This contest will be all about animals in their habitat. The emphasis will be on the landscape itself to tell a bigger story about the species you are photographing.

When it comes to selling wildlife photography, environmental portraits outsell run-of-the-mill closeups of animals 10:1.

Landscape tells a story. It allows us to enter the world of an animal, to experience Earth through their eyes in some fashion. Whether it’s magazines or fine art, by focusing on the landscape, by designing the composition around all the other “stuff” and allowing our subject to become a part of our planet with us, we give those viewing our work the opportunity to be transported out of their reality and into another world.

I’m going to be looking at how you designed the photograph. It’s easy to tell when a photographer composed for the landscape and allowed their subject to exist within it. And that’s what I want to see here.

In other words, this is all about composition. This is fitting in my opinion, given that I will begin publishing a new series of articles soon all about composition. And it may be fun to do another one of these animalscape contests afterward so you can see how your photography progressed.

As for subjects, all species are fair game in this contest: birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, fish, etc.

This photo contest will have two categories: beginner and advanced. YOU decide which category your photos belong in.

Each winner will receive $1500 to spend at B&H Photo (the world’s largest camera shop and one that ships all over the planet). In addition to this, winners will also be featured on the cover of the Journal of Wildlife Photography.

Here are the rules:

• You must be a subscriber of the Journal of Wildlife Photography to enter and win. Learn more
• Subject cannot be larger than 25% of composition.
• All species are fair game, i.e., mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, etc.
• Each photographer is limited to 3 entries.
• Each entry must contain the common name of the species, the Latin name, and a few sentences about the subject (remember this IS the Journal of Wildlife Photography after all, so step up).
• All photographs must be submitted in the official Journal of Wildlife Photography Facebook group (not Facebook page).
• To enter a photograph into the beginner category, you must add #animalscape-beginner in the description.
• To enter a photograph into the advanced category, you must add #animalscape-advanced in the description.
• Contest ends June 15th. Entries submitted after this date will not be accepted.
• Winners will be announced on July 1st.