Finally, after a month-long entry period, followed by a preliminary voting round that featured almost 200 photos, which was followed by a 1-week FINAL VOTING ROUND, we were very excited to announce the winners of the PhotographyCorner.com 2010 Photograph of the Year Contest yesterday. We announced each of the top 10 finalists individually here on the Corner Blog, but I thought everyone might enjoy browsing through the top 10 winners in order, in once place. So, by your request: here ya go:

The 5th Annual PhotographyCorner.com 2010 Photograph of the Year Contest is finally here. We’ve spent months organizing sponsors and prizes, and today we’re excited to announce it to the community. If you’ve been around the Corner for more than a year, you’re well familiar with our annual contest. If this is your first time here, or you haven’t been here long enough to experience the 2009 Photograph of the Year contest, here’s a brief run-down of how the contest works:

From over 30 entries, there was one that received the majority of the votes (over 25% of them - see the final voting results here): Rien ne va Plus by Photo-Tamara - her first Contest Corner Challenge win!

Contest Corner Challenge #78: Strength in Numbers challenged the community to either literally photograph numbers (house numbers, phone numbers, street numbers, bus numbers, etc), or take a photograph of “a number” of something (a huge pile of bricks, a crowd of people, traffic jam, 10,000 toothpicks, etc). We received a bunch of great photos depicting fruit, coins, cigarettes, people, numbers, animals and a whole bunch of a number of things. You can check out all the entries here in the CCC#78: Strength in Numbers Photo Gallery.

The contest was sponsored by Cameta Camera - a real “brick-and-mortar” full-service camera store and photographic equipment retailer that has been in business on Long Island for over 25 years. Their retail store is located in the heart of the town of Amityville, New York, where they have become a long-standing fixture in the community. This month their featured items are Camera Armor. They have them for virtually every kind of camera & are pretty much giving them away. Since Tamara is not a Premiere Member, she will receive a Digital Concepts TR-62N 62” Photo/Video Tripod with Quick-Release & Case as her prize for winning CCC#78.

If you haven’t already, head on over to the award thread to thank Cameta Camera for their sponsorship, and to congratulate Tamara on her first CCC victory!

Tamron, one of our favorite sponsors here around the Corner, has recently announced four, full-day photo seminars in the US, and I thought I'd pass along the dates and locations to you. Check out their press release below, and if any of you end up attending, let me know about it. Professional photographer Sandra Nykerk is going to present "Stepping Stones for the Photographic Trail: A Guide to the Creative Image" - sounds like it'll be a great day!

This “photography edition” (photography videos every Thursday, post-processing/photoshop videos every Monday - see this post for more details) of the “Video Corner” discusses how your lens choices impact your portraits. Short (wide) lenses can cause distortion and an unrealistic perspective, while longer (zoom) lenses have a narrower angle of view, which helps you avoid capturing too much of the background. In addition, longer lenses allow you to compose multiple shots from the same location.

Over the past several weeks we’ve had the chance to have some fantastic videos in a new series here on the Corner Blog we simply call “Video Corner.” After some discussion with the community, we’ve decided to make this a regular series on the Corner Blog. Twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, we’ll post up a new video. Mondays will feature post-processing related videos (Photoshop tips, tricks & techniques, etc) and Thursdays will feature photography-related videos (cameras, lighting, equipment, etc). You’re encouraged, of course, to try out the techniques introduced in the videos throughout the week, and even share your thoughts and sample photos in the comments section of each video (requires you to have a free account at PhotographyCorner - register here).

Many of the post-processing tutorials will be done using Adobe products like Photoshop and Lightroom, however most techniques can be repeated with other post-prcessing software such as Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate (on sale for $49.99 at Amazon.com here), GIMP (which can be downloaded for free here), and even Adobe Photoshop Elements. The photography-related videos will have a wide range of topics which will include specific pieces of equipment (lighting, cameras, etc), but will also cover a variety of techniques which can be broadly applied to every photographer.

When we think of “glamour photography” we might think of elegant ladies in black and white photographs, or we could envision tasteful or artistic nudes, and we might even think of those photographs that put “ordinary” people in place of traditional “models” with makeup, lighting and expensive clothing.

