Sixth edition of international photo competition Wiki Loves Earth is open for submissions

In 2013, the pilot version of Wiki Loves Earth was launched in Ukraine, with Wikipedia issuing a call out to the public to contribute their photographs of natural landscape from across the country licence free to their online database. Since then, the photo competition has expanded to over 50 countries and has collected more than 420,000 photographs from over 40,000 participants. And now, for the sixth time, Wiki Loves Earth is seeking photographs from across the world.

The purpose behind the competition is to gather photographs released under a free licence that enables their free use worldwide. The goal of Wikipedia is to make knowledge available to the world for free, and since natural heritage is part of knowledge, Wikipedia want to gather and release to the world free, usable photographs of natural heritage.

This year  27 countries have already announce participating in the international competition. And 18 of them start a contest on May 1 and will run until the May 31st.

Wiki Loves Earth is coordinated by local volunteers. The national juries then submit up to 10 pictures to the international stage of the contest. Last year with 38 participating countries, the international jury had to consider more than 120, 000 candidate pictures!

Anyone can take part in the competition; however, registration on Wikimedia Commons is required. To enter the contest, find an item or place you are familiar with from the competition list, submit a picture you have taken (from past or present), and upload it to Wikimedia Commons beginning May 1  or later, depending on the starting date in the local contest.

The full report of the last year’s international jury, explaining its work, selection process and bringing the results together with comments of the jury, is available here.

We invite everyone to make this year’s contest a great and valuable contribution to free knowledge!

If you would like to join international WLE with your local contest or have any other questions, please, write on wle-team@wikimedia.org.ua.
Wiki Loves Earth Wall Calendar 2018

Top fifteen photos from Wiki Loves Earth 2017

Wiki Love Earth’s overall winner: Ogoy Island in Russia’s Lake Baikal. Photo by Sergey PesterevCC BY-SA 4.0.

A jaguar gazed out from a bed of shrubs. A water buffalo took a bath. A capybara family gathered in line. These are just a few of the delightful sights captured in the winning photos in the international Wiki Loves Earth photography competition, announced today.

Coming in first place (at top) is a ghostly image of Ogoy Island. Photographer Sergey Pesterev ventured out onto the ice of Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater lake in the world, and was commended by the contest judges for using cracks in the ice and clouds in the sky to frame the rocky center of the image.

Wiki Loves Earth focuses on natural heritage in protected areas—unique and special places like nature reserves, landscape conservation areas, national parks, and more. It asks photographers to contribute their work to Wikimedia Commons, a media repository that holds many of the photos used on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia ecosystem. All of its content is freely licensed, meaning that they can be used by anyone, for any purpose, with few restrictions.[1]

The fourth annual contest, held earlier this year, saw a total of 131,984 uploads to Commons, a record. These were captured in at least 38 countries.[2] 15,299 different user accounts uploaded photos during the contest, nearly 14,000 of which were newly registered.

All of the entries were judged by national juries; winners there were forwarded to the international jury, composed of members from seven different nations (Germany, Serbia, Thailand, Nepal, Russia, Argentina, and Ukraine).

The contest’s second- through fifteenth-place images follow.

Continue reading “Top fifteen photos from Wiki Loves Earth 2017”

Wiki Loves Earth 2017 international jury

Wiki Loves Earth 2017 international jury

The international jury is composed of seven people this year representing different parts of the world and having different backgrounds. What they have in common is their passion for photography and enthusiasm to select the best photos of natural monuments. Meet our jurors: Continue reading “Wiki Loves Earth 2017 international jury”

Winning Photos in National Сategories. Part 2

 1st prize in the national contest of Latvia

Kolkas rags
Cape Kolka. By Edgars Šulcs, CC BY-SA 4.0

 2st prize in the national contest of Libya

Milky Way libya (cropped)
South of Libya unbari. By Seragz, CC BY-SA 4.0

 1st prize in the national contest of Moldova

Complexul geologic și paleontologic din bazinul râului Lopatnic. În apropierea satului Caracușenii Vechi
Geological and paleonthological complex of Lopatnic, near Caracușenii Vechi village, Briceni district. By: Balan Anton, CC BY-SA 4.0
Continue reading “Winning Photos in National Сategories. Part 2”

Winning Photos in National Сategories. Part 1

A record number of over 131.000 pictures were submitted as part of Wiki Loves Earth this year. Photos were crowdsourced from more than  15.000 uploaders in 35 participating countries! Each of the participating communities chose their best ten pictures which represent them in the international round of the competition. Now the seven-member jury has the hard task to choose the best pictures worldwide.

This year, the contest again included a collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, better known by its acronym UNESCO. Contestants were invited to upload photos in a separate category for UNESCO biosphere reserves in 120 different countries.

Now, when international judges are sorting the best from the best,  let`s have a look at the selection of winning photos – one from each country.

Choose your winners and follow our publications!

 One of the finalists in the national contest of Algeria

Wonderful rocks 1
Parc culturel de l’Ahaggar. By Abderrezzak koriche , CC BY-SA 4.0
Continue reading “Winning Photos in National Сategories. Part 1”

Best competition images are among the Picture of the year winners and finalists

Earlier in May, Wikimedia Commons picture of the year has been announced. It was the eleventh edition of the annual Wikimedia Commons image competition, which recognizes exceptional contributions by users on Wikimedia Commons.

All images promoted to featured picture status in 2016 were eligible for participation which means images from photographers and illustrators that the Wikimedia Commons community has chosen as some of the highest quality on the site.

There were 4765 people who voted in total and 1475 candidate images.

The winning image of Jubilee and Munin, Ravens of the Tower of London, got 615 votes.

Wiki Loves Earth 2015 and 2016 finalists came with second, eleventh, and four more places among 58 finalists. Congratulations!

PODY 2nd barnstar.svg

Khaoyai 06
Second place: Wild elephants walking up a road in the area of Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. Photo by Khunkay, CC BY-SA 3.0. The image won the 5th prize in the national contest of Thailand in Wiki Loves Earth 2015.
Continue reading “Best competition images are among the Picture of the year winners and finalists”

Photo Contest 2017 is coming soon!

On May 1, 2017, the Wikimedia community starts the fourth international photocontest aiming to picture under a free license as many natural monuments and protected areas as possible and to promote natural heritage sites around the World through Wikimedia projects. The competition is open to everyone!

MET 002
Antichasia mountains and Meteora in Greece. Photo by PP Photography , freely licenced under CC-BY-SA-4.0

Last year the contest attracted more than 13,600 participants.  The competition was organized in 26 countries in the same time, while the additional contest category ‘Biosphere reserves’ was open to participants from all 120 countries that are members of the UNESCO’s world network of biosphere reserves. The top 15 photos came from Serbia, Bulgaria, Nepal, Estonia, Ukraine, Spain, Austria, Brazil, Germany, and Thailand.

And again Wiki Loves Earth is set to start crowdsourcing gorgeous landscapes in May. Anyone can take part in the competition; however, registration on Wikimedia Commons is required. To enter the contest, find an item or place you are familiar with from the competition list, submit a picture you have taken (past or present), and upload it to Wikimedia Commons beginning May 1 through May 31, 2016.

The full report of the last year’s international jury, explaining its work, selection process and bringing the results together with comments of the jury, is available here.

We invite everyone to make this year’s contest a great and valuable contribution to free knowledge!

If you would like to join international WLE with your local contest or have any other questions, please, write on wle-team@wikimedia.org.ua.