Voting was a little delayed because of the holidays, but after all the votes were totaled, a Premiere Project winning photograph - Vapor Trail by cup4tml - garnered the most votes by the community to take the first Photograph of the Month contest of 2012. Every Premiere Project winning photograph is automatically in entered into the running for Photograph of the Month (just one of the many perks of Premiere Membership), and sometimes they’re good enough to win the big prize.

Check out the other photographs that were in the running in the January 2012 Photograph of the Month Gallery, and take a look at the final voting results (there were a couple that were pretty close!).

The contest was sponsored by our friends at DayMen Photo Marketing (an innovative manufacturer and distributor of high quality imaging products and accessories) and Acme Made (best known for incorporating innovative textiles and materials with contemporary styling to produce attractive bags, cases and sleeves for laptops, eReaders, smart phones, and digital cameras. Since Doug is (obviously) a Premiere Member, he will receive an Acme Made Laptop Sleeve or an Acme Made Kindle Hardback Folio case.

So there are 2 ways to get your photograph into a Photograph of the Month contest. You can either win a Premiere Project (become a Premiere Member here), or you can have a photograph (that you’ve posted up in the forums or the galleries) nominated by a Premiere Member. Oh, and it helps if you take some decent photographs, too. Think you have what it takes to win a Photograph of the Month contest?

Make sure to drop by the award thread in the forums to congratulate Doug on his third Photograph of the Month victory!

It’s not the first time it’s happened, but the community is always excited when it does. The November 2010 Photograph of the Month comes directly out of the Premiere Projects. The voting was spread pretty thin, but with over 12% of the votes, cup4tml’s entry into Premiere Project #87 took the November 2010 crown with his photo titled “4 in One.” Check out the final voting results here.

The contest is being sponsored by one of our new favourite sponsors here around the Corner: PrintedArt - an online collection of emerging and established fine art photography sold as finished artwork on advanced display material such as acrylic and aluminum dibond. Photographers can also use the PrintedArt photolab to print their own work on the same modern display material. PhotographyCorner and PrintedArt also recently announced a joint photography collection based on the winning photographs of the Photograph of the Month contest. Get all the details of this new partnership here.

Since Doug is a Premiere Member, he will receive a production of his photograph on aluminum dibond with acrylic finish (a $150 value) courtesy of PrintedArt.

If you haven’t already, make sure to drop by the award thread and congratulate Doug on his first Photograph of the Month win.

There are a lot of moving parts to PhotographyCorner. Obviously the main attractions are the forums as well as the contests, but we also have this blog, a directory of photography-related sites, a resource center with articles, tutorials and product reviews, a free public photo gallery, as well as our contest photo galleries, and a whole bunch more. One of the best things about PhotographyCorner, in my opinion, tends to fly under the radar sometimes though. It's probably the best way to learn and improve your photography, as well as the best way to interact with other photographers. I'm talking about the Premiere Projects, of course. The only way you can participate in the Premiere Projects, however, is if you're a Premiere Member. Luckily for you, as of right now, Lifetime Premiere Memberships are HALF PRICE until the end of the month (CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP). Becoming a Premiere Member has a bunch of benefits, including the ability to participate in the bi-weekly Premiere Projects. Below is a closer look at the Premiere Projects in a brief interview I did with Nikon_Mario who runs them (and does an amazing job!) for us. After the interview, look for how you can sign up to become a Premiere Member and start participating!

Last week, we paid tribute to Carl (aka ohenry) for all the hard work he’s done on the Premiere Projects over the past year (just to clarify, he’s not dead or anything… just passing along the torch!). The torch has been passed to Mario, known around these parts as Nikon_Mario. With this passing of the torch, we’re taking the opportunity to do a little retooling of the Premiere Projects.

For those of you that only read the Corner Blog, but don’t actively participate in the forums much (what’s up with that - register already!), you may not know what an “ohenry” is (or you may be wondering why we’re having a celebration for a chocolate bar). Those of you that are active in the PhotographyCorner forums know that ohenry is one of the most helpful, popular, contributing members of the Corner. For the past three+ years, ohenry (also known by his real name, Carl) has been faithfully running the Premiere Projects for Premiere Members. While there are numerous benefits to Premiere Membership, the Premiere Projects are always noted as the “big draw,” and now, after several years, Carl is passing the torch.