2023 Photo Contest Resources

The 2023 Photo Contest kicks off on Feb. 27. Your yearbook staff won’t want to miss out on the chance to win our largest prizes ever! This year we expanded to 10 categories with a $250 Visa gift card for each winner. Gather your favorite photos from this school year now. Think about how to elevate upcoming shots to give your students the best chance to win. We’re excited to share these yearbook photography resources and tips to help everyone feel confident with their submissions.

Webinars and Podcasts

Our latest webinar replay, “Fabulous Photography,” offers a great place to start! Award-winning adviser Jim McCrossen and Walsworth Yearbooks Sales Rep Jill Chittum review what stands out in photography. Mike Taylor, CJE, and Jim Jordan also share what makes photos stand out to them. The group offers tips on camera equipment and how to utilize certain functions to ensure the best photo. Looking for a condensed version to share with your staff? Our Class Starter on “Getting Dynamic Reactions” gives you the perfect yearbook photography resource! We created a short quiz to go along with the video, which makes for an easy grading assignment.

You’ll laugh while listening to our Ask Mike podcast “How do I take even better photos,” with photography expert Mark Murray. He shares advice from throughout his career and provides tips for taking photos in classrooms and at sporting events. In addition, we pulled short segments on various topics from the episode that are available to read through. These range from the importance of white balance, to the composition of the photo itself.

eBooks

A photo opportunity can take place at any moment, and with state-of-the-art smartphone cameras nowadays, your yearbook staff can always be prepared. Using Your Smartphone to Capture Great Photos, explains how to create yearbook-quality shots and recommends apps to help.

The best pictures can stand out for a number of reasons, and in our eBook, 100+ Great Yearbook Photos That Captured Our Attention and Why, we selected examples of student photography to use as a resource. Use these images as inspiration for creativity and techniques you may want your staff to try this school year. We quickly realized that we had more photos we wanted to showcase, and these can be found in our follow-up sequel, 101+Great Yearbook Photos That Captured Our Attention.

Are you looking for ways to teach photography basics or how to improve skills? Our Yearbook Suite teaching curriculum is a valuable tool that can help. The “Photojournalism, Telling Stories With Images” unit provides concepts to elevate photos. If you find the workbook helpful, be sure to check out all 12 units in our Yearbook Suite too!

Photo Contest Galleries

See the winners and honorable mentions from our previous photo contest galleries to get inspired for the upcoming edition. Pro Tip: “Yearbook Life” receives fewer submissions than other categories and this could be your best bet to win! We’re excited to see what yearbook looks like in the classroom and activities that make it special for them.

Remember, photo inspiration can come from anywhere. Check out other schools on social media and see what they post and share. Magazines or books can also be a great place to find unique pictures.

Possibilities Book

We filled the latest volume of Possibilities with the most creative yearbooks from across the country. The book contains 352 pages with over 900 examples of student journalism at its best. You won’t want to miss all the eye-catching photos included. The photography section is an outstanding resource to see amazing photos and how they help with storytelling. If you want a copy of Possibilities, reach out to your Walsworth rep or fill out a request here!

Outside Yearbook Photography Resources

There are many amazing online photography resources to enhance your students’ photography skills. Digital Photography School is one of our favorites. Their website is full of tutorials, courses, blogs and more. Check out:

• 5 Practical Lightroom Tips for Beginners
• Zoom Lenses: Your Comprehensive Guide
• Action Photography in Bad Light: 13 Practical Tips
• Autofocus Modes in Photography: A Quick Guide

2023 Contest Information

We will be introducing new categories this year along with our largest prizes ever. The 10 categories with their descriptions can be found below.

• Academics: Show us learning in progress at your school.
• College and University: We want to see the best of any genre taken by a student at a college or university.
• Clubs and Student Life: Share the activities and moments that students experience throughout the school year.
• Feature/Portrait: Show what a person is feeling or a bit of their personality using their face and emotion as the focus.
• Junior High/Middle School: We’re looking for the best photos of any genre taken by a junior high or middle school student.
• Performing Arts: Music, dance, drama and more! Capture the vibrant creativity of performing arts at your school.
• Sports Action: Capture athletes in action. We want to see great action shots at practice or during the game/event.
• Sports Reaction: Focus on the fans or athletes’ reaction to an emotional moment in the game/event.
• School Spirit: Painted faces, crowd photos, pep rallies, show us how your students express their school spirit!
• Yearbook Life: Show us yearbookers in action. Staffers doing the everyday duties of yearbook life inside and outside of the classroom – interviews in progress, photographers taking pictures, advisers teaching and even what’s happening on deadline days!

2023 Contest Rules

The 2023 photo contest runs from Feb. 27 through March 31. For questions about rules or eligibility or to find more yearbook photography resources Walsworth provides, ask your Walsworth rep. You can also email marketingyearbooks@walsworth.com. Entries into this year’s contest can be uploaded at walsworthyearbooks.com/photocontest. Winners will be notified by April 30. We wish everyone good luck in the contest and can’t wait to see the entries from your students!