Photo Contest | Arizona Highways

2025 Adventures in Nature Student Photo Contest

A white horse chases a brown horse at top speed through a green and scrubby setting, getting close enough to bite. By Jessica Finnie

2024 First Place photograph by Jessica Finnie

The Nature Conservancy in Arizona, in partnership with Arizona Highways and Arizona's Family,

presents the

12th Annual “Adventures in Nature” Student Photo Contest

Students aged 13-18 are invited to enter up to two photos that capture Arizona’s beauty and wildlife for a chance to win cash prizes. The contest is open for submissions between March 1-31, 2025, and the top 10 winners will be announced on a virtual awards ceremony on April 17th, 2025. All contestants will receive a Zoom invitation by email.

See last year’s winners here.

Prizes:
First place - $5,000
Second place - $2,500
Third place - $1,000
7 Honorable Mentions - $250 each

Please view OFFICIAL RULES before submitting entries.

GALLERY

Displaying 361 - 372 of 466

Photo by Johnathan Ende

Ford F150 Raptor On one of the Mountains on the Bulldog Canyon (cactus rd) Trail

Location: Bulldog Canyon OHV Trail (N cactus Rd)

Photo by Hussein alsaadi

This photo , has great detail fo the cactus and is really close up that the spikes are the biggest.

Location: Tucson

Photo by A'ri Ortiz-Mossor

a silly little bee on a silly little flower

Location: Flowing Wells High School, Tucson, Arizona

Photo by Avery Olsen

An antlion awaits its prey

Location: Tucson, Arizona, River Road

Photo by Jonah Araiza

The desert stretches wide, its rocky forms shaped by time and the elements. Sunlight casts soft shadows over the landscape, highlighting the textures of stone and earth. Under an open sky, this place is quiet, steady, and enduring—untouched by urgency, shaped only by patience. Beneath the low-hanging branches of a desert tree, water lingers in the crevices, a brief but vital presence in the arid expanse. It reflects the sky, holding onto the last traces of rainfall, a reminder that even in the driest places, something remains.

Location: Watson Lake

$Photo by Jonah Araiza | Nestled in the tangled remains of the desert floor, this cactus has weathered the scorching sun and the dry, restless winds. It stands in the shadows now, peeking through fractured light, its golden spines catching the glow like embers that refuse to fade. Not a sentinel, not a soldier—just something that has endured, quietly, stubbornly, against the desert’s unforgiving hand, and now it pears through as the light grazes its weary spines.$

Photo by Jonah Araiza

Nestled in the tangled remains of the desert floor, this cactus has weathered the scorching sun and the dry, restless winds. It stands in the shadows now, peeking through fractured light, its golden spines catching the glow like embers that refuse to fade. Not a sentinel, not a soldier—just something that has endured, quietly, stubbornly, against the desert’s unforgiving hand, and now it pears through as the light grazes its weary spines.

Location: The Gregory School