Southern Appalachian Nature Photographers

Double Take Competition and Exhibition

Theme: Nature’s Canvas — The Beauty of Fall

See your photography through an artist’s eyes! SANP invites members to participate in Double Take, a photography competition culminating in a collaborative exhibition at the Emporium in October 2027. The monthlong exhibition will pair ten selected photographs with original artworks inspired by them, displayed side by side.

Entries should celebrate the beauty and character of autumn through nature photography. Subjects may include landscapes, wildlife, birds, plants, fungi, trees, waterscapes, macro subjects, and structures that complement or exist within a natural setting. Images should evoke the colors, light, textures, atmosphere, or seasonal changes that make autumn unique. Photographs may have been taken at any time in the Southern Appalachian region.

SANP will sponsor the exhibition through the Knoxville Arts & Culture Alliance. Each finalist’s photograph, matted and framed by the photographer, will be displayed alongside the artist’s interpretation. Photographs and artwork will be offered for sale unless designated in advance as not for sale. Proceeds will go to the respective photographer or artist, less the Emporium’s standard commission.

Double Take offers SANP members an opportunity to share their photography, gain exhibition experience and recognition, and see how their work inspires another artist.

How it works

A judge or panel of judges will select up to sixteen semifinalist photographs that best capture the theme. Ten artists will then each choose a different photograph to interpret in their preferred medium or style, resulting in ten distinct photograph-and-artwork pairings for the exhibition. The ten chosen photographs will become the exhibition finalists.

Eligibility

The competition is open to current members of Southern Appalachian Nature Photographers (SANP). Each member may submit up to four photographs.  Photographs may have been taken at any time but must have been taken in the Southern Appalachian region within Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, or Georgia.

How to Enter

Select and submit up to four photographs as JPG files, each no larger than 7 MB. Make sure the image title and your name are in the Title and Author metadata fields.  Name each file using this format: 

SANPDoubleTake_lastname_firstname_entrynumber.jpg 

Number your entries 1 through 4, as applicable.  For example: 

SANPDoubleTake_Thompson_Kelli_1.jpg

Email your entries to kellilthompson@outlook.com by December 13, 2026 (note the "l" between the first and last names of the email address).  In your email, include your name and the title and location of each photograph, matched to its entry number.

Theme and Subject Matter

Nature’s Canvas — The Beauty of Fall: Entries should celebrate the beauty and character of autumn through nature photography. Subjects may include landscapes, wildlife, birds, plants, fungi, trees, waterscapes, macro subjects, and structures that complement or exist within a natural setting, such as historic cabins, barns, bridges, fire towers, and mills.  People should not be available in any image.

Images should evoke the colors, light, textures, atmosphere, or seasonal changes that make autumn unique.

Image Integrity and Editing

Entries must be photographs taken by the entrant and remain faithful to the scene photographed.

Photographic processing is welcome, including cropping, exposure and color adjustments, dodging and burning, sharpening, noise reduction, HDR, focus stacking, and panorama stitching. HDR, stacked, and stitched images must depict the same scene or subject.

Cloning, healing, content-aware tools, and generative removal tools may be used to remove minor distractions. They may not be used to add or replace subjects or substantially change the scene. Sky replacement, removal of significant scene elements, and composites combining unrelated photographs are not permitted.

Submit images without watermarks, borders, or signatures.

Images must reflect ethical treatment of wildlife and compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Selection Process

A judge or panel of judges will select up to sixteen semifinalist photographs based on how effectively they express the theme, their artistic and emotional impact, originality, composition, and technical quality.  Each entrant may submit up to four photographs, but only one photograph per entrant may be selected as a semifinalist.

Ten participating artists will each select a different semifinalist photograph to interpret in their preferred medium or style. These ten distinct photographs will become the exhibition finalists.

Original capture files may be requested if needed to verify compliance. RAW capture is not required; original JPEGs or other original camera files are acceptable.

Judging and selection decisions are final. The Double Take Project Committee will resolve questions about eligibility and compliance with these rules.

Exhibition

The exhibition will take place at the Emporium in October 2027 through the Knoxville Arts & Culture Alliance. Each selected photograph will be displayed alongside the artwork it inspired.

Photographers whose images become exhibition finalists agree to:

Copyright and sales

Photographers retain ownership and copyright in their photographs. Prints will be offered for sale unless designated in advance as not for sale. For prints sold, the photographer will receive the sale price less the applicable Knoxville Arts & Culture Alliance commission, currently 25% for credit-card purchases and 20% for cash or check purchases.

For more information contact Kelli Thompson or Michael Anderson.