Over the past week we had our first Freebie Friday, which was sponsored by David and Libby over at Chromasia. They were kind enough to give one of our readers a free One Year Subscription to their new Photoshop Tutorials Area.

Everyone who left a comment on last week's blog post was added to the Magic Salad Bowl of Wonder...

After shuffling things thoroughly, we picked the lucky commenter...

Congratulations to Brad McGonigle... You are the newly appointed luckiest commenter on this blog! (We'll contact you shortly with details on how to claim your prize.)

And David hasn't forgotten about those of you who didn't win... He decided to give you all a 25% off discount coupon that will be good until December 31st. Nice!

Also... Do you have something fun that you'd like to give our readers for free? We're interested in doing more Freebie Fridays in 2008, so get in touch with us and we'll talk.

Introducing the first, of hopefully many, Freebie Fridays! There are so many amazing photographers in the photoblogging community, from the newbies to the seasoned pros, and each one has something to offer. Well, we’d like to spread the word about what some in our community are doing, and give one lucky PBO Blog reader the chance to try it out for free!

Who out there with even a remote interest in photography has not heard of Chromasia? The mastermind behind the sweeping Northern England landscapes and gorgeous portraits is David Nightingale, a former psychology teacher who quit his higher education position to run Chromasia full time along with his wife, Libby, earlier this year. David is known for his immense skill using Photoshop, and since he was often being asked how he worked his magic, he decided to share his knowledge through his tutorials.

Chromasia’s tutorials are based on David’s expert knowledge of Photoshop, and aim to teach even the novice how to create amazing imagery. There is a free section that covers the more basic tools and applications, which serves as an introduction to the more advanced subscription-based section. The subscription-based tutorials come with downloadable PSD files with detailed instructions on everything from Curves and Levels, to Toning, Black & White and even creating dramatic skies. The paid subscription also includes membership to the forums where members can share images and ask & answer questions.

David and Libby, are offering a discount coupon of £25.00 to one of our readers. The coupon can be used towards the annual subscription of £25.00, or it can be used as a discount towards the £75.00 lifetime membership fee.

Update: Just to clarify... They are giving away a free full 12 month subscription, but if the winner wants to upgrade to the lifetime membership, you will have that option.

All you need to do is leave a comment below. Next Friday, we will randomly select a winner from the comments and you will receive this generous gift from Chromasia!

Leave your comment and Win!

Update: Winner announced here.

Need a little holiday cheer? Take a moment to check out Justin Gaynor's collaborative photoblog, 'Tis The Season! With entries from some of the photoblogging community's hottest photographers, like Kathleen Connally, Diane Varner, and Michael Chu, as well as entries from Photoblogs.org's very own Brandon Stone, Susan Burnstine, Jessyel Ty Gonzalez, and even yours truly, this group effort will surely bring some holiday cheer.

See how photographers from all walks and cultures celebrate and commemorate the holidays through pictures. The site is updated daily between November 23 through January 1st. And it's not too late to contribute! Contact Justin if you are interested (justin.gaynor at gmail.com).

Happy Holidays!

photo by Travis Clancy

'TIS THE SEASON!!

Welcome to the newest community of photobloggers, Montreal! If you live in the Montreal area make sure to stop by the website and become a part of this new and growing group of area photographers.

http://montreal-photobloggers.org/

Every year a group of photobloggers get together in a different European city to share some laughs, visit a pub or two, and otherwise do their photography thing. This year it's all taking place in the spectacular city of Berlin! The 2007 event will be the weekend of September 7-9, so get on over to the website and check it out...

EuropePhotobloggers.org

There's photos, maps, announcements, links, discussions, and all that good stuff. (I've been to the past two events and, hot damn, what fun!)

Edit: Tweaked URL.

Former Brooklyn based, now Torontonian, photoblogger Jonathan Greenwald of Shrued (profile) is appearing over at La Repubblica, one of Italy's largest newspapers online today. An impressive collection of 25 of his street photographs appear in a gallery that was featured on the front page earlier today, and is now enshrined in the Spettacolie & Cultura foto section. The direct link to the stunning gallery is here.

We emailed Jonathan to ask him about the experience. When first contacted by the Photo Editor at La Repubblica about appearing, his first response was:

"You sure you got the right Jonathan Greenwald?"

Yes, we are sure. Congratulations Jonathan!

Many of you will have heard of the recent changes made at JPG Magazine, a community and print magazine aimed at independent photographers. If you haven't here's a quick guide to what's been going on.

JPG Magazine was started as a labour of love by photo-community perennials Heather Champ and Derek Powazek in 2004 as a vehicle for photobloggers and other online photographers to get their work into print. The magazine quickly became very popular thanks to a simple, elegant and beautiful design. After six successful issues of the magazine a company was formed by Derek and a developer, Paul Cloutier, called 8020 Publishing to publish the magazine and develop new projects using the JPG model. The magazine's web site had a 'web 2.0' makeover that encouraged more active participation from the community in the magazine's content and direction.

Under the new format three more issues were published and everything seemed to be going well. Behind the scenes however it seems there was more than a little disagreement.

