So much for my prediction my prediction last month that we were in for a long, hot summer. I should have kept my mouth shut because since then it's done nothing but pour with rain here in England. It's raining hard right now in fact, with flood warnings posted for my area. It's not exactly ideal weather for photography, but we're not going to let a little bit of rain spoil our fun, are we? Of course not, so without further ado, let's get the August round of our monthly photography competition underway.
The Competition
In case you've been stranded on the Moon for the past 40 years and haven't seen our photography competition before, here's a quick recap of the details and the prizes on offer. Each month we provide a theme for your photographs and a closing date, and it is your task to go out and take photographs that match that theme, and then send them to us before the deadline. At the end of the month myself and the rest of the TR editorial team - most of whom are keen photographers - will study the entries and pick the winners based on our judgment. The best entries will be shown on the site at the end of the month.
There will be three prize winners each month, and thanks to our generous sponsors SanDisk and Panasonic we've got some fantastic products for you to win.
Panasonic has generously offered three fantastic prizes this month. For our top prize winner we've got something truly special; our highest-scoring camera of the last 12 months, winner of both our coveted Editor's Choice award and Best Compact Camera of the Year 2008, it's none other than the amazing DMC-LX3. A real photographer's camera, this beautiful and superbly-made compact has a 10.1-megapixel 1/1.63-inch sensor, an f/2.0 24mm wide-angle 2.5x zoom lens, and a three-inch 460k LCD monitor. Thanks to its amazing Leica lens and powerful Venus Engine IV processor the LX3 produces the kind of picture quality previously only available from digital SLRs, and has performance to match. I just wish I could enter this competition myself, because I wasn't kidding in my original review when I said that "The Panasonic LX3 is one of the very few digital cameras that I would consider buying for myself." The LX3 is currently selling for around £340.
Our first runner-up will receive the superb Lumix DMC-FX40, the latest in Panasonic's award-winning line of luxury ultra-compacts, and successor to the FX37. With a 12.1-megapixel sensor, a 5x zoom f/2.8 lens with a super-wide 25mm wide angle setting and a 2.5-inch 230k LCD monitor the FX40 has a tempting specification, but add 1280 x 720 movie recording with component HD output, and ultra-fast performance thanks to its dual-CPU Venus Engine processor and you have one of the most advanced compact cameras on the market. The FX40 is currently selling for around £250.
Our second runner up will receive another great new Panasonic camera, the waterproof and shockproof Lumix DMC-FT1, as featured in last week's group test. The FT1 is waterproof to a depth of three metres, shockproof enough to survive falls of up to 1.5 metres, and is completely dustproof, so it's safe in the sand. As well as being tough enough for any adventure, the FT1 is a high-performance compact camera that can hold its own in any company. Featuring the same 12.1-megapixels sensor and dual-CPU Venus Engine processor as the FX40, it also boasts a bright 2.7-inch 230k monitor and a 4.6x zoom lens with a 28mm wide-angle setting, ideal for all your holiday snaps. As well as this it can record HD movies at 1280 x 720 resolution with Dolby Digital Creator audio, recording in the high quality AVCHD Lite format. The FT1 is currently selling for around £260.
For more information about Panasonic cameras, visit the official website or call on 0844 844 3852.
As well as these great prizes from Panasonic, our top three entries will all also receive a superb two-gigabyte SanDisk Extreme III high speed memory card in the format of their choice, as well as a top-quality SanDisk Imagemate All-In-One USB 2.0 Card Reader. SanDisk memory cards come with a limited lifetime warranty, they are used and trusted by professional photographers all over the world and are renowned for their fantastic performance and reliability.
The Imagemate All-In-One USB 2.0 Reader is one of the fastest and most versatile memory card readers on the market, and an essential gadget for anyone who has to deal with multiple memory card formats. It handles every type of memory card currently available, including those used in mobile phones and PDAs. Supported formats include SD/SDHC, miniSD/SDHC, microSD/SDHC, MultiMediaCard, MMCplus, MMCmobile, RS-MMC, RS-MMC DV, Memory Stick/PRO/Duo/HG, xD Type M, M+ and H, and of course CompactFlash. It connects via USB 2.0 for high speed performance, transferring data at speeds of up to 34MB/s. A transfer button on the top of the reader launches your favourite photo downloader or editing program, and the metal stand is detachable for easy transportation.
IMPORTANT - Please read the following page carefully
THIS MONTH'S THEME
The unseasonably appalling weather we're having here in England has suggested a subject that I think you'll all enjoy. The theme for August is THE POWER OF NATURE. As usual you are free to interpret this theme in any way you want, but do at least try to sort of vaguely follow it.
CLOSING DATE
Entries for this month's competition should arrive no later than AUGUST 31ST 2009.
ABOUT YOUR PHOTO
Simply send us ONE (and only one) photograph which you think best expresses the theme for the month. The photograph must be wholly your own work, and you must legally hold the copyright to it. Anyone caught stealing images from other sources will be loaded into a giant cannon and fired into the sun. They will also be disqualified and banned from entering future competitions.
Images must be submitted in JPEG format, they must be at least 600 pixels wide, and the total file size must be no larger than three megabytes. If your picture is too big it's better to reduce the image size than to increase the compression.
You can edit, improve, adjust or alter your photo in any way you like. Composite images made using an image editing program are acceptable, as long as they are made predominantly from photographs, and that all parts of the image are wholly your own work.
The images displayed on the results page are only 600 pixels wide, so it's a good idea to avoid adding wide frames or borders, and very wide panoramic or photo-stiched pictures seldom look good when reduced to fit the page. Please don't put time-stamps, watermarks or large signatures on the photo, although you may add contact and copyright information into the EXIF data for the image if you wish. Don't worry; we won't steal your work!
HOW TO ENTER
When you've got a nice picture ready to send, here's what you need to do:
- Save your picture in JPEG format.
- Make sure your picture is at least 600 pixels wide, but has a file size less than 3MB.
- Re-name the image file to your name with an underscore between first and second names, such as "Joe_Bloggs.jpg" for example.
- Start a new email to trphotocomp@googlemail.com
- Put the words Power of nature in the subject line of the email.
- In the body text of the email, put your postal address, what type of memory card you'd like to receive (SD, CompactFlash etc.), and a daytime contact telephone number. This is very important; you can't receive a prize if we don't know where to send it, and the company sending out the prizes needs the phone number so that they can contact you to arrange delivery. Don't worry, I despise telemarketers just as much as you do and I promise not to give them your number.
- If you could write a brief description of your photo, just 10-20 words or so, including what kind of camera and lens you used to take it, it would be appreciated, although this is not essential and your photo will not be marked down if you don't do this. It just makes the results page a bit more interesting.
- Add your competition photo as an attachment to your email and send it in.
Any questions?
If you want to discuss the competition, or have any questions about the rules or how to enter, follow the link below to the forum page, or feel free to ask questions in the comments section on the next page.
We reserve the right to publish a selection of the best entries in the competition results update a few days after the closing date, but all other rights remain with the photographer, and you have my word that we will not use your pictures for any other purpose without your written permission.
Panasonic cameras
SanDisk
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