The winner of the 20th PhotographyBLOG Photo of the Week contest is Gary55 with the entry “TurtleHead”. There are no prizes as such for this contest, but the winning photo is displayed on the PhotographyBLOG homepage for a week, and the winner can display the Photo of the Week logo on their website if they wish.

The 21st Photo of the Week contest is now open. This is a weekly photography challenge where you decide who the winner is by voting for your favourite photos. It’s an open contest with no set theme and you can enter as many photos as you like.

Please note that 3 new rules have been added to the Photo of the Week contest, with immediate effect:

- Only images with 3 or more votes are eligible to win.
- A vote only counts if it is made during the duration of the contest.
- If you rate a photo with 5 or less, please leave a comment explaining why.

Click here to read the full Photo of the Week Rules.

The Lensbaby is the brainchild of professional photographer Craig Strong, who invented the Lensbabies Flexible Lens Mounting System (to give it it’s full name) in an effort to replace his Holga film camera with a digital equivalent. It is described on the Lensbaby website as “the hybrid love children of an old-fashioned bellows camera and an up-tight tilt-shift lens”, producing photographs with “the same soft, roughed-up look produced by a Holga”. So does the Lensbaby live up to its billing? Find out in my review.

Website: Lensbaby Review

All PhotographyBLOG members are automatically given 5Mbs of free Gallery space (if you are not already a member, you can register here).

You can now choose to upgrade to an account with more disk space and features whenever you like. There are four different accounts available with various amounts of disk space:

Advanced Members 50—50Mbs disk space
Advanced Members 100—100Mbs disk space
Advanced Members 200—200Mbs disk space
Advanced Members 300—300Mbs disk space

All four accounts allow you to upload files of any size and to create your own custom albums to store your photos in (the free Members account no longer allows album creation).

Visit the following page to see the differences, prices and to upgrade your Gallery:

PhotographyBLOG Gallery Upgrades

PhotographyBLOG has now teamed up with Amazon.co.uk to offer you a range of photography products. PhotographyBLOG receives a small commission for every purchase that you make, so you will also help to support the future of this website. Simply visit the shop and click the product that you want to buy, or click the Amazon button, and you will be taken to the Amazon.co.uk website.

Visit the PhotographyBLOG Shop

The Fuji FinePix S7000 Zoom is an updated version of the very popular 3 megapixel FinePix S602 Pro Zoom, featuring a brand new 6 megapixel 4th Generation Super CCD HR sensor. The Fuji FinePix S7000 Zoom is positioned by Fuji as an alternative to an SLR camera and is aimed at both the professional and amateur photographer. In an age when you can buy a 6-megapixel DSLR with a lens or an 8 megapixel digicam for around ?800, is the Fuji FinePix S7000 Zoom worth considering? Read my review to find out.

Website: Fuji FinePix S7000 Zoom Review

The winner of the 19th PhotographyBLOG Photo of the Week contest is gav_davies with the entry “buttereye”. There are no prizes as such for this contest, but the winning photo is displayed on the PhotographyBLOG homepage for a week, and the winner can display the Photo of the Week logo on their website if they wish.

The 20th Photo of the Week contest is now open. This is a weekly photography challenge where you decide who the winner is by voting for your favourite photos. It’s an open contest with no set theme and you can enter as many photos as you like.

Please note that 3 new rules have been added to the Photo of the Week contest, with immediate effect:

- Only images with 3 or more votes are eligible to win.
- A vote only counts if it is made during the duration of the contest.
- If you rate a photo with 5 or less, please leave a comment explaining why.

Click here to read the full Photo of the Week Rules.

The winners of the March 2004 PhotographyBLOG Competition have now been decided. The theme for March was “Springtime” - you can view all of the entries in this gallery.

The panel of judges thought long and hard before deciding on the three winners:

1st Place
“First Leaves (Willow Tree)” by abravorus
View this entry

Judges Comments:
“Surreal and beautiful. The vein-like trees juxtaposed against the leaves and streaks of blue sky make for a brilliant shot.”

“Beautiful backlit contrast between the dark gnarled trunks and the light green new leaves. Very interesting composition that really evokes springtime.”

Prize: 1 copy of Digital Photography Captured Volume 1, kindly donated by KnowledgeTrek.
http://www.knowledgetrek.com

2nd Place
“Fragrant Spring” by picperfic
View this entry

Judges Comments:
“Gorgeous collection of spring colors, with great composition to show it off.”

“Brilliant colors and great texture.”

Prize: 1 copy of Picasa, kindly donated by Picasa Inc.
http://www.picasa.net

3rd Place
“still waiting ” by make
View this entry

Judges Comments:
“This picture captures the instant when winter turns to spring. The boats seem to be rousing themselves, maybe yawning and stretching a bit because they know the boaters are on the way. The little streaks of blue sky and the feathery new leaves contrast gently against the white of last year’s snow.”

Prize: Photobird.com one-year subscription with 100 megabytes of storage space, kindly donated by Photobird.com.
http://www.photobird.com

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone who took part!

After 5 weeks and over 1,800 votes, the Konica Minolta DiMAGE A2 was voted as the 8 megapixel digicam that would you buy (503 votes), narrowly pipping the Canon Powershot Pro1 (499 votes) to the post. 5 megapixels are better than 8… came third with 328 votes.

The new PhotographyBLOG Poll poses the question: “What type of monitor do you use for photography?”. An old-fashioned CRT, new-fangled LCD or a laptop? Do you use the darkroom instead? Do you even have a computer? Cast your vote now.

The winner of the 18th PhotographyBLOG Photo of the Week contest is tootsie with the entry “adult”. There are no prizes as such for this contest, but the winning photo is displayed on the PhotographyBLOG homepage for a week, and the winner can display the Photo of the Week logo on their website if they wish.

