School students

Current primary, high school or home schooled at school equivalent age students

1. Take a photo of wildlife you see in your local area. (Note: this should be local to the area of your house or school. Please make sure to respect the boundaries of the wildlife! Do not hurt, touch, harass or unnecessarily cause stress to animals while photographing.) The wildlife must be alive at the time of the photograph. Any image of deceased wildlife will be disqualified.
2. Submit an entry form with a high-resolution JPEG (minimum 300 dpi resolution) copy of your photo resized to 3000pixels on the longest side. There is a maximum file size limit of 10MB. If you have multiple images to enter please send them in separate entry forms. (Note: We may ask you to re-submit your photo if you don't send us an image with a high enough resolution or it does not meet the required size dimensions.)
3. Entries are limited to a total of three photographs per student.  Note: If more than three entries are received, the first three will be counted as that student's entries.

Entry requirements

• You must be a student currently enrolled in primary or high school or of school equivalent age if home schooled. Please ensure you provide your school name with the title and description of your competition photo/s.
• The prize is open to individual entries only, no group entries will be considered valid.
• Please note your image may be posted to the University of the Sunshine Coast’s social media feeds, including, but not limited to: Twitter, Facebook, and/or Instagram. (Appropriate credits will be included.)

UniSC students

Currently enrolled at UniSC

1. Take a photo of wildlife you see on the grounds of any UniSC campuses. (Note: must be taken on campus and please do respect the boundaries of the wildlife! Do not hurt, touch, harass or unnecessarily cause stress to animals while photographing.) The wildlife must be alive at the time of the photograph. Any image of deceased wildlife will be disqualified.
2. Submit an entry form with a high-resolution JPEG (minimum 300 dpi resolution) copy of your photo resized to 3000pixels on the longest side. There is a maximum file size limit of 10MB. If you have multiple images to enter please send them in separate entry forms. (Note: We may ask you to re-submit your photo if you don't send us an image with a high enough resolution or it does not meet the required size dimensions.)
3. Entries are limited to a total of three photographs per student.  Note: If more than three entries are received, the first three will be counted as that student's entries.
4. Windows Desktop Prize: The image needs to be horizontal and proportional to most PC screens, clean and clear with enough negative space for text such as the UniSC logo and clock. This prize will be awarded at the discretion of the UniSC IT Services team and will not be offered if a suitable image is not presented. The image will be installed on Windows computers across all UniSC campuses in the following academic year and remain in place until the next upgrade is scheduled.

Entry requirements

• You must be a student currently enrolled at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Please ensure you provide your current student ID number with the title and description of your competition photo/s.
• The prize is open to individual entries only, no group entries will be considered valid.
• Please note your image may be posted to the University of the Sunshine Coast’s social media feeds, including, but not limited to: Twitter, Facebook, and/or Instagram. (Appropriate credits will be included.)

Prize nomination period

The prize nomination period is open now and ends at midnight 27 October 2024.

Technical quality details

• You are welcome to use post-production software to crop, adjust colour and contrast however, please do not manipulate the image to add extra contents using editing software.
• The image should be sharp - the main subject of the image should be in focus and correctly exposed.

Judging criteria

The judges are a panel of UniSC staff from both Creative Industries and Animal Ecology Disciplines. Based on the eligibility and selection criteria, a group of finalists will be selected and the top three awardees selected to receive the 'Prize'.

All contest entries will be judged on:

• Technical quality (Exposure, colour, and focus accuracy)
• Composition (Balance, colour and colour harmony (eg subject placement and compelling composition)
• Originality (The Photographers unique/individual approach)
• Artistic merit (Perceived quality/value as a work of art (eg viewer impact, positive engagement)