Enter photo competitions
How to make some money from your photography – first up, photography competitions
From the major expense of a new Canon camera or lens, to the cost of all of the smaller accessories and even time that you need to spend shooting, there’s no getting away from the fact that photography can be an expensive hobby. But the rewards should outweigh the costs. For many this is simply the enjoyment and pride in producing good images, but there are also many ways that you can get some financial reward from your passion for photography, which is where our new series comes in.
Throughout the series, we’ll show you how you can make some cash from your Canon, from how to get a little cash in your spare time to going the whole hog and giving up the day job to make your living from photography. To kick things off, we’ll start with something you can do in a few evenings, by entering competitions and submitting your images to magazines.
Where to look
At any one time there are hundreds of photographic competitions around the world open for entries. The key is finding the right one for you. With prize values running into thousands of pounds/dollars, it’s tempting to jump straight for the extremely prestigious competitions, such as the Landscape Photographer of the Year, Travel Photographer of the Year or Wildlife Photographer of the Year. However, these high-profile competitions attract several thousand entries, many of which are of extremely high quality, so your chances of winning are pretty slim. So, rather than only looking at these major competitions, it’s worth starting out by seeking out some of the less prestigious national or international contests.
You could be better off starting out by entering smaller, local competitions, as, although the prizes may not be as generous as those awarded to the winners of the major competitions, your chances of winning (or at least being shortlisted) are much better. One other advantage of these smaller competitions is that they often don’t require you to pay the entry fees that many national or international competitions charge.
Entry fees are something you need to weigh up when entering larger competitions. While it’s a fact of life that many extremely reputable competitions charge them, you need to decide whether the amount being charged is
reasonable compared to your chances of winning, the prize on offer and also the prestige of the competition.
Copyright & usage
Whenever you enter your photo into a competition you will be granting the organizers a limited right to use your image, but these usage rights can vary from one competition to another. You will find the detail in the small print in the terms and conditions, so it’s worth checking what they are before entering.
Almost every competition will expect you to allow them to use the images you submit to help promote and advertise the competition, including using them in any book or exhibition that’s connected with the contest. But you should also look out for clauses that give the organizers the right to use the images in other ways (even giving them the right to free usage forever). This free use of the image is most commonly found when the competition is free to enter, as this access to ‘free’ images may be why the organizer is running the contest, but it can also be found in the terms of other competitions. If you are serious about making money from your photography, avoid competitions where they ask for these types of usage rights.
The rewards
The obvious reward for winning any competition is the prize on offer. These can range from money to new camera kit, to the potentially useless. But even unwanted prizes can be sold to provide you with some cash. There’s also the potential to use winning a competition as a good way of gaining exposure for your photography. This is much more difficult to quantify than the prize, and will ultimately depend on what you want to achieve with your photography, but when it comes to pitching for work, being an award-winning photographer (particularly in one of the more prestigious competitions) won’t do you any harm whatsoever.