These images were among those I entered into international photo competitions and received distinction of some kind: 6 won top-ten placements (two 1st place, two 2nd place, one 3rd place, and one 10th place), about two dozen have had  honorable mentions or judge's commendations (roughly in the top 40 images per contest), about a dozen more made it into the top 100 round, and the remaining half made it into the judging or shortlist round (typically about the top 5% of all entries).  All the contests had at least 5000 entries submitted, and some had as many 190,000.