Garden for Wildlife® Photo Contest

Help & FAQs

General Questions

The Garden for Wildlife® Photo Contest (GFWPC) is open to all photographers worldwide who are at least 13 years of age, except employees and board members of NWF, their immediate families, and individuals living in the same household as such employees and board members (“Entrants”). NWF reserves the right to verify, in its sole judgment, Entrants eligibility. Entrants 13 to 17 years of age (“Youth Entrants”) MUST enter only the Youth category (described below) and MUST obtain verified parental or guardian consent as set forth herein prior to entering the GFWPC. Entrants 18 years or older (“General Entrants”) are prohibited from entering the Youth category.
Native plants are the plant species that are naturally found in your region.  They're the plants that wildlife need to survive. Through our Garden for Wildlife - Certified Wildlife Habitat program we encourage people to plant native plants in their yards and gardens to provide natural habitat for wildlife that can easily co-exist with people (birds, butterflies, bees, frogs, etc.)You can learn more here: https://www.nwf.org/Home/Garden-for-Wildlife/About/Native-Plants
No, we invite entrants from all over the world to enter

Opens: September 3, 2024

Closes: October 16, 2024

Your fee helps support NWF's work to protect wildlife and wild places.
The National Wildlife Federation greatly appreciates when photographers choose to donate some of their images. These donations help support our mission to protect wildlife and habitats. If you wish to donate image(s) to NWF for use in furthering its mission, please check the appropriate box for each image you wish to donate during the uploading process. By donating image(s) to NWF, you retain all rights and title to the image(s), and you assign NWF a joint ownership interest in the image(s) under Copyright laws for NWF’s use. By checking the box and agreeing to donate the image(s) to NWF, you agree that all writing and signature requirements under the law are satisfied. Again, NWF greatly appreciates all image donations, which will be used to support NWF’s charitable mission: Uniting all Americans to ensure wildlife thrive in a rapidly changing world. See explanation here.

Grand Prize: $1,000

Runner-Up: $500

Category Winners: One winner from each of the five categories will receive a Wild Birds Unlimited gift card ($100 value)

Runner-Up Category Winners: One winner for each of the five categories will receive a Bluebird House ($89.99 value)

Honorable Mentions: National Wildlife Federation Calendar Magnet

All winning images will be published on our website and promoted throughout NWF's social media channels.

This is a separate contest from the National Wildlife® Photo Contest and previous Garden for Wildlife® Photo Contests. Everyone must create an account to enter.
CATEGORIES: Photographers must enter each image in one of the following categories. The same photo cannot be entered in more than one category. Judges reserve the right to switch images to other categories.

i. People in the Wildlife Garden: People of all ages observing wildlife, planting habitat, enjoying the habitat garden and participating in sustainable practices. (Includes portraits in your garden, working in the garden, kids in the garden). 
ii. Certified Wildlife Habitat Landscapes: Includes one or more of the habitat elements listed below. 

Food  -  i.e. native plants, nectar providing plants for pollinators, berries, nuts, seeds, artificial feeders such as bird or humming bird feeders, and more. 

Water – i.e. backyard ponds, water garden, bird baths, and puddling dishes, and more.

Cover – i.e. native plants, wooded area, evergreens, meadows, prairies, and ground cover, toad abodes, and roosting boxes, rock and brush piles and more.

Places to Raise Young – i.e. mature trees, meadows and prairies, wetland, host plants, dead trees or snags, dense shrubs and thickets, and more.

Sustainable gardening – riparian buffers, ground cover, terraces, rain gardens, use of native plants, reduced lawns, composting, rain barrels, and more.

Certified Wildlife Habitat sign – photos of the sign in wildlife habitat garden landscapes, with native plants, or with wildlife. Please do not submit photos of sign without other garden elements or wildlife included.  Bonus points awarded to photos including a sign.

iii. Wildlife Observations Where People Live, Work, Play, Learn and Worship: Portraits and behavior of wildlife in your wildlife habitat. Examples: birds, butterflies, native bees and other pollinators, small mammals, amphibians
iv. Close-up Native Plants and their wildlife visitors. Close up photos of native plants that provide, food, cover, or places for wildlife to raise young.
v. Young Habitat Photographers. Photos taken by photographers ages 13 to 17. 

This public competition will open on September 3, 2024 and close October 31, 2024. Anyone thirteen (13) years of age and older can vote by registering with a name, email address, and creating a password. Voters must agree to the rules for voting by checking the appropriate box. Photo Contest entrants can use the same credentials to log in and vote.

All the photos displayed in the gallery are allowed to be shared via social media and are eligible for voting. Voters can vote once per single photo, for as many photos as they wish. Voters may return to the public gallery to vote as many times as they wish for the duration of the People’s Choice Award contest using your registered email and password.

Entry Step-By-Step

Click here to download.
(After the download, the PDF entry guide may be in your "Downloads" or "My Downloads" folder in your computer.)

