The 2017 World Press Photo Exhibition returns to Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall for the 21st year from 3–20 November 2017. The free exhibition brings together 152 winning photographs from the annual World Press Photo Awards, showcasing some of the most powerful, emotional and often disturbing press images of the year. This year’s winners were drawn from a bank of 80,408 images taken by 5,034 photographers from 125 countries. The subjects of the images on display are widely varied including documentation from rallies protesting police brutality, reports from war-torn terrains and striking images selected from nature and sports editorial.

To celebrate the launch of their new Instagram page, BenQ are offering one lucky follower the chance to win their SW2700PT monitor, worth £594. Designed to effortlessly and accurately showcase the creative vision of professional photographers, the SW2700PT is packed full of image enhancing features such as hardware calibration, 99% Adobe RGB colour space coverage and a 2560 x 1440 resolution IPS panel. To be in with a chance of winning a brand-new BenQ SW2700PT monitor, simply follow @inspiration_by_benq on Instagram by Monday 31st July 2017.

Canon today announced the UK launch of a World Press Photo virtual reality experience. In a bid to inspire a wider photography audience, users can explore the 45 best images of 2017 – and their incredible stories – at any time. The World Press Photo VR app is available for free download in the Oculus Store. Created by the makers of Canon’s photography management platform, irista, those who engage with the VR experience will see the winning photos displayed in a virtual gallery that evolves based on each users’ individual interaction with the photos. The unique VR experience, which provides a deeper insight into the stories behind the images, is narrated by Stuart Franklin, chair of the 2017 World Press Photo Content general jury.

The London Business School Photography Club has launched the LBS Photography Awards in partnership with Canon. Billed as "the first photography competition aimed at exploring how the way we do business transforms our lives, the environment and communities across the globe," the LBS Photography Awards accept submissions in three categories: Environment, Energy and Resources; Community Engagement and Human Development. The organisers are looking for photo stories that will inspire and promote projects with significant community, human or environmental impact. The submission deadline is 31st October. The best and most powerful images will be showcased in an exhibition in January 2018 at the London Business School, along with a series of talks and networking sessions.

Fuji North America today announced the relaunch of the long-standing Fujifilm sponsored Masterpiece Award on August 1, 2017. The Fujifilm 2017 Masterpiece Award will be awarded to a Professional Photographers of America (PPA) member residing in the USA and Canada in each of three separate categories – wedding, portrait and illustrative - whose work best represents the specific category of photography. Honoured photographers will be named in a national press release to be issued by Fujifilm. In addition, the Fujifilm 2017 Masterpiece Award recipients will receive a crystal glass trophy, a certificate of award, and a lapel pin.

Photography Blog have teamed up with Manfrotto to offer two lucky readers the chance to win some fantastic prizes.

1st Prize - Manfrotto Manhattan Mover 50 backpack and BeFree Color aluminium travel tripod

2nd Prize – Manfrotto XUME filter adapter (size of your choice)

UPDATE: The two lucky winners are Frances Sunshine Hopkins (1st Prize) and Miguel Costa (2nd Prize). Congratulations!

The Spirituality in Photography Award 2017 is a competition open to everyone seeking to take photographs with spiritual depth. All entrants will have their photographs displayed on www.spiritualityinphotography.com/ and shared via social media. A panel of judges – including London-based photographers Jay Rowden and Georgie Lord - will select what they believe to be the best entry to win the Spirituality in Photography Award, and a prize of £50 of Darton, Longman and Todd books. Each entrant is asked to submit a photograph which demonstrates spiritual insight or inspiration. The image may be accompanied by a caption of no more than 100 characters, but no further explanation. Photos of children aged less than 16 years old will only be accepted for entry if the consent form is accompanied by a letter of agreement for the child’s image to be published, signed by the child’s legal parent or guardian. The closing date for entries is 31st August and the winner will be announced by 30th September. Entry is limited to three photographs per person.

The first Historic Photographer of the Year Awards is now open to amateur and professional photographers around the world. Celebrating the very best historic places and cultural sites across the globe, the Historic Photographer of the Year Awards is a joint venture between two cultural brands, Trip Historic, the leading online travel guide to the world’s historic sites, and History Hit which brings unique content and insight from some of the UK’s best known historians and academics. Judging all entries will be a panel of experts including broadcaster and historian Dan Snow, All About History Magazine Editor-in-Chief James Hoare and David Gilbert, Chair of Creative United. Commenting on the Awards, Dan Snow said: “‘All of us on the panel of judges want to be wowed! We want to see images that astonish, evoke emotion and inspire people to visit new, exciting and fascinating places, not just in the UK but all over the world. The best advice I can give is that your shots should be original, beautiful and unique. Above all, we want you to tell the story of the world’s ancient landmarks through your sensational photography.” By taking part, photographers will get the chance to win a prize of £2,500 and have their winning image showcased across the media.

