PHOTO CONTEST ALERT: Win a Leica Monochrom, Leica X2, and Cash. Submit your pics to win.

February 4, 2013 Contests, cool links, Featured, Inspiration, Leica, News 20

ishotitb

PHOTO CONTEST ALERT: Win a Leica Monochrom, Leica X2, and BIG Cash. The best photo competition online. Period.

Ok guys..you MUST check this out!

I Shot It, the photo competition website, well they are having some really cool competitions lately. The two coolest right now are the “Black & White” contest where they are giving away cash and a Leica Monochrom camera. The other is a “Premium” contest where they are giving away cash and a Leica X2. Yes, you can submit a photo to the contest and if your photo is chosen by the judges as the winner you will WIN cash and the camera prizes, depending on which competition you enter.

There really is nothing else like “I SHOT IT”  anywhere around and they are the absolute best of their kind when it comes to the prizes, at least from what I have ever seen, and that is not me spewing BS, it is fact. I have browsed the site over the past year but have never entered any of my photos and when I spoke with them recently about their new contests giving away Leica cameras I wanted to spread the word to all of you about it. So they actually became a site sponsor which is why you now see their ad at the top of this site 🙂

So THANK YOU to I Shot It for helping to keep THIS site alive, but that is not what this post is about.

A past B&W contest winner – This person won $5,520 US dollars and a Leica Monochrom. Amazing. 

pastwinner

INSPIRATION and MOTIVATION 

When it comes to Photography, most of you here on this site are just like me. I consider myself a photo “enthusiast” which means I LOVE photography and I love to capture memories. I love to try new gear and use gear that inspires me as I find when inspired it brings out the best of me.

I do not consider myself a “Pro” at all, just a guy who loves to take photos and write about it. In fact, I live, breathe and eat it most of the time. I am always on the lookout for new things to motivate me and inspire me and when I browsed the I Shot It site last week I became inspired by the amazing photos on the site as well as the competitions they were offering. I mean, the chance to win a Leica Monochrom??!!?! Wow. Now that is a prize. But they go even further with Cash prizes added to the camera prize. 

Their site has been around for a while now and lately they have been offering up some amazing cash prizes for the best photo in each contest in addition to camera prizes.

This is a site that can not only sparks your creativity and sets you out on a mission to shoot, it is a site that allows you the opportunity to be rewarded for your photography. 

It is a pretty amazing concept. The photographer gets to share his work, have it seen by everyone at the site as well as be judged for the main prize of each contest, and these contests just keep on coming. My friend Thorsten Overgaard is one of the judges for I Shot It as is Birgit Krippner, both of whom are respected and established photographers whom I respect.

Again, they are not new and have been running these for quite some time and it appears the site is starting to really get some attention, but then again, how can you not when you are giving away Leica cameras and thousands of dollars for some of the contests? Their Facebook page has over 148,000 likes with a load of member interaction. CHECK IT OUT.

The cash prizes for contests can get INSANE!

contest

What’s The Catch?

Well, there really is no catch. They offer varying degrees of competitions. Some are 100% free to enter and if you win you get credit to your acct to enter the premium contests. If you have an amazing shot that you think stands a chance of winning you can enter the Leica X2 competition for example..and it will cost you $10 to enter. The awesome thing is the more entries that come in, the bigger the prize money. With these kinds of prizes lines up, cash and Leica cameras, it is really a motivator to get out there and look for that one shot..that one moment..that one slice of life that may just win you the contest.

Most of their cash contests are $3 to enter, some are $10 and a few are more. For example, the Leica Monochrom competition has a $20 entrance fee, but THIS IS TO ENTER TO WIN A MONOCHROME valued at $8,000 plus a few thousands dollars in cash, and ONE will indeed win it. Just be sure to have a knockout image for these contests. But the beauty of it is that the cost is low to enter and the prizes are HUGE. You are rewarded for your skill level basically as I am sure the competition is FIERCE when it comes to the bigger competitions.

