The 2026 Audubon Photography Awards are now open!

Photo: Pileated Woodpeckers, Wayne Wetherbee/Audubon Photography Awards

Attention photographers! National Audubon Society kicked off its 17th annual photography awards on January 15. The contest is open for submissions of photographs and videos until Wednesday, March 4, at 12 p.m. (noon) U.S. Eastern Time. 

The Grand Prize winners will receive $5,000 and a voyage to Antarctica. Youth entrants can win a trip to Hog Island Audubon Camp in Maine. There also will be prizes for the best visuals featuring migratory birds, landscapes and native plants that birds rely on, female birds, and conservation challenges. Winning photos and videos will be published in the Fall 2026 issue of Audubon magazine and on the Audubon website.

Complete rules and tips for capturing the perfect moment are available on the 2026 Audubon Photography Awards page.

Calling All Photographers: 2025 Audubon Photography Awards

Photo: Green-winged Teals, James Fatemi/Audubon Photography Awards

The National Audubon Society’s annual photography competition is now open for submissions. You can submit photos or videos until Wednesday, March 5 at 12 p.m. (noon) ET. Let’s see if northern Virginians can bring home more prizes. Remember that local teens Amiel Hopkins and James Fatemi won the Youth Honorable Mention Award in the 2022 and 2023 competitions, respectively. 

Greater Prairie Chicken, Amiel Hopkins/Audubon Photography Awards

Recognizing that many species migrate between the northern and southern hemispheres, Audubon is opening the competition this year to submissions from Chile and Colombia in addition to the submissions from the United States and Canada. So, there will be cash prizes for entrants from the United States and Canada, and for entrants from Chile and Colombia. Winning photos also are featured in Audubon’s magazine.

Keep reading here for the contest rules, prizes and some tips on how to capture that picture-perfect moment. 

Local Teen Wins National Audubon Society Photo Award

Photo: Green-winged Teals, James Fatemi/Audubon Photography Awards

Tom Blackburn

Green-winged Teals, James Fatemi/Audubon Photography Awards

James Fatemi

James Fatemi, a junior at McLean High School, won the Youth Honorable Mention Award in the National Audubon Society’s 2023 Photography Contest. James’s photograph of Green-winged Teals mating during a snowfall at Huntley Meadows Park impressed the judges, one of whom praised his decision to take the photo in adverse weather and stated, “The colors on the male pop beautifully against the overall muted color palette.”

James is no stranger to photo contests. His photo of an American Toad titled “King of His Domain” won first prize in both the Youth and Overall divisions in the 2021 Friends of Huntley Meadows Park photo contest when James was just 14. He also won first prize in the Youth category for the Friends’ 2020 contest.

“King of His Domain,” James Fatemi

James learned the basics of photography about four years ago from his father, Fredrik, who said, “It wasn’t long before James began teaching me things.” His first important photo was of a Scarlet Tanager that he took for his grandmother, who had only ever seen one. James recently has developed an interest in macro photography and enjoys taking pictures of insects as well as birds and other wildlife. You can see more of James’s photos here and here. You can see all of the National Audubon Society’s 2023 award winners here. 

Northern Virginia’s Winning Photographer, Amiel Hopkins

Photo: Greater Prairie Chickens, Amiel Hopkins

Tom Blackburn

Dawn had not yet broken, but in his freezing cold bird blind Amiel Hopkins was awoken by the “booming” of Greater Prairie Chickens all around him.

Amiel, a northern Virginia resident and member of the NoVA Teen Birding Club, had journeyed to Fort Pierre National Grassland in South Dakota to watch and photograph Greater Prairie Chickens as the males put on elaborate displays in the hope of attracting a mate. He had spent the night in a 4 x 8 plywood box with a small viewing window, and his sleeping bag wasn’t adequate to protect him from the 18-degree overnight temperature. Nonetheless, he quietly began photographing the birds as they raised the long feathers on their necks, inflated their bright-orange throat sacs and released them with booming sounds that can be heard a mile away and performed a stylized dance.

Greater Prairie Chickens, Amiel Hopkins

Amiel submitted five of the photos he took that day to the National Audubon Society’s 2022 Photo Awards Contest. One of those photos, a closeup of a bird with its neck feathers raised and its orange throat sac glowing in the morning sunlight, won the Youth Honorable Mention Award. You can see Amiel’s winning photograph and all the other winning entries here. Accompanying this article is a photograph taken the same day he shot the winning photo of the Greater Prairie Chicken.

Amiel says he has been interested in nature his whole life. He got his first camera seven years ago, and since then has become increasingly interested in bird photography. He particularly likes photographing shorebirds, because he can get down low to capture images at the birds’ level. Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuges on the Outer Banks are two of his favorite places to bird.

Amiel credits Fred Atwood, a local teacher and the sponsor of the NoVA Teen Birding Club, for not only encouraging his passion for birding but also influencing how he views nature and life. He calls Fred a “great mentor.” In turn, Fred advises that Amiel’s winning picture is only a small representative of his amazing photo portfolio. Few people get to see Amiel’s photos. He says he doesn’t show them off very often, and the National Audubon Society’s contest is the only one he has ever entered.

Amiel is a senior in high school, and will be leaving to attend Virginia Tech this fall, where he plans to specialize in wildlife biology.