The 19th Photo of the Week contest is now open. This is a weekly photography challenge where you decide who the winner is by voting for your favourite photos. It’s an open contest with no set theme and you can enter as many photos as you like.

The April 2004 Competition is now open for entries. This is a monthly photography competition with a specific theme and prizes for the top 3 photos. The winning entries will be decided by a panel of judges. You just have to submit one photograph to the Competition Gallery that best interprets April’s theme, which is “Happiness”.

Please make sure that you read the Monthly Competition Rules before submitting your entry. Note that you are only allowed to enter 1 photograph. The competition is worldwide and open to everyone.

You can now start submitting entries to the April Competition here:
April 2004 Competition

The March 2004 PhotographyBLOG Competition has now closed. The theme for March was “Springtime” - you can view all of the entries in this gallery.

The 1st / 2nd / 3rd place winners will be announced on Thursday 8th April, and the prizes will be sent out shortly after :-)

A new feature has been added to the PhotographyBLOG Gallery. You can now create your own custom albums to store your photos in - simply click the Album Admin link to create and edit your albums. This feature was actually in the Gallery at one stage, but was inadvertently switched off during the recent upgrade :-)

Visit the Gallery

The winner of the 17th PhotographyBLOG Photo of the Week contest is gav_davies with the entry “Elly”. There are no prizes as such for this contest, but the winning photo is displayed on the PhotographyBLOG homepage for a week, and the winner can display the Photo of the Week logo on their website if they wish.

The 18th Photo of the Week contest is now open. This is a weekly photography challenge where you decide who the winner is by voting for your favourite photos. It’s an open contest with no set theme and you can enter as many photos as you like.

IMPORTANT: I have noticed several examples of what could be viewed as tactical voting, where a low rating has been left with no comment explaining why. Please try and leave a rating and a comment explaining what you think of the photograph and why you gave it that rating. The Photo of the Week contest is meant to be fun and also a way of offering constructive feedback to people. Please try to keep it that way.

It happens to the best of us at one time or another - there comes a time when you don’t even pick up your camera, never mind take a photo with it. Once you have recognised that you’re going through a lean spell, how do you get out of it and start being a photographer again? It’s been a couple of weeks since I got back from a 3-week trip to Tenerife, and I haven’t taken a single photograph for one reason or another, so here are my ideas for getting out of that creative rut.

Website: PhotographyBLOG Article: “Beating the Photography Blues”

The winner of the 16th PhotographyBLOG Photo of the Week contest is panchals with the entry “eye out the window”. There are no prizes as such for this contest, but the winning photo is displayed on the PhotographyBLOG homepage for a week, and the winner can display the Photo of the Week logo on their website if they wish.

The 17th Photo of the Week contest is now open. This is a weekly photography challenge where you decide who the winner is by voting for your favourite photos. It’s an open contest with no set theme and you can enter as many photos as you like.

NOTE: Thanks to some improvements in the Gallery software that I use, the first photo displayed in the Competition/Photo of the Week galleries is the winner of that particular contest. It is always displayed first so that you know which image won.

Also, if a photo that you upload to the PhotographyBLOG Gallery contains EXIF data, it is now displayed, as in this image. This improvement has been retrospectively applied to all photos currently in the Gallery.

A sudden rise in traffic yesterday made me root around in my web traffic statistics to try and find out where all the extra visitors were coming from. It turns out that PhotographyBLOG has been nominated as Site of the Week by PC Magazine! They had these kind words to say amongst others:

“While the site offers reviews, photos, polls, contests, and forums, the most fascinating content for many photography buffs is likely to be the industry news, rumors, and announcements. On the day this review was written, PhotographyBlog’s new postings included announcements about one new camera, four new lenses, two new flashes, an increase in production for a popular camera, and links to new online reviews of three current cameras.”

Website: PC Magazine - Site of the Week

The Lastolite Micro Apollo is a hot-shoe flash soft box, which fits all makes of flashguns via velcro fasteners and folds flat into a camera bag. It is designed to combat the harsh lighting of flash photography that can be a problem for most photographers. Does the Micro Apollo fulfill its promise of delivering more natural looking photographs? Find out in my review.

Website: Lastolite Micro Apollo Review

The winner of the 15th PhotographyBLOG Photo of the Week contest is cramer with the entry “Foggy morning on the Susquehanna”. There are no prizes as such for this contest, but the winning photo is displayed on the PhotographyBLOG homepage for a week, and the winner can display the Photo of the Week logo on their website if they wish.

The 16th Photo of the Week contest is now open. This is a weekly photography challenge where you decide who the winner is by voting for your favourite photos. It’s an open contest with no set theme and you can enter as many photos as you like.

NOTE: Thanks to some improvements in the Gallery software that I use, the first photo displayed in the Competition/Photo of the Week galleries is the winner of that particular contest. It is always displayed first so that you know which image won.

Also, if a photo that you upload to the PhotographyBLOG Gallery contains EXIF data, it is now displayed, as in this image. This improvement has been retrospectively applied to all 2,267 photos currently in the Gallery.

After a brief spell of being offline this morning due to exceeding my bandwidth limit for March (it’s only the 14th!), PhotographyBLOG is now back up and running :-)

I’ve just completed updating the User Reviews section of PhotographyBLOG with all of the new products that have been announced since the start of 2004 (let me tell you, there have been a LOT of announcements). There are now 537 products available for you to review, covering digital cameras, film cameras, scanners and printers. If there is a product that you would like to review which isn’t currently in the database, just email me and I’ll add it as quickly as possible.