The 2013 international Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) awards are now open for entries. The overall winner of TPOTY will receive the Cutty Sark Award; £5,000 plus a complete set of Cutty Sark’s award-winning range of blended whiskies - Cutty Sark Blend, Storm, Prohibition, 12 years old, 18 years old and the highly collectable Limited Edition Tam o’Shanter. In addition, they’ll receive a true one-off - a bespoke, personalised Cutty Sark surfboard. The Young Travel Photographer of the Year 2013 wins the new Fujifilm X20 plus £250 and a personalised Plastic Sandwich leather portfolio book or iFolio. Entries close on October 1st, with full details at the website below.

Website: TPOTY

TPOTY Press Release

Surf’s up! It’s time to focus on travel
2013 international Travel Photographer of the Year awards open for entry

Cutty Sark Award for overall winner, including £5,000, complete whisky collection and unique, bespoke surfboard
Prize trips: Inspired Journey to Morocco with cazenove + loyd, and a Northern California Triangle adventure
The latest Fujifilm cameras including X-Pro1, X100S, X20, HS50EXR and XP60
Awards’ first-ever exclusively black & white image category
Winning images to be exhibited at Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)

With the launch of the 2013 international Travel Photographer of the Year awards (TPOTY), photographers can start to plan their entry as the world’s premier travel photography competition celebrates its 10th anniversary. Last year TPOTY attracted entries from photographers in more than 90 countries, and the 2013 contest should prove even more appealing, with the Cutty Sark Award for the overall winner, portfolio and single image categories to suit all levels and all ages of photographers, including a new black & white image category that echoes the spirit of Ansel Adams. Entries are now open and close on October 1st, with full details at www.tpoty.com.

The winning images from 2013 will be displayed at a major exhibition at London’s Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in 2014. And, with support from Cutty Sark Blended Scotch Whisky, cazenove + loyd, Fujifilm, Genesis Digital, Photo Iconic, Plastic Sandwich, the Yosemite/Mariposa Co. Tourism Bureau, San Francisco Travel and Sonoma County Tourism, there are some fantastic prizes to be won.

The awards are judged by a hugely respected international panel, including photographers Eamonn McCabe, Jason Hawkes, Ami Vitale, Steve Bloom, Nick Meers and Chris Weston, the editors of Hotshoe International, FOTO magazin (Germany), Outdoor Photography, and the photography director of Condé Nast Traveller.

Awards, categories and prizes
The overall winner of TPOTY – the Travel Photographer of the Year 2013 - will receive the Cutty Sark Award; £5,000 plus a complete set of Cutty Sark’s award-winning range of blended whiskies - Cutty Sark Blend, Storm, Prohibition, 12 years old, 18 years old and the highly collectable Limited Edition Tam o’Shanter. In addition, they’ll receive a true one-off - a bespoke, personalised Cutty Sark surfboard; the ideal companion for an adventurous photographer!

The theme of this year’s Young Travel Photographer of the Year award is Crowded Planet. The Young Travel Photographer of the Year 2013 wins the new Fujifilm X20 plus £250 and a personalised Plastic Sandwich leather portfolio book or iFolio. The X20 is a highly advanced compact camera featuring a nostalgic, analogue-camera look and cutting-edge technology, including X-Trans CMOS II sensor, EXR Processor II and newly developed Advanced Optical Viewfinder.  The winners of the 14 and under and 15-18 Young TPOTY age groups each receive a Fujifilm FinePix XP60, camera, while an X20 and £250 will go to the winner of this year’s Emerging Talent Award.

Monochromal – the awards’ first exclusively black & white image category – is inspired by Ansel Adams, whose iconic images are known and collected around the world. The winner of this portfolio category will enjoy an eight-day holiday exploring the hugely photogenic Northern California Triangle. Organised by the Yosemite/Mariposa Co. Tourism Bureau, this takes them to areas that were close to Adams’ heart, including San Francisco, Sonoma County and, of course, a stay in his beloved Yosemite National Park, where they will also visit the Ansel Adams Gallery.

The winner of the Vanishing & Emerging Cultures portfolio category receives a magnificent Fujifilm X-Pro1 kit. Complete with revolutionary X-Pro1 body, premium leather camera case and three lenses - 18mm, 35mm and 60mm - this is an unobtrusive, high-quality lightweight camera system and the perfect tool for travel, street and documentary photography.

The Wild Stories portfolio category is for lovers of wildlife, landscape and adventure photography. The winner will receive £1,000 plus a personalised Plastic Sandwich leather portfolio book or iFolio. And the winners of the Judges’ award for Best Single Image in each of the three portfolio categories will receive a 24” exhibition print of their winning entry from Genesis Digital, together with a print of one of the fascinating historic images from the archive of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

The reward for the successful photographer in the One Shot category Extraordinary will be a cazenove+loyd new Inspired Journey in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains and the walled city of Marrakech. Inspired Journeys are intimate escorted tours which have all been inspired by people or places that travellers wouldn’t normally have access to. Each exclusive journey provides the same level of adventure, exclusivity and ‘under the skin’ experiences as cazenove+loyd deliver with their luxury tailor-made holidays. Led by TPOTY founder Chris Coe, the prize trip will include private visits to local dyers, tanners and artisans in Marrakech, and a three-night stay in a remote Kasbah perched above the Ourika valley. The runner-up in this category receives a Plastic Sandwich leather portfolio book or iFolio.

The New Talent Award – theme, Metropolis - is for photographic students and amateur or semi-professional photographers who want to turn pro. Their prize is a package of tuition and mentoring from Photo Iconic, including a very special day with award-winning news, sports photographer and former Guardian picture editor, Eamonn McCabe, whose knowledge will prove invaluable to any budding professional photographer. They’ll also receive the new Fujifilm FinePix X100S, which combines all the latest technical digital innovations in a beautiful, traditional chassis, plus a personalised Plastic Sandwich leather portfolio book or iFolio.

In Travel Shorts, the HD video category, entrants must create a three-minute film covering any aspect of travel. The winner will receive the new Fujifilm FinePix HS50EXR. This features a manual zoom mechanism for high precision zooming over the huge 42x focal length range (24-1000mm), a built-in stereo microphone, and is capable of full 1080p HD movie recording at up to 60fps and recording lower resolution movies at up to 480fps – perfect for capturing a world in motion.

First Shot – theme En Route - is a beginners’ category for those who have only recently taken up photography, shooting images on basic digital or film cameras or on mobile phones. Two winners will each be given a place a Photo Iconic photography course, plus the new FinePix XP60. This robust, weatherpoof camera offers improved image quality, along with a 5x optical zoom and the ability to perform even if it’s been dropped, frozen, covered in sand or taken for a swim.

How to enter
Images can be submitted as prints or uploaded online, and HD video entries submitted on DVD by post. Entries close on October 1st 2013. Entry fees start at £10 and Young TPOTY is free to enter.  Full details of how to enter can be found on www.tpoty.com.

Photo: Poras Chaudhary

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