Muster Awards Submission Options

Submission Options

Note: all photos in a portfolio must have been taken by the photographer entrant; photos taken by someone other than the photographer will result in the disqualification of their entire portfolio.

1) Photographer of the Year (POTY)

Submit a total of 20 images on a variety of travel destinations and categories. Any images not selected as part of the three winning Photographer of the Year portfolios will be considered for the eight individual categories. Portfolios containing fewer than 20 images will not qualify for the POTY competition and will be moved to the individual Category competition.

2) Single Subject (SS) Portfolio

Submit a total of 10 images from one specific subject. SS portfolios must focus on a particular destination, subject, or event and not be overly broad in scope. Images not selected as Single Subject Portfolio winners will be considered for the eight individual categories. Because you are allowed 20 photos, you may submit two single-subject portfolios or one single-subject portfolio and up to 10 photos in the eight individual categories alone. A SS portfolio must contain ten images to be considered for this option.

Single Subject Portfolio images may be of any of the following:

Single destinations such as a city or small region; a specific cultural group such as Wyoming cowboys; a particular subject such as Moroccan bazaars or animals of the Everglades; or a performance group such as Cirque du Soleil; or an event such as Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Subjects such as a large country, birds, or people, are considered too general for Single Subject competition. Single Subject portfolios should be specific and obvious to viewers as a standalone portfolio of related images.

3) Individual Categories 

Submit up to 20 photos to be judged exclusively for the eight individual categories (Note that this year all ‎portfolios containing 20 images — and no SS entry — will be included in the POTY competition). Some ‎images may fit in multiple categories (example: a bull rider in action at a rodeo could be considered ‎Action/Adventure, Animal, Cultural, or People General). Choose the category that you feel best describes ‎the image, and the judges can move it to another category if they choose.‎

• Action/Adventure – Things or people in motion, sports, or active adventure; the action or adventure aspect is the dominant feature of the image
• Animal – Animal(s) should dominate, but people in the frame are acceptable
• ‎Architecture – Includes any structure built by people from any time period. Examples are ‎bridges, places of worship, barns, modern or ancient cultural sites, cityscapes, indoor and ‎outdoor public spaces, hotels and museums, and details or elements of architecture.‎
• Cultural – Images that capture the unique culture of a location, including but not limited to ‎ceremonies, rituals, celebrations, festivals, markets, transportation, work, fine and performing ‎arts, pastimes, and entertainment. May or may not include people but the cultural activity or ‎event, not the people, should be the main focus.‎
• ‎‎Food – Encompasses all aspects of food, including growing, harvesting, producing, preparing, ‎presenting, and partaking. Examples include harvesting crops, growing grapes, wine, ‎beer brewing, seafood industry, café, coffee houses, restaurants, and plated presentations.‎
• Natural Scenic – Nature, landscape, or any scene where nature is dominant but may have some human elements, such as a dock on a beach or a vehicle on a road
• People General – Individual or group of people in an environmental setting or engaged in activities such as cooking, blacksmithing, fishing, etc., that depict a sense of place 
• People Portrait – One or more individuals in a portrait format with emphasis on the person/people, not the environmental setting

There is no restriction as to the number of entries in any given category—you can submit from one to 20 photos in any individual category, up to a maximum of 20 total.

Questions? Contact SATW HQ at [email protected].