Entries are coming in for Audubon Community Nature Center’s 2026 Nature Photography Contest. With $1,600 in prize money, youth and adults compete separately in the categories of Close-ups, Wildlife in Action, and ACNC Outdoors. Pictured is 2025 Youth Single Bloom winner “Emerging,” taken by Addison Becker of Jamestown, N.Y.

The Audubon Community Nature Center has announced the judges for its 2026 Nature Photography Contest that will award a total of $1,600 in prizes.

Judging this year’s competition are Sandra Rothenberg and Mark Evans. In addition to decades of experience in photography and multiple exhibitions, both have been recognized for their work and had it published. Details of their backgrounds can be found on the Judges page on the contest website, AudubonCNC.org/Photo-Contest.

Rothenberg and Evans will choose the winners and three honorable mentions in both the Youth (ages 8-18) and Adult categories of Close-ups, Wildlife in Action, and ACNC Outdoors. All winners receive a $200 cash prize. Adult and youth photos receiving the most Community Choice votes online will also be awarded $200. A photo could receive both the Community Choice and a judged award.

The Close-ups category celebrates the beauty of the “small stuff” that often goes unnoticed.

Wildlife in Action is all about movement, behavior, and the pulse of life, showing animals doing what they do best.

ACNC Outdoors is dedicated specifically to the beauty found within the trails, wetlands, and forests of Audubon Community Nature Center.

As well as the technical side of the photo (lighting, crispness, and framing), the judges will be looking for images that are powerful, that touch them and draw them in. According to Evans, they are looking for photos that, if they were in a gallery, would make them go back two or three times just to look at them again.

Winners and honorable mentions will be displayed on the website and announced in a widely distributed news release. Audubon will print the winning judged photos and exhibit them in the Nature Center, and a news release will go to their local media, when known.

Full details of the competition are at AudubonCNC.org/Photo-Contest, where you can submit photos, vote on entries, and see previous contest winners. Social media buttons are posted beside the entries so friends and family can be encouraged to vote for them. The sooner photos are submitted, the longer they can receive votes.

The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, June 30.