The way I see it, I SHOT IT is the coolest way to do photo competitions. In the past I have seen photo competition websites that allowed you to submit images for free but if you won, you got nothing but a “You Won” announcement. I Shot It actually rewards the winners with AMAZING prizes. $4500 in cash? Leica Monochrom and Cash? Yep. You can enter whatever contest you wish. The freebies or the premiums or the themed. Spend nothing to enter, send $3 or spend $10 or $20. Up to you depending on the quality of your photo and how much of a chance you want to take. To me, $10 for a chance to win cash and a Leica X2 is nothing, if I have a photo I feel is worthy of the contest of course.

So I suggest clicking over to I SHOT IT, not just because they are a new site sponsor, but because they are one hell of a site to motivate and inspire you to actually get away from your computer and to get out and SHOOT. This is after all what it is all about is it not? If you enter and win a free competition I SHOT IT will deposit $10 in to your account. You can then use that to enter a premium contest. Pretty cool! If anything, head there and join a bunch of free contests to get started. I’d love to see a reader here win something cool, so if you enter and win, even if it is a free competition then LET ME KNOW!

You can check out their Facebook page here as well, it has over 148,000 likes. Wow.

 

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT I SHOT IT!

 

See the newest entries HERE

 

Sign Up for a free Acct HERE

 

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20 Comments

  1. Wish I knew about this sooner. I have not the skill, and not a decent camera to work with, but I’m thinking of giving it a shot regardless. Maybe more than a few shots.

  2. Thanks for the heads up Steve! Seems like a cool opportunity and something May try our.
    But It seems too many people here, and leave to photographers to do this, are taking this way to seriously, with far to much skepticism, and among philosophical treatises for no particular reason.
    If you want to know more, all info is posted on their website.
    If youre skeptical, no one is forcing you to enter.
    if you think this kind of thing can make photographers “feel” more “talented” than they actually are, well you need to just relax a bit. Time will take its course.
    Steve just presented us with a chance, nothing more.
    thank Steve!

  3. Well, my opinion is that any contest that charges a fee — regardless of how that fee is described, i.e. whether it’s a “processing fee” or “incidentals fee” or “overhead fee” or whatever — is less about being a contest than it is raising money. And the quality of the photographs doesn’t make it better (and in this case, I saw a lot of excellent photos), nor does the quality of the prize(s).

    It reminds me somewhat of a practice you sometimes see in the publishing industry: in the traditional model (in the U.S.) you usually need to find an agent before getting published at a big publishing house. Reputable agents read your work or not, no fee involved. Some agents, who also describe themselves as reputable, charge a fee to read your work. Why would anyone pay a fee when well-known, other reputable agents do not? I know, I know: this analogy is not a perfect fit; but I’m just saying that this reminds me of that.

    In any event, I’m not suggesting anything “illegal” or nefarious. It’s simply someone getting you to pay for the possibility of them telling you that they think your photo is good; and to make you feel better, they give you a nice prize. Not a model for me, but, as they say, your mileage may vary.

  5. I like I Shot It.

    The recognition winners of the I Shot It contest awards receive seems equally important as winning one of the great Leica Camera prizes as renowned photographic institutions are becoming aware of I Shot It and the potential some of those photographers have. In my opinion, seeing talent only in the span of a life time is everything else than contemporary and the internet changes our traditions in so many new and exciting ways with opportunities we never dreamt of.

    The old debate about Film vs Digital has become rather fruitless.
    Film relied heavily on “Photoshop” incorporated in its chemical layers by the photo scientists of those days – Kodachrome film, Fujichrome Velvia film, Film for daylight, Film for tungsten, etc., etc. Even worse, it was the same “Photoshop” for everyone.

    What is talent? Was Monet a talent and Man Ray was not?
    Henri Cartier-Bresson shot many thousand of casual looking pictures during his life and only a small percentage has made him famous.

    Manipulation of photographs after the image has been taken is nothing new – Arnold Newman used to crop most of his masterpieces, today Annie Leibovitz is also famous for her “look” achieved by digital post-processing. It is a creative process, like sculpturing, recognized by leading art institutions as the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

    I have the impression, that at I Shot It, it is challenging to achieve an award. You have to show real photographic abilities to compete against those other entries and you got to have PASSION for what you’re doing.

