VICE Magazine have teamed up with Olympus to stage a special photography project that aims to showcase the hidden creative talents of four cultural icons. This project celebrates the 50th birthday of the design of the classic Olympus Pen and marks the release of its digital successor, the new Olympus E?P1. For Stories of the Eye, Daisy Lowe, Alice Dellal, Miquita Oliver and Lovefoxxx will document their lives through the “eye” of the E?P1, according to their chosen themes. Over the course of six?weeks the girls will upload their photos to the campaign’s home, where users can browse the photos. The project is accompanied by a photographic competition, in which entrants upload their own photographs and each of the girls will be judging the submissions to find a winner for their theme. Each winner will be awarded a brand new Olympus E-P1 worth £699, and the opportunity to exhibit their photos next to Daisy, Alice, Miquita or Lovefoxxx’s photos at the Stories of the Eye exhibition.

Website: Stories of the Eye
Review: Read our in-depth review of the Olympus E-P1

Adventure Collection, an alliance of ten premium adventure travel companies has launched an adventure travel photo contest, “Adventures of a Lifetime”. The competition celebrate the launch of the alliance’s new website, AdventureCollection.com.  Grand prizes include five extraordinary trips - Adventure Collection journeys for two to Tibet, the Czech Republic, the Galapagos and other locations around the world. All adventure travellers are invited to enter their best adventure travel photos at Adventures of a Lifetime Photo Contest. Five contest finalists will be selected each month from August through November by popular vote. The winner will be chosen by a panel of distinguished travel journalists, editors and photographers, including Conde Nast Traveler consumer news editor Wendy Perrin, renowned photographer Robert Holmes, Jim Benning, founder and editor of the Travel Channel’s WorldHum.com, Los Angeles Times travel editor Catharine Hamm, and Adventure Collection editor in chief Don George. We recommend that you read the rules thoroughly before entering.

Nikon Corporation has announced the winners of the Nikon Photo Contest International 2008-2009. One of the world’s largest and most prestigious photo contests, the Nikon Photo Contest International, held since 1969 and staged every other year, provides an opportunity for photographers around the world to communicate and enrich photographic culture for professionals and amateurs alike. This year’s theme was Nikon’s brand statement, “At the heart of the image.” Peter G. Allinson, M.D, of Kingsville, MD, received first place in the “My Planet” category, for his work, entitled “Friends.” The Nikon Photo Contest International also recognised Danny Ghitis, of Brooklyn, N.Y., as one of four “Emerging Talents.” The full list of winners, along with their works, can be seen on the Nikon Photo Contest International website.

Website: Nikon Photo Contest International

If you’ve been craving a Panasonic GH1 ever since it came out, now’s your chance to win one by joining Panasonic’s LivingInHD community and uploading your favourite summer photos or videos that meet the weekly theme of their End of Summer Celebration. Entrants can also include a caption that provides viewers with helpful information about the content’s subject. The photos and videos uploaded to the site will spark ideas for summer weddings, roadtrips, vacations and foods, while giving members the chance to win their choice of either the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 digital camera (valued at $1,499.95) or a 50-inch VIERA G10 Series Plasma TV (valued at $1799.95). The End of Summer Celebration Giveaway contest runs through 6 September 2009.

Website: LivingInHD
Review: Read our in-depth review of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1

Dive Photo Guide has announced a series of online underwater photo contests, organised monthly. This contest is geared to promote friendly competition, to push photographers’ skills and to give photographers specific themes or subjects to shoot on their next dive. The monthly contest is free to enter and Dive Photo Guide will be giving away valuable prizes each month and a grand prize at the end of each year. Head to the website below for the details.

Website: Dive Photo Guide’s Monthly Underwater Photography Contest Series

Fodor’s Travel has announced the latest in their series of travel photography contests, “Show Us Your Argentina,” where visitors to Fodors.com will have the opportunity to upload their favorite photos of Argentina and the chance to win prizes. One grand prize winner will have his/her photograph featured in Fodor’s Argentina 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 at www.Fodors.com.  You have until 17 August 2009 to submit a photo. As always, you are encouraged to read the rules before entering.

