Yet another photo contest has attracted significant attention in the online photography community for all the wrong reasons. The winning photo in the National Wildlife Federation’s (NWF) recent Garden for Wildlife Photo Contest was disqualified following public outcry. However, the NWF and photographers disagree on why the winning photo violated competition rules. The winning photo, shown in a screenshot below, drew immediate negative reaction and skepticism when the National Wildlife Federation shared the photo contest winners on its Instagram page. Screenshot of the NWF’s original Instagram post, which has since been edited. Many photographers and nearly all of the commenters on NWF’s post accused the winning photographer, Kellie Carter, of using AI to create the winning shot. Photographer Liz Tran quickly attacked the plausibility of the winning photo. “So we’re supposed to believe that the grand prize winner had red auroras in Pawhuska, Oklahoma in June 2025?!…