You don’t need to travel to the Great Barrier Reef or the Amazon Rainforest to see awesome creatures and interesting plants! Just visit your nearest garden, park, pond or field. You’ll be amazed at the biodiversity in your own backyard!

Don’t forget your camera! Until July 19, submit a picture of the nature in your neighbourhood and you could win 1 of 3 prizes from Canon AND have your picture displayed at the Royal Ontario Museum!

The winning photos will be on display in the Schad Gallery of Biodiversity at the Royal Ontario Museum. 

Check out Maelle standing proudly next to her winning picture last year!

Here’s how to enter:

Get outside and snap some pics that fit the contest categories. You can submit a photo for each one! When you’re ready, have a parent or guardian fill out the form at the bottom of the page. Make sure you include a description of the photo. You could write about what’s happening in the photo, why it deserves to win, name one of the species and explain how you identified it, or anything else you think might be interesting. 

The Judging Process:

When the contest is over, a panel of judges will pick the best entries from each category based on the following things: how well the picture fits into the category (worth 50%); photographic quality (worth 25%); and the description of the photo (worth 25%). Once the judges have made their picks, we’ll contact the winners, so make sure to keep an eye on your email!

Want more tips and tricks you can use to ID your photo subject?

Check out the new Backyard Biologist Mission in the Earth Rangers App for tons of tools to help!