Think you may have what it takes to present Lebanon in the most beautiful image? Well, here is your chance.
Through the “Green Your Screen” initiative, you can now boast your photography skills combined with your love for Lebanon’s nature by taking part in a competition that hopes to promote the country’s green heritage as well as bring people together for a good cause.
This competition, mainly sponsored by the Lebanese Ministry of Environment, Jarir Digital Printing Center and in collaboration with the Al-Shouf Cedar Reserve aims to engage the Lebanese public, pro and amateur photographers over the age of 15 to go out into the great outdoors and bring back their most prized visual masterpieces.
How to participate:
Log into this website and fill out a form. (Alternatively, you may also check their Facebook page.)
More details on the rules and conditions are also found there.
Each participant must post five images. There is no entry fee to participate in the competition. The contest theme is “Take a picture of the nature of Lebanon”, and must be accompanied by a comment that describes the image in either Arabic or English.
There are five posts per profile, and only one profile is accepted.
Competition starts on July 1st and ends on August 1, 2014.
Judges include Bernard Renno, a Lebanese artists and cultural adviser, professional photographers Jean Pierre Tarabay and Michel Esta
So what’s in it for you other than exposing your work to a high profile judging panel and gaining another incentive to escape into nature?
Prizes include cameras presented by Cannon, a one night stay at the Shouf Cedar Reserve with a cedar tree planted on behalf of the winner carrying his/her name.
Personally? I can’t think of a better way to engage people in a productive activity that would raise awareness on the beauty that surrounds us, a heritage we have come to take for granted.
Boxed inside apartment buildings and offices, we have lost tune with the rhythm of Mother Nature, Mother Gaia.
Lebanon, home to one of the most ancient cultures, became so for a reason, and the reason is its rare ecosystem that we are now destroying.
So go out, let’s shoot Lebanon, let’s shoot it using our cameras and not our guns since the latter has proven a failure over the course of many years.
Let us expose the beauty that surrounds lest we stand a chance at protecting it for future generations to come.
Here’s last year’s report.
Nadine Mazloum is currently a freelance editor and news producer. She received her Honors in Communication Arts (Media Production) from The University of Western Sydney in 2008.