With much appreciation to our sponsor, Sigma, we are excited to announce the 2021 contest. The challenges of this past year have taught us new things about ourselves and the world. But they’ve also raised questions, including about the future of railroading and how passenger and freight railroads, large and small, respond to difficult times, most often with resiliency and creativity, whether conservatively, fiercely, or somewhere in-between — the infamous gray area. Whether you want to interpret it as a color, mood, a state of being, or something else, the theme for the 2021 contest is “Gray Area.”
As always, you can illustrate the theme however you like, but be ready to provide an explanation. Please submit no more than three images. Do not alter your images beyond minor color corrections, burning, dodging, and levels adjustments. Upload JPGs to www.contribute.kalmbach.com no later than June 1, 2021, and indicate “photo contest” in the “comments.” If your image is selected, we’ll request the high-resolution format. We do not accept mailed submissions.
Winners will be announced in the November 2021 issue.
Grand Prize
Winner will receive: Sigma 100-400mm or equivalent lens
First Prize
Winner will receive: $500
Second Prize
Winner will receive: $250
Five Runners-Up
Winners will receive: a three-year subscription to Trains magazine or equivalent Trains products
RULES
>> 1. Enter up to three (3) digital images to www.contribute.kalmbach.com, choose “Trains” as the publication, and label the submission “PHOTO CONTEST.”
>> 2. Contestants must include their name, address, a daytime phone number, email address, and basic caption information in the digital image’s metadata.
>> 3. All entries must be submitted by June 1, 2021.
>> 4. Winning photos will be published in Trains’ November 2021 issue.
>> 5. Trains reserves the right to retain electronic copies for future publication, use as a contest gallery exhibition on Trains magazine’s website, Facebook wall, Twitter feed, other social media, or for public exhibition. In all cases, the photographer retains the copyright to the image.
>> 6. Trains staff members will judge photos on a “blind” basis, meaning they will not know the identities of the entrants.
>> 7. Multiple prizes will not be awarded to any individual.
>> 8. Employees of Kalmbach Media Co. or their families are not eligible to enter.
>> 9. Sigma reserves the right to exchange a comparable lens for the prize listed above.
>> 10. By entering the 2021 Trains photo contest, you agree to share your name and email address with SIGMA.