See a National Audubon Society Award-Winning Photograph by a Local Birder

Photo: Greater Prairie Chicken, Amiel Hopkins/Audubon Photography Awards

Saturday, March 4, 1-3 PM

Greater Prairie Chicken, Amiel Hopkins/Audubon Photography Awards

Please join us at the Huntley Meadows Park Visitor Center on Saturday to view the winning photographs and videos from National Audubon Society’s 2022 photo contest.  Among the photos you’ll see is an image of a Greater Prairie-Chicken, pictured above, taken by Amiel Hopkins, a member of the NoVA Teen Birding Club. Amiel’s photo won the Youth Honorable Mention award. ASNV will lead bird walks through Huntley’s stunning wetlands at 1:30 and 2:30, and refreshments will be served.

Huntley Meadows Park is located at 3701 Lockheed Boulevard in Alexandria.

It’s Not Too Late to Enter National Audubon Society’s 2023 Photography Awards Contest

Photo: Western Grebes, Peter Shen/Audubon Photography Awards

You still have until Wednesday, March 1, at noon (Eastern Time) to enter your photographs or videos to Audubon’s 2023 Photography Awards Contest. You have to be at least 13 years old and have a parent or legal guardian’s permission to enter if you are younger than 18 years old. You can submit multiple photos or videos depicting birdlife in any form in one of the five following divisions: Professional, Amateur, Youth, Plants for Birds, and Videos. Complete rules for submission, as well as essential guidelines for ethical bird photography and videography, are available on the Audubon website.

If you need inspiration, you can view the 2022 winners.

If you don’t feel ready yet to enter but want an introduction to bird photography, join Matt Felperin on February 21 for a webinar on bird photography, with an optional February 25 field trip. You can find both on our website under Classes and Events.

Western Grebes, Peter Shen/Audubon Photography Awards

Audubon’s 2022 Photography Awards

Photo: White-tailed Kite, Jack Zhi/Audubon Photography Awards

Prepare to spend some time in front of your computer or on your phone looking over Aubudon’s 2022 Photography Awards, both still photos and videos. Audubon announced the top eight winners earlier this summer. But there’s more. Audubon released an additional file of 100 photos and videos from the nearly 10,000 entries from almost 2,500 photographers and videographers. You can view the collection here. Be sure to read the “behind the shot” stories that accompany the winners and other entries. They demonstrate the wide variety of techniques the photographers use and the lengths they go to for the perfect shot. 

White-tailed Kite, Jack Zhi/Audubon Photography Awards

The Making of a Passionate Birder and Nature Photographer

Photo: Snow Geese, Adit Nehra/Audubon Photography AWards

Lisa Mackem

Eighteen-year-old Adit Nehra has always loved birds. He officially started birding in 2014. Two years later, he joined Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy bird walks around the Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve. On one walk, he saw a Scarlet Tanager in a bare tree, 30-40 feet above the group – a gorgeous red male with jet-black wings, singing away. It inspired him to continue birding. Later that year, Adit found his parents’ old camera, bought a telephoto lens, and began taking pictures of birds in his backyard and in local parks. This year, his photo of Snow Geese was one of the top 100 photos (see 86) in the National Audubon Society’s annual photo contest. 

Adit focuses on birds because “birds are obvious and visible – the only animals I saw without much effort.” He joined Fred Atwood’s Teen Birding Club (co-sponsored by ASNV and Flint Hill School) in 2016 and also joined the ASNV Birdathon team, “The Scarlet Teenagers.” Because of Covid, the team couldn’t bird as one unit this year, so three groups spread out over several counties. Adit and his friend, Amiel Hopkins, birded at the Mason Neck Peninsula with a special focus on the Elizabeth Hartwell National Wildlife Refuge. They rode their bikes because they wanted a carbon neutral day with no vehicular emissions and they found 110-130 bird species. Together, all three groups of Scarlet Teenagers found a total of 150 species – a higher total than usual, says Adit. 

Adit’s favorite place to bird is the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary in Rajathastan, India. He explored it in 2014 with his family, which has ancestral roots there. Locally, he enjoys Frying Pan Farm Park. “For the entire time I’ve considered myself a serious birder, I’d bike over before or after school almost every day,” says Adit. “The diversity of habitat is amazing. Some fields are fallow, there are wetlands, small ponds, forests. You can’t find that diversity in many places in Fairfax.” 

Learning about birds individually and as a species helps Adit’s photography. “The camera plays a big part in how your photos turn out, but the photographer is the driving force behind a photo,” he says.  Adit’s favorite birds are Barred Owls. He found a Barred Owl nest and watched these owls for three years. He learned when the owlets would fledge and photographed the adults feeding them. He also learned about Barred Owl prey and then knew where they would hunt. He even saw them fish – “just like eagles,” he says, “not something Barred Owls are known for.” He admires these owls for their ability to adapt to suburban life, taking advantage of development for their own benefit. “Getting to know an individual bird is very rewarding.”  

In 8th grade, Adit read the Sibley Guide to Birds for hours every night. Now, he appreciates the variety of apps available for bird identification, but he recommends against over-reliance on technology. Adit likes regional field guides and checklists such as ASNV’s Checklist for Birds of Northern Virginia, which he considers a go-to resource. 

Adit will attend the University of Miami. He will study biology with a focus on conservation and ecology, including elements of birding and photography. In addition to birding, he loves being outside, photographing all wildlife, biking, hiking, and rowing his boat around the Potomac.

Barred Owlet, Adit Nehra