Monochrome Photography Awards, Amateur Nude category, Honorable Mention: "Mammals in the Mist," Bunny Luna, Tatoosh Range, July 2019.

Mammals in the Mist (Honorable Mention)Mammals in the mist
B758253 (2021-07-01)
2019-07-16
Bunny Luna
Tatoosh Range, Mount Rainier National Park

2021-11-20 Shadowhunter Circuit (Nude PIDC) (Malta and Serbia): Accepted
2021-11-29 Clickerz International Salon (Open Monochrome) (Kolkata, India): Accepted

There are a number of online photography contests that (let's be honest) may or may not be more a means of making money than promoting photographers. Leastwise, it's hard to know whether the benefit of having a "win" at one of these contests on your resume is actually an advantage, or something that, for example, gallery managers or sales representatives even care about. I go through this angst repeatedly, and wish there were better resources for knowing whether it's worth the money to keep applying to these websites.

Still, it's pretty nice to see your photo among so many other great images, and to have another "Honorable Mention" on the list. Maybe someday I'll break through into that rarified air of a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place win. But with 74 Honorable Mentions in my category it's way more likely that I'll keep landing in that zone. Of course, then one wonders just how many photos were submitted in the "Amateur Nude" category. What if there were only 77 people who entered, and each of them had one of their photos awarded?? There is literally no way to know. The overall 1st place winner wins an award of $1000 ($2K in the professional category), but the rest of the winners just get "exposure to galleries around the world," none of which have contacted me so far. Even the category 1st place winners, other than the overall winner, just get published in an annual book, which may benefit the Monochrome Photography Awards more than the photographers themselves.

This one, at least, doesn't charge as much for an entry as a lot of similar contest websites do. And it is pretty cool to have the win. But I still wonder if I'm paying more for vanity than substance.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has real knowledge about these things.