Autumn on Film — 2026 Fall Photo Contest

Fall is the season film was made for. Color negative handles low sun and warm light in a way that still beats anything else, black and white finds the bones of a landscape once the leaves thin out.

Let's see your best autumn photograph!

Prizes

• Winner — $100 B&H gift card, and the Featured Photograph slot on the homepage
• Two runners-up — $50 B&H gift card each

All three will be published here with Anna's (My wife's) notes on why she chose them. I picked Anna to judge this contest because she's an unbiased member of the general public, and can't pick my photo anyway. She also has an eye for beauty, and is not concerned with film formats or camera types.

Gift cards are sent by email. B&H is a US retailer — if you're outside the US and would rather have something you can actually spend, say so and we'll sort out an equivalent with a film supplier in your region.

What counts

Any autumn, not just this one. If the best frame you have is from a roll you shot in 2019 and scanned last winter, enter it.

Shot on film. Same rule as the rest of the gallery — any format, any stock, any process. Color, black and white, slide, instant, alt process.

Autumn, interpreted broadly. Color in the trees is the obvious reading, but it isn't the only one. Bare branches, low light, fog, harvest, the last warm weekend, the first cold morning, a fair packing up. If it feels like autumn to you, make the case with the frame.

How to enter

1. Make sure the photograph is in the gallery — upload it if it isn't.
2. Go to your photos page and click Enter in the contest under the frame you want entered.

You can enter up to three images. Entering a photograph doesn't change anything about it — it stays in the gallery, keeps its likes and comments, and stays on your profile.

Rules

• Open to any member, anywhere. Free to enter, and free to join if you haven't.
• Three entries per member. One prize per member — if two of your photographs place, you take the higher one and the other passes down.
• Ken's not eligible. I run the site and the judge is my wife, so my own photographs are out of this. That seemed worth saying plainly rather than leaving anyone to wonder. I'll still add photos so that I can play along.
• The photograph has to be your own work, shot on film.
• Winners are announced here, and emailed. Prizes are claimable for 30 days after the announcement.

Dates

• Upload whenever you like. Nothing you post now is too early, and anything already in your gallery qualifies as long as you add it to the contest.

• Entries close — 16 November, 11:59pm

• Results — Announced here before the end of November.