An Introduction

In 2012 I created an online monthly photography contest called Shoot The Face. It was a portrait photography contest with the mission of exposing talented photographers around the globe.

Since then I have launched the landscape and wildlife equivalents called Shoot The Land, and Shoot The Wild. The three contests now fall under the umbrella company Shoot The Frame.

Shoot The Frame is a community for talented photographers to share their work, gain some street cred and win prizes from our awesome sponsors. Every month each category has 10 finalists, and one winner.

Shoot The Frame

The Problem

Online photography contests are expensive to enter, and all of the major contests are annual. Amateur photographers who want to gain exposure and dip their toe into the world photo photography awards are hesitant to do so…

The Solution

Start a business! Create an online monthly photography contest that is affordable to enter, which offers amateur and professional photographers a place to share their work, win prizes and gain exposure.

Competitive Analysis

I spent months on this part of the research trying to find a gap in the market, and seeing who does what best. I found a gap in the form of monthly contests. Everyone at the time, (National Geographic, TPOTY, Sony World, IPA, Canon, Nikon etc..) were doing annual photography awards.

Since I launched in 2012 there have been others to follow suit with the monthly concept, which is great. It holds photographers accountable, and keeps them busy, giving them a monthly deadline to work towards.

Strategic Partnerships

Creating strategic partnerships was the key to the initial success of this concept. Without the partnerships, I didn’t have any prizes. The partnerships needed to exist before the launch, which was a challenge, but it helped me sharpen my value proposition, and understand how I can offer value to others.

I also realised that whilst the prizes are incredible – many photographers just want to be recognised for their talent.

The current partners and sponsors of Shoot The Frame are below.

Delicious Presets

Picturelife

Squarespace

Canva

MILK Books

Narrative

MOO

Affinity Photo

Exposure

A large part of the allure of photography contests is gaining exposure for your work. We aim to spread the word about our winners and finalists as much as we can.

Below are some of the places our winner’s work have been published.

Blur Magazine

The Guardian

Landscape Photography Magazine

Digital Photographer

Ideation and the build

The initial idea was simple.

Create a photography contest that is affordable to enter, and has prizes that photographers actually want.

I designed and built the first version of the site in wordpress, outsourced some of the more complex aspects of the uploading system and other specific customisations… and off I went!

The systems and site have changed significantly over the past 3 or 4 years, iteration is king.

The Yearly Book

Every year we create a book with MILK and Moleskine. All of the photographers that were either a finalist or a winner throughout the year have their image published.

Digital is awesome, but sometimes its nice to flick through ye ol’ paper.

Feeling lonely? Get social!

Social has been a large part of Shoot The Frame from the start, particularly facebook. We have over 82K little legends that like what we do. Pinterest and Instagram are also great places for our users to keep up with what we are doing.

Facebook Page

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