Posts Tagged ‘contest’

Macro Nature Contest with Mike Moats – Win A Tamron 90mm Macro! Lens

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Enter your best macro nature image for chance to win a Tamron 90mm macro lens.

Macro images of nature only.

Contest limited to USA residence only.

You may submit three images.

Email images under 200kb in file size and your name to: mgmoats@yahoo.com

No manipulation beyond color correction, conversion to black & white, brightness and contrast!

Contest runs till December 1st. Winner posted on December 2nd.

You can visit Mike's blog and learn about his workshops here: Tiny Landscapes

Mike's eBooks are available in the OPG store here: Mike Moats

Trick or Treat–Hide and Seek!

Sunday, October 30th, 2011

We’ve hidden your favorite candy treats all across our store. These delicious candies are filled with free prizes and coupons! Find a candy, click on it, and win!

 

 

Here are some of our treats for you:

  • $10 off $49 or more
  • $14 off $99 or more
  • 10% off your entire order
  • $10 Gift Certificate
  • 10% off Bags & Cases
  • 10% Tripods & Heads

Careful, you might find a trick or two as well. Treats and coupons expire soon!
Limit – One prize per person.

Trick or Treat! 48 hour Gura Gear Sale!

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

 

 

 

New Gura Gear Kiboko 30L Bag $329! (reg. $399)


For 48 hours only, we’ve made a special arrangement with Gura Gear to offer the New Kiboko 30L Bag at an unheard of price of $329.
(reg. $399)

The Kiboko is the gold standard in photo backpacks for long lens gear and demanding world travel. Ultra-lightweight, durable and comfortable, the Kiboko is our best selling backpack, for good reason.

Feeling like a pumpkin hunter? Find a pumpkin on our site and get a discount code to get the Gura Gear Kiboko Bag for only $299!

We’ve hidden 10 pumpkins on our site. Find one, click on it and get a discount code to save $100 of the regular price of the Kiboko!

*Limited quantities of pumpkin discounts. Sale lasts for 48 hours only and expires at noon on Thursday October 13 EST. Due to the extreme nature of this sale we cannot offer any rainchecks or price matching.

2011 Black and White Contest Winners Announced

Monday, October 10th, 2011

The 2011 Batdorff Photography Black and White Photo Contest ended up garnering our largest, and most talented set of entries yet. This year I decided to up the ante and ask five judges to join me in selecting our top three photographers. The judges were asked to select their top ten images and rank them based upon composition, technical quality, creativity and overall impression. As you can imagine, it was quite a commitment and not an easy task to sort through nearly 900 images. I think my good friend Lew Bendell, APC Co-founder, said it best, “To narrow it down to 10 was incredibly difficult and at times kind of heartbreaking. I think this speaks to the quality and breadth of entries…” I couldn’t agree with Lew more.

I want to say a couple of things before we announce the winners:

First, a major hats off to all of you who entered. I appreciate the time and effort you put into your entries. I know first-hand what it’s like  to enter a contest and it means a lot that you took the time and effort to participate in what has become one of the largest B&W contests in the United States. I want you to know, regardless of your standing, your work has been potentially seen by over 20,000 visitors.  That means opportunities to shine and be discovered!

Secondly, to the sponsors: without your support this wouldn’t be possible. Finding top quality, FREE to enter contests are rare, and with the support of APC, Black Rapid, Outdoor Photo Gear,  BorrowLenses, Digimarc, Peachpit, and Nik Software we’ve been able to put together one heck of a contest that continues to grow each year. Remember, many of the sponsors are providing discount codes for a limited time, so make sure to check out the winners page to get those codes.

Lastly, thank you to the judges. I know this was difficult and each of you put some serious time and effort into selecting your favorites. Your honest, unwavering dedication to selecting these photos enriched the process and provided a quality selection process for our winners and honorable mentions.

Without further delay, today’s winning entries can be found on this page!

Elephant Ears, Corn Dogs and 4H Barns = Good Times

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

I’m going to admit it: I’m addicted to County Fairs. I grew up in a small town in Northern Michigan where summers meant getting into trouble, swimming in the community pool and wandering aimlessly around the county fair. And whenever I travel and see the words “County Fair,” thoughts of elephant ears, corn dogs, sticky fingers and the smell of 4-H animals seems like sweet perfume calling out, “John, stop now!” A few weeks ago I had the chance to visit the Madison County Fair in Twin Bridges, Montana where I spent the afternoon visiting with local farmers and 4-H kids. What I’ve grown to love about the fair is touring the 4-H barns and talking to the kids about their animals, science projects and especially perusing the photography contest.

