A big welcome to you @brandongarrett to the steemit family.

This is an amazing photo @brandongarrett. It reminds me of those cartoons I watched while younger, where at night, a portal connecting earth and alien world would gradually open, and then an alien would enter into earth, from their world, through that portal. The portal usually looked like this photo.

While reading the post, when I got to this part,
The entire sequence is about 3-4 hours long, my Jaws dropped, because that line showed me the Raw Passion you have for photography. Great job.

Whenever I come in contact with people with passion, what I try to do is to assist them as much as I can, coupled with the fact that as a newbie, it can be really difficult to get much upvotes on your post (as evident in this 'first place image' post), leaving contests as your best chance of getting a good reward, even as you build your blogging skills and content.

Below are 3 of the photography contests I know you can take part in and win prices while you also contribute content to the steemit community:

• The new weekly 📷 Photochallenge hosted by @betterthanhome

• 7 World's Continents Photo Challenge by
  @czechglobalhosts

• MyPictureDay Challenge by @timsaid

Wishing you more success in these contests, and hopefully you'll continue to grow here on steemit, even to the point where you'll host your own contests to encourage newbies. All the best.