@flamingirl, For sure, these kind of contests increase the Engagement Levels in the Steem Economy and this engagement is needed when Steem is facing the crisis to some extent.

And Photography is our daily activity but in my opinion just photography is not important instead we have to put our vision before capturing so that we can capture an truly story telling picture.

And yes, when we are entering into an Authentic contest then we have to showcase our original work, and most importantly we should not compare our work with any one else because when we compare then we will evaluate our work and then we depress because we are comparing our work with others and then people try to cheat by adding some others work to addon their work, so to be original is important to gain the respect.

Wishing you an great day and stay blessed. 🙂