Whether you’re just starting out or have a great portfolio, Name Your Dream Assignment is a chance for photographers to go anywhere in the world on assignment. The Name Your Dream Assignment organizers are inviting anyone to submit an idea for a never-done-before photo shoot. Everyone will have a chance to vote on their favorite idea, and a panel of judges (including me!) will select from the top 20 most creative and inspiring suggestions. The winner will get a $50,000 cash award plus lots of goodies including a Lenovo ThinkPad W700 notebook computer with Windows Vista, specially designed for photographers.

This is a great chance for starting photographers to enter the profession and to be recognized for their photography accomplishments through their creativity and imagination, rather than just their connections. You don’t need to be a pro photographer, or even to have a portfolio. Established photographers will get more exposure and a great assignment of their own making. The competition Web site will open to accept entries in early March. In the meantime, visit the site and enter your email to get updates and info when the competition opens.

Website: Name Your Dream Assignment

Update 05/02/2009

We’re psyched to have such a great response to the Name Your Dream Assignment from all over the world. And honestly, we’re shocked. This is the first-time we have attempted a contest on this scale and we had no idea what kind of interest we’d get in the U.S., let alone around the world.

Unfortunately, this being our first contest, we had to limit it to residents of the United States. Different countries have much different rules and legal hurdles for contests, and we didn’t want to go there without first gauging the interest of photographers at a national level. However, now that we have seen the incredible support and interest in the Name Your Dream Assignment, we’re working on developing Name Your Dream Assignment II… which will, be open to international residents.

We absolutely want our friends abroad to participate in the Name Your Dream Assignment by still voting, commenting and having their voices be heard within all the conversations. Please let us know if you have any further questions or comments.  Thanks again for your support and participation.

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