OWAA Student Photo Contest Rules

1. Entries must be during the calendar year (January 1 through December 31) preceding the submission deadline.
2. By entering this competition, each entrant automatically grants OWAA the use of the entrants’ names, headshots, “story behind the photo,” and limited biographical information for advertising, publicity as well as promotional purposes. For individuals under 18 years old, the individual’s parent or guardian must grant this permission.
3. High School Category: During some or all of the calendar year prior to entering the Contest, the photographer must have been a student in grades 11-12 (including prep school) to enter the high school division.
4. College Category: Participants must be currently enrolled in a two- or four-year college, community college, or university (full time or part-time) to be eligible to enter the college category as well as be under the age of 25 on the day they enter the contest.
5. Students may enter one photograph.
6. Each entry must be original work.
7. All photographs should accurately reflect the subject matter and the scene as it appeared. Furthermore, they should alter their work.
8. Except in cases of hunting or fishing, participants should use caution to protect the survival of the photographed subject and make every effort to avoid activities that might interfere with natural wildlife behaviour.
9. Submissions must be in JPG documents, with a minimum file size of 250 kilobytes and a maximum of 5 megabytes.
10. You should also submit additional information during the submission process
11. Students must also upload a headshot of themselves, and provide a 75-100 word paragraph explaining the “story behind the photo.”
12. Plagiarism will result in disqualification. Judges determine inappropriate content and will announce the disqualification.

More about the OWAA Student Photo Contest

Professional photographers will judge the entries. The judgement will be based on technical excellence, composition, originality, overall impact, and artistic merit. The decisions of the judges are entirely their own and are final and binding.

The competition encourages prize winners or entries from local and state outdoor contests to submit their entries for the OWAA contests.

Previously published work is encouraged if the entrant retained the copyright, but the entries must be amateur/unpaid efforts, with the exception of having won a prize in a different contest.

OWAA will announce the winners by May 31. OWAA reserves the right to reprint the winning entries and photographs of contestants in its publications.

Moreover, winners of the contest will be given additional consideration when applying for the Bodie McDowell Scholarship and are highly encouraged to do so.

Prize structure for Student Photo Contest:

1st – $200

2nd – $100

3rd – $50

Each winner will also receive a yearlong OWAA Student Membership ($25 value), have their name included in a nationally distributed press release and have their photo included in OWAA’s magazine Outdoors Unlimited.

How to apply

First, you should create a free Submittable account that allows you to access OWAA Student Photo Contest Application.

You should submit entries on the form provided on the official page. Furthermore, mail submissions are no longer valid submissions.