The Society of International Nature and Wildlife Photographers (SINWP) have announced the winners of the Creatures Great and Small Photography Competition. A photo by Michelle Howell from West Yorkshire, England was chosen as the overall winner. Shot on a Nikon D5100 with a Tamron SP 90mm F2.8 Di VC USD Macro 1:1 F004N lens, the winning image (reprinted above) is a macro shot of an Argentinean Ornate Horned Frog, taken in a reflection pool. Phil Jones, the Societies CEO said, “June's competition did not disappoint with the quality of images entered. Michelle's image of the horned frog captured the theme of the competition brilliantly.’’ Runners-up include Sheri Emerson from Newfoundland, Canada and Stuart Walker from Essex, England

Photography Blog have teamed up with Datacolor to offer you the chance to win a Spyder5CAPTURE PRO.

The lucky winner is Rick J Bryant. Congraulations!

About the prize

Datacolor's Spyder5CAPTURE PRO is the ultimate bundle that provides all the essentials needed to manage color from capture to editing in your photography workflow. Calibrate your camera and lenses with SpyderLENSCAL; use SpyderCUBE to control contrast and white balance; control color balance with SpyderCHECKR; and calibrate your monitor with Spyder5ELITE. You can find out more info about Spyder5CAPTURE PRO on Datacolor's website. 

The Spyder5CAPTURE PRO is available to purchase from Wex Photographic for £299.

How to enter the competition

To be in with a chance of winning the Spyder5CAPTURE PRO, all you have to do is follow Photography Blog on Twitter or visit the Photography Blog Facebook page between 22nd May and 19th June 2017 using the form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Kennel Club has announced the winners of its annual Dog Photographer of the Year competition. Now in its twelfth year, the international contest received almost 10,000 entries from 74 different countries around the globe. Maria Davison from Portugal has been selected as the overall winner of the competition with an image of an adorable puppy resting his head, which was placed first in the ‘Man’s Best Friend’ category. The other category winners were: Kaylee Greer from the United States, who won the ‘Dogs at Play’ category with a photo of Petey the Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier, playing on the south coast of Boston (reprinted above); Mirjam Schreurs from the Netherlands, who won the ‘Puppy’ category with a lovely image of Tyson the baby Boxer; Anastasia Vetkovskaya from Russia, who won the ‘Dog Portrait’ category with a stunning monochrome image of an Afghan Hound; Sarah Caldecott from Yorkshire who won the ‘Dogs at Work’ category with a muted portrait of Rita the Pointer on the moors of County Durham; ‘Young Pup Photographer’ winner, 8 year-old Dylan Jenkins from Swansea; Julian Gottfried from the United States who won the ‘I Love Dogs Because…’ category; and John Liot from Jersey, who won the ‘Oldies’ category with a relaxed portrait of 12 year-old rescue dog, Kelly. All of the winning images plus the photos that placed second and third for each category will be on display at the Kennel Club in London from 26th June until 31st August 2017.

ExpoImaging, creators of the innovative Rogue FlashBender 2 speedlight modifiers, have teamed up with Photography Blog to offer you the chance to win one of three XL Pro Lighting Systems.

The three lucky winners are: Claire Nutman, Sue H Jenkins and Frank Bramkamp. Congratulations!

After more than 1,800 entries lass summer, Jessops are bringing back their #ShareYourSummer campaign. From 1 June – 2 August, the company is offering 9 budding photographers the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase their work in 56 nationwide store windows on major UK high streets and shopping centres, plus an invite to an exclusive Jessops and Sony event, where the overall winner will be announced and set to receive an incredible £3,000 prize. Rob Murray, Marketing Director at Jessops comments: “Now running in its second year, our Share Your Summer campaign is designed to give photographers from all walks of life the opportunity to exhibit a photo they are really proud of across 56 Jessops shops in major UK cities, shopping centres and high streets. It is clear that the nation’s passion for photography is ever-present with people posting photographs daily on social media. However, it is rare that anyone would ever get the opportunity to share an exceptional image any further than this. We want everyone to have the opportunity to have their very own exhibition where all are invited to view it.”

