We've teamed up with Samsung to give away a fantastic 60mm F2.8 Macro ED OIS SSA Lens (Black) worth £500!

The lucky winner is Dimitris Tsanaktsidis. Congratulations!

Here’s a lens ready for its close-up: the Samsung 60mm macro lens. It comes equipped with a supersonic actuator for fast, silent and precise auto focusing — perfect for the amateur entomologist looking to capture an amazing image of a fluttering butterfly. And thanks to its internal focusing system, the lens barrel remains fixed. So you can get right up close to your tiny little subjects without startling them and capture stunning details that can’t be seen with the naked eye.

The winners of the 'Seasonal Snaps' photography competition organised by the New Forest National Park Authority have been announced. The contest attracted over 4,300 votes across 222 photos between 6 and 20 November, and the winners were chosen by a public vote on the National Park Authority’s Facebook page. Alan Sutton, from Pennington, near Lymington, won the main prize for his picture of a stag among bracken named ‘the roar of the wild’ (above). Second prize went to Karen Woodward, Sandy Bemister came third and in fourth place was Linda Lucas-Kenny.

Sergio Bonagamba has been chosen as the lucky winner! Congratulations!

We’ve teamed up with online photography supplies and electronic store, 7DayShop for a 1 terabyte SD Card and Micro SD Card product bundle giveaway featuring:

7 x 128Gb Cards
1 x 64Gb Card
1 x 32Gb Card
1 x 8xGb Card

Worth a total value of £250 for one lucky winner!

Founded in 1998, 7dayshop has become an established household brand and online retailer of photography, electronics and computer accessories.  

7DayShop’s dedicated team of professional buyers source the highest quality products at the most competitive prices for well over a million happy customers. 7DayShop also manufacture own-branded SD memory cards, batteries, ink cartridges, photography accessories and equipment and many other gadgets, household electronic devices and accessories.

The 5 lucky winners are Samsul Arifin, Simon Slavik, Tomislav Buza, Leanne Lunn and Rob. Congratulations!

We’ve teamed up with Alpine Labs to give away a smartphone-programmable Michron time-lapse device to 5 lucky winners!

The Michron provides an affordable entry point for enthusiast photographers into stationary time-lapse photography.

It connects to the majority of DSLR and mirrorless cameras and are programmed by a simple smartphone interface that enables the user to walk away with their smartphone after programming. This leaves the user free to play with their smartphone while the camera captures the time-lapse footage.

To find out more about Alpine Labs, visit http://alpinelaboratories.com/ 

The lucky winner is Aris Garinis. Congratulations!

We’ve teamed up with Vanguard to give away an Alta CA AGH tripod, worth $180!

The Vanguard Alta CA 234AGH tripod kit is designed to meet the requirements of any enthusiast photographer, especially those wanting a great combination of portability and stability with a pistol grip head.

This aluminium tripod kit is extremely lightweight at under 1.7kg and the legs have four sections that enable it to fold down to just over 57cm, making it extremely portable. Despite this it still features an unrivalled loading capacity of 5kg and extends to just below 1.6m making it extremely versatile.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The winners of the UK’s ‘Landscape Photographer of the Year’ competition have been announced. All of the winning and commended photographs from the competition can be found in the Awards book ‘Landscape Photographer of the Year: Collection 8’ by AA Publishing. The overall winner is Mark Littlejohn and his photo of a small, transient stream created by heavy rain and dwarfed by the might of Glencoe’s mountains. “When I got the call, I was in a cafe in Tynemouth and it was a surreal experience to say the least," Mark Littlejohn said. "When you enter the competition you hope against hope that you will get an image in the book and you can't really consider the possibility that you will win." The exhibition of winning entries will be held on the recently-built Mezzanine at Britain’s busiest station, London Waterloo, which will showcase the very best of the British countryside in the very heart of the capital. Not only will the photographs appear on display stands across the balcony but will also make an appearance on Motion@Waterloo, a 40m wide LCD screen which is the largest single indoor screen in the UK and spans the station from platforms 7 to 11. Opening on Monday, December 1 st 2014, the exhibition is hosted by Network Rail and will run for nine weeks, closing on January 31st 2015. Admission is free.

Now you have a chance to start your own photo portfolio or personal blog: TemplateMonster is giving out 3 premium WordPress themes for free!

