Smithsonian 9th Annual Photography Contest

Photo © Kyaw Kyaw Winn-All Rights Reserved

I never participate in photography contests, but I know many of my readers do, or would like to. So here's one of the more popular contests featured by The Smithsonian magazine. 

Its editors have announced the 50 finalists in its 9th annual photo contest, which has five categories: Americana, The Natural World, People, Altered Images, and Travel.

In Focus, the photo blog of The Atlantic is featuring 25 large sized photographs from the final 50 finalists, which include some stunners from David Lazar, Nicholas Wiesnet, and Budi Prakasa. However, the one I liked the most was the photograph of soccer-playing Buddhist novices in Myanmar by Kyaw Kyaw Winn.

I ought to also highlight that The Smithsonian magazine’s 10th Annual Photo Contest begins March 1, 2012 and ends November 30, 2012.

Some may wonder why I am so empathetic about not participating in such contests. Here's why:

"By entering the contest, entrants grant the Smithsonian Institution a royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive license to display, distribute, reproduce and create derivative works of the entries, in whole or in part, in any media now existing or subsequently developed, for any educational, promotional, publicity, exhibition, archival, scholarly and all other standard Smithsonian purposes."