Entries Due June 7 for Texas Wildlife & Nature Photographer of the Year Contest

Texas Border Business

SAN ANTONIO – Wildlife in Focus (WIF) is inviting Texans of all ages to step exterior, look nearer, and share what they see. The nonprofit group at this time introduced the inaugural Texas Wildlife & Nature Photographer of the Year contest, a brand new statewide competitors designed to rejoice the wonder, variety, and conservation of Texas wildlife and wild locations.

The contest is open to all Texans, from seasoned photographers with skilled gear to yard birdwatchers and younger nature lovers capturing moments on a cellphone digital camera. With greater than $3,000 in money prizes and recognition on a statewide stage, the competitors goals to spotlight each creative excellence and moral wildlife pictures.

“Our mission has always been to use photography as a bridge to conservation,” stated Miles Phillips, Photo Contest Director for Wildlife in Focus. “This new Photographer of the Year contest invites every Texan to tell the story of our state’s wildlife — from prairies and pineywoods to deserts and coastlines. When people pause to photograph the natural world, they begin to value it. And when they value it, they help protect it.”

Contest Details

The submission window opens April 1, 2026, and closes June 7, 2026. All entries should be photographed in Texas. The competitors options each Adult and Youth divisions, with classes together with:

• Birds of Texas
• Mammals of Texas
• Animal Behavior
• Texas Wildscapes

Adult class winners will obtain $500 every, with a further $500 grand prize awarded to the Overall Texas Wildlife & Nature Photographer of the Year. Youth winners will obtain $100 awards, and Highly Commended entries in each divisions can be acknowledged.

Youth entries (17 and underneath) are free to submit, whereas grownup entries are $10 per picture. No preregistration is required.

All photographs should depict wild, free-ranging wildlife photographed ethically and honestly in pure circumstances. Wildlife in Focus maintains strict moral pointers prohibiting harassment, baiting, or digital manipulation that alters actuality.

A Celebration of Texas Conservation

Wildlife in Focus is a Texas-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit devoted to preserving and defending native wildlife and habitat by pictures, schooling, and outreach. While the group’s long-running team-based photograph contest has linked landowners and photographers for greater than twenty years, this new Photographer of the Year competitors expands the chance statewide — welcoming anybody impressed by Texas’ pure heritage.

“This contest is about more than winning a prize,” Phillips stated. “It’s about celebrating the spirit of Texas wildlife — from backyard feeders to remote ranchlands. We want to see how Texans experience the wild. Every image becomes part of a larger story about conservation in our state.”

Winning and Highly Commended photographs could also be featured in Wildlife in Focus publications, exhibitions, and academic programming, serving to encourage the subsequent era of conservationists.

How to Enter

Contest particulars and registration will be discovered at wildlifeinfocus.org.

Information supply: Wildlife in Focus