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.












Wow, it was about time someone to think of it!
I’ve shot better pictures with my iphone than any of my DSLR’s!
It’s not the cam, its the moment!
Done & done – Thanks Chase, this is an awesome premise for contest. I like that there are pros voting separately from the people’s choice. I always feel that public internet voting is more of a popularity contest than a contest of artistic merit or skill, so this seems very fair.
Where dose all the money go? $1 per you could pull 25k off this MacBook!
After reading the rules, I am a little confused. Do you require model releases for images of people? How strict is that? What if the person is not clearly recognizable?
Hey Chase! I finally got your app, now…. I’m in Mexico, is this open to everyone or is it just the US?
Gracias!
Contest is worldwide!