Stella Artois is encouraging its Canadian fans to submit their best photography for a chance to win a Sony digital SLR camera. The competition is organised around five themes including “Travel”, “Good Times”, “Stylish”, “Urban” and “The Life of Légere”. To enter the contest you must have Internet access, a valid Club Stella Artois profile and email address. The top five finalists will have their photos professionally developed and put on display at the Stella Artois Canadian Draught Master Finals in Toronto. A Grand Prize winner will be chosen at the event and they’ll be eligible to win† a Sony Alpha digital SLR camera with DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. Four runners-up will be eligible to receive a Sony Cyber-Shot 12.1-megapixel digital camera.

Website: Club Stella Artois

G. H. Mumm today launched an online photography competition. Take the best snapshot of what you think is the best set of a “stunning dinner to celebrate the world’s beauty”, and upload your picture to the competition website. You have until 7 July to submit your entry. The winners will be announced on 14 July together with the revealing of the Mumm Explorer Experience destination. The Mumm Explorer Experience is an invitation to a once in the lifetime gastronomic experience orchestrated by a Michelin star Chef, as part of a true and authentic expedition alongside a real adventurer. The winner of the photo contest will be awarded the opportunity to be part of the experience, while eight runners up will receive a bottle of Mumm Cordon Rouge champagne.

Website: Mumm - The Game

This year’s Leica Oskar Barnack Award goes to the Swedish photographer Jens Olof Lasthein for his portfolio, “Waitingfor the future – pictures from Abkhazia”. Abkhazia is a disputed territory that is considered to be a part of Georgia international law. “The future of the people there is just as uncertain as that of their home country. It is precisely this uncertainty that Lasthein has captured in his photography,” Leica says. You can read an interview with the winner at the Leica Camera Blog.

The National Wildlife Federation encourages all US based photographers to take part in its 40th photo contest. The contest offers cash prizes totaling more than $30,000, as well as other gifts to be awarded to winners from seven categories in three separate divisions: Professional, Amateur, and Youth. Winners will be published on NWF’s website and a selection will appear in the December 2010 issue of National Wildlife Magazine. The deadline for entering NWF’s photo contest is 6 July. Note that there is a $20 entry fee, which includes a one-year membership to the National Wildlife Federation and six issues of National Wildlife magazine

Website: NWF Photo Contest

The Emotion Company announced today the launch of its new photofinishing service. This service fully relies on the KoffeeWare Photo Web Shop, which allows for easy creation of photo dedicated webshops including features ranging from the interactive online product customisation tools to the product and promotion management system associated to full control of the service and a full featured content management system CMS for an easy update of the hosted photo web shop. The Emotion Company’s service is available in 8 languages at the website below.

Website: The Emotion Company

The Canon Camera Hackers Manual is a new book that targets “geeky” owners of Canon consumer cameras who would like to tweak them to do things way beyond their original specifications. Canon cameras allow the user to temporarily upload so-called add-ons into the camera through the memory card. The next time the camera is powered on, the add-on is active; when the camera is switched off, the camera returns to its original state, so there is no risk of losing the manufacturer’s warranty, the publisher claims. The hacks are based on the Canon Hack Development Kit, free software maintained by a group of enthusiasts. Many scripts are already published on the web, and this book teaches how to use existing scripts and how to write new ones. The Canon Camera Hackers Manual is available now from O’Reilly, priced at $29.95.

Essex photographer Claire Moir has scooped the top prize in the Envisage Photography Awards. The prize has been awarded for her portrait of 5-year-old ELissa Faith Keating (see above). The Award includes a cash prize of £1,000 which Claire splits with her client who commissioned the winning image.

This September, Skira/Rizzoli in association with the South Street Seaport Museum is publishing Alfred Stieglitz New York, which brings together Alfred Stieglitz’s photographs of NYC for the first time since 1932. Curated by respected author, art historian and professor Bonnie Yochelson, this is the first book devoted exclusively to Stieglitz’s New York photographs.  The book’s publication date of 14th September coincides with the opening of the exhibition at the South Street Seaport Museum which will run until 10th January 2011.

Color Confidence has launched ProfileWriter, a profiling solution developed specifically for the Epson Stylus Pro 7900S and 9900S large format printers. Color Confidence ProfileWriter communicates directly with the built-in Epson SpectroProofer and makes the process of producing ICC profiles fast, accurate and affordable, the company claims. ProfileWriter is available now from all Epson large format printer resellers.

There are just a few days left to enter our fantastic competition.

Manfrotto Distribution have kindly donated THREE of their superb new Manfrotto Joystick Heads - in fact we are giving away ONE 327RC2 Joystick Head and TWO 324RC2 Joystick Heads worth £385 in total!

The new joystick heads offer a uniquely ergonomic way of quickly unlocking, moving and locking the camera, so you can frame and reposition freely to get the perfect photo.