Southern California photography instructor Ralph Velasco seeks the World’s Worst Photographer and is offering a Grand Prize Photography Learning Package as bait. Valued at over $1,000, the package consists of two private classes, five One on One PhotoWalkingTours, and more. Three runners up will each receive a single 2-hour, small group PhotoWalkingTour in Orange County and participation in both of Velasco’s classes with a small group, a package valued at over $135 each. Velasco encourages people to nominate any who they think has most room for improvement and would most likely benefit from his services. To find out how to nominate someone, read his full press release regarding this deliberately provocative offer after the break.

International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) has revealed the results of its Early Bird Competition, which was announced earlier this year. The theme of the 2009 contest was “In Full Bloom”, and the jury announced five talented photographers as winners: Anne Gilbert for her entry “Flowering Fruits’ (see above), Sharon Perrett for her work, ‘What a Beautiful Morning’, Sheila Sim for her image, ‘Kew Gardens’, Ariann Isaakson for the photo, ‘Summer Heat’ and iRon Tear for a photograph entitled ‘‘Bluebell Field’.

Website: IGPOTY Early Bird Competition 2009 Winners

The Times has launched the eighth Times Young Photographer of the Year competition, sponsored by Canon - this could be your chance to win a Canon EOS 5D Mark II (pictured) with two L lenses and a flash. In order to be able to enter, you need to be between 18 and 26 years of age and a legal resident of the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland. Entrants will need to submit one photograph in each of three different categories; Lifestyle, Portraiture and Reportage. The winning photographer will win a six-month full-time contract with Times Newspapers and a year’s membership to the British Press Photographer’s Association, in addition to a Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera body, a Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8 L standard zoom, a Canon EF 70-200 F/2.8 L IS telezoom and a Canon580EX II Speedlite flash. The closing date for entries is midnight Saturday 12 September 2009. As always, we suggest that you read the Terms and Conditions before entering.

Website: The Times/Canon Young Photographer of the Year
Review: Read our in-depth review of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II

The Nature Conservancy invites you to enter your nature photos to their 4th annual digital photography competition. The contest is open to all participants aged 18 and older regardless of residence or citizenship, so long as the laws of their jurisdiction allow participation. Photo submissions must be uploaded by 11:59 pm Pacific Standard Time on September 30, 2009. You retain ownership and full rights to all images submitted, but grant The Nature Conservancy the right to use your images in support of the Conservancy’s mission. As always, we encourage you to read the rules before entering.

The winner of the Bing Summer Travel Photo Contest has been announced. The winning photo of a lighning strike over Sydney, Australia, has been chosen from over 9,400 accepted entries. A total of 13,206 people rated the photos through the Bing Photo Sharing Facebook application. The winning photograph will be featured on the Bing homepage on 3 August for one day, exposing the talented photographer and winning photo to the millions of Bing.com daily visitors, Microsoft says.

Website: Bing Photo Contest on Facebook

StudioDaily’s Dailyfilm.tv has announced the DSLR Short Film Contest, seeking to benchmark the top narrative short, documentary or music video. The winners will be showcased in an online film festival in the fall. Sponsored by Redrock Micro and presented by StudioDaily, filmmakers will be challenged to create a video using a DSLR camera. Video entries will be judged based on the following criteria: originality, technical ability, creativity, and appeal to worldwide audience. The call for entries deadline is September 18, 2009. The Dailyfilm.tv competition includes more than $10,000 in prizes - awarded weekly. Prizes are professional accessories for DSLR cameras in each of the three categories. All participants can enter online at http://www.dailyfilm.tv/festivals/dailyfilmtv-dslr-short-film-contest.

The Photography.Book.Now International Juried Competition today opened voting for the People’s Choice Award. Anyone may now visit the Photography.Book.Now Bookstore and vote for their favourite photography books until the 20th August, 2009. Photography.Book.Now, presented by Blurb, celebrates the finest self-published photography books – and the people behind them. There will be one People’s Choice Award winner in each category – Editorial, Fine Art, and Commercial. Each award winner will receive a Maine Media Workshop Scholarship Package, and will have their books featured at the Photography.Book.Now meet-ups worldwide.

