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.
Sounds like a great project, the price of entry doesn’t bother me but ownership rights to the images long term does (concern me).
“Just submit a bunch of cool photos that you shot with the phone in your camera.”
I am heading to the model shop right now and figure out how to get a phone inside my camera!
playin by the rules
jeff
Can i use a photo taken with my phone enhanced in photoshop? I used photo shop to stitch a pano and adjust colors…
Thanks for posting this. Some friends and I drew inspiration from you and started a blog where we upload a mobile image on a daily basis for a year. We all do it for our own reasons and have our own goals in mind. However, the comon thread is that we see this project as a means for encouraging creativity. I am amazed at what these guys are doing with just a phone camera.
http://www.mobilephoto365@blogspot.com
Sorry, the website is http://www. mobilephoto365.blogspot.com