No question who the boss is here. Photo by guest Sheree Jensen on the Hudson Bay Odyssey at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge.
The 10th Annual Churchill Wild Guest Photo Contest is now open for entries!
Our annual photo contest allows us to recognize and showcase the talented photographers who join us on our polar bear safaris each year and is open to all guests who visited the Churchill Wild polar bear lodges in 2018. You’ve shared your photographs with family and friends and we now invite you to share them with us. Whether you’re a hobbyist or a pro, we welcome your entries!
This year we’ve set up six different categories and prizes include a $1,000 gift certificate towards a Churchill Wild safari and autographed copies of nature photographer Dennis Fast’s beautiful book Touch the Arctic.
As Ansel Adams once said, “There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.” We couldn’t agree more, but there are a few rules for this contest below. Need inspiration? Check out a few of the previous Churchill Wild photo contest galleries.
Arctic fox pouncing on the Polar Bear Photo Safari at Seal River Heritage Lodge. Photo by guest Robert Hlavica.
HOW TO ENTER
Please read through our rules and guidelines below and submit your photo(s) to contest@churchillwild.com by April 12, 2019 to be eligible for judging.
CATEGORIES
- Wildlife – Polar Bear
- Wildlife – Other
- Landscape
- People
- Lodge interior or exterior
- Amateur
PRIZES (to be awarded in each category)
- First Place | $1,000.00 CAD Gift Certificate* plus a Lowepro all-weather multimedia backpack.
- Second Place | $500.00 CAD Gift Certificate* plus a Touch the Arctic photo book by Dennis Fast.
- Third Place | Touch the Arctic photo book by Dennis Fast.
All winners will also a receive a copy a copy of our 25th Anniversary book, Churchill Wild — 25 Years of Adventure on the Hudson Bay Coast.
1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes will be awarded in each category. *Towards a Churchill Wild Safari
Snow flurries on the Polar Bear Photo Safari at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge. Photo by guest Karl Biesemier.
REDEEMING PRIZES
- Winners may transfer their gift certificate to a family member or friend if they wish.
- Prizes cannot be redeemed for cash.
- Usage of gift certificates subject to availability.
- Cannot be combined with any other discount and no commissions will apply.
- Must be applied to a 2019 or 2020 trip.
- Remaining balance is due 90 days prior to departure and will be invoiced by Churchill Wild in due course.
Guests photographing a polar bear on the Great Ice Bear Adventure at Dymond Lake Ecolodge.
RULES and GUIDELINES for ENTRIES
- Only guests who visited a Churchill Wild lodge in 2018 are eligible to enter the contest.
- All photos submitted must have been taken on a Churchill Wild safari during the 2018 season.
- All entries must be labelled with the photographer’s NAME and the CATEGORY into which it is being entered.
- Contest entries will be accepted until April 12, 2019.
- You may submit ONE photo per category. If more than one photo is submitted for a category, the first one received will be the one entered for that category.
- Entrants are not eligible to win in more than one category in the same year.
- The Amateur category has been set up to recognize point-and-shoot cameras and smartphone photography. Only photos taken with these devices are eligible for judging in the Amateur category. Other categories are for “big body” DSLRs or similar.
- By entering this contest, you are acknowledging that Churchill Wild reserves the right to use your images for promotional purposes. Photo credit will be given whenever your photos are used.
All winning photos submitted will be uploaded to our website’s “Guest Photo Gallery” and will be credited appropriately.
PHOTO SPECIFICATIONS
- Photos may not be cropped (zoomed in) by more than 10% to give a fair indication of what the original shot looked like.
- Photos will be judged on the basis of composition, light, color, sharpness, creativity and human interest. Post-processing is expected from DSLR entries but photos should not be over-processed.
- Do not add text to photos. Failure to comply will exclude your submission from the contest.
- Submitted images should be at least 1500 pixels (on the long side) at 72 dpi to allow for a fair comparison between images, with the exception of photos submitted in the “Amateur” category.
- All files should be in .JPG format.
Polar bear swats at wolf on the Hudson Bay Odyssey at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge. Photo by guest Anne Bastien.
ATTN: GROUP LEADERS
If you were the leader for a group of guests in 2018, please forward this notice to them to ensure they have the opportunity to enter the contest.
Contest closes April 12, 2019. Winners will be announced by April 30, 2019.
I’m excited to see the winning images! I encourage all the guests – whether they are professional shooters or not – to enter. Some of the most exciting images I’ve seen have been made on Samsung and iPhones and are all about Northern Life and the story, rather than just great wildlife pictures. Good luck everyone!
Thanks Jad, you are so right! And the stories behind the photos are often as good as the photos. As are yours!