Category Archives: Photo Blog Challenge

*Congratulations to Giorgio Lumaconi, our second, semi-annual Flickr Photo Blog Challenge Champion!

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bookmark

It came down to a foot race at the end, and Giorgio Lumaconi emerged victorious with his image “bookmark”.  Congratulations to Giorgio and I’ll be in contact to get you your free stuff!

Please visit Giorgio HERE to see more of his work, and to connect, say hi, make friends with, follow… you know.

Thank you so much, to Jimmy and the folks at Alien Skin Software, and Darcy and the team at Topaz Software for generously providing us the ability to give away killer photography software, and to Keri and crew at Lensbaby my friends and hometown lens manufacturing gurus, for the LM10 smartphone, selective focus optic!  All wonderful people and companies, that have always been awesome in their support of me and my blogging adventures.  I chose to contact them while still in my blog infancy because I loved their products.  I choose to continue to buy from, use their wares and shill for them because I know them and how hard they work for and within the greater photographic community, so thank you all.  

Giorgio will also receive a brand new Cascade style wrist strap.  I am working on having these available to purchase very soon and will be an addition to the Garda style wrist straps currently available HERE.

Finally, thank you to Heather and Mat at Mirrorlessons, my partners in crime for these monthly challenges.  We have really enjoyed being able to grow the community through these theme based photo challenges and look forward to continuing to.

If you’re new to the monthly flickr photo blog challenges, visit us on Flickr –

Keep an eye out for our monthly theme threads.  It’s a fun, free way to connect with other photographers worldwide, it can be fun motivation to get out and shoot, and get your photography seen by an ever growing audience. 

Find me on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Instagram . To stay posted on new articles, feel free to add your email address at the top right of the page here.  You’ll get email alerts as new articles are released.

Keep on keepin’ on, and happy shooting.

Tyson

*Choose the Champion of our semi-annual Photo blog challenge winners!

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champions round 2

Alright, we have successfully crowned 6 more, monthly challenge winners, and the time has come to choose your overall favorite.  The winner gets free software from Alien Skin and Topaz Labs, an LM-10 smartphone, selective focus optic from Lensbaby and a brand new, yet to be released TRP camera wrist strap that I’ve been working on.  Please vote for your favorite, tell friends, and remember to visit Mirrorlessons HERE as well to vote there too!  This vote will run for a week, and we will tally the total amount of votes between this poll and the poll at Mirrorlessons with the overall winner receiving all the free stuff and title of our second, semi annual champion.

Thanks as always to everyone who has, and continues to contribute to these monthly themes.  Thanks to Heather and Mat from Mirrorlessons for co-hosting all of these cool challenges with me, and helping promote so many cool photographers through these monthly photographic contests.

These challenges are entirely free to enter, and we’ve created them as a way to both provide motivation to get out and shoot with fun new themes each month, and help showcase much of the awesome photography from all of you guys and gals.  All you need to do is find us on Flickr (TRP HERE and Mirrorlessons HERE) to submit your images to the monthly theme threads.  Because we’ve been able to build up steam with it as time has gone on, we have companies that are excited to sponsor these challenges by offering stuff for our semi-annual giveaways.  

Thank you so much to Alien Skin Software, Topaz Labs Software and Lensbaby for being so awesome.  I’ve had the good fortune of working with these three companies for years doing reviews and beta testing and I strongly stand behind them as companies.  Great folks, great products and while I wish my wrist straps would be a cool enough draw, these challenges are so much better because of their gracious gifting so that we can sweeten the pot.

We have 6 wonderful options from the winners of our 6 previous monthly themes.  View all 6, and choose your favorite in the poll at the end.  In chronological order they are as follows…

Continue reading →

*Monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge #13; “Man vs Nature” with @Mirrorlessons

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Rügen 2014

“Rügen 2014” by Pommes.Fritz123 on Flickr, see more from him HERE.

Welcome to our 13th, monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge.  Congratulations to Pommes.Fritz123 for winning our Architecture theme last month.  The theme this month as chosen by Pommes.Fritz is “Man vs. Nature” and it can be interpreted however you see fit.   These challenges are a fun way to spur a bit of spontaneous creativity, or provide the motivation to cull through your library to find that perfect shot.