Madison County Fair 4-H'ers

This young man was such a trooper; I could tell it was a bittersweet day for him as he explained with a little quiver in his voice how he raised his steer over the last year, feeding it several pounds of grain a day, and caring for it just to bring it to market at the county fair. You know he had been told not to get attached, but this young guy was brave enough to show he cared for his animal.

Prepping the sheep for sale

These two young girls were painting the legs of their sheep black and carefully brushing her out before they took her out to be judged. They had the sheep in this outfit because they had washed her earlier in the day and didn’t want her to get dirty.

4-H'ers sharing insight with visitiors is an important part of the 4-H learning process.

If you’re willing to make an investment in time and truly have a curious nature about you, then fairs are an excellent photo opportunity for environmental portraits. These kids put a lot of time and energy raising their animals and learning about crop management, but most importantly these kids represent our future. Next time your county fair is going on grab the family, your camera, closed toe shoes and wet-wipes and get ready for one heck of an experience.

Make sure and enter John's Black & White Photo Contest!  Info here.

Black and White Photo Contest with John Batdorff!

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

B&W 2011 Photo Contest

 

John Batdorff Black and White Contest 2011

 

Once again, we’re proud to sponsor a great Black & White Photo Contest with our friend John Batdorff!

Last year’s contest had some incredible entries.  We have even more prizes this year—from us and from Black Rapid, Nik Software, Peachpit Books, Digimarc and more!

The contest starts today and entries close Sept. 18th.  There will be lots of fun with voting and with judging!

Click here to read about the contest and the many prizes.  Good luck!

New Ebook and Photo Contest from Guy Tal

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

Our friend and contributor Guy Tal has been rather busy of late.  In addition to publishing a new ebook, Guy is running a ten week creative photo contest, with new themes and prizes every week.  Here's the lowdown on Guy's new projects:

catalog_show_ebook

First, Guy's new ebook.  Having previously brought us Creative Landscape Photography, Guy has now turned his attention to image processing, and has published Creative Processing Techniques for Nature Photography.  Both of Guy's books are great reads, and are rather unique in the ebook field.  Guy not only brings us technical tips and know-how on his subject matter, but also discusses the mental side of things–the vision and the thought processes behind creative images.  My favorite feature of Guy's books is that he includes thought-provoking exercises for the reader to perform, creating ebooks that are not only informative, but interactive. 

In Creative Processing Techniques for Nature Photography, Guy covers subjects such as:  Comfort Zones, Dynamic Visualization, Workflow & Analysis, RAW Processing, Global & Local Adjustments, Output and more.

Check out both of Guy's books in the  OPG Store here.

10wksbanner

Second, Guy has also been busy putting on a Creative Photography Contest, and OPG is a proud sponsor.

This contest will run 10 weeks, with a new theme and a new batch of prizes every week. At the end of the contest, there will be a Grand Prize Winner for lots of gear goodies.

The first week has just ended, and Guy says he received lots of entries, and some incredible images.  He'll be posting the winners and entries on his site as the contest goes along.

Read about the contest and jump in with an entry here.  Fun stuff!

SmugMug Pro Account Giveaway!

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

thumb_smugmug-pro_280x170-1We’ve teamed up with leading photo hosting and sharing provider, SmugMug, to bring you another great giveaway!  Win a SmugMug Pro Account for a year—a $150 value—in this new contest.  We’re sold on SmugMug, especially their Pro Level. Their Pro level membership lets you proof, archive and sell your photos online. You get gorgeous galleries, full pricing control, unlimited photo and video uploads, full customization options and tools to protect your photos.

We have three easy ways to win, and each counts as an entry!

  1. Like SmugMug on Facebook.
  2. Like OPG on Facebook.
  3. Leave a comment below on this blog article that you’d like to win.

We’ll pick the winners by random drawing on Friday April 1 (no fooling!) and notify the winners by email.

Good luck and thanks to our pals at SmugMug!

YouTube Preview Image

Why SmugMug Pro Video Transcript

Chris Macaskill: Our passion for photography goes beyond just sharing them online because it’s our passion and our life and our legacy. How do we deliver our client’s perspective of the world?

Don Macaskill: How do we deliver the best photo sharing experience to our customers?

Chris Macaskill: How do we give them what they need? Those are the questions we’ve been asking ourselves since the beginning.

Don Macaskill: They are the questions that drive our business, that drive our product.

Sam Nichols: What we have done is it allows photographers and artists to show the world how awesome their stuff is.

