184
votes
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After a continuous run of almost a decade, contest participation has gotten extremely low. See Contest is definitely dead. Now what? for more, and for possible next steps to revitalize it.

Also, you may instead want to check out the new Photo Competition on the main site! See also the Meta post, New Photo Contest.


This is the place to submit and vote on photos to be featured on the the main site. This contest should showcase your best quality work, demonstrating at least moderate skill with a camera and a general understanding of the artistic aspects of photography. Remember, the selected photo will be displayed on our main site header for a week. Submit something that you and the members of our site will want to look at and admire for seven days! This contest is for the community to choose what they LIKE (not what they dislike), so downvotes aren't allowed — see below for more.

Contest Format

Starting in December 2012, this contest follows a new perpetual format with continuously-rolling voting. Submit and vote on photos whenever you like. Every Monday (give or take; it's done by hand when site moderators have a spare moment), the top-voted image will be selected as the winner, and:

Then, the contest will continue with the remaining photos in the thread.

(Note that the themed photo contest will work on a different scheme.)

Voting Rules

  • Vote up as many images as you like.

  • Make sure to look at the "active" tab for this question to see new submissions.

  • Up votes only! Do NOT vote down your competitors! If you don't like an image, don't vote. (If you notice a downvote on an entry, make a note in a comment, and that will be taken into account when the weekly winner is selected.)

  • When you vote, consider the small size primarily, even if a larger image is linked. This contest's primary function is to select a header image, and we need the winners to be successful at that size.

Submitter Rules

  • Showcase your best work in any genre of photography by providing your image inline in an answer.

  • You may enter one photo per week. This is on the honor system, but abuse will eventually earn a strong talking-to.

  • Don't re-enter the same photo. Since the contest is continual, there's no need. You may withdraw an image from the contest at any time by deleting the answer.

  • You may edit your entry to fix problems or to add missing information, but don't switch the photo itself for a different one, or make gratuitous edits simply to "bump" the entry.

  • Images must be 210 px high and up to 375 px wide. This is the requirement for the header. Please feel free to provide a link to a larger version, but as explained above, the primary focus is on the header image.

  • For the same reason, images must be in landscape orientation.

  • Images must not contain any artificially added borders, watermarks, or decorations of any kind.

  • Do not use this as a forum for photo critique. Use chat instead, or ask a specific question about your image on the main site.

  • The submitted image must conform to this site's content license, cc-wiki with attribution required. If you're not comfortable with that, this isn't the contest for you.

Submitter notes

Be patient! This contest is relatively obscure, and it takes a while for images to accumulate votes. It's normal for really excellent images to have only one or two upvotes even after a time. The format of the contest should let them rise to the top eventually.

Feel free to include a concise description that explains the image, the emotions behind it, and so on, and perhaps some explanation of gear and exposure settings. This site is a collaboration for teaching and learning, so it's great to know those things — but it's not required for the contest.

When we get up and running with featuring these photos on the blog, this will provide the opportunity to go into more depth and to engage in conversation about your work.

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  • 27
    \$\begingroup\$ As with all past contests, I'd like to stress the up-vote only policy. Let's keep our contest cordial. This is not a place for critique or a forum within which to express dislike, choose what you like, have fun, and let the contest roll! \$\endgroup\$
    – jrista
    Dec 4, 2012 at 22:22
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ See also: Regarding ties. Regarding image size/shape/orientation. \$\endgroup\$
    – jrista
    Jan 8, 2013 at 1:53
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Please use this thread for discussion of what we should do about the PotW contest threads going forward. I agree that there are issues involved with a single everlasting thread, and we should be open to suggestions. \$\endgroup\$
    – jrista
    Apr 8, 2014 at 0:16
  • \$\begingroup\$ I suspect very few people are digging down to the bottom - based on dates and my past upvotes on other pictures and where they are in the heap now. A link to the entry page may help (or may exist and I've missed it). Something like ENTRIES START AT BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE - HAVE A LOOK \$\endgroup\$ Oct 9, 2014 at 13:27
  • 5
    \$\begingroup\$ @RussellMcMahon It does say Make sure to look at the "active" tab for this question to see new submissions. which is like that but better. :) \$\endgroup\$
    – mattdm
    Oct 9, 2014 at 13:33

468 Answers 468

2
votes
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No, you can't have my fish!

Camera: Canon 700D + 70-300 lens
Settings: 1/400, ISO 400, f6.3, 300mm, no flash
Location: Mures river, Arad, Romania
Post-processing: Gimp - crop and resize

enter image description here

A little bit bigger versions on instagram or facebook

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2
votes
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Miles to go before I sleep

captured with picsart App camera.

Device : samsung j5

see full size image here

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2
votes
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Taken with a 300mm lens.

