Scottish Nature Photography Awards

What you will actually pay

Entry costs, explained.

Junior free; adult categories £6; student £5; three-image portfolios from £10.

The £5 early category offer expired on 30 September. Main-category and Portfolio winners compete for the overall title without a separate title fee; the junior and student routes have their own titles. More entries make sense only if they add strong, eligible work. [1][3]

Scotland is the subject, not an address requirement

The briefs distinguish wildlife behaviour from portraiture, split landscape into land, sea/coast and urban greenspace, and also include botanical, environmental and abstract work. Environmental entries need a communicative idea about nature and human impact. The three-image Portfolio category is judged as a set, separately from its component subjects. Our advice is to choose the route from the photograph’s purpose: an expressive sequence needs a different edit from one decisive behavioural moment. [3]

The panel brings different perspectives: ecologist and photographer Jason Gilchrist, photographer Christopher Swan, and co-organiser Niall Irvine. The organiser is represented in judging, which is worth understanding; this is not an entirely external panel. A shortlisted file still has to pass original-file and reproduction checks before final selection. [4][9]

Evidence of attention beyond the organiser

Digital Camera World covered Toby Houlton’s overall 2025 win in March 2026, explaining how his long-exposure photograph turned ordinary gnats into a striking woodland image. That is concrete independent publication of winning work and a useful illustration of the award’s appetite for interpretation. It does not establish a guaranteed audience for every finalist, still less future commissions for an entrant. We see a credible specialist opportunity rather than a predictable publicity purchase. [5]

Recognition carries more weight than the cash

The overall 2026 winner receives £150 cash, engraved awards, the yearbook and a Hilltrek Knoydart Ventile Gilet. The winning work is promised inclusion in the 2026 Portfolio Yearbook and 2027 touring exhibition. The £150 belongs to the overall winner; it is not a category-wide payment or an aggregate prize-fund headline. [6]

The junior winner receives £50 cash, an engraved award, a yearbook, a sponsored woodland bird-hide session and a 20-by-16-inch print. Second place includes a £30 National Book Token, which is not cash. Travel is generally excluded under the rules. The student page remains on last year’s package, so we do not present its hide session or £50 as confirmed 2026 benefits. [7][2][8]

Check location, image age and competing entries

Entries are international, but photographs must have been made in Scotland from 1 December 2021 to 30 November 2026. Main entrants are at least 18; juniors are younger on closing day. Wildlife must be wild rather than captive or studio-photographed, and live bait is prohibited. Required permissions, including wildlife licences and depicted people’s consent, remain the entrant’s responsibility. [2]

Keep the camera originals. Ordinary adjustments are allowed, but adding/removing scene elements, stitched panoramas and generated components are not. Declared HDR and focus stacks from a single viewpoint are accepted. Do not assume a technique accepted by another nature competition is accepted here. [9]

A lasting award-related licence for selected work

Copyright stays with the photographer. General submissions receive free competition-related use until judging finishes. Selected and winning work gets a non-exclusive worldwide licence without an end date for award books, exhibitions and publicity; sponsors’ acknowledgement use lasts two years. Unrelated use requires negotiated royalties. Credit is best-efforts, not absolute. Our judgement is that the scope is reasonably tied to the award, but shortlisted entrants should expect unpaid, lasting publication. [2]

Payment and upload have different deadlines

Enter and pay by 24:00 GMT on 30 November 2026; finish image uploads by 16:00 GMT on 7 December. The upload account is created manually after payment, so allow up to two working days. That gap is useful, but it is not an extension of registration. Use the official entry page and retain the confirmation email. [1]

The FAQ asks for RGB JPEGs at 1,000 pixels on the longest side, or 1,500 for a panoramic format. Shortlisted adult/student work must support A3 at 300 dpi, juniors A4, with the requested TIFF/JPEG and camera original or film scan. Preserve captions and species/location information while preparing the entry, so a later file request does not become a disqualification risk. [9]