About The Award
The SATW Bill Muster Photo Awards recognizes excellence in photography and is named for renowned photographer Bill Muster, who generously established a foundation to support this annual travel photography award. Since 1981 SATW has presented the Muster Awards and cash prizes for travel photography in various categories awarded at the annual SATW convention.
Bill Muster Award Winners
2024 Entry Information
We thank the Bill Muster Foundation and the Western Chapter of SATW for their financial support of this year’s awards.
The awards are open to all SATW members and the entry fee is $35. The registration link will be active on June 1.
The competition is open to professional and amateur photographers alike. Active, Associate, and Emeritus members have an equal opportunity to enter and win cash prizes, including the $1,000 Photographer of the Year award. Winners will be announced at the SATW annual convention in Istanbul in November and will be featured in the Bill Muster Photo Awards presentation.
This competition is open to professional and amateur photographers. Don’t be bashful about entering work. Freelance, editors, associates, and emeritus have an equal opportunity to enter and win cash prizes generously donated by Nori Muster and Bill Muster, Jr.
Note: Several aspects of entering the competition have changed last year, including file naming, two new categories, and rules regarding types of ineligible photos such as AI-enhanced images. Carefully read through each link below and use the button on the bottom of the page to complete the $35 USD Muster entry payment. Upon completing payment, you will receive a link to the photo submission site and instructions on how to submit your portfolio using WeTransfer.com.
Once you submit your payment, you will receive a link to enter your submissions. Questions? Contact SATW HQ.
Cash Prizes
Photographer of the Year
- Gold $1000
- Silver $750
- Bronze $500
Single Subject Portfolio
- Gold $750
- Silver $400
- Bronze $300
Individual subjects
- Gold $300
- Silver $200
- Bronze $100
Submission Options
Note: all photos in a portfolio must have been taken by the photographer entrant; photos taken by someone other than the photographer will result in the disqualification of their entire portfolio.
1) Photographer of the Year (POTY)
Submit a total of 20 images on a variety of travel destinations and categories. Any images not selected as part of the three winning Photographer of the Year portfolios will be considered for the eight individual categories. Portfolios containing fewer than 20 images will not qualify for the POTY competition and will be moved to the individual Category competition.
2) Single Subject (SS) Portfolio
Submit a total of 10 images from one specific subject. SS portfolios must focus on a particular destination, subject, or event and not be overly broad in scope. Images not selected as Single Subject Portfolio winners will be considered for the eight individual categories. Because you are allowed 20 photos, you may submit two single-subject portfolios or one single-subject portfolio and up to 10 photos in the eight individual categories alone. A SS portfolio must contain ten images to be considered for this option.
Single Subject Portfolio images may be of any of the following:
- Single destinations such as a city or small region
- A specific cultural group such as Wyoming cowboys
- A particular subject such as Moroccan bazaars or animals of the Everglades
- A performance group such as Cirque du Soleil
- An event such as Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.
- Subjects such as a large country, birds, or people, are considered too general for Single Subject competition.
- Single Subject portfolios should be specific and obvious to viewers as a standalone portfolio of related images.
3) Individual Categories
Submit up to 20 photos to be judged exclusively for the eight individual categories (Note that this year all portfolios containing 20 images — and no SS entry — will be included in the POTY competition). Some images may fit in multiple categories (example: a bull rider in action at a rodeo could be considered Action/Adventure, Animal, Cultural, or People General). Choose the category that you feel best describes the image, and the judges can move it to another category if they choose.
- Action/Adventure – Things or people in motion, sports, or active adventure; the action or adventure aspect is the dominant feature of the image
- Animal – Animal(s) should dominate, but people in the frame are acceptable
- Architecture – Includes any structure built by people from any time period. Examples are bridges, places of worship, barns, modern or ancient cultural sites, cityscapes, indoor and outdoor public spaces, hotels and museums, and details or elements of architecture.
- Cultural – Images that capture the unique culture of a location, including but not limited to ceremonies, rituals, celebrations, festivals, markets, transportation, work, fine and performing arts, pastimes, and entertainment. May or may not include people but the cultural activity or event, not the people, should be the main focus.
