Recently in Contests Category

Winners of the Nature Conservancy's annual Best Nature Photo contest for 2008 were named today by the organization. The Grand Prize was garnered by Howard B. Cheek of Kempner, Texas, for his arresting photo of a female cardinal about to make a landing (photo above). Runners up in the competition were David Moynahan, of Crawfordville, Florida, for his image of a yellow-crowned night heron in mating plumage and Patrick Smith, of Pleasant Hill, California, for his picture of Pinnacle Rock at Point Lobos State Park in the Golden State.

A basket of goodies is being offered by storage powerhouse Verbatim as first prize in its "Events of Autumn" photo contest slated to end at the end of the month. Shooter of the best fall picture in the eyes of the competition's judges will win a photo archiving kit with these items:

• CanoScan 8800F scanner
• 250 gigabyte Firewire/USB hard drive
• 2GB SD card
• Universal card reader
• Verbatim Photosave DVD three-pack
• DVD-R five-pack
• 8.5 x 11 photo paper (25 sheets)
• 4 x 6 photo paper (50 sheets)

Entires must be submitted by November 30 before 5 p.m. Eastern Time and a winner will be announced by December 31. Submissions are limited to two per household and households must be in the United States or Canada. Contestants must be at least 18 years-old to enter and if a shot includes a person, a model release form is required. Photos should be in JPEG format and their file size should not exceed three megabytes. They can be submitted at the contest Web site.

Everyone has seen cell phone behavior that vexes. Now the folks at Wired.com want to immortalize those behaviors for posterity.  They're running a "Flagrant Cellphone Use" photo contest. "We want to see photos of ridiculous cellphone use in an Ode to Rudeness," they say at their Web site. "Help us shine a light on this modern jackassery." Photos need to be at least 800 x 1200 pixels, and, since Wired isn't hosting the images, they must be posted somewhere else. Only links to the photo should be submitted to the contest. By entering the competition, you're granting Wired permission to use your photo at its Web site and in its magazine. No prizes in this match--just the potential glory of having your image posted in a gallery at Wired.com and, of course, the satisfaction of exposing to possible ridicule some annoying mopho conduct.

If you live in a land of four seasons, there's no better time to snap pictures than autumn. And if you have an fall shot that you're proud of, it could be your ticket to a new hard drive. That's because the folks at Photography Bay are running a Best Fall Photo contest with the top prizes being brand new sleek and chic FreeAgent Go drives from Seagate. First prize is a 500 gigabyte drive (a $240 value); second place, 320GB ($140) and third place 250GB ($120). What's nice about drives like the FreeAgent Go is that they're portable and can be easily stored in a camera bag or briefcase.

To enter the contest, you need to have a Flickr account. If you don't have one, they're easy enough to open and the service is free. After you upload your photo to Flickr, you tag it "seagate" and "fall" and add it to the Photography Bay Group Pool. Only one entry per person is allowed. Deadline for entries is November 24 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time.

Don't live in a temperate zone? The editor of PhoBay maintains that shouldn't be a barrier to entry. "Just because the leaves don’t change colors where you live doesn’t mean that you can’t think outside the box and come up with a killer 'Fall' themed image that blows away a Fall leaves shot," he writes.

There's a little over a week left to submit your best nature photos to The Nature Conservancy for its annual digital photo competition. Since the organization started the competition in 2006, it has received some 25,000 entries and the winners produce some truly beautiful work.

Thirty-five submissions will be chosen as finalists and honorable mentions and the Grand Prize winner will have their photo incorporated into the group's 2010 calendar, which is distributed to nearly two million households worldwide.

Any photogrpaher 18 or older is eligible, regardless of residence or citizenship, just as long the laws in the lensperson's home permit participation.

One or more images may be submitted to the contest either through a special photo sharing group on Flickr--submissions should be tagged PhotoContest-TNC08--or via individual e-mails.

What's the TNC looking for? The rules for the contest say it's interested in "striking digital images of nature, highlighting the diversity of life on Earth."

They add, "We are especially interested in images that showcase the wide range of habitats across our planet, including all types of forests, grasslands, lakes and rivers, deserts and arid lands, rainforests, marine habitats and coral reefs."

Imagegrabbers making submissions for the contest retain all rights to their work but grant a non-exclusive license to the TNC to reproduce, distribute and display the photos and the right to use their name, city, state and country in promotions and publications.

Deadline for submissions is Oct. 15 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard time.

If you'd like to socialize with other photographers in your locale and tap into an opportunity to win valuable prizes to boot, you might want to join the more than 5000 shutterbugs who have already signed up for Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photo Walk to be held Saturday, August 23.

The walks are being organized to promote Kelby's book The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers scheduled to be released next month by New Riders Press.

Registration for the event is free and open to all photographers--both amateur and professional--although the walks are limited to 50 participants in each city. So far, 5500 photographers from 241 cities in 43 countries have signed up for the event.

A bundle of goodies valued at more than $5,000 will be awarded for the best single overall photo taken from all the walk locations around the world. In addition, the shooters of the best photos of the day chosen by the local leaders of the walks will receive a free copy of Kelby's book.

The walks take about two hours and their routes are usually designed to end at a local imbibery so not only will you be able to snap pics with your new shutter buddies but bend an elbow with them, too.

Owners of most Olympus digital cameras have an opportunity to win a $100 gift certificate from the bytecam maker by entering its spring photo contest. The spring competition, which ends June 30, is open to all Olympus digital camera owners except those with an E-1 or E-3. Photogs who own E-1 and E-3 cameras are encouraged to join the camera maker's Elite Club, which runs contests for hotshots with those high-end models. According to the contest rules, submissions will be judged on originality (30%), photographic quality (30%), composition (30%), and comments submitted with the photo--the story behind the photo(10%). Three $100 American Express gift cards will be awarded to the winners of the photo bout. Shutterbugs can submit one photograph a month during the contest period, so Olympians who haven't entered the event yet have two shots left to win those prizes.

If you have a passion for photographing wildlife or the great outdoors, the National Wildlife Federation is offering you a chance to garner some rewards for your zest. Its 38th annual National Wildlife photo contest is offering $18,000 in cash prizes to image snatchers in six categories. They are

• Mammals: portaits and behavior.
• Birds: portratis and behavior.
• Other wildlife: portratis and behavior of underwater life, reptiles, amphibians, insects and others.
• Backyard habitats: wild creatures, native plants and natural settings in your yard.
• Connecting people and nature: people enjoying the outdoors.
• Landscapes and plant life: scenic views and native plants in wild settings.

Up to 20 photos can be entered for a fee of $15, which will also buy particiapnts a one-year membership in the organization and a subscription to the NWF's magazine. The grand prize is $5000 and a portfolio of award-winning entries will be published in the December/January 2008 issue of the magazine. Deadline for submissions is July 1, 2008.

Some marketers believe that if you cultivate a customer's loyalty when they're young, you'll get them for life. There seems to be some of those thinkers at Olympus, who announced this month its "Photographers of Tomorrow" contest. The competition for students at schools that agree to participate will begin accepting submissions early next year and the winners will be announced in April 2008. $5000 scholarships will be awarded in each of three categories: speed, travel and the environment.

In addition to the cash, winners will get an Olympus E-3, two Zuiko digital zoom lenses (24-120mm and 100-400mm equivalents) and an Olympus travel bag and lens cloth. The E-3, though, may be redundant for some winners since the contest rules state: "Each photo submitted must have been (i) taken by the entrant and (ii) taken with an Olympus® E-3 camera. Photos taken with any other kind of camera will not be eligible."