Up close and personal at Dymond Lake Ecolodge on the Great Ice Bear Adventure. Virginia Huang photo.
The 9th 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 2017. 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.
HOW TO ENTER
Please read through our rules and guidelines below and submit your photo(s) to vanessa@churchillwild.com by March 31, 2018 to be eligible for judging.
Photographing the northern lights at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge. Rod Kuo photo.
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 camera bag.
- Second Place | $500.00 CAD Gift Certificate to be applied to any Churchill Wild safari plus a Touch the Arctic photo book by Dennis Fast.
- Third Place | Touch the Arctic photo book by Dennis Fast.
1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes will be awarded in each category.
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.
RULES
- Only guests who visited a Churchill Wild lodge in 2017 are eligible to enter the contest.
- All photos submitted must have been taken on a Churchill Wild safari during the 2017 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 March 31, 2018.
- 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 where applicable.
All photos submitted will be uploaded to our website’s “Guest Photo Gallery” and will be credited appropriately.
Curious polar bear checks out Seal River Heritage Lodge. Tiffany Lacey photo.
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.
- All files should be in .JPG format.
ATTN: GROUP LEADERS
If you were the leader for a group of guests in 2017, please forward this notice to them to ensure they have the opportunity to enter the contest.
Contest closes March 31, 2018. Winners will be announced by April 30, 2018.