Website: Photography.Book.Now

MetaTools has announced “MakingFaces”, which allows every iPhone/iPod Touch owner to alter and animate their favourite photographs, and also launched a photography contest. You can take or import photos and literally put a smile on anyone’s face, lift their eyebrows, pinch their nose and a host of other imaginative treatments, all in real time. With Making Faces, taking a photo with an iPhone camera or importing an image from a library is a snap. Once a photo is selected, it’s easy to zoom in and out, rotate the photo to the perfect angle and finally crop the desired portion of the image. Making Faces always works on a copy of an image, so the original image is saved separately. You can even enter your creations in the Just GOO it contest for a chance to witn $1000 USD in cash or one of a number of other prizes. The contest is already open and submissions are accepted through August 31, 2009. Make sure to read the rules before entering. Making Faces is available for download now for $2.99 via iPhone.

International Garden Photographer of the Year is supporting the Muckin4Life Photo competition, which is now open. Take a photo of you, your friends, family, organisation or colleagues taking part in conservation volunteering and enter it in the contest. There are regional national, adult and young people winners and runners up. You could win up to £500 of high street vouchers and have your photo displayed at a prestigious photo exhibition at world famous Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. You can enter more than once - check all the details on the International Garden Photographer of the Year website – www.igpoty.com.

TNT Magazine has anounced a travel writing and photography contest. There are three categories including “Your London”, “People” and “The narural world”. Each of the category winners will be awarded a Canon EOS 500D with EF-S 18-55mm IS lens kit (pictured). The Readers’ Choice Award for Best Travel Photograph is an Olympus E-420 double zoom kit. As always, we recommend that you read the rules before submitting aby photos.

Website: Travel Writing and Phtoography Competition

Apparently, winning a prestigious prize might just be the beginning of something rather than an end unto itself - photographer Darwin Wiggett, winner of the Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) 2008 award, talks of a ‘dramatic upturn’ in sales and commissions since winning the prize. “My career has really taken off since the announcement of my win. Although I had decent images and a strong portfolio before winning, I struggled to get noticed and people were not banging down my door to buy my images. But after winning TPOTY it was like my work suddenly had legitimacy and a large audience,” Wiggett says. Entries for the 2009 awards are open until 22 September. Entry is via print submission or online image upload through www.tpoty.com, with entry fees starting at £10.

Pacifico beer is asking its fans to upload photos of their adventures for the chance to live the Pacifico lifestyle and win an “Epic Adventure” of their own. The contest, which launched July 8 on www.MexicoViaPacifico.com, enables consumers to submit photos from July 8 to September 30, 2009, for the opportunity to win a surf trip for four with professional surfer Joel Tudor, along with other great prizes.  Photos will be judged on aesthetics as well as the degree of “epic-ness” of adventure, but Pacifico is leaving it up to consumers to decide what they consider an epic adventure. You must be over the age of 21 and a resident of the U.S.A. to enter the contest. Due to legal restrictions, residents of California and Utah are not eligible to participate.

The Royal Photographic Society and International Garden Photographer of the Year are joining forces to create a new award for the International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) competition 2010. The award for the Best Portfolio will be known as the Royal Photographic Society award for Best Garden Portfolio. The winner will receive a Gold Medal. Runners up will receive silver and bronze medals. Winners will also receive £2,000 in cash and free RPS membership. The 2010 competition is now open at www.igpoty.com. There are seven categories, plus awards for single images as well as portfolios. The 2009 exhibition is currently on show at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew until September 13th 2009. After this date it will be at Kew’s country garden, Wakehurst Place, Sussex.

The submission deadline for the UK’s ‘Take-a-view’ landscape photography contest is 15 July. Unlike many other photographic competitions, ‘Take a view’ celebrates the United Kingdom only, offering photographers worldwide the opportunity to showcase their images of this richly diverse country. The idea of renowned landscape photographer, Charlie Waite, ‘Take a view’ offers a total prize fund of £20,000, including £10,000 for the overall winner. All entries must be uploaded via the competition website. Entry fees apply. You are advised to read the terms and conditions before entering.

Website: Take-A-View