The 13th Annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition (AMPC) is open for registrations. Amateur and professional photographers 13 years of age and older are encouraged to submit at www.appmtnphotocomp.org prior to the competition’s close at 5pm on Friday, November 20, 2015. The Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition offers numerous categories whose winners will receive over $4,000 in cash and prizes.

Presented by Appalachian State University Outdoor Programs, the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, and VirtualBlueRidge.com, the AMPC celebrates the unique people, places, and pursuits that distinguish the Southern Appalachians. It attracts entries from across the United States and has grown into one the region’s most prestigious photography competitions, with close to 1,000 submissions last year and viewed in person by over 8,000 people at the Turchin Center for Visual Arts. The AMPC is sponsored by the Mast General Store and supported by Appalachian Voices, Bistro Roca, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, Footsloggers, Peabody’s, Nikon Professional Services, and Stick Boy Bread Company.

“We are thrilled with the competition right now,” states Rich Campbell, Associate Director for Outdoor Programs and Competition Director for the AMPC. “Part of that excitement is with our new website that has been redesigned from the ground up by sponsor Virtual Blue Ridge.com, offering photographers a much more user-friendly experience. In addition to easier navigation, it also offers one click access to every finalist image from the past 12 years. We think that this archive of images is one of the most comprehensive galleries of the Southern Appalachians.”

Competition organizers are excited to announce the Blue Ridge Parkway Category theme, sponsored by the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and Nikon Professional Services. This year, the theme is “Blue Ridge Parkway — Where the Parkway Meets the Sky.“ Photographers are encouraged to capture images that emphasize the sky, while incorporating some element of the Blue Ridge Parkway as well. Photographers can consider night shots, stars, unique cloud formations, interesting weather, sunsets or sunrises, a sky that represents the vastness of a long range overlook, etc. The winning image in this category will receive a $250 cash award provided by the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and, new this year, a camera from Nikon Professional Services.

Another exciting category for the AMPC this year that highlights our commitment to raising awareness of the natural environment is the Our Ecological Footprint category, which documents environmental concerns in the Southern Appalachians. Photographers are encouraged to capture an image that represents our ecological footprint in a creative and poignant way. Appalachian Voices and the Mast General Store are partnering to present this award, and they will present the photographer who best captures the spirit of this category with a $500 package of cash and prizes.

Additional competition categories this year include Best in Show, which wins the photographer a $1,000 cash prize, the People’s Choice Award presented by Footsloggers, whose winner will receive a $350 gift certificate, and the categories of Culture, Adventure, Flora and Fauna, and Landscape, which will each win the photographer a $250 prize package from the Mast General Store.

In celebration of the 13th annual AMPC exhibition, the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts (TCVA) is hosting a new program open to all photographers who submit their artwork to the annual competition. In-person portfolio reviews will be available based on a lottery system, which will give photographers a chance to have a one-on-one meeting with one of the professional photographers leading this year’s reviews.

When the deadline for entry passes on November 20, 2015 at 5:00 p.m., a panel of professional photographers will review all entries and narrow them down to approximately 50 images that will be displayed in exhibition at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts from March 4 to June 4, 2016. From those images, the judges will select the final winning images, which will be showcased during the exhibition.