The elk that earned the honors, as yet another Canon 7D brings home the prize money

posted Monday, May 1, 2017 at 2:44 PM EDT

We love the chance to honor photographers entering our contest for the first time, but this month in our competition it's all about paying homage to our "regulars" - those dedicated souls who enter the competition month in and month out, and in doing so help keep our competition standards lofty in the quality department. And by "regulars" I'm referring to the photographers themselves of course, but there are more than a few camera bodies that we've grown to consider regulars too!

This month we're thrilled to once again crown photographer Gary Gray as our overall winner, who claimed the $300 prize with a wonderfully compelling image titled "Rocky Mountain Elk." And his camera of choice for this shot, a Canon 7D, is also no stranger to the podium. Indeed, the workhorse 7D has been recognized more times in the top 5 over the past 12 months in our contest than any other camera body, even though it hails from 2009! Eight years later and these cameras are still earning prize money and accolades in our photo competition. Wow.

First Prize • $300 gift certificate from Adorama

First Prize • Rocky Mountain Elk by Gary Gray • Canon EOS 7D

Congratulations, Gary, on a wonderful image and yet another worthy First Prize winner!

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We've been accused on more than a few occassions of playing favorites in our awards, and choosing these "regulars" above others because we happen to know their names. As the person who's administered this competition for going on 5 years now I can say for certain that we do no such thing! The monthly voting is done with printed images on a board, with no names listed of the camera used nor the photographer. So there is no chance for a bias of name or gear, it's all about the images, folks, and we spend a lot of time debating the merits of each before casting secret ballots that are then tallied automatically.

The real reason these same names keep popping up with regularity on the awards podium is because they are dedicated to their craft, and they enter the competition often. And best of all, unlike some competitions we're aware of, ours is absolutely free to enter! Just follow a few basic guidelines, send us your best, and keep shooting more! With lots of practice and making sure you continue to hone your craft and enter the competition each month, it could be your name up there being honored, and your gear arsenal being beefed out with Adorama prize money! (Hey, that's money you can use towards anything they offer, even gear on sale, so that new lens or tripod could be closer than you think.)

Second Prize • $200 gift certificate from Adorama

Second Prize • Osprey In Flight With Catch by Abeselom Zerit • Nikon D500

Well done once again, Abe!

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Third Prize • $100 gift certificate from Adorama

Third Prize • Sandy Beach by Glenn Nagel • Nikon D800

Congratulations to our worthy prize-winning images from February 2017!

Additional Honors

First runner-up • Woodstork by Karen Celella • Canon EOS 7D

Second runner-up • Luminous Landscape by Bob Jensen • Fuji X-T2

Looking over our list of winners and runners-up this month, I just realized something really neat... all five of the photographers featured on the podium this month have won First Prize in our competition before! That's a first, for sure. I guess we can just call March 2017 our "All-star month."

Congratulations to all of you, a very wholehearted Thanks from us at IR for all of the wonderful images you send our way, and I suppose you'll just have to be content sharing the podium with each other this month!

• March Winners' Gallery •

Thanks to all photographers who enter our contest, and please keep the excellent submissions coming our way!

[Editor's note: When voting for the monthly winners, the voting panel is only shown the printed images and is not aware of the name of the photographers nor the camera models.]

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For more about what our prize-winning photographers shoot with and why, straight from the source, please see this article. It's from a few years ago, but is still quite relavant today. And for those of you wanting to know more about our competition please visit this news story, which describes our contest and also offers some useful tips to help you succeed, and this story that warns you of the best ways to NOT succeed. To see the camera and exposure information for this month's winners, please click any image above, and to see winners from previous months, please visit our POTD winner's gallery.

[And if you're ready to enter now, just click here!]

On a related note, we've just started a new series of articles called "Reader Stories," where we turn the tables and let you, our readers, do the talking! We're interested in seeing more of the shots you're the happiest with, and in hearing just how you got them, or just hearing about your passions, interests and the gear you love! Intrigued? Please click here!