Dale Federighi: Photography in and of itself represents a person’s view of the world.

Michael Soo: I am a photographer because I have to be.

John Harrison: Being able to capture the essence of these fantastic places that I’m at.

Brian Strong: We deliver the complete solution to help them manage their world.

John Harrison: And if no one sees them, then what’s the point? And the way that SmugMug has helped me establish my presence, I wouldn’t be where I’m at today.

Larry Abitbol: There’s a lot of great things working at SmugMug, but one of the greatest is their continuous new product development.

Dale Federighi: We have a really rich feature set that a lot of pros simply want to use and know will benefit them.

Sam Nichols: We make things cool.

John Harrison: Whether it’s a small thumbnail or a gigantic panorama, it looks beautiful.

Michael Soo: It can be customized It can be integrated It’s a no- brainer.

Man: I’ve used SmugMug in general as really a group of photo geeks.

Chris Macaskill: Our passion for photography goes beyond just sharing them online.

Brian Strong: 90% of this company are photographers.

Chris Macaskill: We can understand why they’re passionate about a feature, why they want it to wok one way or the other.

Don Macaskill: It really helps mold a product that pros really love and want to use.

Chris Macaskill: Because we are photographers.

Don Macaskill: It’s how we’ve grown the feature set. It’s how we’ve innovated and extended the product.

Stephanie Theune: We listen to all of our customers. What you actually say comes in and we hear it, and we hope to react.

Don Macaskill: So, we went out and got the best print lab we could find after lots of testing. Bay Photo, which I think is the best professional print lab in the world.

Larry Abitbol: We’re proud to be providing the professional print services for SmugMug.

Chris Macaskill: The quality of the craftsmanship is like no lab I’ve ever seen in the world.

Don Macaskill: SmugMug is a different kind of company. We built it that way from day one.

Dale Federighi: I love the company.

Sam Nichols: This is beyond a full-time job for me.

Stephanie Theune: It’s not just a job for any of us.

Man: We’ve got my wife, who’s the chef, who cooks awesome lunches.

Man: We eat together. We play together.

Man: Everybody who starts in the company gets their face painted.

Man: I’ve never felt so a part of a team and a family.

Frederique Dame: It’s just a very energizing environment where everyone is really living their passion.

Michael Soo: What SmugMug does is they deliver my love and my life and my passion.

John Harrison: SmugMug really helps me deliver my perspective of the world.

Frederique Dame: It’s more than a company, and I am very grateful to be part of this.

Chris Macaskill: SmugMug is a company where we just followed our passion for photography, and we wanted to make the biggest, most beautiful galleries for your photos and videos that you could find anywhere on the net, and that’s what we’ve done.

Winners Announced In Our Big Gear Giveaway!

Friday, February 11th, 2011

 

We have winners!

These folks were drawn randomly today and will be receiving an email shortly.

We are truly thankful of our friends and supporters from around the world.

Thanks to all who entered and watch for future giveaways!

 

prizes

Black and White Contest Winners Announced

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

I want to say this was probably the hardest Black and White contest I’ve ever had the privilege of judging. Before I announce the winners I want to remind everyone that I enter contests every year and guess what? That’s right, I don’t always win. I know can you believe it…;)  If there’s one thing I’ve learned from not only entering contests but judging them is this: we look at every image based upon composition, exposure, etc., but in the end, to be very truthful, it’s very subjective. Either an image speaks to a judge or it doesn’t. I have to come to terms with this when I submit my own work for contests and I hope everyone here understands the same.  Moving forward…

I want to thank everyone for entering and as always there are no real losers. As a matter of fact, I would say everyone was a winner because your work has been seen by well over 12,000 unique visitors!  This truly was the best Black and White Photo Contest with the most talented artists to date.

I want to thank my partners for helping me put together a great contest and for donating killer prizes for our winners.

Black Rapid for donating a strap of your choice.  Black Rapid is the only strap I use on my camera…Period!

Outdoor Photo Gear for donating Nik Software Silver eFex Pro. Outdoor Photo Gear is simply the best when you need expert advice!

Drum roll please….

The winners of the Second Annual Black and White Photo contest are:

Portrait Photography

Saeed Rezvanian- Portrait Days

 

Landscape

Steve Silverman-  The Tin Man

Still Life

Peter Rose- English Country Tea Time

Congrats to the winners.  Please feel free to email me so that I can arrange delivery of your prizes.  I want to thank everyone once again for entering.  It was just a wonderful contest with some amazing images.   Keep posted because this Wednesday I’ll be updating my blog with the honorable mentions. 

Thanks again, John