    It is fun to show the world your work, inspiring and rewarding in so many ways!

    • I fully agree with you kind sir. There is a tendency amongst photographers to take anything that goes against their particular artistic philosophies as personal affronts, or worse, the breaking of some sort of “rules” or unwritten “constitution”
      Photography is art, it’s subjective by nature. It’s about finding your voice whether through digital manipulation or not.
      A little photography history will show some that image manipulation has been present since day one, including the most extreme kinds such as compositing multiple images to form a new piece. But in one sense manipulation begins the moment a viewfinder or LCD is lifted to the eye to aid in composition. Composition being the first form of manipulation, followed by exposure adjustments an the like. To think otherwise is either naive or intentionally ignorant.

  7. With todays modern technologies, this kind of contest means nothing to me.
    Nowadays people can crop hugely with no quality loss, convert in back and white, play with curves, contrasts, illumination etc. and a lot art filters and softwares…

    I think a photographic contest lose its soul as long as it’s hugely related with computing. I feel it’s more like a Photoshop designer’s challenge than a Photographer one.

    As an opposite, I think that film is much more proper to judge photographic capabilities…and photographer’s eye. You can do whatever you want, if you don’t get it right on your film…then there is no second chance or at least much fewer than with digital. This makes the thing more challenging, more rewarding…and I would say…TRUER.

    But of course…film only competition would be a no sense in today’s standards…and also people’s opinion. Sadly.

    • I’m a long-time film shooter (since 1982) but I respectfully disagree.

      We’ve always manipulated our photos. Dodging, burning, cropping, etc. Nowadays, we do it in the computer rather than in a darkened room full of toxic fumes. Camera obscura, tintype, Daguerrotype, wet plate, dry plate, pinhole, view, film, contact printing, enlarging, Photoshop–technology and tools evolve.

      No one cares how hard you worked. The realization of the vision, however achieved, is all that matters.

  9. Streetsofchrome.com also has a photo contest- free to enter and you can win a Fuji X-pro 1 with a 35 1.4 lens!

  11. Thanks for the heads-up, Steve. This is an interesting approach to a photo contest. I checked out their FAQs to see about the copyright and indeed there is NO transfer of copyrights on the “www.i-shot-it.com”. That makes for a good start.

  12. Interesting approach, although you could see it as lottery, and I somehow feel bad about a site that would make money by just running competitions.

    It may actually be illegal according to some national regulations, where entry to competitions has to be free.

    • This is a competition, a contest where the best talents worldwide win!
      A well reputed camera manufacturer is official partner and the quality of the submitted photographs is absolutely astonishing.

      No illegal lottery at all, because for that it’s mandatory that mathematical chance is involved for winning, in combination with the fact to enter “only” by paying a fee. – Neither is the case here. Experienced, renowned photographers act as judges and you can also enter anytime the completely free competition which can bring you any of the prizes in any of the other competition categories.

      Another nice thing is, that your work is displayed for a rather long duration on a premium photo site on the internet as well.

      The winners are recognized as truly talented photographers.

      Cheers.

      • Ok, maybe my comment was too harsh. I’m usually suspicious with such promises but I’ll 2x check their t&c and may enter even a competition 😉

      • I disagree when you say the winners are recognized as truly talented photographers.

        a Single contest, or a single picture, is not enough to judge a photographer’s talent.

        Anyone, owing a camera and knowing what he is doing can, at a certain level, succeed to produce an amazing picture. When you shoot thousands of snapshots, it’s possible that you come out with one or two amazing pictures without really knowing how you did that. Good place, Good time.

        I think to judge if a photographer is talented or not…he has to be judged on the long run. One have to see what the photographer produce during his career to be able to know if the photographer his truly talented, or if it’s just casual talent. And that is a big difference because I believe anyone can reach casual talent.

        Sometimes I produce something really good, and I’m surprised myself. My other photo friends can tell me a lot of “woooo and waaaa” but I don’t think I’m good at photographing despite the shot is good. There is a big part of luck sometimes.

        I guess that is why there are not much young photographers recognized worlwide as amazing photographers. Most youngsters are too young to be judged.

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