X-Rite today announced the Colour Perfectionists Unite photo contest. Photographers are invited to submit original photos based on each monthly theme through the end of 2011. Each monthly winner will also be featured on the X-Rite Photo blog and will receive one of X-Rite’s new display solutions – either a ColorMunki Display or an i1Display Pro – and a ColorChecker Passport (pictured). To submit your photographs visit the website below.

Fujifilm Professional has announced the winner of its 2011 Student Awards. The title of ‘Fujifilm Student Photographer of the Year 2011’ goes to Celia Maumene of Newcastle College, who has also won £200 worth of Fuji films, a trophy, plus a professional quality portfolio by Genesis Imaging, together with a 20"x16” Clamshell Portfolio box. The printing will be supervised by Genesis Imaging’s creative director, Mark Foxwell, who will mentor Celia for the next twelve months. Celia will also receive a PR package from the promoter of the Awards, WPS Media.

Imagine Publishing and Samsung are joining forces to launch the fifth annual Digital Photographer of the Year (DPOTY) awards.  The format of the awards for 2011 will see a brand new competition category launched in each issue of Digital Photographer Magazine. There will be six photographic categories in total, including Landscapes, Portraits, Action/Sports, Wildlife/Nature, B&W and Creative Expression. Each category winner will receive a Samsung NX100 and two lenses. The runners up for every category will each receive a Samsung WB700 camera. The overall winner will scoop a Samsung NX11 plus a 20-50mm, 16mm pancake, an 85mm lens and a flashgun. For all the details on how to enter, look out for Digital Photographer issue 111 on sale now or check out the website below.

The new Niko is Chrome’s first professional camera bag. 15.5” wide x 9” high x 6.25” deep, the Chrome Niko has a single strap with the signature Chrome seatbelt buckle release that doubles as a bottle opener, a cross-chest load stabiliser and a top grab handle. The customisable main compartment holds an SLR camera with lenses, flash and other accessories, while your tripod can be carried safely courtesy of Velcro straps on the outside. Featuring a weatherproof Cordura outer shell, the Chrome Niko sells for $95. Coinciding with this product launch, Chrome has also announced the This is My City photography competition, which challenges photographers to submit a photo of their favourite coffee spot, park, hidden gem, dive bar etc. in their home town to chromebags.com for a chance to win a Chrome Niko bag and a Nikon D3000 digital SLR camera. The deadline for entries is 12pm PST on 25th July. For more information, head to the website below.

Timed to coincide with the exhibition, Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century, Metro has announced the opening of submissions for the Eyewitness abstract, fashion, portrait and street photography competition. Each category is based upon an individual photographer from the Royal Academy’s exhibition: Brassaï for his classic portraits, Capa for street photography, Moholy-Nagy for abstract photography, and Pécsi and Munkácsi for fashion photography. The competition will be judged by leading figures in the fields of photography and journalism: Colin Ford CBE – Curator of Eyewitness exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, Jon Levy – Editor of Foto8, Steve Macleod – Creative Director of Metro Imaging and Laurence Earle - Executive Editor of the Independent on Sunday. The closing date for entries is 26th August. The overall and category winners will be announced 9th September.

Vend.Love.Win is a new Facebook-based photo-video contest hosted by the National Automatic Merchandising Association. Entrants are asked to upload a photo or video of their favourite vending machine or vended product, along with a short description explaining why they love the given machine or product. On the last day of each month, the top 20 entries with the most votes will each win $200 for a charity of the photographer’s choice, or a $200 Visa gift card, or a $100 cash prize. You can only win once per month, but you can enter as many times as you want each month. The organisers are also giving away a $5,000 annual prize for the absolute best entry before 30 March 2012. The entry with the most votes overall will win the grand prize. As with every photo competition, we suggest that you read the rules before submitting your work. Do note that this contest is open to residents of the U.S.A. only.

Website: Vend.Love.Win.