To have a chance of winning one of these great prizes, simply subscribe to the Photography Blog Newsletter and answer a simple question.

The contest closes at the end of Monday 7th June 2010 – good luck!

ZeissImages.com, the recently launched online photo gallery of images captured with Zeiss lenses, has just announced its first photo contest. The theme is “As seen through your eyes”, and there are five categories - Landscape, Glamor, People, Nature and City/Architecture. ZeissImages.com members can submit up to 3 photographs per category.There are no fees or exchange of services required to participate in the contest, but it is mandatory that photographs submitted be taken with a Zeiss lens. The deadline for submissions is 1 August 2010.

Website: ZeissImages.com

GoingPro has hit the quarter million mark in page views just two months after start-up of its new blog. “The response from the photographic community has been incredible. Feedback from the public has been so positive. We’re working hard to keep expanding content, podcasts and even sponsorship,” commented Scott Bourne, GoingPro Co-Founder. Created by MEI’s Skip Cohen and BMG’s Scott Bourne, GoingPro is a year-long annual programme dedicated to educating professional and aspiring professional photographers through a GoingPro book, educational workshops, national conferences, free webinars and podcasts, blog and training

Nik Software announced today a new academic programme designed to make its digital imaging software products accessible to more students and faculty located in the U.S. and Canada at more affordable prices. The discounted price for Academic versions of Dfine 2.0, Viveza 2, Silver Efex Pro and Sharpener Pro 3.0 is $99.99. Color Efex Pro 3.0 Complete and the Complete Collection for Lightroom and Aperture cost $149.99, while the Complete Collection Ultimate Edition for Photoshop, Lightroom, and Aperture is $299.99. These figures represent discounts of up to 50% versus the standard retail prices. Eligible customers include all students and educators at any accredited educational institution.

Jacky Parker has won the People’s Choice Plant Portraits award with her image entitled ‘Soft tones of Autumn’ (see above). Jacky says, “the IGPOTY competition provides me with a treasure trove of inspirational ideas and encouragement. This year I am enjoying the challenges of the ‘4 Seasons’ competitions, bringing myself out of my comfort zone and looking at new aspects of garden photography.”

CEWE Photobook, Europe’s largest wholesale photo-finisher, has launched a new continent-wide photography competition. The Europe is Beautiful competition invites photographers to upload their eye-catching shots to a dedicated microsite for the chance to win one of 500 prizes, including a two-week luxury cruise, trips to London and Paris, and more. The winning images will also be displayed at photokina, and incorporated into a commemorative CEWE Photobook presented to the winners. There are four categories including “my home and family”, “my town and everyday life”, “my country and its culture” and “moving towards Europe’s future”.

Website: CEWE on Facebook

The Leica S-system has been chosen by fashion photographer Yves de Contades to create a unique set of photographs of some of the UK’s leading creative directors. Yves de Contades, who is also creative director of luxury brand magazine, International Life, approached forty leading creative gurus from the UK’s advertising and design industry with the question ‘What is your ultimate Fantasy Portrait?’ The results were an intoxicating mix of the quirky, the clever and the downright bizarre, from a digital robot, a spaceman bouncing through Piccadilly Circus to a dragon slaying ninja. Fantasy Portraits will be showcased at an invitation-only event at The Worx Studios in London on Thursday 10 June from 6pm - 9pm. Further venues are under consideration for display, due to popular demand. A selection of images will be available to view online from Tuesday 15 June at the website below.

Website: Fantasy Portraits

Black & Blue is the title of an exhibition of Gianni Galassi’s architectural “photo visions”. The exhibition title is inspired by the wide black colour-fields created by the shadows – the true subject of the showcased photographs – and by the cut-outs of sky, in a highly saturated blue, marking the compositional voids. Curated by Laura Ginapri, the exhibition will take place in the recently renovated La Piscina space, on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. It features 68 colour photographs in the 180x180 cm (70x70 inch), 120x120 cm (47x47 inch) and 60x60 cm (23x23 inch) sizes, along with 3 site specific installations. The exhibit will be on show from 26 August to 3 October 2010.

The Mamiya RZ33, featuring a high performance 33 megapixel CCD sensor, brings the legendary Mamiya RZ system into the large-sensor digital arena. Featuring cable-free integrated operation, the Mamiya RZ33 is fully compatible with all Mamiya RZ system lenses, viewfinders and most accessories. Of course, the RZ’s trademark Vertical-Horizontal rotation is built-in so there is no need to ever turn the camera. Capturing 16-bit-per-channel raw files, the Mamiya RZ33 incorporates a 48x36mm sensor with a sensitivity range of ISO 50-800, and a large, 6x7cm LCD touchscreen for intuitive operation. The Mamiya RZ33 will be available for $17,990 including Capture One and Leaf Capture software, and will begin shipping in July 2010.