National Geographic are holding a themed monthly contest for user submitted photographs called 'Your Shot', a chance to see your image in the pages of National Geographic! This is the first time that the magazine has published 'consumer photos'. You can see this month's winner here and the next theme is "Where I Live."

The rules of the contest are quite strict, in keeping with the magazine's professional reputation; post processing must be kept to a minimum, you must have releases for any people or artwork visible in your shot, and if the photograph was taken on private property then you must have a release from the landowner. Sample releases can be downloaded from the site.

Good luck!

Have you seen Filmwasters.com yet?? From the about page:

Filmwasters.com is an amalgamation of blog, online gallery, individual showcase and a forum dedicated to the use of film in photography. It aims to stress the exploration of creativity through film-based photography rather than the 'wheres', 'whys' and 'how-exactlies'; these can be answered in phenomenal detail on so many other photographic web resources. Filmwasters is not camera-type specific - glass, plastic and lensless are all welcome here.

The site is a showcase of the five amazing photographers who started it and a fabulous place to see other work such as Alison Garnett's guest gallery for March 2006. Browse the galleries, ask questions in the forums, read the blog and enjoy the knowledge that for many of us out there, film is not dead.

On Monday, February 27th, San Francisco photoblogger Michael David Murphy is going to be interviewed on the CBC about our favorite photoblog without images, unphotographable.com.

The show airs at 2pm in *any* time zone in Canada, and is available in the US online here and on Sirius radio. The show's called "Freestyle" and you can learn more about it here.

Michael will be uploading an mp3 on his sublime, image rich photoblog, whileseated.org after the broadcast in case you miss it on Monday.

Yep, it's that time again... Time to start thinking about the Photobloggies! This is your chance to tell us what you liked about last year and what we should change for this year.

Here are a few questions to get you started:

• Should we remove or add any categories?
• Should we rename categories?
• Is there a better way to handle voting, judging, etc.?
• Any thoughts about sponsors and prizes?

We'd like to continually improve things, so we're looking for your feedback. Let us have it!

The National Press Photographers Association is opening submissions to its annual Best of Photojournalism Awards to photobloggers!

The deadline for entry is February 10.

To quote:

Personal photo sites of amateur photographers that carry on in the tradition of Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Dr. Erich Salomon of using photography to document our personal lives.

Pictures can be entered in the following 3 categories and must have been organized in a group (like a “flickr” photo set) and shot and posted on the web in calendar year 2005.

1 photo set per category can be entered by a photo blog, with a maximum of 30 pictures per set.

Categories:

1. Portraits
2. Festivals and Events
3. Photojournalism

I think it's great that the role of photobloggers in recording events and life is being recognised by this respected group. I urge as many people to enter as possible, raise the profile of the photoblogging art!

(Thanks for the tip Valerie!)

Popular Toronto photoblogger Adam Krawesky captured a street brawl in the city that has sparked articles and commentary, online and off, around the world.

The images were originally posted on citynoise.org and show a bike messenger and motorist in a tussle with bystanders jumping in to intervene. The fight apparently started after the motorist threw food out of his car and the cyclist took offense and threw it back in. Commentary on the images has ranged from the thoughtful to the hateful, with people coming down on the sides of both protagonists. Also discussed is the role of the photographer, should he have put his camera down and helped? Should he have not published the images? The images are certainly condemning of the man, snarling with menace in almost every image attacking a woman, who, in one photograph, is slumped to the ground.

I'm glad Adam's instincts were to keep shooting, there were enough people around to separate the two, and this kind of confrontation must take place on a daily basis around Toronto and elsewhere. To photograph it, then publish it, prolongs the exposure of this flare up, forcing us to look more closely at the way people interact and accept that this kind of thing is part of the communities we live in. It's impossible to know the whole story from these images and I think your own reactions say more about you than they do about the truth of the incident.

In addition to all this furore the Toronto Star newspaper took the images and printed them on its front page without the Adam's permission! An article in yesterday's Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail (without the images) updates the story.

The nominations for the 2006 Bloggies have been announced and here are the candidates for 'Best Photography of a Weblog':

• Flickr Blog
• The Snowsuit Effort
• A Walk Through Durham Township, Pennsylvania
• Photojunkie
• Chromasia

Photojunkie and Daily Dose of Imagery* were also nominated in the 'Best Canadian Blog' catagory.

Congrats to all of them, you can vote for you favourite now!

*Also of note Sam (from DDOI) will be on TechTV tomorrow at about 3pm EST talking about photoblogs. Good luck Sam!

Nominate your favourite blogs for the Bloggies Awards 2006.

I'm not a big fan of these popularity contests in general, not because I don't win any but because many of them, such as the recent Weblog Awards, seem to be more about driving traffic by allowing people to vote as many times as they like than they are about selecting the best sites (sometimes sites nominated obviously don't fit the category). Usually this results in those sites who can best organise their friends and family in voting campaigns winning.

However, the Bloggies do seem to be a genuine attempt to select the best sites of the year and encourage others, so if you're into this kind of thing go nominate!

todayspictures.slate.com

Ok, not quite a photoblog, but Slate magazine is publishing a daily selection of photographs from Magnum's collection, and it's well worth checking out, there's no finer collection in the world.

"I will make sure you will never be able to place an order on the internet again." "I'm an attorney, I will sue you." "I will call the CEO of your company and play him the tape of this phone call." "I'm going to call your local police and have two officers come over and arrest you." "You'd better get this through your thick skull." "You have no idea who you are dealing with."

These are all direct threats that I received today from an individual who identified himself as Steve Phillips, the manager of PriceRitePhoto in Brooklyn, New York when I called to inquire about my order with them. My crime? Telling him that I planned to write an article about my unfortunate experience with his company regarding the camera order I had placed with him yesterday."

Read the full article over at Thomas Hawk's blog.

I rather think the abusive salesman at PriceRitePhoto had no idea who he was dealing with when he tried to strong-arm Thomas Hawk. A compaint is on file with the New York Attorney General's office and outraged internet users have flooded the company with phone calls, emails, and even DOS attacks. None of these tactics are at Thomas' direction of course, but it's easy to understand the indignation when you read about the way Thomas was treated by this store. Not only was he repeatedly threatened, but the salesman even had the affront to call and harrass Thomas' boss!

It is simply unbelievable that a company could behave like this, and expect to make money doing it. It makes you wonder how many people have been pressured into spending far more money than they wanted to by unscrupulous companies like PriceRitePhoto. It really is a staggering story. If crooked salesmen are trying this pressure scam on the kind of people who would buy a Canon 5d, people who you would think, like Thomas, are well aware of what accessories they need or don't need, then I hate to imagine how many less well informed people have been taken in when buying consumer electronics over the internet.

If it wasn't for the overwhelming response of the blogging community, who have risen to challenge this assault on one of their own with such energy and commitment, this would be a sad sad story. It's wonderful to think of this bully being put so firmly in place by the defiance of ordinary people, an uplifting tale from the digital trenches.

Now it seems that picking on Thomas Hawk will be the last thing this company does.

For a play by play on developments check out Thomas' original post and the commentry on Digg.com.