G-Technology have launched the Driven Creativity Competition 2011. Winners and runners-up will be awarded stylish G-Technology hard drives and the overall winner will receive €5,000. To enter, simply upload a photo with a brief description. Using an online peer voting system, a shortlist of 15 professional and amateur finalists will be compiled before being judged by a panel of creative experts

The Big Issue in the North Trust is inviting photography enthusiasts living in Liverpool and Manchester to take part in its Photo Marathon challenge. Photographers will have eight hours to take eight photographs, on two sets of four topics that are being kept secret until the day of the marathon, Saturday 2 July in Manchester and Saturday 16 July in Liverpool. Entrants are being asked to make a donation of £15 to The Big Issue in the North Trust to enter the marathon. Prizes include a two day photography workshop courtesy of Manchester Academy of Photography, alongside theatre tickets, art prints and more.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is calling for young photographers to enter this year’s prestigious RSPCA Young Photographer Awards. This year there are two new categories: the first one is for photos that illustrate how animals make people’s lives better, while the second one is called Garden Wildlife. A brand new website has also been set up to make it easier to take part and stay up to date with the competition. The overall winner of the Awards will go on an amazing three-day photography break with top wildlife photographer Danny Green, courtesy of Natures Images. Olympus cameras worth up to £500 are also up for grabs for the winners and runners up in each category. For more details and to enter visit the website below.

The Master Photographers Association has launched the new style 2011 Master Photography Awards. This year sees a change in submission method, plus 8 new, or updated, categories, and the brand new title of ‘International Master Photographer of the Year’. The Master Photography Awards are the most prestigious awards for photography in the UK, and are open to all qualified members of the Association.

he second phase of the Manfrotto Imagine More Contest has begun. The time has come for consumers living in France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, the UK and the United States to upload a single, unique, creative or inspiring photographic interpretation of what “Imagine More” means to them, to Facebook, Flickr or the Manfrotto Imagine More website. The best shots will be combined with the winning tweets from the first phase of the manifesto to create the Imagine More Manifesto a short film directed by acclaimed photographer and director, Bill Frakes. Winners of both phases of the contest will be rewarded with an exclusive trip to Venice for the 2011 Venice Film Festival. The submission deadline is 14th July. As with every competition, we suggest that you read the rules before entering your work.

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

1st Place
Babies by Vab

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

The World Photography Organisation (WPO) today announced that the Sony World Photography Awards 2012 are now open for entries. The awards include a Professional competition, which invites entries from the world’s leading photographers and ‘serious enthusiasts’, and an Open competition for everyone with an interest in photography. For the 2012 awards, a ‘Nature & Wildlife’ category has been introduced to the Professional competition and there are no less than three new categories in the Open competition including ‘Enhanced’, ‘Split Second’ and ‘Low-light’. The submission deadline is 4 January 2012. For full details, visit the website below.

PicStop has launched a photography competition with the theme, “People”. Open to residents of the United Kingdom & Ireland only, the competition allows you to submit up to three photographs. The first prize is a 4-day portrait & wedding photography workshop valued at £1020. The location for this course is the beautiful Chatsworth House & Gardens in Derbyshire. The second prize is a Black Rapid RS-7 Fast Camera Strap & Tamrac 5515 Adventure Zoom 5 SLR camera case, while the third prize is a Samsonite Trekking Premium DFV 90 camera / gadget bag.The submission deadline is 30th June. As always, we suggest that you read the terms and conditions before entering your work.

Website: PicStop Photography Competition - “People”

Jessops are giving away a Sony W360 camera on their Facebook page. You just need to upload a photo that captures “your perfect moment”. The final closing date for entries is Friday 30th June at 12.00 noon.

Save the Redwoods League has launched an online photo contest to raise awareness and protect redwood forests. The competition invites US residents to “capture every angle of the redwood forest, from the smallest critters inhabiting the forest floor to the magnificence of the tree canopy,” for a chance to win one of the following prizes: a one-day interpretive tour of Redwood National Park for four, a guided day hike for two, and four tickets to ride the Skunk Train through the redwoods. The submission deadline is 24 June 2011. For contest rules and information, visit the website below.

Grammy Award-winning Soundgarden is launching a 17-city summer tour and is inviting aspiring photographers to submit their best photograph of an event for the chance to join the band on one date of the tour. Soundgarden will choose 17 winners from all qualified submissions with special consideration for the top voted entries. Each winner will be given a VIP Guest Photo Pass for one date of Soundgarden’s 2011 North American tour to photograph the band during their live performance. (Note that travel and accommodation is the responsibility of each winner.) The submission deadline is 5 June 2011. As with every photography competition, we recommend that you read the rules before submitting your entry.

