Through My Lens: canoe

I recently posted about the importance of self-promotion for getting a little recognition for your work. I then whined a bit about the advice to sell stock photography, which I have been following (albeit somewhat grudgingly). One form of self-promotion I think gets less attention, however, is photography contests. Now, I suspect that there are plenty of shady contests out there that are just fishing for information or photos. However, there are plenty of reputable photography contests as well. Of course, there's no guarantee that you'll win, or even get any recognition. But, so long as I steer away from those which charge an entry fee and watermark my images, what's the harm, right? And who knows? Maybe I'll have a bit of luck and someone will really like my photos. Plus, finding an image which epitomizes the sentiment of the contest or category forces you to think about your photos in a different way, and to get cracking on editing. With that in mind, I've decided to enter an online contest. There are a few categories I'm having trouble picking an image for, though. I've shown the photos below, and I'd be very grateful for some feedback. I've listed the category name along with the photographs I'm considering below. I can only enter one photograph into each category with the exception of the portfolio category, for which I get to pick three photographs. Obviously I'm planning to do some watermark work before I submit. Also, if you see anything in my gallery that I haven't considered but you think I should, please let me know. Likewise, some of these images might fit into more than one category, so if you think an image would be for another category, I would appreciate the insight.

The Wild World (nature)