Penda Photo Tours Opens Global Travel Photography Competition to Support Wild Shots Outreach
Penda Photo Tours has opened entries for its Penda Travel Photography Competition 2025. Open to all photographers around the world, it offers a chance to win a dream safari in Botswana. It will also raise funds for Wild Shots Outreach, a nonprofit that teaches wildlife and conservation photography to young people in South Africa who have limited access to resources.
Photography with Purpose
Penda’s collaboration with Wild Shots Outreach underscores the belief that photography can do more than just create striking images – it can build connection, agency, and opportunity. Based in the Greater Kruger area in South Africa, Wild Shots Outreach gives young people from disadvantaged communities access to cameras, mentoring, workshops, and bursaries to help them engage with their natural heritage and pursue pathways in conservation, storytelling, and creative careers. By entering the competition beyond the free first submission, contributors will be directly supporting the work of Wild Shots Outreach – helping fund equipment, education, and program expansion.
Competition details
- Main Prize: Botswana Photography Safari
The overall winner will receive a space on an exclusive guided photo safari in Botswana, running 17–23 July 2026. The prize is worth USD 4,995 and includes accommodation in a private camp, guidance by professional wildlife photographer Alan Hewitt, and exclusive wildlife photography opportunities (lions, leopards, elephants, and more).
- Category Prizes & Runners-up
Category winners will receive a camera bag by VINCOV, a boutique brand of quality camera accessories, and runners-up will receive VINCOV camera straps.
The competition has three categories; Wildlife, Landscape, and People. Photographers can enter in all categories, and there is no limit to the number of entries.
The first image entry is free. Additional entries (in sets of up to 10) are available for USD 10, with all profits going to the nonprofit partner.
- Deadline & Announcement of Winners
Entries close on 10 December 2025, and winners will be announced on 15 January 2026.
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Judges
The entries will be judged by a panel of eight professional photographers with diverse backgrounds and impressive portfolios. This includes former White House photographer Susan Sterner, National Geographic photographer Tyrone Turner, and Fuji-Film ambassador and wildlife conservation photographer Alan Hewitt. Judging will be based on storytelling, technical excellence, creativity, and overall impact.
Alan Hewitt, explains what he’ll be looking for when judging the entries;
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be part of the judging team for Penda Photo Tours’ photography competition! I’ll be looking for quite a few qualities in the submissions; first and foremost, technical excellence, sharpness and focus, correct exposure, pleasing composition and careful and natural processing. Getting these right are crucial.
With these qualities in mind, behavioural insight and natural history context is also important. Can we learn something from the photography or does it evoke curiosity? Creativity use of light is always interesting, as is trying to incorporate surroundings. Crucially, I’ll also be looking for respectable ethics, no signs of disturbance or stress to the subject/s or habitat and also authenticity, avoiding set ups and manipulation.
Let’s celebrate the beauty, resilience, and diversity of wildlife and culture in this competition, and I hope these images inspire us all to continue to cherish and protect the natural world and respect its diversity of cultures.”
Last year’s winner
The competition ran for the first time in 2024, and the winning image was ‘Taken by a Ghost’ by Pandora Maund. In July this year, Pandora ventured to Botswana to cash in her prize.
“The Penda safari has got to be the best prize I have ever won,” Pandora says. “I’d been looking at the various safaris Penda offers, as I really liked the small numbers to a vehicle and guide ratio, and then to win a trip was such a wonderful surprise.
Botswana had been on my bucket list for a while and it didn’t disappoint. We had some super sightings including large herds of elephants, lions, jackals, zebras, and much more. But my favourites have to be the leopard and the brown hyena, neither of which I had been able to photograph before on other safaris. The drivers and photography guides Alan and Mike really knew their subjects and ensured we got the best sightings possible with lots of tips on how to get the best shots. All in all a wonderful experience. Many thanks to Penda for running such a great competition.”
View Pandora’s winning image and the other category winners.
How to enter
Photographers interested can submit entries (JPEG, max 2 MB) through the competition page on Penda’s website. All entrants must agree to terms including permission for Penda to use images for marketing purposes, with due credit.
For more details, including full rules, judge bios, and past winners, please visit the competition website.
About Penda Photo Tours:
Penda is a travel company specialising in photographic safaris and tours, designed for photographers of all levels to explore and capture the natural world, wildlife, culture, and landscapes. Penda was founded in 2016 with trips in Africa, and has since expanded throughout the rest of the world.
About Wild Shots Outreach:
Wild Shots Outreach is a South African nonprofit that uses photography as a vehicle to engage disadvantaged youth with their wild spaces. Founded in 2015, it offers training, workshops, bursaries, and pathways to careers in conservation and creative sectors.
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