Excellence in Nature Photography

The NPN Weekly Picks & Editor's Pick Awards

The annual Editor’s Pick Awards celebrates excellence in nature photography by recognizing the best of the extraordinary photos posted in the NPN image critique galleries.

Every week, the NPN Staff select one member image from each of the image critique galleries. These photos are then placed in the Weekly Picks Gallery for permanent display on the NPN web site. Photos in the Weekly Picks Gallery are eligible for the yearly Editor's Pick Awards.

The Weekly Pick Process

Photos are selected from the image critique galleries using the following process;

1. The photo(s) are selected by the gallery moderator. If there are mulitple moderators, they alternate week-to-week in making the selections.
2. The gallery moderator(s) send their selection to the NPN administrators for review. Unless the administrators believe there is deficiency with the selection, it get's the WP. In the vast majority of cases, the moderator's selection is confirmed and moved to the Weekly Picks Gallery.

The evaluation process used;

• Visual Impact. At first glance, does the photo grab the viewer?
• In-camera execution. This includes sharpness, composition, use of light, etc.
• Quality of presentation. How does it look on screen?
• Compliance to gallery guidelines or weekly challenge theme.

If mulitple photos are submitted by the moderator(s) for consideration, the following criteria are also used;

• Difficulty of capturing the image and/or the subject.
• Is the photo or technique used to capture it unique?

If multiple photos remain under consideration at this point, the following criteria are used as tie breakers to make the selection;

• Member with greatest level of participation (number of posts in relation to time being a member, and their post/comment ratio)
• Member with the fewest WP selections in the past

The Yearly Editor's Pick Awards Selection Process

At year’s end (or more specifically, during the last few weeks of December), the moderators select their 5 favorite photos from the 50 they selected over the course of the year in the Weekly Picks Gallery. These photos are then sent to the NPN administration as the moderators’ recommendations for an Editor’s Pick Award.

The final process of selecting three photos from each gallery then falls to the NPN administration. The guidelines used for his process are as follows;

1. There can be no multiple winners in any year. This means that if photos from the same photographer are selected for different galleries, the NPN administrators must decide which photo will be designated the winner.
2. NPN administration reviews all 450 weekly pick photos in the Weekly Pick gallery to see if any not on the moderator’s list stand out for consideration.
3. Out of the 27 photos that make the final cut, the NPN administration designates the first, second and third place winners for each gallery.

Previous Editor's Pick Awards winners;

• 2009
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
• 2003
• 2002

The Awards

First Place Winner -

• Lifetime Nature Photographers Network™ membership
• Editor's Pick Awards Certificate
• Special edition Editor’s Pick Award NPN Field Cap

1^st Honorable Mention -

• 3-year extention of their Nature Photographers Network™ membership ($129.00)
• Editor's Pick Awards Certificate
• Special edition Editor’s Pick Award NPN Field Cap

2^nd Honorable Mention -

• 1-year extention of their Nature Photographers Network™ membership ($49.00)
• Editor's Pick Awards Certificate
• Special edition Editor’s Pick Award NPN Field Cap

Winners are announced in the January issue of Nature Photographers Online Magazine.

Rules

1. All weekly picks and annual EPA winners must be a current Nature Photographers Network™ member.
2. All images must be initially posted in one of the NPN image critique galleries in order to be considered for a weekly pick.
3. All winning images are selected from the Weekly Picks Gallery by the NPN staff.
4. NPN staff, program sponsors and their family members are ineligible.
5. No multiple winners - a different member is selected for each of the 3 places in each of the image critique gallery categories.
6. Winners grant the right to Nature Photographers Online Magazine to use image (with accompanying photo credit) for promotional purposes.
7. All rights remain entirely with the photographer.

If you have any questions regarding the weekly picks or the yearly Editor's Pick Awards, please contact us editor@naturephotographers.net.