Six teenagers from across England are after your vote in the RSPCA’s prestigious Young Photographer Awards (YPA) after being shortlisted for the competition’s People’s Choice Award. The RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) organises this competition every year to give children and adolescents a chance to win one of a number of prizes with their pet photographs. The six young photographers shortlisted for the People’s Choice Award have been picked from thousands of entrants. You can see their phorographs at the website below, and you can submit your vote by texting ‘RSPCA 01’ through ‘RSPCA 06’ to 81400 (click through / read on to find out which code belongs to the photo you like the most).

Website: RSPCA’s People’s Choice Finalists on The Daily Express Website

Epson has announced the Epson Red Sea 2009 event, which will take place on November 9-14th in Eilat, Israel. The competition is open for all underwater photographers, including amateurs, professionals, videographers and more, and consists of two main categories. The first is called Images of the World, in which participants are invited to submit images that were shot anytime and anywhere around the world, without even attending the competition. The second category is called Eilat Shoot-Out, in which participants submit only images that are taken during the three days of this competition in Eilat. Prizes this year are valued at more than $80,000 and include luxurious diving trips in exotic destinations, expensive diving gear, professional underwater photography equipment and cash prizes. The first prize this year, one of many others, is a $10,000 check plus a trip for two to Papua New Guinea for 3 weeks including airfare.

X-Rite launches a Show Us Your Munki contest, featuring its ColorMunki product, designed to deliver color perfection in digital imaging. The Show Us Your Munki contest, which runs October 1, 2009–March 31, 2010, is simple. Make a side-splitting video with ColorMunki as a prominent “character”, and submit it on the X-Rite YouTube channel. Every month, prizes will be awarded to videos with the most views: 50USD (to buy your Munki a drink or two,) 150USD (to take your favorite Munki to dinner;) and 500USD (to take your Munki away for the weekend.) All monthly winners are eligible for the grand prize of 2,500USD, awarded at the end of the contest in March.

Website: Show Us Your Munki Competition

The Royal Photographic Society has announced the winners for the 2009 International Projected Image Exhibition Awards. Amateurs, students and professional photographers worldwide were invited to submit digital images and slides in three categories, General Digital, Nature Digital and Open Slide. The winning entry of the General Digital category is Barbara Hill’s work, “In the Spotlight”. In the Nature Digital category, the Gold Medal was awarded to Kwong Hui for his photograph, “Pied Advocet” (see above). The Open Slide category winner is Peter Watson, who won the award for his image entlitled, “Temple Sweeper, Agra”.The winning images will form part of The Society’s 2009 International Projected Image Exhibition, which opens at The Lecture Theatre, Chester Zoo on 25th October 2009; and tours the UK and Republic of Ireland until March 2010.

Blurb seeks entries for the first-ever Best Blurb Books Contest. Submissions will be accepted through October 22, 2009. Beginning October 23, the public can cast their votes for their favorite books submitted. One vote per person per category will be accepted through November 9. Once public voting is closed, one judge in each category will select a grand prize winner and a runner-up from among the Blurb books that received the most votes. There is no cost to enter the Best Blurb Books Contest other than the cost to purchase one copy of the book you design and submit.
Photo books can be entered at the website below in one of three categories - family, pets, or travel - for a shot at one of three $3,000 grand prizes or one of three $1,000 runner-up prizes. As always, we recommend that you read the rules before entering your photography book.

Website: Blurb Books Photography Book Contest

Work by twelve of the world’s leading photographers, one of whom will receive this year’s Prix Pictet photography prize for environmental sustainability will go on display for the first time at Purdy Hicks Gallery, London from 5 to 7 October. The Prix Pictet is an annual search for photographs that communicate powerful messages of global environmental significance under a broad theme. This year that theme is ‘Earth’. Photographers shortlisted for the £60,000 prize are Darren Almond, Christopher Anderson, Sammy Baloji, Edward Burtynsky, Andreas Gursky, Naoya Hatakeyama, Nadav Kander, Ed Kashi, Abbas Kowsari, Yao Lu, Edgar Martins and Chris Steele-Perkins. This London preview is two weeks in advance of the prize announcement and exhibition opening at the Passage de Retz in Paris on 22 October and a world tour of the exhibition. The Purdy Hicks Gallery is located at 65 Hopton Street, Bankside, London SE1 9GZ, and the opening hours are 10am - 6pm.

