2025 - OWAA Student Photo Contest

Through its Student Photo Contest, the Outdoor Writers Association of America rewards budding photographers who capture the outdoors. Prizes are awarded to winners in grades 11-12 and in college.

Entries may be submitted between December 1 of the contest calendar year and January 31 of the following year.

OWAA Student Photo Contest Rules

1. By submitting to the Contest, the entrant agrees to abide by all Contest rules.

2. Entries must have been created during the calendar year (January 1 through December 31) preceding the submission deadline.

3. No entry fee is required, and copyrights to the work remain the property of the photographer. Winning works may be used by Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA) to promote education and youth outdoor communication efforts. The photographer's name will appear with any such use. By entering this competition, each entrant also grants OWAA the use of the entrants' names, headshots, “story behind the photo,” and limited biographical information for advertising, publicity and promotional purposes. For individuals under 18 years old, the individual's parent or guardian must grant this permission. Winners will also be displayed on the OWAA website, in the Outdoors Unlimited magazine, other publications, and social media.

4. 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. These are based on U.S. grade categories. Home schooled or international students who are unsure of their grade should choose an appropriate category based on where the student would be placed if attending public school in the United States. Students who are taking college classes concurrently as they are taking high school classes (dual enrolled) should enter the high school contest.

5. 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, and be under the age of 25 on the day they enter the contest. Participants should not already possess a four-year degree or higher.

6. Students may enter one photograph.

7. Each entry must be original work of the entrant, and have an outdoor theme. Examples of appropriate outdoor themes include: nature, ecology, hiking, camping, biking, surfing, boating, canoeing, fishing, hunting, etc. Organized athletics such as football and baseball are not eligible subject matter and will be grounds for disqualification.

8. 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. Photographs generated with the use of artificial intelligence including large language models (LLMs) such as GPT, Gemini, Llama, etc., are prohibited from entry. Acceptable alterations include minor adjustments to color, contrast, brightness and sharpness, removal of sensor dirt, and cropping.

9. Except in cases of hunting or fishing, participants should use caution to protect the survival of the subject being photographed and make every effort to avoid action that might interfere with natural wildlife behavior. Except in cases of hunting or fishing, entries that appear to involve harassment of wildlife or damage to the environment shall be disqualified.

10. Submissions will be made through https://owaa.submittable.com/submit/309966/2025-owaa-student-photo-contest 

11. Submissions must be made as JPG documents, with a minimum file size of 250 kilobytes and maximum of 5 megabytes. The following format should be used for filenames:
           a. Contest division (H = high school, C = college)
           b. Photographer's first and last names
           c. Subject matter. (Example: Jane Smith, age 17 and in high school, submits a photograph of a rabbit. The                           filename should read H_Smith_Jane_Rabbit.jpg.)

12. Additional information will be required during the submission process, including: the photographer's school, age, grade, mailing address, email address, telephone number, supervising teacher or professor, and name/date of the publication in which the work appeared or contest the work won, if applicable.

13. Students must also upload a head shot of themselves, and provide a 75-100 word paragraph explaining the “story behind the photo.”

14. All entries are final. No revisions or replacements are accepted.

15. Entries will be judged by professional photographers. Photographs will be judged on technical excellence (including sharpness and lighting/exposure), composition, originality, overall impact, and artistic merit. The decisions of the judges are entirely their own and are final and binding.

16. Plagiarism will result in disqualification. Inappropriate content is determined by the judges and will result in disqualification.

17. Prize winners or entries from local and state outdoor writing contests are encouraged 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. The purpose of this contest is to encourage up-and-coming outdoor communicators, not to recognize professional efforts. Professional (paid) work may be entered in the separate Excellence in Craft contest, available to OWAA members.

18. OWAA will announce the winners by May 31. OWAA reserves the right to reprint the winning entries and photographs of contestants in its publications, including Outdoors Unlimited®; on its website and on its social media accounts.

19. 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:

 1st - $200
2nd - $100
3rd - $50

Each winner will 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.
 

Your first step is to create a FREE Submittable account, which allows you access to access the OWAA Student Photo Contest application. Entries must be submitted on this form. Mail-in and email submissions are no longer accepted. (If you experience technical difficulties completing this form, please contact support@submittable.com or info@owaa.org.)