Meet our international Wiki Loves Earth 2022 winners! – Page 11

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.

Top fifteen photos from Wiki Loves Earth 2017

Wiki Love Earth’s overall winner: Ogoy Island in Russia’s Lake Baikal. Photo by Sergey Pesterev, CC 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

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

2st prize in the national contest of Libya

1st prize in the national contest of Moldova

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

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!

How Wiki Loves Earth goes in CEE countries

This year, nine of the Central and Eastern European countries are organizing the national stages of the international photo competition “Wiki Loves Earth“. Six of them are right now in the middle of the one-month contest period, which traditionally starts on 1 May, for one country – Moldova – it starts on 15 May, and the last two – Bulgaria and Georgia – opted to carry out the contest during June.

Although a photo contest, “Wiki Loves Earth” blends well together with the regional article writing contest “CEE Spring”, where one of the categories in each country’s article lists is dedicated to nature and geography. Pictures uploaded to Wikimedia Commons for the photo competition can easily contribute to making these articles better illustrated, both locally and crosswiki. The countries that opted to organize their national stages of WLE in May are Azerbaijan, Greece, Latvia, Russia, Serbia and the WLE inventor Ukraine.

Stopića cave is a limestone cave on the slopes of Mount Zlatibor in the Dinaric Alps, in western Serbia. This was the #1 finalist in the international stage of “Wiki Loves Earth” 2016. (Author: Cedomir Zarkovic. Source: Commons. License: CC-BY-SA 4.0)

Azerbaijan participates in this year’s CEE Spring lists with 37 articles on nature or geography, including the overview articles about “National parks of Azerbaijan” (and 5 national parks) and “State reserves of Azerbaijan” (and 12 out of 15 reserves). 19% of their proposed articles are covered in the rest CEE languages, with Georgian, Russian and Ukrainian having all or almost all of them! The most translated articles across CEE are those about all national parks and the Zangezur National Park, with 11 versions of Wikipedia containing each of them. In the meanwhile, the Azerbaijani WLE page shows all these national parks, state reserves and sanctuaries in a beautiful physical map. The 116 images uploaded so far in the photo competition have been contributed by 14 photographers. Only one of these fresh images has been used in the local version of Wikipedia – and maybe the CEE community can help a bit to change this! 🙂 Continue reading “How Wiki Loves Earth goes in CEE countries”

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!

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.

The top fifteen phenomenal winning photos from Wiki Loves Earth

First place: The limestone of Stopića Cave, Serbia. Photo by Cedomir Zarkovic, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The tangy butterscotch glow of a limestone cave in Serbia soaking up the slanting sun. The emerald green of lush German forest and pond covered with lush weeds and trees. The stark white and blue of a Ukraine snowscape 2,028 meters above sea level, where snowy peaks meet cloud and sky.

The colors of nature burst from the 15 finalists of Wiki Loves Earth, the photo contest now in its third year of crowdsourcing gorgeous landscapes from more than 13,600 participants. The top 15 photos this year come from Serbia, Bulgaria, Nepal, Estonia, Ukraine, Spain, Austria, Brazil, Germany, and Thailand.

National judging in 26 regions sorted through 115,000 photos and sent the best to international judges from Ghana, Germany, South Africa, Kosovo, France, India, Estonia, Indonesia, and Bulgaria.

This year, the contest expanded to include 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.

You can see more about Wiki Loves Earth on its website, and this year’s jury report on Commons.

Second place: Pobiti Kamani, Bulgaria, the only desert in Eastern Europe. Photo by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Third place: Tangye, Mustang, Nepal. Photo by Patricia Sauer, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fourth place: Ahja River, Estonia. Photo by Külli Kolina, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fifth place: Biały Słoń, the former Polish Astronomical and Meteorological Observatory, now located in Ukraine. Photo by Khoroshkov, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sixth place: Northern Inland Fuerteventura, Spain. Photo by Tamara Kulikova, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Seventh place: Vääna River, Estonia. Photo by Kristoffer Vaikla, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Eight place: Part of the Schladming Tauern. Photo by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ninth place: Tokivske waterfall in Ukraine. Photo by Ryzhkov Sergey, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Tenth place: Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Brazil. Photo by Joao lara mesquita, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Eleventh place: the same location as #5, but taken on a cold winter day. Photo by Taras Dut., CC BY-SA 4.0.

Twelfth place: Wettenberger Ried, a protected forest in Germany. Photo by Andreas Weith, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Thirteenth place: Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park in Thailand. Photo by KOSIN SUKHUM, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fourteenth place: Terra Ronca State Park, Brazil. Photo by Rafael Rodrigues Camargo, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fifteenth place: Tara in Serbia. Photo by Vladimir Mijailović, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Jeff Elder, Digital Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation

Originally published on the Wikimedia blog at https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/11/25/wiki-loves-earth-2016-winners/.

Continue reading “The top fifteen phenomenal winning photos from Wiki Loves Earth”

Wiki Loves Earth 2016 in Serbia

By Ivana Guslarević, Wikimedia Serbia

This year’s Wiki Loves Earth contest in Serbia broke all records since the beginning of its organization in 2014. Over the course of May, 142 participants uploaded 1801 photos of 116 protected areas in Serbia. 115 of the contestants were new participants.

Unfortunately, 196 photos had to be disqualified because they were not marked with a proper template and ID, or images didn’t show natural heritage. Also, many participants had a problem with uploading images to Wikimedia Commons, so many of them were discovered after the end of the competition.

The competition was organized by Wikimedia Serbia in cooperation with the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia and Tourist Organization of Serbia. The Institute provided us with the list of natural protected areas. The jury was comprised of experts: a biologist, a geologist and a photographer. It is interesting that the jury in the semifinals selected as many as 94 photos.

The media were very interested in reporting about the competition – over 100 announcements were recorded, and Radio Television of Vojvodina donated the commercial broadcast in prime time slot for 14 days. The commercial was created by WMRS volunteers.

On June 22nd, we held the award ceremony and the opening of the seven days exhibition at the Tourist organization of Serbia in front of numerous reporters. The participants were addressed by representatives of Wikimedia Serbia, Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia and the Tourist Organization of Serbia.

The president of Wikimedia Serbia Filip Maljković awarded the winners with a laptop (1st prize), a tablet (2nd prize) and an external hard disk (3rd prize). Also, five more photos received commendations from the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia, while Wikimedia Serbia commended four other participants for outstanding contribution to the competition.

After Belgrade, the next exhibition was organized during the International jazz festival Nisville in Niš from August 11th to 14th. The third exhibition was held in the winner’s hometown – Požega, from October 12th to November 15th.

We are pleased to present the 10 best photos of protected natural resources in Serbia.

- National park Tara by Vladimir Mijailović (User:Vladimir Mijailovic), freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Special Nature Reserve Uvac by Saša Pokimica (User:Sasapokimica), freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
- National park Kopaonik by Željko Šćepanović (User:Zeljko Scepanovic), freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Nature Park Kučaj-Beljanica by Maja Stošić (User:Maja Stosic), freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Nature Park Zlatibor by Vera Bukvić (User:Bukvic1985), freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Natural Monument Stopica cave by Čedomir Žarković (User:Cedomir Zarkovic), freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Special nature reserve Carska bara byAuthor: Goran Stamenković (User:Dzanster), freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
- National park Tara by Gojko Galić (User:Gojko Gavrilo), freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Landscape of exceptional quality Avala by Boris Petković (User:Petkovic Boris), freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
- - Special Nature Reserve Deliblato Sands by Boris Petković (User:Petkovic Boris), freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0