The essence of glamour photography, however, is that it is never candid or casual. This means that it uses optimal conditions for recording very finely crafted photographs. Is it always perfect? Nope! There are, however, some editing tools that can really improve the overall appearance of such images.

• Video Corner #3: Basic Principles of Light Usage in Photography
• Video Corner #5a: Photography Lighting Equipment Review
• Video Corner #5b: Photography Lighting Equipment Review

In the video below, we’ll learn about a basic, 3-light setup which includes a key light, a fill light, and a separation light. The video also discusses using a grid, flag, and a reflector in a 3-light setup.

Our third installment of Video Corner discusses the basics of lighting for photography. Instead of trying to answer the question “what lights should I buy?” (besides, it’s different for everyone), the video looks at some basic lighting principles that will assist you when buying lighting for your photography. The video takes a look at hard light versus soft light and the effective size of lighting. It also briefly touches on light modifiers, contrast and lighting position.

If you’ve been keeping up with the Corner Blog over the past month (if not, subscribe here!!), I’m sure you’ve caught most of the Articles By Amy series we did in the month of April. There were 4 videos, and over a dozen articles. You can check out the past ones here. Listed below are all the Articles By Amy that have been featured on the Corner Blog to date.

This 17-minute video on black and white photography discusses everything from “why black and white?” to numerous tips and tricks to improving your black and white photography. This is also the last article/video in our Articles By Amy Month series. Make sure to check out the links to Amy’s ebooks and her new magazine below.

The entries are in, and now it’s time to vote. In our first Contest Corner Challenge since 2008, photographers were challenged to “capture video in a photograph.” Seventeen photographers stepped up to the plate.

Does anyone shoot black and white pictures anymore? Of course! It is still one of the first methods taught to photography students and it will always be a remarkable method of employing “chiaroscuro”, or the effects of light and shadow upon a scene.

While modern digital cameras are loaded with an incredible array of settings, all meant to capture images at their best – meaning colors at their brightest and most realistic – there is still a great deal to be said for black and white photography. It is a great venue for artistic exploration, and digital black and white images are as crisp and sharp, and high quality, as their color counterparts.

For those of you that are new to the Corner, every Friday, we interview a photographer in a series we call SmugMug Corner. This week we meet underwater photography instructor Mike Roberts from Hawaii!

If you don’t follow the forums very closely, you may have missed me posting up 5 new articles/tutorials/product reviews over the past day or so (I post them up in the Corner Resource Center, then post a link up for discussion in the Photography Resources Forum). Almost all of the resources added to the Corner Resource Center are submitted by members of the Corner (people just like you!). Here’s a list of the new resources added:

Photographs essentially serve two purposes: to record information and express artistic creativity. While in many instances these two purposes intertwine, debates arise over whether artistic creative license can go too far in certain circumstances and undermine the credibility of the story behind the image. Some feel there should be set guidelines defining the point at which a photograph becomes more a piece of art than a record of information.

Since the introduction of photo editing software it’s become easier and easier to edit our digital photos. It is so easy to put a picture into the program, fix up the mistakes that exist and ‘beautify’ our digital photos. But does this really enhance our artistic ability with digital photography? In other words, does it make us better photographers? Let’s look at this for a moment.

If you’ve ever photographed a waterfall you’ll understand why people go back again and again and shoot them. When I lived in Victoria, Australia, I would take a trip for a day or a weekend and shoot many shots of Stevenson’s Falls. If you are fortunate to live near the Rockies in Canada or the USA then you will have a fantastic time applying what I am about to show you through some handy techniques.

It can sound a little odd that someone wants to buy an external flash when there is a flash already on the camera. So why would this be? The secret appeal to use an external flash is their flexibility in their use. They are highly versatile. You can use them with any camera. As opposed to a fixed position, the external flash is more adaptability. They can work with just about any dSLR.

A few weeks ago we experienced an uncommon, celestial event. This was when our moon turned “red”. If you didn’t catch it you certainly missed out on an amazing, humbling scene. It was one of the most beautiful things in nature I have ever seen.