Sony is reminding interested photographers that the 2010 Sony World Photography Awards is open for entries. With categories for both professional and amateur photographers, the Sony World Photography Awards is one of the world’s largest photographic events. The awards are a platform for both established and emerging photographers and in 2009 the competition attracted over 60,000 entrants from 139 different countries. The competition for professional photographers incorporates 12 categories across three genres – commercial, fine art and photojournalism/documentary. The overall winner will take the L’Iris D’Or title together with $25,000 along with Sony camera equipment. The 36 category finalists will then be exhibited in galleries across the world as part of the Sony World Photography Awards Global Tour throughout 2010 and 2011. New for the 2010 awards, a documentary category has been introduced for amateur photographers. Whether documenting a person, place or current issue, the category is looking for an image which captures momentous occurrences of every day life. From the nine categories, one photographer will be chosen as the Sony World Photography Awards Amateur Photographer of the Year and win a grand prize of $5,000 and Sony camera equipment. Click through / read on for the full list of categories and key dates.

Fodor’s Travel announced the latest in their series of travel photography contests, “Show Us Your Greece,” where North American visitors to Fodors.com will have the opportunity to upload and share their favourite photos of Greece with other visitors and the chance to win prizes, including Fodor’s guides.  One grand prize winner will have his/her photograph featured in Fodor’s Greece or Fodor’s Greek Islands and will receive a suite of Fodor’s latest full-color guides. Ten runners up will win two Fodor’s guides of their choice and all winning photos will be featured in an online gallery. Photo submissions will be accepted at www.Fodors.com/contest/Greece/ from September 14 to October 5, 2009. As with other Fodor’s travel photo contests, only US and Canadian residents (excluding those living in Quebec) are eligible to win. We encourage you to read the rules in full before entering your work.

North American visitors to fodors.com have until the end of this month to enter their favourite photos of America’s National Parks in the “Show Us Your National Parks” photo contest. Ten winners will receive a copy of The National Parks by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns as well as a Fodor’s guide of their choice. Photographs will be considered for inclusion in upcoming editions of Fodor’s National Parks guides and all winning photos will be featured in an online gallery. You must be an 18+ user of fodors.com and reside in the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) to be eligible to win. As usual, we encourage you to read the rules before entering your work.

Partnering with the NSPCC and their ChildLine service to support the Child’s Voice Appeal, PhotoBox has announced its 2009 Young Photographer of the Year competition. The contest launched on September 8th and aims to capture the world of young people through their own eyes. It will be judged by an expert panel including renowned photographers, Annabel Williams and Charlie Waite along with senior representatives from NSPCC and PhotoBox. Children are encouraged to enter via http://youngphotographer.photobox.com and their photographs will be grouped under four age categories - under 8 yrs, 9-12 yrs, 13-15 yrs or 16-18 yrs with different prizes for each.

Rafal Milach, a professional photographer from Warsaw, Poland, was awarded the $25,000 Grand Prize, sponsored by Hewlett-Packard, in the second annual Photography.Book.Now competition for his photography book, “Black Sea of Concrete.” Mr. Milach created his body of work about contemporary Ukraine while shooting with 8 other photographers from the Sputnik Photos collective. Commissioned by the Belgian-based NGO Altemus, Mr. Milach focused on the Black Sea coastline during the bitter winter of 2008. Mr. Milach edited the work and worked with graphic and book designer Ania Nalecka, with whom he has collaborated on two other photography volumes. This year’s Photography.Book.Now competition featured more than 2,400 entries from 50 countries around the world. Out of 2,400 submissions, the top 85 books are acknowledged as top prize winners and Honourable Mentions. Click through / read on for a list of category winners, first and second runners-up and People’s Choice award winners.

Harman technology, the company behind the Ilford Photo brand, has announced the “Image on a Box Photographic Competition 2009 – North America”. The competition, whose theme is ‘Fine Art’, is open to US and Canadian residents. Entries must be shot on ILFORD DELTA 400 Professional film and printed on any ILFORD black and white photographic paper. The closing date for the competition is June 30, 2010. The first prize is US $1000 worth of Ilford Photo’s black-and-white products.

Website: Image on a Box

Canon USA has just launched the “Why Do You Love Football” Photo Challenge. Football fans are invited to express their love for football through photography and submit their best youth football photos, which could earn the winning photographer a trip to attend Super Bowl XLIV in South Florida. The amateur photo contest features two categories; “Action” and “Feature.” The “Action” category focuses on any image that captures football action during game play, while the “Feature” category comprises any football imagery outside of game action on the field. The closing date for entries is December 2, 2009.

