General information
The contest “Magical Nature” is hosted by Association of Slovenian Nature Photographers (ZNFS). The contest is open to amateur as well as professional photographers from around the world. Members of the jury, members of the competition management group and their nearest relatives are not eligible for participation. Every participant can submit up to 20 digital photographs. They can be distributed at her/his wish, but no more than 4 in each category. The same image can not be submitted to more than one category. Photographs which were sent to the contest in previous years, regardless if they were selected or not, will be disqualified.

Categories

1. Mammals
2. Birds
3. Other animals (except mammals or birds)
4. Plants (including lichens, mushrooms, etc.)
5. Natural Landscapes
6. Man and nature (examples of positive or negative influence of man on nature)

Participation

The competition can be entered only online, over www.photonature.si
First you upload pictures in jpg format with 1920 pixels on horisontal side (horizontal pictures) or 1080 pixels on vertical side (vertical pictures). A single file must not exceed 1Mb and it must contain original metadata added by camera.

Original files (RAW or original JPG) will be requested for entries reaching the final stage. Instructions will be send with the request. Pictures which original files will not arrived until original files dead-line will be eliminated from the contest.

Calendar
Entry start date: November 2020,
Entry dead-line: 21th February 2021,
Judging: 26 February – 05 March 2021,
Request for original RAW files start date: 10 Mar 2021,
Request for original files dead-line: 17 March 2021,
Contest results: 24 March 2021,

Award ceremony: May 2021, National Institute of Biology, Ljubljana, Večna pot 111

Selection process and awards
Jury will select 180 images (30 from each category), which will be presented in public slide-show on award ceremony. Those will be officially accepted images of the contest.
The jury will select one winner in each category who will receive a prize money of 300€ and 9 runners-up, who will receive Highly Commended award. The winning photographers from each category will have to send a short description of circumstances in which she/he took the picture, to be included in book.
Among winning images jury will select one overall winning image and one winning image made by a Slovenian author, which will receive a title “Nature Photography of the Year” and/or “Slovenian Nature Photography of the Year”.

Author of Nature Photography of the Year will receive a prize money of 500€ and special prize: 4 days Photo-Tour worth 800€. The sponsor of special prize is slovenianbears.com
Special benefits for all the participants of Magical Nature contest: -10% off for Photo-tours and -10% off for Photo-hides. Sponsor of these benefits is slovenianbears.com.
Authors of all 60 winning images (winning and commended) will be asked to send full resolution (at least 3000 x 2000 pixels) images, which will be printed in book.

Entry Fee

A contribution in amount of € 30.00 which will be used exclusively for production and printing of high quality hard cover book is mandatory for each entrant. Each entrant will receive book on provided mail address. Entries received without contribution will not be judged. Payment can be made through PayPal system on address [email protected] or directly on Bank Account: SI56192005013124710, Deželna Banka Slovenije d.d. Kolodvorska 9, Ljubljana.

The Jury
Selection will be made by international jury of renown nature photographers:
Davorin Tome, Slovenia – Nature Photographer – Chairman of the Jury
Marjan Artnak, Slovenia – Nature Photographer
Anne Mäenurm, Estonia – Nature Photographer
Perdita Petzl, Austria – Nature Photographer