These images were among those I entered into international photo competitions and received distinction of some kind: 4 won top-ten placements (one each 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place, and 10th place), about a dozen won 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.