- Food – Encompasses all aspects of food, including growing, harvesting, producing, preparing, presenting, and partaking. Examples include harvesting crops, growing grapes, wine, beer brewing, seafood industry, café, coffee houses, restaurants, and plated presentations.
- Natural Scenic – Nature, landscape, or any scene where nature is dominant but may have some human elements, such as a dock on a beach or a vehicle on a road
- People General – Individual or group of people in an environmental setting or engaged in activities such as cooking, blacksmithing, fishing, etc., that depict a sense of place
- People Portrait – One or more individuals in a portrait format with emphasis on the person/people, not the environmental setting
There is no restriction as to the number of entries in any given category—you can submit from one to 20 photos in any individual category, up to a maximum of 20 total.
Rules & Requirements
The SATW Muster Photo Competition is open to all Society of American Travel Writers members.
- All images must have been shot between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2024. Photos do not need to have been published to be submitted. Important: any photos taken before or after these dates will be disqualified, and the Photographer may also be disqualified. Please be prepared if asked to submit metadata that displays accurate capture dates and times.
- A maximum of 20 images can be submitted per member.
- The entry period is June 1 – June 30, 2024. Entries must be received no later than Sunday, June 30, 2024, at 5:00 P.M. PDT. Submissions received after this date will not be considered.
- Important: All photos must be named using the requested file naming procedure. Please follow the naming format exactly. Files not named correctly will be disqualified.
- For photographers entering either the Photographer of the Year competition or the Single Subject competition, you can enter one or the other, but not both competitions. If your portfolio is not chosen as a winner in one of these competitions, your photos will automatically be moved into the Individual Category competition and judged there. Photos from a winning Photographer of the Year or Single Subject portfolio can’t simultaneously win an individual category prize. Once a portfolio wins, all those photos are removed from the competition.
- Photos submitted must not have won a previous Muster award. The only exception is Merit Award winners from previous competitions, which may be re-entered only if they still fit within the two-year time limit.
- A photo that is judged to be too similar to another image (by the same photographer) that has previously won a gold, silver, or bronze award in a previous Muster Photo Competition will be disqualified. This means a photo that shows the same activity or same location, with a similar viewpoint to a previous winning image. Conversely, a photographer who has won a Muster award in a previous year with a photo of, for example, Machu Picchu may submit another photo of Machu Picchu in the following year if the new image is distinctly different from the earlier one and the photo has been taken within the two-year eligibility period.
- Basic photo processing, such as cropping, exposure, contrast, color balance and adjustment, saturation, sharpening, and dust spotting, is allowed. High Dynamic Range (HDR) techniques , where two or more images are blended together realistically, as well as the stitching of two or more images into a panorama, are also acceptable. AI-powered features such as masking and noise reduction are allowed as long as AI is not changing the image by adding or removing elements.
- Images that are not allowed: altering photos by adding or removing objects, backgrounds, or skies; compositing by combining two or more photos with different elements such as a moon; adding colors or textures not in the original capture; and other major alterations that transform the image into something significantly different than the original capture. AI-generated or enhanced images are not allowed in this competition, and submission of even one AI image is grounds for complete disqualification from the competition. Entrants may be asked to provide metadata proving that AI was not used in a photo.
- All photos submitted must be essentially editorial in content. This means that these images are appropriate for a travel publication, book, or website. Photos identified as having been taken in a commercial studio, or perceived by the judges as having been shot primarily for a commercial purpose, such as a product advertising campaign (except destination promotion which is allowed), will be disqualified.
- Photos will be judged with consideration given to subject, composition, lighting, perspective, storytelling, and other aspects that result in a unique, compelling, travel-oriented image.
- The decision of the judges is final. Both judges and the Muster Chair may reclassify entries into another appropriate category at their discretion.
- Winners will be announced at the SATW Annual Convention in Istanbul in November 2024.
Special thanks to Nori Muster for producing the Muster Photo Awards video once again, which is always a major highlight of the convention.
