The Garden for Wildlife^TM Photo Contest (GFWPC) is open to all photographers who are U.S. citizens residing in the United States and the District of Columbia except employees and Board Members of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), their immediate families and individuals living in the same household as such employees and Board Members. Entrants younger than 18 years of age are eligible to submit photographs but must obtain verified parental or guardian consent. NWF reserves the right to verify, in its sole judgment, entrant eligibility.

Native plants are the plant species that are naturally found in your region.  They're the plants that wildlife need to survive. Through our Garden for Wildlife - Certified Wildlife Habitat program we encourage people to plant native plants in their yards and gardens to provide natural habitat for wildlife that can easily co-exist with people (birds, butterflies, bees, frogs, etc.)You can learn more here: https://www.nwf.org/Home/Garden-for-Wildlife/About/Native-Plants

No, we invite entrants from all U.S. territories and possessions and all overseas military installations.

Opens: September 10, 2018

Closes: November 9, 2018

A selection of the winning photographs and honorable mentions will be published in the April-May 2019 Garden for Wildlife issue of National Wildlife magazine.

Your $15.00 fee helps support NWF's work to protect wildlife and wild places.

The National Wildlife Federation greatly appreciates when photographers choose to donate some of their images. These donations help support our mission to protect wildlife and habitats. If you wish to donate image(s) to the National Wildlife Federation for use in furthering its mission, please check the appropriate box for each image during the uploading process. By donating the image(s) to NWF, donor assigns NWF a joint ownership interest in image(s) under Copyright laws. You retain all right and title to the image(s) as a joint owner. By checking the box and agreeing to donate the image(s) to NWF, you agree all writing and signature requirements under the law are satisfied. NWF greatly appreciates all image donations, which will be used to support NWF’s charitable mission. Click here for further explanation.

Grand Prize: $1,000.00.

Second Place: $500.00.

Category Winners: Four winners from each category will receive a bird feeder, a copy of Wildlife Gardening - Tips for Four Seasons, and a $100 gift certificate to Botanical Interests (estimated value $165.00)

Young Habitat Photographer Prize: One winner will be chosen from all submitted photos to receive a bird feeder, a copy of Wildlife Gardening - Tips for Four Seasons, and a $100 gift certificate to Botanical Interests (estimated value $165.00)

Honorable Mentions: Each will receive a $20 gift certificate to Botanical Interests.

All winning images will be published on our web sites and promoted throughout NWF's social media channels.

This is a new contest and separate from the National Wildlife Photo Contest. Everyone must create an account to enter.

CATEGORIES: Photographers must enter each image in one of the following categories. The same photo cannot be entered in more than one category. Judges reserve the right to switch images to other categories.

i. People in the Wildlife Garden: People of all ages observing wildlife, planting habitat, enjoying the habitat garden and participating in sustainable practices. (Includes portraits in your garden, working in the garden, kids in the garden). 
ii. Wildlife Garden Features and Landscapes: Includes one or more of the habitat elements listed below. 

Food  -  i.e. native plants, nectar providing plants for pollinators, berries, nuts, seeds, artificial feeders such as bird or humming bird feeders, and more. 

Water – i.e. backyard ponds, water garden, bird baths, and puddling dishes, and more.

Cover – i.e. native plants, wooded area, evergreens, meadows, prairies, and ground cover, toad abodes, and roasting boxes, rock and brush piles and more.

Places to Raise Young – i.e. mature trees, meadows and prairies, wetland, host plants, dead trees or snags, dense shrubs and thickets, and more.

Sustainable gardening – riparian buffers, ground cover, terraces, rain gardens, use of native plants, reduced lawns, composting, rain barrels, and more.

Certified Wildlife Habitat sign – photos of the sign in wildlife habitat garden landscapes, with native plants, or with wildlife. Please do not submit photos of sign without other garden elements or wildlife included.  Bonus points awarded to photos including a sign.

iii. Wildlife Observed Where People Live, Work, Play, Learn and Worship: Portraits and behavior of wildlife in your wildlife habitat. Examples: birds, butterflies, native bees and other pollinators, small mammals, amphibians
iv. Close-up Native Plants and their wildlife visitors. Close up photos of native plants that provide, food, cover, or places for wildlife to raise young. 
 

Click here to download.
(After the download, the PDF entry guide may be in your "Downloads" or "My Dowloads" folder in your computer.)

Technical requirements: Camera-made digital images or scans of slides or prints must be uploaded as jpg, gif or png files. There is a maximum file size of 50 megabytes per image. Images should be in either sRGB or RGB format. Smart phone entries are acceptable if submitted as full sized images and meet the pixel requirement of 1600x1600.

What photos qualify: We are looking for striking color images othat show the impact of habitat gardens, on wildlife and people—in urban, suburban and rural settings on  land, in the air and in the water or on the water’s surface. These images may show animal behavior, portraits of wildlife in natural habitat, plant life, natural landscapes, or people interacting with nature.

"Upload" is to select an image from your computer and send it to the photo application/entry page and complete relevant information about the photo. "Submit" is the final stage to send the image to be judged. Please note that photos are not actually entered into the contest or made viewable by others or sharable until the contest fee is paid.

Do not include photographs of pets or domestic animals. Images of captive animals photographed in game farms or roadside zoos, or animals from these facilities photographed elsewhere with handler’s control, will be disqualified.

Captive animals photographed in major zoos, wildlife research facilities or rehabilitation centers are acceptable. Clearly label these animals as captive in the Subject box when uploading and provide details in the Story box.

Previously published photos may be entered; however, please include information on when and where the photos appeared. Winning photos from other competitions may also be entered, but include the name of the contests and the years they won. Such information is informative only and will not influence judges’ decisions.

 

No, each photographer must agree to the contest rules and therefore is required to submit their own work individually. To recognize your group, please note in your photo entry submission any relevant club or group information.

 

Yes. Acceptable adjustments are: color, contrast, brightness and sharpness; removal of dust and scratches; cropping; black and white conversions; and use of HDR (high dynamic range), where multiple exposures of the same scene are combined for a greater tonal range. Not acceptable are photo composites (combination of two or more photos, not of the same scene); the addition, duplication, deletion or moving of objects in the photos; or the use of artistic digital filters and effects. Examples of artistic filters and effects are watercolor, neon glow, posterizing, stained glass, and others which do not show the scene in its natural way.

 

Yes. Your photo can be watermarked. It is recommended that the watermark not interfere with the scene of your photo.

 

If you forget your user ID or password, you can retrieve it from the login page.

No, you may upload some of them and then return to the upload more at a later time. After a photo has been submitted, it can not be edited nor deleted. However, if an entry has not been submitted to be judged, it will be marked as "Incomplete"and photo information can be edited and categories switched.

We will not be accepting photographs by mail.

First and foremost, save a backup of the originals. Software such as Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Microsoft Office Picture Manager will help you resize and save copies of your images. Look for resize or adjust size in the menus. There are also a number of online resources for resizing photographs.

Accepted entries cannot be deleted. Images that has the status of either "Completed" or "Incomplete" can be deleted or modified. To modify an entry click on the entry's title to open its Photo Details page and replace old photo information and upload a replacement photo, then resubmit it as a new entry.