As the first of its kind, the international E1|R1 Photo Award for professional photographers seeks the most beautiful and powerful photographs in the environment of the European long-distance paths, E1, for hikers, and R1 for cyclists. Entrants may submit photo series with at least three and at most four motifs to one of 4 categories including, “Culture and Landscape”, “Man and Nature”, “Sky and Earth” and “Animal and Nature”. The submission window opens on 1 December 2017 and closes on 31 March 2018. The winners in each individual category, the overall winner, as well as the winner of the prize for the promotion of young talent (chosen by the company Olympus) will be selected by a professional jury.

Canon is looking for someone to fill a very unique position as it begins its search for the ultimate storyteller. The lucky person will spend a year chasing summer across the globe in order to identify 365 inspiring stories.

The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation (KKF) today revealed the shortlisted entries for its annual photo book awards. Established in 1985, the KKF Book Awards are the UK’s leading prizes for books published in the fields of photography and the moving image and the two winners share a £10,000 prize. The shortlisted works were chosen by an international panel of leading photography professionals after an open call for submissions, and will be on display at Photo London, Somerset House from 18 until 21 May 2017. Click through / read on for more information on the shortlisted photography and moving image books.

Leica have announced that the submission phase for entries for the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Award’ photo competition (LOBA) has now closed. Approximately 2,700 photographers from a total of 104 different countries submitted entries to LOBA 2017. The majority of the entries received came from China, France, Brazil, Germany, Italy, South Korea and the USA. The international jury of experts will now judge the entries received and select the twelve finalists in the two categories of the competition, the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Award’ and the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award’. The winners of the 37th LOBA will receive their prizes at a gala event in Berlin in September. The work of all twelve finalists will then be displayed at a major exhibition in the ‘Neuen Schule für Fotografie’, Brunnenstrasse 188-190, 10119 Berlin.

The Felix Schoeller Group is reminding interested photographers that the submission deadline for the third international Felix Schoeller Photo Award is getting closer and closer. After 31 May 2017, one of the most prestigious photo contests for professional photographers in the German-speaking world, with a total prize pool of €25,000, is moving into the judging stage. Due to past experiences and an enormously increased number of registrations, it is recommended that entrants do not wait until the final hours to upload their work. The first shortlist will be announced at the beginning of August, and the awards ceremony will be held on 14th October.

The Epson International Pano Awards 2017 competition is now open for entries. Dedicated to the art of panoramic photography, the 8th Epson International Pano Awards is open to all professional and amateur photographers with a combined pool of more than $50,000, including $22,000 cash. Prizes include an Epson SureColor P7070 and an Epson SureColor P5070 printer, and an Epson EB-1776 ultra-slim projector. “Epson is proud to continue its support as the title partner of The International Pano Awards in 2017,” said Craig Heckenberg, General Manager, Business Division, Epson Australia. “Each year the competition continues to go from strength to strength and nothing highlights this better than the fact that the awards now attract entries from over 60 countries around the world. The images submitted are nothing short of spectacular and I am confident 2017 will raise the bar once again.” For the first time ever, Nikon is now also sponsoring the Awards. Early-bird entries are open now until Sunday, 9 July 2017.

Entries are now open for the 2017 international Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) awards. Amateur, semi-pro and professional photographers of all ages and from all countries are invited to enter until the closing date on September 25th. Entries can be submitted online via tpoty.com or as prints. Entry fees are £8.00 for the One Shot single image categories, £15 for portfolio and New Talent categories and entry for Young TPOTY is free. This year’s jury features judges from the UK, USA, Italy, Germany and Malaysia, including the award-winning photographer and picture editor Eamonn McCabe – recently seen presenting the BBC TV Series ‘Britain in Focus: A Photographic History’ – Michelle Jana Chan (Travel Editor, Vanity Fair magazine), Michael Pritchard (Director-General of the Royal Photographic Society) and TPOTY’s first judge in Asia, picture editor and filmmaker Cheryl Brophy-Chan. The TPOTY sponsors Fujifilm, Genesis Imaging, Hurtigruten, Páramo Directional Clothing, Photo Iconic, Plastic Sandwich and the Royal Photographic Society - joined by new sponsor Jack Wills - have provided a prize package worth around £30,000, and the winning photographers will see their work displayed at TPOTY exhibitions in the UK and overseas in 2018, including at the University of Greenwich in London’s magnificent Maritime Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site. Click through / scroll down for more information.