Rules are simple.  Submit your image, or images to our flickr threads for consideration.  At the end of the month, Heather, Mat and I will choose our three favorite images and will showcase these three on both of our sites with an open vote.  The image to receive the most votes between the two sites will be entered into our next semi-annual giveaway vote and will choose our theme for the next month.

To participate, head on over and submit your images to our flickr group theme threads: TRP Flickr Group HERE and Mirrorlesson’s Flickr Group HERE.

Visit and stay tuned to Mirrorlessons and find me on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Instagram . To stay posted on new articles, feel free to add your email address at the top right of the page here.  You’ll get email alerts as new articles are released.

Thanks as always to everyone who has continued to submit to these challenges.  I hope you have had as much fun as we have.  Thanks to Heather and Mat for the continued partnership in co-hosting these challenges.  Great folks who do awesome work on their site.  Stop by and visit them for reviews and articles on all things mirrorless.

Have fun and happy shooting,

Tyson

*Congratulations to Pommes.Fritz123 for winning our February Flickr Photo Blog Challenge, Architecture! with @Mirrorlessons

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Kuppel10_24_7

“Kuppel10_24_7” by Pommes.Fritz123 (see more from Pomme.Fritz123 HERE)

 

With his sweeping lines, Pommes.Fritz123 has won our twelfth monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge, “Architecture.”  Congratulations P.F123!  You’ve now been entered into our semi-annual giveaway post which will happen within the next couple weeks to vie for our reader’s overall favorite image from the last 6 months, and a free plugin from Alien Skin, another plugin of your choice from Topaz, a Lensbaby LM-10 smart phone camera lens and a brand new, yet to be released TRP wrist strap for your camera!

This was yet another awesome month with remarkable images.  I feel like we’re all seeing a collective stepping up of our respective games, and I hope that for all who choose to participate, you’re also seeing these as a fun way to spur creativity.  For all of those who submitted, thank you again.  To everyone who has, who may and will continue to submit, keep your eyes peeled for this month’s theme.  Each month is a new opportunity to motivate and connect with a larger community.  We start a new 6 month cycle with March’s theme.

These monthly themes, co-hosted by myself along with Heather and Mat from Mirrorlessons.com were started as a fun way to collaborate and grow our community.  It has given us a way to share much of your photography with a larger audience while connecting with many more photographers, and hopefully aid in providing some motivation for all of us to get out and shoot.  Not that everyone needs it, but I find that being given new direction can help keep my shooting fresh.

Stay tuned for our new theme this month, and keep watch for our semi-annual giveaway vote in a week or so to help us decide who gets all that cool free stuff.  Visit Mirrorlessons.com to stay abreast of all things mirrorless and find me on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Instagram . To stay posted on new articles, feel free to add your email address at the top right of the page here.  You’ll get email alerts as new articles are released.

Thanks for the read and happy shooting,

Tyson

*Time to vote! Vote for the winner of our twelfth monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge; Architecture. With @MirrorLessons

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With each passing month, these themes are bringing out more and more amazing photographs and this month was very difficult to choose our favorites.  I could have settled on a dozen or more of the contributions myself, and I’m sure it was the same for Mat and Heather.  If you haven’t seen them, feel free to stop by the Flickr threads (TRP Here and ML Here).  For those new to this, each month, in collaboration with Heather and Mat from Mirrorlessons, we co-host monthly challenges where anyone can submit an image based on their interpretation of the theme.  At the end of each month, we each choose an image we feel best represents the theme in our eyes, and we open up a vote, like this one.  The vote runs for 5 days, and afterward, the totals are tallied and the winner chooses our new theme and the process begins again!  Anyone can submit, so stay tuned for new themes.  With that, we have chosen the three that caught our eyes this month, so please vote for your favorite:

Denver's Union Station

“Denver’s Union Station” by Michael L Ricci (see more from Mike HERE)

Kuppel10_24_7

“Kuppel10_24_7” by Pommes.Friz123 (see more from Pomme.Friz123 HERE)

Fisheye Madness

“Fisheye Madness” by Fabio Morbec (see more from Fabio HERE)

We will have this vote open through the 5th, and with this winner, we’ll have finished our second semi-annual stretch.  We will be taking our last 6 monthly winners and opening up a new vote sometime this month.  The winner from the semi-annual vote will win software, some fun hardware and a new, soon to be released hand built wrist strap by yours truly.  Stay tuned for that, and in the mean time, please vote for your favorite below and over on Mirrorlessons too!

