{"id":47280,"date":"2026-04-27T15:33:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T19:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=47280"},"modified":"2026-06-26T09:29:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T13:29:22","slug":"maryland-dnr-2026-photo-contest-is-taking-entries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2026\/04\/27\/maryland-dnr-2026-photo-contest-is-taking-entries\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland DNR 2026 Photo Contest is Taking Entries"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 404px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54793142022_26539a9660.jpg\" alt=\"River otter poking its head out of the water\" width=\"394\" height=\"263\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The 2025 Grand Prize winner of the Maryland DNR Photo Contest was Christopher Michael for his fun photo of a river otter, titled \u201cWaterways Wanderer.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Photographers and nature enthusiasts who enjoy Maryland&#8217;s outdoors are invited to submit their most beautiful images of the state\u2019s flora and fauna to the annual <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/Pages\/photocontest.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Department of Natural Resources 2026 Photo Contes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">t. <strong>The deadline to submit entries is August 1, 2026<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Winning entries will be featured in the 2027 Maryland DNR nature calendar, which is published in late fall. All winners will receive free copies. The contest is judged by season: winter, spring, summer, and fall. First, second, and third place winners are selected for each seasonal category. A grand prize winner is selected from that group. Cash awards are $700 for the grand prize winner, and $100 for each seasonal first place winner. All first place winners receive a one-year Maryland State Park and Trail Passport.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Submitted photos should be labelled in one of following subject matter subcategories within each season:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Birds<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Insects<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Flora<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Recreation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Landscapes<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Weather and Wonder<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wildlife<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The contest is judged by DNR experts in wildlife, outdoor recreation, and nature photography who will judge each entries\u2019 quality and representation of its subject matter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In addition, contest judges will be looking for photos to adorn DNR\u2019s next series of \u201chard cards\u201d that can be purchased by hunting and fishing license holders. No prizes are awarded for these photos, but the popular, collectible cards can help photographers reach new audiences.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Finally, photos that judges consider to be \u201crunners up\u201d to the winners will be presented for the \u201cFan Favorite\u201d contest, which is selected by popular vote on Facebook. The photo with the most \u201clikes\u201d will be printed in the calendar and the photographer will receive free calendars and a State Park Passport.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Photos must be submitted online to the DNR website, accompanied by an entry fee of $10 for up to three photos and $3 for each additional entry. Winners will be announced in early fall.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Full contest rules are posted on the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/Pages\/photocontest.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">DNR website<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><b>AI-generated submissions will be disqualified<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photographers and nature enthusiasts who enjoy Maryland&#8217;s outdoors are invited to submit their most beautiful images of the state\u2019s flora and fauna to the annual Department of Natural Resources 2026 Photo Contest. The deadline to submit entries is August 1, 2026. Winning entries will be featured in the 2027 Maryland DNR nature calendar, which is<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2026\/04\/27\/maryland-dnr-2026-photo-contest-is-taking-entries\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,3171,5336,11,1965,4998,3172,23,12,33,13],"tags":[4140],"class_list":["post-47280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-boating","category-camping","category-fisheries","category-maryland-forest-service","category-hiking","category-hunting","category-land","category-parks","category-the-bay","category-wildlife","tag-maryland-natural-resource-photo-contest"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47280"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47751,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47280\/revisions\/47751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}