Questions About Entries

Photos must be at least 1,600 pixels wide (if a horizontal image) or 1,600 pixels tall (if a vertical image). Larger images are acceptable and may improve your photos’ quality. There is a maximum file size of 50 megabytes per image. Photos must be color and should be in RGB or sRGB format. All photographs should accurately reflect the subject matter and the scene as it appeared. Photos that have been digitally altered beyond standard optimization will be disqualified. Acceptable changes include adjustments to color, contrast, brightness and sharpness; removal of dust and scratches; cropping; and use of HDR (High Dynamic Range), where multiple exposures of the same scene are combined for a greater tonal range, and similar processes for extended depth of field. Such modifications must be disclosed. Changes that are not acceptable include photo composites (combination of two or more photos, not of the same scene); the addition, duplication, deletion or moving of objects in the photos; black-and-white conversions or the use of artistic digital filters and effects. Examples of artistic filters and effects are watercolor, neon glow, posterizing, stained glass, and others which do not show the scene as it occurred in nature.
"Upload" is to select an image from your computer and send it to the photo application/entry page and complete relevant information about the photo. "Submit" is the final stage to send the image to be judged. Please note that photos are not actually entered into the contest or made viewable by others or sharable until the contest fee is paid.

Do not include photographs of pets, domestic animals, any captive animals at game farms or zoos, research facilitates, or rehabilitation centers, or animals from such facilities photographed elsewhere with handler’s control. Such images will be disqualified. 

Previously published photos may be entered; however, please include information on when and where the photos appeared. Winning photos from other competitions may also be entered, but include the name of the contests and the years they won. Such information is informative only and will not influence judges’ decisions.

 

No, each photographer must agree to the contest rules and therefore is required to submit their own work individually. To recognize your group, please note in your photo entry submission any relevant club or group information.

 

Yes. Acceptable changes include adjustments to color, contrast, brightness and sharpness; removal of dust and scratches; cropping; and use of HDR (High Dynamic Range), where multiple exposures of the same scene are combined for a greater tonal range, and similar processes for extended depth of field. Such modifications must be disclosed. 

Changes that are not acceptable include photo composites (combination of two or more photos, not of the same scene); the addition, duplication, deletion or moving of objects in the photos; black-and-white conversions or the use of artistic digital filters and effects. Examples of artistic filters and effects are watercolor, neon glow, posterizing, stained glass, and others which do not show the scene as it occurred in nature.

 

Yes. Your photo can be watermarked. It is recommended that the watermark not interfere with the scene of your photo.

 

Each photo entered into the Garden for Wildlife® Photo Contest is automatically entered for the People’s Choice Award, viewable in the gallery for voting by the public and sharable with family and friends through social media. If you do not wish to enter your photo into the People’s Choice Award contest, at time of entry the appropriate box must unchecked for each photo in the submission form. Unchecking this box means your entered photo will be seen only by Garden for Wildlife® Photo Contest judges and not available for viewing in the public gallery.

This public competition will open on September 3, 2024 and close October 31, 2024. The photo with the top votes at the end of the people’s choice voting period will be named the People’s Choice Award winner, and a selection of top vote-getting images will appear on the Garden for Wildlife webpage and be promoted through NWF's social media channels. You can promote your entered images on social media by using the Share button at bottom left of each thumbnail.

Registering or Resetting User ID and Password

If you forget your user ID or password, you can retrieve it from the login page.

Technical Difficulties Uploading Photos

No, you may upload some of them and then return to the upload more at a later time. After a photo has been submitted, it cannot be edited nor deleted. However, if an entry has not been submitted to be judged, it will be marked as "Incomplete" and photo information can be edited and categories switched.
We will not be accepting photographs by mail.
First and foremost, save a backup of the originals. Software such as Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Microsoft Office Picture Manager will help you resize and save copies of your images. Look for resize or adjust size in the menus. There are also a number of online resources for resizing photographs.
Vertical images taken on mobile devices may appear sideways when uploaded. These images are oriented horizontally, but mobile phones have built-in software which rotates images for mobile viewing. If you are uploading any vertical images taken on a mobile phone, please rotate the image using photo software of your choice prior to uploading your images.
Please also be aware that vertical photos will always appear sideways in the thumbnail of the image. So long as you ensured that the image you uploaded was correctly oriented, this is not anything to worry about. When the thumbnail is clicked and the image enlarges, the photo will appear the correct way up. This will not effect the judging of the image. 
Accepted entries cannot be deleted. Images that has the status of either "Completed" or "Incomplete" can be deleted or modified. To modify an entry click on the entry's title to open its Photo Details page and replace old photo information and upload a replacement photo, then resubmit it as a new entry.

There are a few indicators on your Entries & Payment page.

  • Accepted:  Denotes a successful submitted image. Entry cannot be edited or deleted.
  • Completed: Denotes entry needs to be submitted to the judges by clicking on the “Submit” button, this will turn the status to “Accepted”.
  • Incomplete: Denotes the entry’s application form is not completely filled out, click on the entry’s title to open and fill out missing information on the Photo Details form.  Then Submit the entry to be accepted.
  • Instead of deleting an incomplete image you don't want, click on the image's Entry Title and replace it with a new upload.

Didn't find your questions here? Please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

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PO Box 1583, Merrifield VA 22116-1583
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