Full resolution can be found here.

enter image description here

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2
votes
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A view from one of the paths going into the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

Cannon EOS Rebel T2i • 1/30, f/32, ISO 100
View full size image here

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2
votes
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enter image description here

Work in progress

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1
  • \$\begingroup\$ Please make sure all your images are no more than 210 px high, and 375 wide. \$\endgroup\$
    – MikeW
    Jun 27, 2016 at 18:48
2
votes
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enter image description here

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2
votes
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enter image description here

Wyanne, mother of Dotty

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2
votes
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My Submission:

A bee doing its job

You can find the enlarged image here: http://atulbhats.com/file/se2.jpg

Clicked with Xiaomi Mi4i Smartphone with 13MP, f/2 camera

Thank you.

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2
votes
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Taken in Mexico.

enter image description here

Camera: Samsung
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1
  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ This submission seems to have been downvoted illegally \$\endgroup\$
    – binaryfunt
    Jan 3, 2018 at 13:02
2
votes
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LA subway, NYE, 31 Dec 2016

NYE subway in LA

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2
votes
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Nature's Curves

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2
votes
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enter image description here

Original image Link : ClickHere

Location : Meenambakkam, Chennai, Tamilnadu.

Cam : samsung note 3 neo.

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2
votes
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Alone.
Nikon D3100

Shutter:1/800  
Aperture f/5.6  
ISO-200  
Focal Length:200mm  

Original Image

enter image description here

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2
votes
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Apple iPhone 6S, f/2.2, 1/299 sec.

Taken in Cambridge, on the River Cam. (52.2084N, 0.1158E), facing North.

Full size avaliable on iCloud

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2
  • \$\begingroup\$ My curiosity is provoked: why did you choose to shoot the scene facing north rather than the scene facing south from the exact same spot? \$\endgroup\$ Dec 22, 2017 at 17:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ @PeterTaylor I did both - south when we punted there, north punting back. Unfortunately we were very off centre on the river, so the bridge is at a frustrating angle - hopefully one day I will get to try again! \$\endgroup\$
    – Tim
    Dec 22, 2017 at 17:37
2
votes
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A family

A family

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2
votes
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The ugly bee.

Friendly Bee

Camera: Samsung SM-G965W (S9+)
Aperture: F2.4
Focal length: 4.30mm
ISO 50
Exposure time: 1/645 s
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2
votes
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Prambanan Temple, Indonesia

Prambanan Temple, Indonesia

Using OPPO A83 Camera

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0
2
votes
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Town hall, Stockholm, Sweden

Town hall, Stockholm, Sweden

Find more information and full sized photo on Wikimedia Commons

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2
votes
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Ornamental basin from 1663, exhibited in the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Ornamental basin from 1663, exhibited in the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

See larger version of the photo and more information on Wikimedia Commons

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2
votes
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Do squirrels eat their crusts last?

Pizza!
Click to see larger image.

Camera: Samsung SM-G965W (S9+) 
Aperture: F2.4 
Focal length: 6.00mm 
ISO: 32
Exposure time: 1/100 s
Zoom: 10x
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2
votes
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hgoG naV

enter image description here

Abstract reflections, taken outside the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 18-135mm @ 48mm
f/9
1/125 sec
ISO-250
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3
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ This entry has been downvoted, which is against the rules -- the downvote will not be counted. \$\endgroup\$
    – mattdm
    Jan 7, 2019 at 18:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ Great title for a great picture! \$\endgroup\$ Apr 10, 2019 at 3:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ @descheleschilder Thanks! \$\endgroup\$
    – binaryfunt
    Apr 10, 2019 at 9:49
2
votes
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treetop on a stormy day in Los Angeles

Fujifilm X-E1, 300 mm f/6.3 catadioptric lens, 1/60 s.

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2
votes
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Gavle-vallbacksskolan-1

Vallbacksskolan, Gävle, Sweden
School building built in 1897, architect Herman Teodor Holmgren (1842–1914). See full sized photo on Commons.

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2
votes
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Monument to Eugene Delacroix, Jardin du Luxumbourg, Paris, France, July 2019

Monument to Eugene Delacroix, Jardin du Luxumbourg, Paris, France, July 2019

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2
votes
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Perched Hummingbird

enter image description here

Camera: Nikon Coolpix L120

Specs: f/5.8 - 1/250 sec. - ISO 80

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2
votes
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On the prowl:

Skunk on the prowl at night, closeup

Camera: Samsung SM-G965W (S9+) 
Aperture: F1.5
Focal length: 4.30mm 
ISO: 1250
Exposure time: 1/6 s
Zoom: 1x (4 feet away)
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0
2
votes
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Sony a6300 with a Görlitz Telemegor 250mm F5.5 / ISO 2000 / 1:1000

It was a quite normal day, no rain and the sun was quite diffused by the clouds in the afternoon. The dove was drinking some water from the roof, I was almost sitting on the floor to get a steady shot. I picked a higher shutterspeed, so I can freeze the dove. It paid off, even if I had to increase the ISO quite a bit. I love the little waterdrops in the air, that gives the picture some story IMO.

One thing I am proud of is, that I got the eyes of the dove in focus, probably luck, but maybe a good "guess" with the manual focus on this old lens.

And this bokeh, I just love it !

enter image description here

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2
votes
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The Leap

enter image description here

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2
votes
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enter image description here

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1
vote
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Friendly ducks!

enter image description here

Large size

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