This competition has now CLOSED. The three lucky winners are:

#3 Niklas Henriksson
#8 Tate
#11 Ryan Holman

WordPress is the most popular Content Management System for blogs, portfolios and business websites – stable, modern, extendable. TemplateMonster is one of the oldest providers of professional WordPress themes. Today we are starting the giveaway, after which 3 winners will get their premium themes with all their benefits – professional design, fully responsive layout and free 24/7 support.

The Outdoor Photographer of the Year (OPOTY) 2014 Competition is now open for entry. This year, there are 6 categories including "Light on the Land," "Wildlife Insight," "Light the Adventure," "At the Water's Edge," "Small World" and "Under Exposed." There is an £8 fee for entry into each category. You can enter as many categories as you like, but each entrant is limited to eight images per category per entry fee – you can enter a category more than once if you wish to submit more than eight images to a category. Photographers aged 18 or under can enter their pictures in the "Young OPOTY 2014" contest free of charge. The closing date for entries is 14th December. The overall winner of OPOTY 2014 will be off to the Arctic on the Fjällräven Polar dog sled expedition in spring 2015. As always we suggest that you read the terms and conditions before entering your work. Photograph: At The Water's Edge by David Baker

The organisers are reminding interested photographers that there is still time to enter this year’s South West Coast Path photo contest. Amateur and professional photographers are encouraged to enter their best pictures of the Coast Path in this annual photo competition, which closes on 31 December 2014. Prizes include a One Night Luxury Spa Break at Carbis Bay Hotel & Spa, Cornwall and a gift voucher towards products from the website of the contest's professional judge, David Noton.

The winners of the fiftieth Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition have now been announced. American photographer Michael ‘Nick’ Nichols was named Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2014 by a panel of international judges for his serene black-and-white image of lions resting with their cubs in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park (above). Eight-year-old Carlos Perez Naval was awarded Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2014 for his image of a scorpion soaking up the Sun near his hometown in Spain. The winning images will be on show at the Museum with other shortlisted pictures from Friday 24 October until Sunday 30 August 2015. The exhibition will then embark on an international tour across six continents.

We’ve teamed up with Vanguard to give away an Alta Pro AB100 tripod, worth $250!

Steven has been randomly chosen as the lucky winner - congratulations!

The Alta Pro 263AT tripod and SBH 100 ball head are an impressive pair. Alta Pro tripods have unmatched stability and flexibility, enabling more angle possibilities than ever before. Its innovative Multi-Angle Central Column (MACC) System allows users to move the central column from zero to 180-degree angles in variable vertical and horizontal positions making macro-photography and special wide-angle shots a breeze.The Instant Swivel Stop-n-Lock (ISSL) System securely repositions the central column in one simple movement, in just a few seconds, while maintaining the tripod’s stability. Additional tripod features include advanced camera vibration and shock control, aluminum alloy legs that adjust to 25, 50 and 80-degree angles, quick-flip leg locks, patented premium magnesium die-cast canopy, hexagon-shaped central column for extra stability, and non-slip, spiked rubber feet for changing terrains. Its SBH-100 fluid-like ball head rotates 360 degrees and has smooth locking knobs,and an outstanding loading capacity.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Sony World Photography Awards and Sony UK today launched a competition to discover the nation’s best photographer. The UK National Award is open to photographers of all abilities from the UK. Photographers can enter any of ten categories including Architecture, Arts & Culture, Enhanced, Low-light, Nature & Wildlife, Panoramic, People,  Smile, Split second and Travel. The judges, including Nigel Atherton, Editor in Chief at Amateur Photographer, will uncover and honour the best single image by a photographer from the United Kingdom from across these categories. The winner of the UK National Award will be announced on 18 March 2015.  The winning photographer will receive the latest photographic equipment from Sony, while two further photographers will receive runners-up prizes. Entries are free via the website below.

The second edition of the Life Framer photography prize has just been launched. Life Framer is an international photography prize designed to source and showcase outstanding photography from amateur, emerging and established photographers. Entrants can win various cash prizes and have their work exhibited in London, Paris and Los Angeles. The judging panel is comprised of 12 world-renowned photographers and industry leaders. The submission deadline is 31 October 2014. For more information, visit the website below.

We’ve teamed up with SanDisk for a product bundle giveaway featuring the Ultra Dual USB Drive and newly upgraded Ultra microSDXC UHS-I and Extreme SDXC UHS-I memory cards - a total value of $490 for one lucky winner!

The contest has now closed and the lucky winner is Alex Hooley. Congratulations!

