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10 competitions to keep your photography inspired
Winner of the Take a View, Landscape Photographer of the Year, Mark Littlejohn
Entering photography competitions is a great way to maintain a level of drive and inspiration in your photography, as well as winning cash and photo-related equipment. We can all collect cameras and lenses, but when it comes to using them we sometimes run out of things to take pictures of. Using the themes and category titles from photo competitions can provide a little bit of the oomph we often need to get shooting. While winning might be seen the ultimate aim we can get just as much personal value from taking part, practicing and expanding our art. Every challenge leads to progress of some sort.
There are thousands of photography competitions open at any one time, from local companies looking to promote their existence to charitable organizations hoping to draw attention to their plights. Local competitions tend to have fewer entries and thus the chances of winning increase, but international competitions tend to have better prizes and get wider coverage for those lucky enough to get shortlisted. It is often worth going for competitions with a very specialist theme or which seem hard to enter, as again they will get fewer entries and your chance of winning is improved. A competition about growing potatoes will get fewer entries than a general open landscape competition, for example, but may have the same prize value – though perhaps not the same kudos!
We've listed here 10 competitions that take international entries, but don't forget to look for other competitions closer to home too.
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