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500px Premium Accounts : Winners Announced

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I have recently fallen in love with 500px.com as not only a means of sharing my photographic portfolio but also as a great source of inspiration and possibly could replace the need for running your own personal photoblog.

The great news is we have a great opportunity for you to win one of two premium accounts free for a whole year worth $50 each.

[box]Winners
Congratulations to both Patrick Matte and Sherwin Techico who have won the pro accounts. All the entries were stunning and I know the judges deliberated for longer than we had hoped. Congratulations again to Sherwin and Patrick and a massive thanks to all who took part.[/box]
About
500px is a photographic community that makes sharing your creative works a piece of cake. Upload your best photos and show them to the world! It’s fun, easy, and free. 500px is a group of individuals that live and breathe photography, they like to share art with others and have the means to do so.

As well as sharing photographs you can also favourite and vote for images you like in the form of “affections”. I have to say although I am pretty new to the site I am hooked.

The 500px team actively promote all the best works through a variety of social media bringing you the coverage you need to move forward! Check out their work on Facebook.

500px accounts are free. You can connect with my 500px account here. If you want to unlock the upload limits, add an even greater selection of portfolio templates or even just add Google Analytics then you need to go Awesome at just $50 per year.

Competition

The good news is the great people at 500px have given us two premium accounts to give away to our readers. You can go “Awesome” and get the first year absolutely free.

To enter all you have to do is post a link to your favourite/best photo (that you have personally taken) and give a little information about how / where it was shot.

The closing date of the competition is 14th July 2011 at 12noon GMT. Winners will be selected by a small team of judges and announced on this post shortly after judging. The judge’s decision is final.

If you are already on 500px then please let us know by posting a link to your 500px portfolio in the comments. Good Luck!

Links

500px
FlixelPix on 500px

Comments

  1. Hi David.

    Here’s the link to my own personal favourite -“Who Left The Litter?”
    http://500px.com/photo/1091710

    Taken last year on the Paris Metro, it is a perfect study of personal space, and the title comes from the gap in the row of people. HAs someone dropped the litter and left? Or will no-one sit in the space, for fear of looking responsible?

    Neil

  2. Here is my best shot for the 500px competition.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/azphotography2/5907700358/lightbox/

    This shot was taken at a graffiti wall just outside the University of Washington campus in Seattle. It was taken at 830 pm so there was still a good amount of light but I decided to cancel out the ambient light with my speedlight at 1/2 power and shot it through an umbrella at the 3 o’clock position. The female model was dressed for a fashion shoot we were doing but the male model was her boyfriend who came to the shoot straight from work. He was still in his suit and asked if he could be in a few shots. Their shoes were perfectly juxtaposed with one another and contrasted well with the graffiti in the background. This impromptu photo has become one of my favorites. Classic sophistication meets modern fashion and urban decay. “Revolution”
    5D Mark II
    17-40L
    Canon 430ex II Speedlight
    32″ shoot through umbrella
    1/200
    f 7.1
    ISO 500

  3. Ok I’ll bite! Loving the 500px, and I think my favorite from my batch is this one:

    http://500px.com/photo/1020127

    This is Justine whom I had the pleasure of shooting when I was invited to Seattle by a friend of mine. I made the 3 hour drive from Vancouver BC late afternoon and arrived before the model did (my friend was doing a photoshoot for a product he was selling). The model arrived, got a tour of the house, and we found out the product wasn’t quite ready. While he was tinkering and getting things ready I grabbed the model (Justine) and said “lets shoot while we wait”. Shot got into a slinky black dress and I set up lights against a large white wall. She was a great subject and the tattoos she had showed up great. She has a great face and figure, and I thought the semi-sepia treatment of this image worked really well.

  4. Sounds great. Picking my best/favorite photo? That’s a tough job because we take photos for so many different reasons. That’s almost as difficult as answering what my favorite food is. I guess if I had to pick one based on my recent work, I’d pick this one:

    http://500px.com/photo/1092366

    The majority of my work is on Flickr because I just recently starting posting on 500px a couple weeks ago. I got up before sunrise to visit a place called Devil’s Backbone where a segment of Antietam Creek runs through a park (this is in Maryland, USA). Across the street from the park, up on a small hill was this abandoned house. It was falling into considerable ruin and unlike many other abandoned places, it wasn’t overrun with the detritus of rambunctious teenagers. The elements, and only the elements, seemed to be the single factor reclaiming this structure. I explored inside (including upstairs) but this shot was my favorite, taken from outside the house looking in. Just as the sunlight was coming over the trees the shadows in this house seemed to come to life.

