My wilidlife photo contest entries (and more)

[SenorNikonMan]

Below is a link to a page I just added to my website. It is made up of photos I took while participating in the richest wildlife photo contest in the world. It is the Valley Land Fund wildlife photo contest and it takes place every other year right here in deep south Texas where I live. Total prize money for this contest is $130,000.00.

I was recently notified by the Valley Land Fund that of the 50 photographers who entered, I am one of the three grand prize winners in the Small Tract Competition (photographs taken on land of 100 acres or less). I will find out which grand prize I won on Sept. 20th at the awards ceremony.

Anyway, here is a link to my webpage:

http://bugsbirdsandbeyond.com/VLF_Contest_Entries.html

(BTW, I took all of the photos on this webpage in my backyard.)

And here is a link to the Valley Land Fund's website for those who want to know more about this contest and/or for those who want to see past winning photographs (btw, the hummingbird photo in my avatar won Best of Contest and the People's Choice award in the 2004 contest):

http://www.valleylandfund.com/index.php

[serenity]

Very cool and congrats! Maybe I'll enter this contest when/if I move to Texas next year... if it's open.

Nice photos - I would love to see larger version though! From what i can see, they are nicely composed and very colorful!

[Dylan8i]

do you know which photo won?

i may be biased but i like the double frog, and the form reflection below it the best.

[Frog]

Cool! I seem to be hanging out with some talented people.

[SenorNikonMan]

Very cool and congrats! Maybe I'll enter this contest when/if I move to Texas next year... if it's open.

Nice photos - I would love to see larger version though! From what i can see, they are nicely composed and very colorful!

Thanks! The contest is open to anyone wanting to enter. There are actually 4 different contests running at the same time. The South Texas Shootout is the big contest with total prize money of $100,000.00. I believe the entry fee is $500.00 for this contest. There is not limit to how large the land being photographed on is in this contest.

The entry fee for the Small Tract Competition, which is the contest I enter, is $125.00 and it has total prize money of $20,000.00. Anyone photographing in this competition is only allowed to photograph on land of 100 acres or less.

All prize money won in these two contests is split equally between the photographer and the landowner. Since I entered my yard in the contest, I am both the photographer and the landowner so I get to keep both shares of whatever prize money my photos win.

Then there are two youth contests. One for 11 - 15 year olds and one for 16 - 19 year olds. Total prize money for these two contests is $10,000.00. Those entered in these contests can photograph anywhere in south Texas they want, except at the zoo, and they get to keep all of their prize money.

All photographs have to be taken during the photo contest period, April - June, and except for the youth contests, must be taken on land entered in the contest. There is no cropping allowed and there are very strict limits to what you can do to the images out of camera. Digital images must be shot in RAW format and the original image must be submitted so that the judges can compare it to the TIFF and JPEG versions to make sure that only allowable manipulations were used.

do you know which photo won?

i may be biased but i like the double frog, and the form reflection below it the best.

The double toad shot is one of my favorites too. For some reason, it reminds me of a Budweiser commercial.

I don't know which photo won best of contest yet. However, the grand prizes are determined by a point system. Each photograph entered is given a score by the judges with bonus points given to those photographs that place within the classes and/or divisions. Each photographer's points are totaled up and the three photographers with the most points win the grand prizes. Therefore the grand prizes are awarded to the photographers with the highest scoring body of work even if they might not have had the best of contest winning photograph.

[AgingEyes]

Congrats and good luck !!

[SenorNikonMan]

Nice photos - I would love to see larger version though! From what i can see, they are nicely composed and very colorful!

You can now see larger versions of my photo contest entries here:

http://bugsbirdsandbeyond.com/VLF_En...Slideshow.html

[scott-devon]

Very nice! and congrats on the win.

[serenity]

You can now see larger versions of my photo contest entries here:

http://bugsbirdsandbeyond.com/VLF_En...Slideshow.html

Even better!!! The detail is amazing!

[Canon_Bob]

Very nice work! I particularly like your macro work. It's all good, but that work really jumped out to me. Good luck with the competition!

[SenorNikonMan]

Very nice work! I particularly like your macro work. It's all good, but that work really jumped out to me. Good luck with the competition!

Thanks! Macro photography of insects is kind of my specialty. The fact that I photograph for this contest in my backyard, which is not very big at all, and I am competing with photographers on land up to 100 acres in size, I do not get to see the variety of wildlife that the others do. Therefore I have to make the most of what I do have in my yard and that is mostly birds and insects. However, I try not to enter too many bird photographs in this contest because that is what most of the others concentrate on and that makes the bird division the toughest to win in by far.

[Canon_Bob]

However, I try not to enter too many bird photographs in this contest because that is what most of the others concentrate on and that makes the bird division the toughest to win in by far.

Same way here. LOTS of bird photographers.....but not that many really GREAT ones. This is the first year that I've really tried competing at the National level. Will have to see how it works out. I know several of the photographers from around here that have submitted to some of the same contests, and they are great photographers. One of my friends here (Fabs Forns) won the Natures Best Grand Prize (birds) last year. No big deal, I know most of the really good ones here, and there just aren't that many. After that, it's just the luck to get the right composition/subject, and the expertise to pull off the shot.

[SenorNikonMan]

Well the Valley Land Fund's wildlife photo contest awards ceremony was held last night and I found out that I tied for 2nd grand prize in the Small Tract Competition.

As of right now, I'm not entirely sure which of my bird photographs won what, but I do know that I had two first place winners, one second place winner and one third place winner in the classes and I had the first and second place winners in the birds division which is always the most competetive division.

While I did have more division winning entries than anybody else and I had more 1st place winners in the classes than the 1st grand prize winner had, the grand prizes were determined by the total points each photographer accumulated for all his/her entries so the 1st grand prize winner must've outscored me with his non-winning entries.

Anyway, I am very happy to be among the three grand prize winners which was my goal all along for this contest. The fact that I won $3,800.00 in total prize money doesn't hurt either. :thumbsup:

To see my winning entries, click here:

http://bugsbirdsandbeyond.com/VLF_Contest_Winners.html