It started with some people noticing that the magazine's about pages no longer mentioned Derek or Heather, or the magazine's origins. All mention of the first six issues disappeared from the site also. Shortly after Derek posted this article on his personal web site, explaining that he and Heather had been written out of the magazine's story:

"In one evening, Paul removed issues 1-6 from the JPG website, removed Heather from the About page, and deleted the “Letter from the Editors” that had lived on the site since day one. Paul informed me that we were inventing a new story about how JPG came to be that was all about 8020. He told me not to speak of that walk in Buena Vista, my wife, or anything that came before 8020."

Heather also posted about it an entry on her blog:

" 8020 has decided to rewrite the history of how JPG came into being, removing the original six issues from the site, and any mention of Derek and I.

I've started to get emails asking why I'd quit, so I felt that it was important to publicly state that my departure was as much a surprise to me as it might be to you."

Word quickly spread and intense discussions followed on sites like Digg and Flickr with members proclaiming their disgust at the way Heather, Derek and the community were being treated by the powers that be at the magazine. Scores of members cancelled their accounts at the JPG web site and their subscriptions to the magazine, flooding Flickr with screenshots of the deleted account page.

Later on Tuesday Paul Cloutier gave a formal response through a 8020 Publishing blog post and in a discussion thread in the JPG group on Flickr, stating that there was no attempt to rewrite JPG's history and that:

"Derek and the contributors behind the early issues are a critical part of who we are and the heritage of JPG magazine is not something to be erased or forgotten. The JPG magazine that Derek and Heather created will always be an inspiration to us and we are committed to the principles that they set out."

At the same time the 'about us' page on JPG's web site was edited to include the following paragraph:

"The first version of JPG Magazine was created by the husband and wife team of Derek Powazek and Heather Powazek Champ. It was a quarterly printed publication devoted to brave new photography that took submissions over the internet and printed on good old fashioned paper. It was edited by Derek and Heather, printed in digest format, and sold through Lulu.com."

Forceful discussions are continuing in various internet venues about what all this means for the future of the magazine and its community.

The 2007 Photobloggies 'Best Kept Secret' winner Flak Photo recently added new below the fold features, 'In Print', a round up of independent photography publications, and 'Weekend Series', a curated selection of images selected from recent publications or exhibitions.

Currently featured on the site are images from 'Regarding Intimacy', an exhibition of photography and video that explores the dynamics between families, couples, friends, neighbors and the environment to investigate relationships in traditional intimate interactions. If you're in New York the exhibition runs until May 12th at Hunter College.

As always Flak Photo is accepting your submissions for its photoblog. Accepted images will become part of a wonderful collection and it's a great way to get some additional exposure for you work.

It's that time of year again...the Photobloggies are finally upon us!

This year, the winners will be announced live at the 2nd Annual North America Photobloggers Meet-up in Chicago. We’re looking forward to meeting many of you in Chicago over the weekend of Friday, April 27 to Sunday, April 29th for the event.

Visit the 2007 Photobloggies site today to nominate the best of the best! The nomination process will be open for the next 14 days (until Feb. 15!), then our panel of judges will vote for the final winners. Nominations are open to everyone and should be for websites that were online during 2006.

Our judges this year include:

FILE Magazine, JPG Magazine, U&I Magazine, Light Leaks Magazine, Foto8, Gomma Magazine, AK47.tv, Hamburger Eyes

Have you finished your holiday shopping this year? Don't worry. Neither have we. Luckily, several photobloggers have come up with some amazing gifts that we would love to give and better yet, to receive. Here is a sample of the cool goods we have seen lately by individual photobloggers and collaborations. Plus we offer a few sites where you can make or sell your own memorable gifts.

Calendars keep us focused and we love Heather Powazek Champ's 2007, A Year in the Tea Garden wall calendar. If you live in Canada, check out the Spacing 2007 Calendar featuring several Toronto photobloggers. Want to make your own calendar? Try Cafepress.com.

You will not be able to pick up a copy of the Daily Dose of Imagery Collection | Volume 1 book today, but we are more than willing to wait for the next round of offering for this one. The Toy Camera Handbook is all about the plastic cameras we love and features several photobloggers. If you want to help someone else get in the game, check out the Create Your Own Photo Blog book by Catherine Jamieson and featuring the work of dozens of photobloggers. Why not pick them up a gift subscription to JPG Magazine which features only photobloggers for some inspiration as well? Want to make your own book or even a magazine? Try Blurb or LuLu.

Many photobloggers have been selling prints for some time now and it would be impossible to list them all here. It is a marvelous way to share your work or build your own home art gallery. A new approach is to combine with other artists also interested in selling their work, as in the new Know Your Artist collection. Another notable collaboration is Picture the Cure founded by photoblogger Irina Souiki as a way to raise money to help fight breast cancer. The main event (an auction) for this year has passed, yet several prints by photobloggers are still available for sale in the gallery to support the cause. Want to sell your own prints in a community? Try Etsy.

Of course, you may have similar products out there that we inadvertently missed. So, if you are selling similar products to the ones mentioned above, and are a photoblogger, please feel free to list them in the comments below.