DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY NEWS

Pentax Photo Gallery Named "Best Use of Photography In a Website" In People's Voice Awards

Golden, CO (May 6, 2008)…The global Web community has voted  PENTAX PHOTO GALLERY (www.pentaxphotogallery.com) as Best Use of Photography of the year in a website in the Webby People’s Voice Awards. The site is the singular vision of Ned Bunnell, president, PENTAX Imaging Company, and a passionate photographer in his own right.  The PENTAX Photo Gallery was produced and is managed by a team of PENTAX professionals and the web design firm texturemedia of Boulder, Colorado.

This year, nearly 500,000 votes were cast by people around the world for their favorite sites, videos, and ads in The Webby People’s Voice Awards presented by Nokia. A full list of both Webby Awards and People’s Voice Awards winners can be found at: http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=12

Winners will be honored at two star-studded ceremonies in New York City: The Webby Film & Video Awards on June 9th and The 12th Annual Webby Awards Gala on June 10th.

Hailed as the “the Internet’s highest honor” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile Websites. The Webby Awards is presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-person judging academy whose members include Internet co-inventor Vinton Cerf, R/GA’s Chief Bob Greenberg, "Simpson's" creator Matt Groening, Arianna Huffington, and Harvey Weinstein.

“For decades, PENTAX collected the best images captured by photographers with our cameras and published the work annually in an historical, coffee table-type, book collection,” said Ned Bunnell. “We went in a new direction creating the PENTAX Photo Gallery to offer 24/7/365 virtual access to the best photography captured by Pentaxians around the world.  This nomination honors the PENTAX photographers.”  The 12th Annual Webby Awards received a record 9,500 entries from over 60 countries and all 50 states. Founded in 1996, The Webby Awards are known worldwide for its famous five-word speech limit.                                                                                                    # # #

PENTAXPHOTOGALLERY.COM WEBBY AWARD NOMINATION FACT SHEET

About PENTAX Photo Gallery

PENTAX Photo Gallery is an original website that was designed exclusively for Pentaxians by PENTAX Imaging Company.   Interesting facts about the site include:

 With limitless virtual capacity, the PENTAX Gallery already features more than 4,000 images submitted by more than 1,900 artists. 

• Photographers range from 16 to 80 years of age and hail from more than 75 countries throughout Europe; Asia; the Middle East; North, South and Central Americas; Africa; and the Pacific. 
• The gallery offers site navigation in six languages:  English, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, and Italian. 
• Featuring a search engine that locates images according to digital and film SLR camera bodies and individual lenses (as well as photographer and subject category) the Gallery is an exhibit of the creative capabilities of PENTAX photographers. 
• Pentaxians interested in submitting work to the Gallery may email photogallery@pentax.com for an invite.
• An informative flash demonstration of this process is also available at:    http://extranet.texturemedia.com/pentax/photogallery/demo2/demo.html
• A screen capture image is available for press purposes here:    http://www.pentaxtech.com/Press/pressfiles.html

About PENTAX Imaging Company

PENTAX Imaging Company is an innovative leader in the production of digital SLR and compact cameras, lenses, flash units, binoculars, scopes, eyepieces and mobile printers and scanners.  For more than 80 years, PENTAX technology has developed durable, reliable products that meet the needs of consumers and businesses.  With headquarters in Golden, Colorado, PENTAX Imaging Company is a division of PENTAX of America, Inc.

About texturemedia

Texturemedia is an award winning, Boulder-based interactive media and marketing agency that blends creative and technology disciplines to help clients build brands online.  We take a holistic view of your brand, objectives, customers, requirements, needs, and industry.  Our agency creates compelling and user-friendly media for use across multiple platforms, provides Web-based technologies to support measurable business results, and assists clients with brand communications and marketing strategy.

About The Webby Awards

Hailed as the "Oscars of the Internet” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including websites , interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile websites. Established in 1996, the 12th Annual Webby Awards received a record 9,500 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide. The Webby Awards is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Sponsors and Partners of The Webby Awards include: Adobe; The Creative Group; .ORG; The Barbarian Group; Level3; Adweek; Fortune; Variety; Wired; IDG: Brightcove; PricewaterhouseCoopers; 2advanced.Net; KobeMail and Museum of the Moving Image.