Entering Online Photo Contests to Win or Improve Your Digital Photography Skills

Every practicing digital photographer should start entering online photo contests, digital photo contests and exhibitions - lots of them as often as possible. One way to find droves of online photo contests is to do a Google search to find free or low entry fee contests. You can submit some of your best digital photos, but you must be sure to read the entry rules very, very carefully. Some online photo contests will attempt to strip away your intellectual property rights by making your photo entries their property. By all means you should avoid this, as you then cannot sell, rent, distribute,

share, post, upload or even use your own images for any purpose.

Aside from being cautious about this, you should join and actively participate in digital photography forums, online user groups and digital photography interest group sites related to your specialty. General online photo contests frequently offer multiple categories in which to enter your prized images. The act of seeking out and refining your photographic skills to enter photo contests will invariably sharpen your skills. Seeing the work of others often stimulates you to develop new ideas and techniques or perhaps even to delve into a new digital photography genre.

Here is a listing of online photo contests organized by category:

General online photo contests accept digital photos in a wide range of categories from both professional and amateur photographers. Winning entries from the previous period’s contest are usually available for viewing and you’ll be spurred on to expand your photographic vision and improve.

http://www.proofpositive.com/contests/photocontests.htm

http://www.betterphoto.com/contest.asp

http://www.picture.com/contest/enter.asp

http://www.photos-of-the-year.com/digital-photography-contest/

http://www.photocompete.com/

http://www.theeveryman.com/

http://photocontest.smithsonianmag.com/v6/index.html

These online photo contests feature digital images of the “wee ones” from newborn and older. The cut-off point is typically somewhere in the early teens, but each online photo contest has its own rules, so be sure to read, copy and observe the contest rules carefully. Remember, if it’s a “baby” photo contest, you can’t submit photos of your 25-year-old “baby”, no matter how cute she (or he) is. Yup, you’re right; everybody is somebody’s “baby”.

http://www.americanbabycontest.com/

http://www.kidkontest.com/

http://www.thecutekid.com/

http://www.contestformoms.com/babycontestphotos/

If you'd like to brush up on your child photography skills before entering any of these contests, be sure to check out the following photography tutorials:

Child Photography - 5 Tips on How to Take the Best Pictures of Children

Baby Photography - 7 Tips on How to Take the Best Baby Pictures

If you'd like some resources to pet/animal online photo contests and specialty online photo contests, such as macro, underwater, sports and environmental, please continue on to page 2...

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