2025 BigPicture: Natural World Photography Competition is now open

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (December 3, 2024) — Submissions for the California Academy of Sciences’ 2025 BigPicture: Natural World Photography Competition will be accepted through March 1, 2025. In its 12th year, the competition focuses a visual lens on the extraordinary diversity of the natural world and aims to inspire action to protect and conserve it.

Winners of this year’s BigPicture competition will receive a cash prize of $5,000 for the grand prize, $1,000 for each of seven category prizes, and $300 for the people’s choice prize. In addition, winners will have their photographs featured in an exhibit at the Academy’s iconic museum in Golden Gate Park. View winning images from BigPicture 2024 here and see them in person in the BigPicture exhibit, which runs through spring 2025. The exhibition of 2025 winning images will open in fall 2025.

Award-winning wildlife photographer Suzi Eszterhas will chair the competition’s panel of esteemed judges for the 12th year, joined by editor Sophie Stafford (United Kingdom) and award-winning nature and conservation photographers and filmmakers Fernando Faciole (Brazil), Britta Jaschinski (United Kingdom), Anthony Ochieng Onyango (Kenya), Peter Mather (Yurok), and Aishwarya Sridhar (India).

The competition seeks stunning nature, wildlife, and conservation images and is open to all photographers with the ability to tell evocative, captivating stories from the natural world through their pictures. The competition’s 2025 Photo Story theme is “In My Backyard,” which focuses on what changes are happening in our own backyards: nearby parks, gardens, forests, streets, villages, ponds, streams, soil, and skies.

Since launching in 2014, BigPicture has established a strong reputation within the photography community, receiving one of just a handful of recommendations from “The Best Photography Contests and Prizes in 2022” by Format, a leading magazine for photographers and other creatives. The competition was also listed as a leading photography competition by Pixpa, an online portfolio service for photographers, and My Modern Met. bioGraphic, the Academy’s independent online magazine about nature and regeneration, is the competition’s official media sponsor.

Last year’s BigPicture competition received nearly 7,400 submissions from photographers representing 70 countries. The Grand Prize image, titled “The Forest Of The Monarchs” by photographer and National Geographic Explorer Jaime Rojo, provided an awe-inspiring look at a fragile phenomenon: the culmination of the 3,000-mile migration of Monarch butterflies from Canada and the United States to Mexico. Sights like the massive clusters of butterflies documented by Rojo could become rare in the future as Monarch populations decline as a result of climate change, deforestation, and pesticides. However, many organizations in the United States and Mexico are mobilizing to save this iconic butterfly and its incredible migratory effort, with promising numbers leading the International Union for the Conservation of Nature to classify its behavior vulnerable as opposed to endangered.

Prizes:

Awards include a total of $12,300 in cash prizes with winning images featured in a BigPicture photography exhibit at the Academy opening fall 2025.

Submissions:

Paid image submissions will be accepted online from December 1, 2024, to March 1, 2025. Entry fees are $15 for the photo story category (6 to 8 images) and $25 for up to ten individual image submissions in any category. There is also an early-bird discount of 15% off with code BPEARLY15 until January 15, 2025.

Categories:

Art of Nature
Abstract expressions of nature and/or science. Life photographed out in nature or under the microscope. Images may include unusual close ups, angles, patterns, motion, or perspectives, black and white photography, and images created using scientific imaging tools. Artistic effects should not be the result of digital manipulations.

Aquatic Life
Marine and freshwater animals including mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates (like corals and jellyfish) that spend the majority of their time in water. This category includes polar bears.

Landscapes, Waterscapes, & Flora
Captivating images of wild places with a unique perspective, from landscape vistas of forests, deserts and mountains to the micro habitats of plants and other flora. Images may include water environments of oceans, lakes and rivers with images taken above or under water including waves, tide pools and other water scenes.

Winged Life
Birds or flying insects photographed anywhere in the world, in flight, perched or in action. This category includes flightless birds such as penguins, and ostriches.

Terrestrial Wildlife
Animals photographed anywhere in the world. Images may include land-based mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and non-flying insects whether they live in trees or on land.

Human/Nature
Images that depict the efforts of scientists, conservationists, and others working to sustain life on our planet or the complex relationship between humans and nature. Images should illustrate the impacts of humans on the environment and can be either positive or negative impact stories.

2025 Photo Story: In My Backyard
A 6–8 image submission with captions. We don’t have to venture to the ends of the Earth to discover the beauty and surprising stories of the natural world. This year’s photo story opens our eyes to what’s happening in our own backyards: nearby parks, gardens, forests, streets, villages, ponds, streams, soil and skies. What changes have you been observing closely or close by over the days or years? What community or conservation work have you been focusing on? Show and tell us what’s been happening in your own backyard!

People’s Choice
A People’s Choice prize will return for a second year. Jury scores will determine 20 entrants for the public to choose their favorite image. Voting will open July 1, 2025. The winner will earn $300 in cash in addition to being featured in the BigPicture exhibit interactive.