Submit YOUR Bird Photo

What can you do with your bird photo? Why let it be seen, of course! Consider submitting it for viewing by others! First of all, how about a wildlife or birding magazine? Also, what about a town tourism bureau where you go birding? Maybe even a local tv station? Many websites for such have designated sections. Some may even pay you for your photo if used.

Maybe your photo would work perfectly with a seasonal display at your local library. Speak with your librarian about providing an exhibit of your bird photos. Perhaps a local outdoor chapter of a wildlife group could use it at a meeting.  See if your local conservation group where you took your photo would be interested in using it. They might appreciate an actual view of the bird you took in its habitat exhibiting its behavior.

I Really DID See Some Birds

On the Spirit Cay trip, my then boyfriend and I took a dinghy ride (an inflatable boat with outboard motor) over to a secluded nearby area. An ample amount of brush there had some tiny birds flitting about in it. Since I only had my phone with me, they were MUCH too fast to get a photo of them with just a phone.  And of course, I wound up getting distracted by the light blue water, coral, and shells. So, after exploring the water, I decided to take a photo of my feet (which I do quite often.) My boyfriend submitted the photo to a magazine that posts them in a section on their website of people enjoying cruising on boats.

MONTHS later, my phone rang. What a surprise…. A friend phoned from her local Barnes and Noble bookstore in Raleigh, NC. She called to tell me she was looking at a picture of my feet in a magazine. I couldn’t imagine what on earth she was talking about. She proceeded to say it was my feet with a dinghy pulled up on shore behind them. Soon I realized which photo she was speaking of. So off to the local bookseller I went to see if they had a copy!

Imagine the jaw-dropping shock to actually see my photograph at Spirit Cay in the Cruising Outpost ‘s Summer 2013 issue of the magazine!  Equally amazing is that it was the TWO-PAGE lead-in to the “Lifestyle, This is What We Do” section on pages 86 and 87! Also, it was BEYOND thrilling to open it up on the local bookstore shelf amidst the other publications!

Suggestions for Submitting Your Bird Photo

Doing a Google search for “submitting bird photos” yields some great sources and ideas for submission of your birding photos for others to enjoy:

• Birding magazines and digests
• Birding associations
• Guidelines and suggestions for taking bird photos
• Photo hosting sites like Instagram, Flickr

A search for “bird photo contests” lists various magazines and organizations holding contests in different categories for amateurs and professionals. Other searches for local birding chapters, birding clubs, and birding events may help as well.

So, no matter that I couldn’t get a decent photo of the tiny birds in the brush while exploring the island on the dinghy excursion, I still have the MEMORY of them….preserved in print!

Happy Birding!