Hi friends. I’ve ranted for years how mobile phone photography changed my outlook on a bunch of things…creativity born from constraints, the immediacy of the moment, digital sharing, the democratization of creativity, and on and on. As you may know, the ideals and the principle that ‘the best camera is the one that’s with you’ certainly captured my attention, led to my app, a book, a community, etc
But here’s a question: have YOU actually made any cool pictures with your mobile phone? If so, I want to see them. In fact, so does the world and PDN Magazine. So much is the case that the nice folks at PDN have put together a mobile phone photo contest called The Best Camera Challenge.
Entrance fee: $1/image, or 7 for $5. Enter as many as you like.
Categories: People, Places, Things
Prizes: an Apple MacBook for the Grand Prize and lots of other stuff for category winners. Winning images will be featured on PDN. (and I’ll laud you with praise in my social channels too…)
Enter here: at www.thebestcamerachallenge.com
You have one week to enter from today. Deadline is January 31. Details after the jump and at www.thebestcamerachallenge.com
Judges? I will be judging, along with the esteemed Jodi Peckman (Dir of Photography – Rolling Stone), Hali Tara Friehling (Sr. Photo Editor – Details), and Amber Terranova (Photo Editor PDN). Heck yes.
What are the guidelines? While the contest is certainly called The Best Camera Challenge, please know that’s only a reference to the idea that the best camera is the one that’s with you. As much as I’d hope that you dig my award winning iphone app Best Camera (and the slick new site we’ve been testing in beta for a while – check it + sign up), it has nothing to do with the contest. The contest is for any mobile phone. Use any mobile app or combination of apps. Just submit a bunch of cool photos that you shot with the phone in your camera. [Don’t be the kook who submits a shot from your Nikon D3 processed in Photoshop. Keep it real, please.]
What are we looking for? Think of the medium… The goal here is not to make an image that looks like you shot it on the world’s most expensive camera. The goal is to make an image on a mobile phone, capture a vision, a moment, a story. And to have fun doing so.
Go forth. You have one week. Please tell your friends.
Awesome! I will be entering shortly. Mobile phone photography has totally consumed me these past few months!
Photography challenge? This is a business. Since when do you pay to enter a photography contest? They get sponsored, pay part of the prizes with the entrance fees, and go off with the remainder. Seems like some smart guy got he idea of surfing on the self-importance wave that’s so strong at the moment. Really Chase, I can’t believe you even want to be associated with this!
John,
Every major photography contest in the world has an entry fee per submission. Comm Arts, PDN, International Photography Awards, PX3, ASMP, APA, the list goes on. There is a cost to administering a competition. Beware if you see a free one, it’s more likely than not an attempt to grab the rights to your photos. This competition is an inexpensive way to compete for a great prize in front of some very well respected judges and spearheaded by the magazine that has set the standard for looking out for photographers.
Thank you for curing me of my ignorance. I honestly didn’t know, and took the one from “Photo” (French magazine) as a reference. Apologies for my harsh words.
Wow, really cool contest. I can’t wait to see the results. Unfortunately I don’t have a phone with a descent camera, so I’m afraid I can’t enter 🙁 Good luck to all of you who can enter!!
Chase,
For clarification, do the images have to be shot within the one week time frame? Or are images shot on a mobile phone from the past acceptable?
Thank you,
Bruce Layman
Can be shot any time, just gotta be with a mobile phone. Enter asap. Thx!