Reallusion has announced that this year it is once again hosting an all-out Animation Competition for general and educational users. The contest is open to users of the company’s CrazyTalk Animator software, who can showcase their talents by uploading their videos to Youtube, Vimeo or any other free video sharing platforms to compete for over 10 award-winning categories including; Best Picture, Best Director, Most Popular, Campus Special, Best Original Character and others. To compete, simply fill-out the submission form with your video title, video description, credits, contact information and uploaded video URL. As always, we suggest that you read the rules before entering your work.

FotoDC has launched its fourth annual International Awards Competition. The competition will feature 11 different categories of entry. For single images, contestants can enter under Photojournalism/Social Documentary, Commercial, Fine Art, Contemporary Life, Travel, Portrait, and/or The Natural World. If submitting a series, contestants can enter under Photojournalism/Social Documentary, Fine Art, and/or The Natural World. There will also be a Student Portfolio category (eligible for those 18 or older and enrolled in an accredited academic programme), a Multimedia category, and a Mobile Phone category focussed on the Spirit of Washington. The competition is open to all photographers, both amateurs and professionals, and there is an early bird discount for work submitted by 24th July. The final deadline for submissions before entries go to the panel of judges for review is 12th September. In addition to a total of $20,000 in cash prizes, the top winners in each category will be well rewarded, with the opportunity for their work to be shown and/or projected during FotoWeek DC, 5-12 November 2011.

Windows Phone UK is running a photography competition on Facebook. Entrants are asked to upload their best summer photos to the competition’s Facebook page for a chance win one of three Windows Phones. The photographers submitting three most popular snaps, as determined by popular vote, will win the prizes. The final date to enter a photo is 30th July 2011 but given that it’s also when the votes - or ‘likes’, to be more precise - are totalled up to determine the winners, it’s probably a good idea to submit your photograph as early as possible. As always, we suggest that you read the rules before entering your work. Also note that this competition is open to adult residents of the United Kingdom only.

Website: Facebook - Windows Phone

Briony Campbell and Sam Ledger have scooped the top prizes in the first annual Bar-Tur Award for new photography talent, taking home £2,000 each. Open to students and graduates of University of the Arts London, the Award challenged entrants to address one of four themes: the environment, identities, lifestyle and communication. The winning works were selected from over 2,000 images by a panel of judges including award-winning international portrait and documentary photographer Platon Antoniou, Tom Hunter, the first photographer to have a solo show at the National Gallery, Aidan Sullivan, Vice President of Photo Assignments at Getty Images, Caroline Metcalfe, Photography Director at Conde Nast Traveller and Shelley Page, Head of International Outreach at Dreamworks.

International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) has announced the winners of the Spring edition of its 4Seasons competition, whose theme was ‘New Mornings’. Nick Shepherd was awarded first place for his stunning photograph of a large field of dandelion seed heads taken at dawn, as the sun emerges through the clouds, highlighting the sea of white seed heads against the awakening landscape (above). Second place was awarded to Gerard Leeuw and third prize to Jennifer Spencer for their captivating misty morning shots. The winning entries can be viewed online at the website below. The theme for the ongoing Summer competition is ‘Weather Eye’, and the deadline for entries is 31st August.

The winners of the June 2011 Photography Blog Competition have been announced. The theme for June was “Clouds” - you can view all of the entries in this gallery. Here are the 5 winners:

1st Place
The English Channel by Kurt

Prize: X-Rite ColourChecker Passport
Kindly donated by X-Rite
http://www.xritephoto.com/

East London printing lab theprintspace has launched a photo contest on Facebook. Competition II has no theme, so photographers can enter their best work regardless of genre or subject. The winner will receive a day at professional photo studio the Slaughterhouse, worth £220 and a one-day photo course of his/her choice at Photography Course London worth up to £129. The finalists get their image printed on an Earth Positive organic t-shirt from icon printing. Entering the II competition is easy. Everyone, who wants to participate, just needs to go to theprintspace’s Photography Competition Facebook group, become a member and upload 1 image. The entries are judged by a panel of 4 professional photographers including Calum Macdiarmid, Laura Pannack, Linda Brownlee and Niko Mitrunen. The competition runs until the end of this month.