  5. Hi, David!

    I’ll play, too. Here’s the link to my best shot thus far: http://500px.com/photo/933444

    My vacations tend to be photographic excursions as well as a chance to relax with my wife and recharge the mental batteries. More often than not, we spend a week out on Ocracoke Island, NC. This small village has a much slower pace than anywhere else on the Outer Banks and offers a lot for the types of vacations I crave.

    The second morning of our trip this year I woke up about 10 minutes before sunrise, threw on some clothes, grabbed the camera-tripod-remote release, and stepped outside to capture some of the great imagery of the morning. The hammock on my landlord’s dock with the sunrise in the background was such a nice subject that before I knew it there were 3 or 4 other photographers from neighboring cottages lined up next to me. Luckily, I was there first and had the best spot! 😉

    About 500px… I have thoroughly been enjoying the service. I love the fact that they actively encourage people to only upload their best work. Quality over quantity. 🙂

  7. My personal favorite right now is one of a sphynx cat I took at my studio last year. The cat is a friend’s and the purpose was really just to have some fun.

    http://500px.com/photo/1047037

    Part of why it’s my favorite picture is that I later made it available on Getty Images and it got printed in the New York Times, which is a dream come true for me.

  8. http://500px.com/photo/1093578

    This was close to the end of three hours photo session with this lovely model when we all started to feel a bit tired and so we’ve decided to have some fun – jump and play around. So this is basically it on how this lovely image was born 🙂 As usual, something interesting is created when it is sort of unexpected 🙂

    This image was taken in “Photoplay” photo studio in Moscow, on May 6, 2011.

  9. I will go with this shot of a bumblebee. I didn’t think he would remain still long enough for me to get a shot, but I managed to get lucky with this one.

    http://500px.com/photo/1093311

    I had been driving around all day looking for good shots, as this was part of a 265 project from last year. I only came to this tree because I like the color of the flowers. This was the only bee flying around, so I almost didn’t bother. I’m glad I waited!

  10. Hot Air Balloons seem to be a recent theme for me. They’ve been rolling around as my desktop wallpaper lately, I was just looking at someone else’s pictures of one before coming here, and our annual balloon festival is coming up in just a few weeks.

    This shot was taken at the annual Louisiana Balloon Championships in Baton Rouge. I snapped it just after sunset when there was only a little light left in the clouds. I think it does a good job of showing people’s fascination with the balloons and of showing the great social nature of this event.

    The balloon is called Shadeaux Dancer
    http://500px.com/photo/748364

  13. I believe my favorite shot these days is this one:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/achauer/5551989895/in/photostream/lightbox/

    My husband was about to leave for a month-long songwriter residency on the other side of the country, and I wanted to mark the occasion with an appropriate image. I used Flickr to do some location scouting, and figured out where on the Colorado St. Bridge in Pasadena, CA would work best for what I had in mind.

    I wanted to get the lit streetlights along with some light in the sky, so there wasn’t much of a window of time to work with. I did a number of test shots prior to that, working out composition and pose issues. To deal with the rapidly changing light I used an SB-900 through a collapsed shoot-through umbrella on TTL mode aimed at my subject. Then it was just a matter of waiting for cars and busses to pass by so that I could pick up their light trails. A lot of chance involved, but this frame really worked!

  14. Hi,

    One of my favourite photographs is the one below:

    http://500px.com/photo/1094795

    Surya Kirans, one of only three ‘nine’ aircraft aerobatic teams in the world, are the ambassadors of the Indian Air Force. Taken during the Aero India 2011 Show, the tri – coloured smoke trail and the vibrant red of the jets set against the dark blue sky help to create a truly captivating image.

  16. I like contrasts and juxtaposition. In my photos I try to combine things that would usually not occur together – for an emotional response. In this photo for a humorous effect.

    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=153698291365790&set=a.148787478523538.34831.134552776613675&type=1

    I always wanted to have an URBAN NINJA themed shoot. Since this is the funniest one, I guess it is one of my favorites. People chuckle when they look at it. I like the idea of creating such a positive emotional reaction with the images I create.

  17. My current favourite is of an Asian Lily. I planted a set of bulbs in my garden a few years ago and every June I am rewarded by red-orange-yellow flowers on a long stalk.