Thanks to everyone who submitted this month, it really was an awesome group of contributions.  Congratulations and good luck to Michael, Fritz and Fabio.  Keep submitting, and stay up with new challenges and articles by connecting via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Instagram and to stay posted on new articles, feel free to add your email address at the top right of the page here.  You’ll get email alerts as new articles are released.

Happy shooting!

Tyson

*Monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge #12; “Architecture” with @Mirrorlessons

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Fred and Ginger, Prague

Welcome to our 12th monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge.  This month’s theme marks our one year anniversary and the end of our second semi-annual chunk of winners with this month’s theme providing our winner the last spot in our semi-annual giveaway.  It’s easy.  All you have to do is submit your image to our themed Flickr threads and at the end of the month, Heather, Mat and I will choose our three favorites from the submissions which will then be showcased on the site here, and on Mat and Heather’s site, Mirrorlessons.  The vote runs for 5 days at which point, the winner tallying the most total votes between the two polls will get to choose next month’s theme, and will join our 5 previous monthly winners in our champion’s vote where the winner will receive gifts aplenty.  Last time, our winner Billyburg received a custom built handstrap and a Topaz plugin of his choice.  This time around should offer even more.

The rules are simple.

Submit an image taken by you, based on your interpretation of our theme, in this case “architecture” into our flickr theme threads:

TRP Flickr Group Thread HERE

Mirrorlessons Flickr Group Thread HERE

That’s that.

Submit away, good luck and happy shooting.

t

*Congratulations to Manizkrishnan for winning our January Flickr Photo Blog Challenge, Portrait! with @Mirrorlessons

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Festive Spirit by Manizkrishnan

“Festive Spirit” by Manizkrishnan (see more HERE), our Portrait Challenge Winner!

Congratulations Manizkrishnan!  A beautiful portrait chosen from a very beautiful group of amazing submissions this month.  We are one challenge away from our second semi-annual giveaway vote where Manizkrishnan will be entered against our 5 other monthly winners in a vote to decide our overall favorite image from the last six challenges, and to the overall winner go the spoils of free stuff.

Thank you to everyone who submitted, it was one of my favorite challenges so far.  I love seeing portraits, candid, spontaneous or staged in all their glory and feel it has always been one of my central draws to photography.  Capturing a human story within a singular frame can be a great challenge, and we had a multitude of beautifully executed portraits this month, so I hope that you all enjoyed capturing and submitting your work as much as we did in getting to see it all.

Keep shooting, and stay tuned to find out what this month’s theme will be, as chosen by our winner, Manizkrishnan!

Thanks to Heather and Mat from Mirrorlessons, and join me in wishing them luck in their move!  Here’s to hoping that the relocation will bring excitement and inspiration in this new chapter for you guys.

As always, I’d love to connect via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Instagram so feel free to find me on any or all of those platforms, and to stay posted on new articles, feel free to add your email address at the top right of the page here.  You’ll get email alerts as new articles are released.

Thanks all and happy shooting,

Tyson

*Time to vote! Vote for the winner of our eleventh monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge; Portrait. With @MirrorLessons

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This was a very difficult month to pick our favorites you guys.  It is honestly one of my favorite themes in that it is one of my favorite types of subject to shoot.  I like a good portrait, and this month provided us with many to choose from.  Thanks again to Giorgio Lumaconi (visit Giorgio HERE), our winner from December, for choosing this theme.  Below are Heather, Mat and my choices for this month’s vote.  The poll will run for the next 5 days, so make sure to vote, tell friends and visit Mirrorlessons HERE to vote there as well!  We present our favorite three images from January’s theme, Portraits:

Matt Seattle by mullygun

“Matt Seattle” by mullygun (see more HERE)

