$20,000 Grand Prize for the Microsoft Future Pro Photographer Contest

Microsoft is offering photographers a chance to win the $20,000 grand prize via its Future Pro Photographer contest. The Redmond company has started accepting submissions on March 1, and will end the entry process on April 30, 2009. According to the official guidelines for the Microsoft Future Pro Photographer contest, all entries will be judged based on the following criteria: originality, technical execution (focus, exposure), visual impact (composition, impact, lighting) and relevance to category.

“The Microsoft Future Pro Photographer competition has $20k up for grabs I expect the competition will be fierce and judging by some of the 2008 winners shots. The bar is somewhat higher than my meagre efforts. I have a few friends who may have a shot at this though,” revealed Steve Clayton, with Microsoft International working on Software + Services.

There are no less than three categories for which Microsoft is accepting submissions, Nature & Landscape, People & Portraits and Sports & Photojournalism. In addition to the $20,000 grand prize (plus a digital prize package worth $2,000), the company is also ready to offer participants three first prizes per category worth $3,000 (plus the $2,000 digital prize package). The contest is opened to all students at least 18 years old around the world, with the exception of residents from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.

“There are a number of different categories, a tonne of prizes and clearly plenty of kudos. This isn’t one of those jumped up competitions that claims a $20k prize by adding up the maximum value of everything offer – no, this isn’t a $20k prize fund but a full $20k cash for the Grand Prize,” Clayton added.

Microsoft is ready to accept no more than three entries per participant. All images have to be 8 bit JPEGs with a maximum dimension of 1024 pixels, and weighing in no more than 2MB.