    I took this photo into Adobe Lightroom and created two virtual copies. I then adjusted the exposure of each copy up and down by 1 and combined the three photos in Photomatix Pro.

    http://500px.com/photo/1095498

  18. I just opened the 500px account and added a couple of photos.

    Here is my favorite: http://500px.com/photo/1098032

    This was shot a couple of weeks ago on a trip to the Irazu Volcano, it was a very foggy day and ridiculously cold by any Costa Rican standard. I tried to post process so it would look a little cinematic.

  19. I am new to 500px but I love it so far!

    Here’s My favorite photo of all time!

    http://500px.com/photo/1098136

    I took this photo at my local Fire house and It came out very well, I am doing a documentary on them and they invited me to take photos all night, this was the last photo of the night, I used my new Sigma 10mm Fisheye, I love that lens and this shot!

    All Time Favorite!

    Thanks Jason.

  21. This is one of my favorites – http://500px.com/photo/1102344

    We were at a local powwow with our Boy Scouts and one of the well known gentlemen from the area told the boys a folk tale story about a woodpecker and the homemade flute he has in the picture. After he finished the story he started playing the flute and I just happened to capture a photo that I have come to really enjoy.

  23. Hi, I discovered this a couple of months back and this is my favorite and most viewed photo on 500px.

    http://500px.com/photo/902650

    Shot this on the lakeshore here in Toronto, Canada. I was just out for a casual walkabout and noticed this boat stranded by the shore. A week later I went back and this boat had been vandalised by people and the waves… all that was left was a few planks.

  24. This was the final day of a trip to California. We had driven over 1500 miles from LA via Death Valley to Monteray and the coast. It was a poignant moment especially as our final day was captured quite eloquently by this beautiful sunset shot. I wondered if the other people watching on the cliffs in front had had similar journeys or were locals just enjoying the fact they have this opportunity all the time.

    This scene captures something of how i felt – a small group of people who were there at the right time, including ourselves, to see the grand finale.

  27. So far, my favourite picture of recent memory has to be this one from Brighton Fashion Week 2011:
    http://500px.com/photo/927168

    The lighting conditions for a catwalk show were pretty dire, but the designer wanted to show off the electical/cybernetic style accents in the collection, and needed the lighting turned down. I’d more or less given up hope of getting any sort of usuable shot from this particular collection, but kept one eye in the view finder, just in case.

    I’m glad I did, because this model came out, clapped her hands and simultaneously, the starburst behind her lit up along with the lighting embedded in her clothing.

    A very dramatic piece of theatre on the catwalk.

  31. cool giveaway! I’ll play 🙂

    http://500px.com/photo/1095132

    This was a shot taken from the Jungfraujoch last December, the highest train station in the Swiss Alps lying between the famous Mönch and Jungfrau peaks. I just loved how the sun looked against the icy mountains as it started to fall behind the Jungfrau, and ran outside in the windy -12C weather to capture a few quick shots before almost missing our train…

  33. Awesome giveaway. Here’s the photo I am recently digging:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/stechico/5862205197/lightbox/

    I took this photo in a recent trip when a group of friends and I trekked on the Inka Trail in Peru. We were heading to our last camp site before heading into Machu Picchu the next morning. After hiking down the path after lunch, we veered off the main path that other Travelers were using. A couple of minutes after, we were smacked in the face with this beauty.

    Good luck to everyone. Awesome entries. Keep it going.

  34. http://500px.com/photo/1067873

    I was really lucky to get this photograph – I was shooting the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in the photo bit in Bournemouth, UK, and there were about 10 photographers. Not thinking I was going to get something I could put straight into my portfolio, I tried my hardest, until Karen O came over and posed right in front of me – luckily I managed to get a few frames before she decided to move away! I’m so happy with this photo!

  35. Here is one of my fav’s from my old JPG Mag account. I was sitting in my car on one dark rainy night waiting on my friend to exit the restaurant where I was to pick him up as he was in town for work meetings and such.

    I did not want to sit there bored out of my mind so I reached for my camera and started shooting whatever I could. Across the parking lot was the place he was dining at with his co-workers. As I started zooming in and out I realized that the rain allowed the lights to paint my windshield.

    I still await a good rainy night and a nice place for neon lights!

    http://jpgmag.com/photos/580898

  36. http://500px.com/photo/1135863

    Here is one of of those moments which I caught in the corner of my eye during a tour of the old parts of Hyderabad, this photo was captured in the morning and buy about 10:30am this street (and corridor) is jam packed with vendors and people.

    In this photo I see the quieter part of the Old City which is not what I notice on any other day.

    – yv

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