Festive Spirit by Manizkrishnan

“Festive Spirit” by Manizkrishnan (see more HERE)

New Goggles by Brian Frank

“New Goggles” by Brian Frank (see more HERE)

For those new to our monthly theme challenges, we have open threads in our respective Flickr groups where anyone can submit an image based on their interpretation of the monthly theme. Find our Flickr groups HERE-TRP and HERE-Mirrorlessons.  At the end of any given month, Heather, Mat and I choose our three favorites which we then showcase on both our sites with an open vote, like this one.  The vote runs for 5 days at which time we tally the totals and the winner gets to choose our theme for the current month as well as gets entered into our semi-annual vote.  Our second semi-annual vote will happen after this next theme wherein we have our 6 monthly winners in a new vote with the winner taking home various prizes, goods and adoration.  It is free, and a way for all of us to get exposed to wonderful photography from all over the world.  Our growing community is awesome, and I, along with Heather and Mat I’m sure, have thoroughly enjoyed doing these monthly challenges, so keep on keeping on!

Don’t forget to vote over at Mirrorlessons HERE as well.

Thanks to everyone who submitted images this month.  It was certainly one of our best theme challenges ever and stay tuned for this month (and future months) theme!

I’d love to connect via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Instagram and to stay posted on new articles, feel free to add your email address at the top right of the page here.  You’ll get email alerts as new articles are released.

Thanks all and happy shooting!

Tyson

*Monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge #11; “Portrait” with @Mirrorlessons

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born of the northwest
Thank you to our December winner Giorgio (visit him HERE) for this month’s theme: “Portrait”

As is fun with our monthly themes, they are open for interpretation.  There are no rules, other than to be considered for our selections, you must submit your image to one of (good) or both (better) our themed flickr group threads below.  Over the last 11 months, Heather and Mat from Mirrorlessons, and myself here have collaborated to facilitate a fun way to both motivate our selves as well as help provide a platform for a bit more exposure by way of showcasing our favorites on both of our websites.

The way these challenges work:

  1. submit your image based on the monthly theme to our flickr group threads
  2. that’s about it, really.

At the end of each month, Heather, Mat and I each choose our favorite image from the flickr threads that we feel best represents the theme and post them on both of our sites along with a vote.

The vote is open for 5 days after which we tally the two sites polls and declare the winner.  The winner of the month gets to choose the next theme and the process begins again.  Each month’s winner is also entered into our semi-annual champions vote where we get to vote on the 6 monthly winners to determine our favorite.  That winner is showcased on both my site as well as Mirrorlessons again while also winning software, handmade wrist straps and who knows what else.

So, submit your image to our Flickr group theme threads below and let the challenge begin!

TRP Flickr Group Thread

Mirrorlessons Flickr Group Thread

Good luck and happy shooting!

Tyson

*Congratulations to Giorgio Lumaconi for winning our December Flickr Photo Blog Challenge, Gadgets! with @Mirrorlessons

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bookmark

“Bookmark” by Giorgio Lumaconi

Stop by and see more from Giorgio on Flickr HERE

This month saw quite the spike in votes with a large number of overall clicks, so thank you to everyone who stopped by and voted.  After all the votes were counted, Giorgio Lumaconi’s image “Bookmark” emerged victorious. Congratulations to Giorgio for winning the Gadgets challenge!  Head on over to Giorgio’s Flickr stream to see more of his photography.  Stay tuned for this months theme!

These monthly themes are a fun way to motivate ourselves as well as challenge and hone our photographic intuition. Each month, I, along with Heather and Mat from Mirrorlessons, host these challenges and choose the three images from the reader submitted pools on our Flickr group pages that we feel are the best examples of the chosen theme. We then showcase these three on both of our sites with an open vote. The winner chooses our next theme and is entered into our semi-annual giveaway vote where the 6 monthly winners vie for your vote to be crowned our overall champion, and receive free stuff.

Congrats to Giorgio who will be added to our list of monthly winners, and thanks again to Heather and Mat, as well as everyone who has and continues to participate. Each month is a new chance to submit, so stay tuned to the blog as well as Mirrorlessons for new themes as they’re announced.

Find me on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr to stay connected, and happy shooting!
Tyson