Website: Talenthouse / Photograph Soundgarden

Photographers wanting to show off their skills are invited by Serif to enter the new PhotoPlus competition, which runs until 26 June 2011. “We are calling photography enthusiasts across the world to submit photographs that they have improved using the extensive range of features in any version of our photo editing software, PhotoPlus,” says Gary Bates, Managing Director at Serif. Individuals entering the competition – sponsored by Jessops and Digital Photo magazine – will be in with a chance of winning over £1,800 worth of prizes including an HP laptop, a Sony Alpha A55 DSLR with an 18-55mm lens, the full suite of Serif software, a canvas print of their winning image and a year’s subscription to Digital Photo magazine. To take part, simply visit the website below. As always, we suggest that you read the rules before entering your work.

International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) is reminding interested photographers that the deadline for entries for the spring edition of its 4Seasons competition is 31st May. The theme is ‘New Mornings’ and the organisers are looking for fresh images illustrating new life, growth, and energy. To enter the competition, visit the website below. Do note that entries cost £10 for 4 images.

Canon USA has launched a new multi-dimensional marketing campaign, “Long Live Imagination,” which centres on a unique collaboration with one of Hollywood’s most influential directors, Ron Howard. Photographers of all levels are invited to submit their most imaginative photographs based on a series of movie themes for “Project Imagin8ion,” the first user-generated photo contest in history to ultimately inspire a Hollywood short film. “I’m known as a narrative storyteller, so when Canon approached me to partner on the ‘Long Live Imagination’ campaign, I was moved by the opportunity to collaborate with the masses, tapping into consumers’ creativity and using their photos as building blocks to produce a film,” said Howard. You have until 14th June to submit photos to inspire eight movie themes:  Setting, Time, Character, Mood, Relationship, Goal, Obstacle and the Unknown.

Lomography and the online cinema platform, MUBI, are heading to the Croisette to host the Lomography Mini Movie contest for movie directors at the Short Film Corner. The companies ask the directors of the Short Film Corner to tell them an imaginative concept for a mini movie snapshot and to present it to their Analogue Art Juror at the MUBI & Lomography booth. If the juror likes it, they will receive a free Lomography multilens camera and film and start to shoot their mini movie sequence at Cannes. The grand prize winner will be presented with a 3-day trip to Vienna, Austria to visit the Lomography Headquarters and the first working copy of the newest - top secret - Lomography camera, which will be launched summer 2011.

Camera Plus Pro invites its fans to participate in the Metamorphosis iPhone photography contest. “Metamorphosis is an exciting opportunity for both new and existing users of Camera Plus Pro to win an iPad 2 and thus sweeten their holiday season,” the company says. In this contest, users are required to capture photos and transform them into beautiful creations using Camera Plus Pro’s newly released filters.  The contest is open for submission until 22nd May. The winner will be announced on the 30th. For more details, visit the Global Delight website.

Burrard-Lucas Photography has launched a Landscape Photography Contest. This competition is open to participants worldwide, and there is no entry fee. Entrants may submit a maximum of three images to the contest The deadline for entries is 31 July 2011. The main prize is a Canon EOS 60D digital camera. Additionally, the winner will also receive a $100 gift voucher from Amazon, while two runners up will be presented with a $25 voucher each. For more information, visit the website below.

Website: Burrard-Lucas Photography - Landscape Photography Contest - 2011

Manfrotto has kicked off what it calls a “global conversation on how to share and express imagination through better images” by issuing the Imagine More Global Manifesto. This manifesto is just a single part of the Imagine More Initiative which includes a contest, “designed to give people across the globe a chance to re-define 21st century creativity, walk the red carpet and be recognised at the 2011 Venice Film Festival”. It is a user-generated process that involves consumers from the United Kingdom, the United States, China, France, Germany, Italy and Hong Kong. The first part of the contest from now until May 31, 2011, will aim to define the ten basic principles of imagination through user-generated tweets. The five best tweets will be coupled with tweets from celebrity talents to complete the manifesto text. The second part of the contest, from June 1- 15, 2011, gives more visual social recorders the opportunity to express and share their imagination by uploading their best photos to manfrottoimaginemore.com, Facebook and Flickr. Two winners – one from each part of the contest - will receive an exclusive trip to Venice for the next Film Festival.

he Artsicle Photography Show in New York City is an opportunity for American artists to show their photographs at a Chelsea gallery. Held at the World Monuments Fund Gallery located in the heart of Manhattan, this week-long exhibition will take place from 4th through 12th August. To take this opportunity, choose the three photographs that best represent your work and upload them to RocketHub - a launchpad and community for independent artists and entrepreneurs - along with a short written description. A panel of judges will then select the five best photographers who will be given an exclusive place in the exhibition and the option to sell at the gallery and to distribute work through Artsicle’s curated marketplace. The entry fee is $5.

Website: Artsicle Photography Show

The 2011 international Travel Photographer of the Year awards (TPOTY) are now open for entries. TPOTY 2011 has four Portfolio categories, two single-image categories, a New Talent award and the Young Travel Photographer of the Year award. The overall winner of the awards – the Travel Photographer of the Year 2011 – will be the photographer who submits the best entries in two of the four portfolio categories. Images can be submitted as prints or uploaded online. Entries for the 2011 TPOTY awards close on 9 October 2011. Entry fees start at £10 but Young TPOTY is free to enter. For more information visit the website below.