Today, users are capturing photos and videos on more devices than ever, ranging from digital cameras and smartphones to tablets and action cams. So now is your chance to grab some news products that will help you save and transfer content for a number of host devices. The SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card, Extreme SDXC UHS-I card and Ultra Dual USB Drive make the perfect bundle to tackle storage restrictions and safely store and transfer photos, videos, music and more!

SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive 64GB

The Ultra Dual USB Drive allows you to easily transfer files between Android™ smartphones and tablets, PC and Mac computers, freeing up space for photos, videos and more! You can listen to more music, share more videos and photos, and watch HD movies—without worrying about filling up your phone’s internal memory!

SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I 128GB

The Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card is perfect for today’s Android™ smartphone and tablet users who want the highest storage capacity available. With 128GB capacity, the SanDisk Ultra microSD™ UHS-I card allows you to capture, carry and keep it all with you without having to figure out what to delete. With an improved write speed of up to 48MB/s, you save even more time transferring photos and videos from the card to your computer.

SanDisk Extreme SDXC UHS-I 128GB

The Extreme SDXC UHS-I card offers enough speed, capacity, and durability to meet the demands of advanced photographers and passionate shutterbugs alike. The Extreme line now features 60 MB/s write and 40 MB/s read speeds in addition to 30 MB/s sustained write speed (U3) that gives users the speed and capacity to capture video that looks great on Full HD or 4K Ultra HD video screens.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Nikon Europe has announced the 35th annual Nikon Photo Contest is now open for entries. Held annually since 1969, the prestigious Nikon Photo Contest has been expanded with four new challenges and will be judged by a globally diverse panel of 17 judges. The overall winner of the Grand Prize in the Photograph and Video categories will receive a trophy, a certificate for Nikon products valued at ¥1,000,000 and a ¥500,000 cash prize. First place winners in each themed category will receive a trophy, certificate and Nikon products valued at ¥500,000 in cash. For details of prizes for all categories, visit the website below.

Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) is reminding interested photographers that the deadline for entries for the 2014competition is getting closer and closer. With three portfolio categories, three single image categories, a New Talent award, HD video category and the Travel Photographer of the Year and Young Travel Photographer of the Year titles to win, amateur and professional photographers of all ages and from all countries have plenty of themes and options to choose from.  Entry to the awards costs from £7.50, and entry to Young Travel Photographer of the Year is free. Entry is via image upload to the website below or by prints, and HD Video category entries are via DVD.

Paloma Faith has launched an art collaboration with Talenthouse, inviting photographers and other creatives from around the world to design their own interpretation of Paloma’s third album ‘A Perfect Contradiction.’ Paloma and a team of judges including celebrated British portrait and fashion photographer Rankin, and representatives from Liberty department store will judge the collaboration. Using her current artwork (originally designed and photographed by David Standish), music and general persona for inspiration, Paloma is looking for you to come up with your own eye catching design. There are no limitations on medium, however it needs to be a design that can later be turned into a limited edition poster. Photographers have until October 2014 to enter their work through the website below.

The Society of International Travel and Tourism Photographers (SITTP) have announced the winners of the “On the Road” Photography Competition. The overall winner is Jonathan Millard from Bristol, with his image, "Eurotunnel" (reprinted above). "My photo was taken en route to a skiing holiday this year to the French Alps with friends and our 10 month old daughter," Jonathan says. "We decided to drive from Bristol, which meant my first ride on the Eurotunnel. Luckily there was quite a bit of room behind the last car in our carriage, and so I thought putting the camera on the ground with a fairly wide angle would make for an interesting perspective. It was one of many holiday photos!" The runners-up are Jim Shepka from New Hampshire, USA and Chris Upton from Nottinghamshire, England.

Hasselblad has announced Hasselblad Masters Volume 4 Evolve, a 240-page hardback priced at €79.90 / $95.00 / £65.00, which will be published by teNeues in September 2014. Over the past few years, the company has provided funding the prestigious Masters photography contest, which honours both established top photographers and outstanding newcomers. In 2014, the theme of the competition was “Evolve.” In Hasselblad Masters Volume 4, twelve photographers present their stunning images on the subject, with accompanying text in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Chinese. The winners were selected from nearly 4,000 applicants and were given the opportunity to portray their ideas with high-end Hasselblad equipment.

The winner of the inaugural International Landscape Photographer of the Year  is Christian Fletcher from Western Australia. "My aim was to produce striking images from the air that had an industrial theme," Christian says. "As a photographer I feel it is my duty to capture the world we live in, be it pristine wilderness or industrial oblivion. Both are inspiring in a photographic sense but only one is sustainable."