Submission Procedures
- Submit your 2024 Muster Competition entries online (you will receive an email address in your entry form confirmation email after using the Payment button below.
- Once your payment has been confirmed and you have received the submission email address, please send your complete portfolio of photos via WeTransfer, with correctly named files, to [email protected]. In the subject line include your last name and the words “Muster entry.”
- File Naming: Please follow file naming procedures exactly to avoid having your photos disqualified.
- File Size: Please submit photos that are large enough to make an 8X10 print in case they win a plaque. JPEG file format is mandatory. The files should be 3000 pixels (on the long side) at 300 PPI with a file size not to exceed 6MB.
File Naming Procedures
Please follow file naming procedures exactly to avoid having your photos disqualified.
New for file naming – you must now add your initials to each file name, and you no longer need to add the letters POY to your file name in order to enter the Photographer of the Year competition. See instructions below
File Naming: Use the following abbreviations when naming photo files:
- Action/Adventure – Act
- Animal – Ani
- Architecture – Arc
- Cultural – Cul
- Food – FD
- Natural Scenic – Nat
- People General – PG
- People Portraits – PP
All Entrants: Begin file name with the last four numbers of your ten-digit telephone number and your first and last initials. All portfolios, except for Single Subject portfolios, will be considered for the Photographer of the Year competition. Follow that with one of the eight category abbreviations; the category sequence number; and the year the image was shot (last two digits – 22, 23, etc.). Do not include your own name or the location of the image. Use underscores to separate the various parts of the file name.
Example file name: 7898GD_Cul1_21.jpg
- “7898” is the four digits of your phone number
- GD are the initials of your first and last names
- “Cul” indicates the Cultural category
- “1” indicates the first photo in a sequence (“2” here would indicate the next photo in this category)
- “21” indicates the year (2021) in this photo was taken
Note: Ordering photo sequence – if you would like your portfolio of photos to be viewed by judges in a particular order, please number them using a numerical prefix in your photo file names.
Example file names: 01_7898GD_Cul1_21; 02_7898GD _PG1_22; 03_7898GD_Ani1_23; etc.
Single Subject Travel Portfolio Entrants: Images submitted for the Single Subject Travel Portfolio will follow the instructions above with one exception. To identify that the submission is to be considered for the Single Subject division, start your file name with “SS”. Important: If you are submitting two Single Subject Portfolios, it is important that you identify them by SS1 and SS2.
Example file names: 7898GD_SS1_Cul1_21.jpg (for an image that is part of your first Single Subject Travel Portfolio); 7898GD_SS2_Nat2.22.jpg (for an image of your second Single Subject Travel Portfolio)
- “7898” represent the last four numbers of your telephone number
- GD are the initials of your first and last names
- “SS1” indicates the first Single Subject Travel Portfolio category; “SS2” indicates the second Single Subject Travel Portfolio category if entered
- “Cul” indicates the Cultural category
- “1” indicates the first in a sequence (“2” here would indicate the next image in this category)
- “23” indicates the year (2023) in this photo was taken
Note: Ordering photo sequence – if you would like your portfolio of photos to be viewed by judges in a particular order, please number them using a numerical prefix in your photo file names.
Example file names: 01_7898GD_SS1_Cul1_21; 02_7898GD_SS1_PG1_22; 03_7898GD_SS2_Ani1_23; etc.
Judging Criteria
All photos will be judged on their overall quality as well as the extent to which they meet specific criteria for each contest.
- For Photographer of the Year, judges will be looking for portfolios that display multiple destinations and categories and inspire travel. The album will be judged as a totality.
- For Single Subject, judges will be looking for portfolios that display a single destination, subject, or group in a way that creates a sense of identity for the subject and inspires travel. The album will be judged as a totality.
- For Individual Category, judges will be looking for high-quality photos in each category.
Judging and Photography Rights
An independent panel of highly qualified judges will select all winners. Submission of photos automatically allows SATW the right to display, exhibit and publish said images in non-profit society-related uses, including the SATW website. Otherwise, all rights remain with the photographer.