Fujifilm has announced its support for, and sponsoring of, the Reinforest Allience’s second “Picture Sustainability” photo contest. Fujifilm will be providing Fujifilm FinePix digital cameras as part of the prizes that winners will receive. “Fujifilm is pleased to support this meaningful event as part of its ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability,” said Lauren Restuccia Fujifilm’s Corporate Communications Manager. The contest will run until November 1, 2009 and winners will be announced on December 15, 2009. Photographers can enter by visiting the website below. Do note that all photos are considered donations to the Rainforest Alliance to be used in the organisation’s publications and Web site.

Website: Rainforest Alliance Photo Contest

iStockphoto has announced the nine winners of its Punctum Day competition, now in its third year. This year’s categories included best photo, vector, video, Flash and design of the year with audio included for the first time. The top 10 finalists from each category were selected from a pool of more than 1.75 million entries. The Photo of the Year category winner is Vladimir Piskunov, who receives the award for his entry entitled “Full Moon Calling” (see above). Piskunov, like the other category winners, will receive a cash prize of $5,000.

Fodor’s Travel and Tourism Ireland have announced the co-sponsorship of a travel photography contest, “Show Us Your Ireland.” From August 17 through September 21, North American visitors to Fodors.com will have the opportunity to upload and share their favourite photos and experiences of the Emerald Isle with other travellers. One grand prize winner will have his or her photograph featured in the next edition of Fodor’s Ireland and will receive a suite of Fodor’s latest full-colour guides. Ten runners up will win two Fodor’s guides of their choice and all winning photos will be featured in an online gallery at Fodors.com. Photo submissions will be accepted at Fodors.com through September 21, 2009. The contest is open to legal Canadian (excluding Quabec) and US residents aged 18 or older only. As always, you are advised to read the rules before entering your work.

Prestigio has announced the return of its International Photographic Award. The contest is open to amateur and professional photographs from all backgrounds, ages and levels of experience, and will be held from September 15th until November 30th 2009. To be eligible, all pictures must illustrate one of Prestigio’s brand values: Elegance, Performance or Inspiration. All pictures will be evaluated by a panel of professionals, and the most creative work will receive the Prestigio Grand Prix, $1000 cash prize. The Prestigio Corporate team will also decide upon the best picture in each category, and each winner will be awarded with $300 cash prize and a selected Prestigio product.

The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust is calling all budding photographers to get snapping at their local WWT Wetland Centre before the end of August for the chance to win Nikon equipment worth over £,1000 in the WWT Nikon Photography competition 2009. The competition aims to capture the variety of WWT’s nine centres across three categories: ‘WWT Nikon Photo of the Year’, ‘WWT Nikon Junior Photo of the Year’ and ‘WWT Nikon Digiscoping Photo of the Year’. The main rule of the competition is that all photos submitted must have been taken at one of the nine WWT centres in the UK. WWT is hoping that the competition will encourage people to visit a WWT centre and even help support the charity by joining as a member. Closing date for entries is Monday 7 September 2009.

Photographers have until 1st September 2009 to submit their entries to the 2009 Fujifilm Distinctions Awards. This year, the Awards are open to photographers right across the world. As in previous years the Awards has an open brief and is open to any photographer - professional, enthusiast or student. The only stipulation is that submissions must have been originated on film from Fujifilm’s range of professional or consumer films.

Website: 2009 Distinctions Awards

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Young Photographer Awards is stuill open for entries, but the final submission deadline is getting closer and closer. The overall winner of this year’s competition will win £1,000 worth of Olympus vouchers. This is in addition to the range of Olympus cameras on offer to the winners of categories including under 12 years, 12 to 18 years, pet personalities and the Olympus portfolio prize. The overall winner, picked from those who scoop the category titles, will also be given the chance to join the RSPCA’s award-winning chief photographer Andrew Forsyth on an exclusive photoshoot. Previous winners have been able to capture the magic of a seal release with their new cameras, while last year’s overall winner 12-year-old Molly Armiger enjoyed a day out helping release rehabilitated ducks and hedgehogs at the RSPCA’s East Winch Wildlife Centre. The deadline for entries is midnight on 7 September, 2009, for those submitted via www.rspca.org.uk/ypa or 5pm on 24 August, 2009, for postal entries.