are a few of my favourite photo contest sites:
Lenzr is a serial photo contest website that offers fair prizes for your photography. It’s a community where business sponsors art, which is pretty unusual these days. What’s more, it’s a unique social media experience that allows users to submit their photos, and then invite other members to the Lenzr community to vote and decide who wins! It’s totally social and a lot of fun. This powerful little contest is extremely accessible to photographers of all skill levels, and has creative fun “themed” contests on an ongoing basis.
For example, there are currently three Lenzr photo contests running – all of which will be wrapping up in a few days to make way for some new contests. The crowded places photo contest is sponsored by a web development Toronto company. The prize is a Blackberry Curve smart phone. It’s a challenge to submit wide shots of crowds and use the caption to explain the gathering. The Portable Luxury photo contest seeks ideas and images relating to how people enjoy ‘luxury’ while on the go. The prize for this contest is a Las Vegas vacation for two people courtesy of the contest sponsor, a portable toilets rentals company in Toronto, Ontario. The 50 Going On 15 photo contest which will reward the member that uploaded the most highly-rated photo with over 50 pounds of rich dark chocolate as a prize! This challenge is to capture baby boomers having a laugh doing something more typical of teenage behaviour.
Photography Competitions is more of an index of available photography web challenges, all over the world. This place is really useful resource for contest hunters like me, and people who are hungry to try their hand at submitting their work wherever they possibly can… There are a few things that I really like about this site. For one the index shows where I can win awesome prizes, and what kind of photos each destination most covets are looking for.
First of all, unlike every other so-called resource out there it lists a lot of competitions. At the time of writing, there were 198 contests open! That is a lot of possibilities to win!
Another reason to love Photography Competitions is how it lets users sift through the contests, in order to weed out the ones for which they don’t qualify, or to determine which ones suck wind. For instance, I could sort by “theme” and then focus my energies on landscapes or animals. Or I can search by prize. Whether you’re hoping to win cash, a trip, photography equipment, publication in a notable magazine, or some classes to help refine your skills, Photography Competitions makes it easy to find the most relevant competitions. This search feature allows me to spend more time taking pictures for the contests than looking for the contests themselves. Other search categories include by submission deadline, by entry fee or by region of eligibility.
The third reason why this site is so useful in my quest to win photo contests, is because it also offers tips for submissions. You are able to subscribe to an email feed that sends you tips and insights on how to go about winning photo contests. These emails give me suggestions, tips and insights from people who have been there, as judges, contest entrants and sponsors. What’s more, these emails gives advice on sniffing out bad, unethical, or bogus contests. In one such email, I was reminded about the importance of reading the fine print in order to understand what my rights are, and how the photographs are going to be used. All in all, helpful information.
Both Google and Twitter are great resources for finding out about cool new contests. By searching for photo contests in your city or community, you are able to hone in a lot more specifically on contests in your area.
The advantage of this is you might stumble upon a little-known gem that your community newspaper or local business is putting on. It’s likely that such a contest wouldn’t have the same huge number of entrants as a contest with paid advertising! By getting creative with your searches and using Boolean logic and advanced searching, you are able to focus your queries in order to maximize your results. Also consider setting up Google alerts and a RSS feed so that new contests and opportunities come right to you, rather than you having to seek them out.