Got a Xiaomi phone? Take some photos for a chance to win $10,000

Xiaomi has launched a global smartphone photography competition with up to $50,000 in prizes. The contest, which opened yesterday, features several categories, with the first-place finishers from each being awarded $10,000.

Participants must shoot and edit their photos on a Xiaomi handset and no external editing is permitted — you’re only allowed to use the pre-installed photo editor. In addition, file sizes must be between 300KB and 10MB and contain EXIF information.

Outside of these stipulations, participants are open to shoot whatever and however, as long as they can fit into one of the four categories. Details for these can be found on the website, but their titles are:

1. Natural look
2. Piece of the world
3. Dreamscape
4. Why so serious

The contest is free to enter — though you’ll need a Xiaomi account — and runs until November 25, with the winners being decided by user vote. It’s open everywhere outside of mainland China, so the vast majority of you reading this should be eligible. Xiaomi doesn’t say you have to be of a certain age.

Taking home first prize won’t be an easy feat, though — just take a look at some of the sample shots below.

However, one facet of the challenge which may give you pause is the requirement that you hand over personal details and a copy of your passport (check out the full rules here). You’d expect to give over some information for a competition like this, but I wouldn’t judge anybody for not wanting to hand over their passport information — particularly given the current security climate and news of alleged Chinese spying (Xiaomi is one of China’s biggest smartphone manufacturers).

If you’re still interested, you can find out all the details on the competition page here.

Looking for some advice to give yourself the edge? We’ve got a full smartphone photography tips and tricks guide to help.