Photography Blog has partnered with Bing to give away an exclusive collection of five signed prints from Dizzee Rascal’s curation of Bing’s homepage to launch its www.your-britain.com national photography competition. The images show the different places around Britain that have inspired Dizzee on his personal journey into making the music we love today.

The competition has now closed - Dan Chippendale is the winner of the five signed prints from Dizzee Rascal.

If you feel inspired by Dizzee’s collection and want to enter the Your Britain competition with your photography of Britain, please go to www.your-britain.com where you can also win £10,000 and have your image displayed on the BING’s home page to over 16 million people.

Both competitions closed at midnight on Friday 24th June.

Photo-games site Phoozl.com today launched the “Summer” edition of the “Alphabetography Photo Challenge: the Four Seasons” contest. The challenge runs for approximately 45 days to its conclusion on 7 August. The concept is the following: photo enthusiasts submit photos that apply or relate to the current letter that’s in play. So during the “S” letter period, for instance, participants upload photos that are associated with a word starting with the letter “S”. When the gameplay moves to “U”, “U” photos are submitted. And so on through the six letters of the word “Summer”. Contest participants need only a Facebook account to enter, and they must be at least 18 years old. Photo submissions are acceptable from anywhere in the world, and there are no restrictions on when photos are taken or if they have been manipulated.

Photogenic Professional Lighting has announced it is sponsoring Rangefinder’s Seeing the Light Lighting Photo Contest. The contest offers professional and novice photographers the opportunity to showcase their best images. The three entry categories include available light, studio and small flash. Entries will be judged on the basis of creativity, photographic quality and effectiveness in expressing the contest theme. Each of the three category winners will receive the new Photogenic PowerLight PL625DR 250 Ws Monolight with a PLIRC-2 Wireless Remote Control and a PLDIR-2 Infrared Receiver. The contest deadline is 1st July. For more information on the contest or to submit an entry, visit the website below. Note that entry fees apply. As always, we suggest that you read the rules before entering your work.

Creative Review Magazine is running a Photography Annual competition. The contest, which is open to professional photographers and agencies, aims to be the “definitvie collection of the best work of the year in commercial photography”. There are several categories including Personal, Advertising, Conceptual, Design, Editorial and Moving Image. The deadline for entries is 22 August 2011. Please note that entry fees apply (£50 for a single entry, £70 for a series of up to 6 related images).

Website: Creative Review

Brett Ratner, one of Hollywood’s most successful directors, producers and photographers is inviting aspiring photographers to work with him on a photo shoot with Treats! Magazine in Los Angeles. If interested, submit one original portrait photograph displaying your creativity through the Talenthouse website. The submission deadline is 25th July. Online voting starts the next day and lasts until 1st August. Brett Ratner and Treats! Magazine will choose the winner from all qualified submissions with special consideration for the top-voted entries. As always we suggest that you read the terms and conditions and submission guidelines before entering your work.

Website: Talenthouse

The prize packages for the Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) contest have been announced. Prizes include trips to Marrakech, Oman, Botswana and Cambodia, cash bursaries and a paid photographic commission in England and Scotland. The overall winner of the awards will be given a unique personal showcase within the TPOTY exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in the summer of 2012. The showcase will contain not just their eight TPOTY-winning images but also a selection of their other, non-TPOTY work. For more details, see the full announcement below.

The Federation of European Professional Photographers (FEP) is reminding interested photographers that the deadline for the FEP European Professional Photographer of the Year Awards 2011 is 31st July. There are six categories, including wedding; commercial; portrait; reportage; landscape and illustrative, plus there are separate sections for non-European photographers and students. For more information visit the website below.

Website: FEP Federation of European Professional Photographers