Travel Photographer of the Year 2008 opens for entries

Go Wild, Go High, Go Extreme

May 16, 2008 -- The 2008 Travel Photographer of the Year competition (http://www.tpoty.com) is now open for entries, giving amateur and professional photographers worldwide the chance to win superb prizes and gain international exposure for their photography.

There are three portfolio categories - Life, Call of the Wild and Joy of Travel - a One Shot category, Destination Anywhere, and Young TPOTY. For the first time, this year TPOTY has introduced a new category, First Shot: Wish You Were Here, for less experienced photographers, and three special £1,000 awards for the Best Single Image in a Portfolio.

This year’s prizes include a place on the 2009 High & Wild Everest Skydive Expedition and fascinating Intrepid Travel trips to India and Cuba and to see the mountain gorillas of Uganda. TPOTY 2008 prizes also offer a chance to get into fine art photography with a large format Linhof Technorama panoramic camera, Adobe professional imaging software, Wacom interactive pen displays and pen tablets, photographic and digital imaging tuition from Iridius and PhotoIconic, Lee filters, Lexar Professional CompactFlash cards and Dual-slot USB card readers, and Plastic Sandwich leather portfolio books. And the winners and other highly-ranked photographers will see their images feature in the new Travel Photographer of the Year book, Journey Three.

TPOTY organiser, Chris Coe, said, “Over the last five years TPOTY has established the very highest standards. Whilst maintaining these standards we are also looking to help less experienced photographers, so we’ve introduced First Shot. This is a new single image category for images taken on basic SLRs, compact cameras and mobile phones, with tuition-based prizes designed to encourage these photographers and to help them improve their photography.

“2008 also sees the introduction of awards for the best single images entered in the portfolio categories. Every year we see strong images in the non-winning portfolios, so these awards recognise this and reward great photography whilst still challenging photographers to test their skills at shooting and putting together a portfolio.

“It will surprise many people that we are offering a film camera as part of the top prize. However, we receive about half our entries shot on film, and the Linhof is no ordinary camera, giving photographers the chance to shoot high quality, fine art images in the challenging panoramic format.”

CATEGORIES AND PRIZES IN DETAIL

Overall winner
The photographer with the best entries in two separate portfolio categories will become Travel Photographer of the Year 2008 and win an amazing prize. They will receive a Linhof Technorama panoramic camera and join High & Wild on the Everest Skydive expedition in 2009. They will be part of the ground crew on this unique adventure, as the world’s elite skydivers dive amongst some of the world’s highest mountains, giving the award-winning photographer unrivaled opportunities to shoot outstanding and unusual images in the Himalayas with the Linhof. They will also receive Adobe CS3 Web + Lightroom software, a personalised Plastic Sandwich leather portfolio book and £250 worth of Lee Filters, to enable them to take their images to even greater heights.

Call of the Wild Portfolio
The winner of this category will answer the call of the wild as they join Intrepid Travel on a Gorilla Encounter in Uganda and Kenya, seeing the magical mountain gorillas in their natural habitat. They will also receive a Wacom Intuos3 A5 Wide pen tablet, Adobe Photoshop CS3 + Lightroom and a beautiful Plastic Sandwich leather portfolio book. The runner-up wins a 4GB Lexar Professional 300x UDMA CompactFlash card and Dual-slot USB card reader plus £250 to spend on Lee Filters, while the 3rd and 4th-placed entrants each receive a 4GB Lexar Professional 300x UDMA CompactFlash card and Dual-slot USB card reader.

Joy of Travel Portfolio
The winner of this category will join Intrepid Travel on a ‘Slowly Down the Ganges’ trip along India’s legendary river and receive a Wacom Cintiq 12WX Interactive Pen Display and Adobe Photoshop + Lightroom software. The runner-up wins a 4GB Lexar Professional 300x UDMA CompactFlash card and Dual-slot USB card reader plus £250 to spend on Lee Filters, while the 3rd and 4th-placed entrants each receive a 4GB Lexar Professional 300x UDMA CompactFlash card and Dual-slot USB card reader.

Life Portfolio
The winner of this category will join Intrepid Travel on a ‘Rum and Rumba’ trip to discover the best of Cuba and receive a Wacom Cintiq 12WX Interactive Pen Display and Adobe Photoshop + Lightroom software. The runner-up wins a 4GB Lexar Professional 300x UDMA CompactFlash card and Dual-slot USB card reader plus £250 to spend on Lee Filters, while the 3rd and 4th-placed entrants each receive a 4GB Lexar Professional 300x UDMA CompactFlash card and Dual-slot USB card reader.

Best Portfolio Image Awards
The photographers with the best individual images in the three portfolio categories (not necessarily the photographers with the winning portfolios) will each win £1,000.

Destination Anywhere
A one shot category for those great individual travel shots. The winner of this category receives £1,000, plus Adobe Photoshop CS3 + Lightroom software. The runner-up and the 3rd and 4th-placed entrants each win a 4GB Lexar Professional 300x UDMA CompactFlash card and Dual-slot USB card reader.

First Shot, Wish You Were Here
A new single image category for less experienced amateur photographers aged 17 and above. Photographers submitting entries for this particular category will, for the first time in the competition’s history, be able to submit images taken on a mobile phone. The ten top-scoring entrants in this category will each take part in a PhotoIconic Shoot, Edit, Print three-day photography course, receiving intensive photographic and digital imaging tuition from TPOTY judge and professional photographer, Chris Coe, and Adobe Photoshop expert Terry Steeley of Iridius.

Young TPOTY, Journey
For photographers aged 16 and under. The Young Travel Photographer of the Year 2008 will take part in a PhotoIconic Shoot, Edit, Print three-day photography course, and will receive Photoshop Elements + Premier Elements +Lightroom and a Wacom Bamboo Fun Medium pen tablet. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th-placed Young TPOTY entrants will each win a 4GB Lexar Professional 300x UDMA CompactFlash card and Dual-slot USB card reader.

Entry dates and entry fees
Further information and entry forms are available from http://www.tpoty.com. The competition closes on September 9th. Entry costs £10 for a single image category and £15 for a portfolio category, and entry to Young TPOTY is free.

TPOTY background
Travel Photographer of the Year was launched in 2003, and rapidly became one of the world’s most prestigious photographic competitions. Entries are received from amateur and professional photographers in over 60 countries every year. The prize packages always combine imaginative travel and the latest photographic equipment. The overall winner of TPOTY 2007, Cat Vinton, is currently preparing for her High & Wild prize trip to Dharamsala, India, where she will photograph the Dali Lama.