Back from Vacation, Little Renovations

So, you've probably wondered where I've been. Either that, or you don't really care. In either case, Rose, the girls, and I have been in the beautiful Outer Banks of North Carolina for the past week, enjoying our vacation with my two best friends from college and their families. I have some stories to share from that trip, but that will have to wait until another blog entry - I will warn you though - I was truly on vacation, so you may be forced to see some family snapshots.

However, since no nerd can completely check out for a week, I did manage to connect to the net long enough to start some minor tweaks and renovations to the site. The first you may have already noticed...

The goal of this is to make the text a little more readable and allow me to include some larger thumbnails of photos, etc. Other changes are a little more behind the scenes, including some tweaks to the javascript which should help the page load a little faster. Expect to see some additional minor nuances in the days ahead.

As far as news, we're very excited about how the big summer contest "On Assignment with Towner Jones Photography" is taking off. Make sure you check out the upcoming blog entry, because we've got yet another sponsor - and prize!!!

Another Sponsor, Another Prize!

 

We're excited to announce another corporate sponsor for our summer contest!!

 

HDRSoft develops innovative software in the field of High Dynamic Range imaging for photography.

HDRSoft is providing a copy of its award-winning Photomatix Pro HDR Software Tool!

During the summer we're going to do a detailed post about each of our corporate sponsors - so look out for that.

In the meantime, make sure to support HDRSoft and our other corporate sponsors!

 

 

On Assignment with Towner Jones Photography

Ready for a summer of fun? If so, then I'm happy to announce our biggest contest to date. We invite you to go "On Assignment with Towner Jones Photography"... to find your vision, and capture it!

Starting today (May 22nd) and running through August 31st we invite you to sign up and start taking pictures. Want the details? We'll here goes.

The contest, like always, is open to amateur and professional photographers alike. However, that's about the only thing it has in common with our regular monthly contest.

The biggest difference is - you get to choose your theme. The goal is for you to pick something that you can get excited about. And... something that will inspire you to take multiple pictures. You see, another key difference with this contest is that we're looking for a series of photos, instead of a single shot.

To participate, you'll need to send an email to onassignment@townerjones.com with your name, address, and "theme of choice" no later than June 30th. Once you submit, your theme will be reviewed and upon approval you're "On Assignment" to capture 10 to 20 images related to your theme! (Only images captured during the contest dates qualify)

Next, on July 31, you'll submit one of your photos (from your themed collection) to give the rest of us a "sneak peak" of what you've been working on. (Actually, we'll be posting some selected photos from the "sneak peak" on the web - but three months is a long time to wait and we'll be excited to see you're great work, you've got to give us something!)

Finally, on August 31, you'll submit all of your final photos for final review. (Details for submission will be emailed to all our registered contestants)

Photos will be judged on three categories: General Appeal (50%), Creativity (25%), and Relation to Theme (25%)

I'm putting together a special team of judges that will be sure to make things even more exciting, but we'll save that information for another post.

So... you want to know about the prizes, don't you?

In support of our contest, we're lucky to have some awesome corporate sponsors!

WHCC is a professional photographic and press printing partner providing stunning quality products and outstanding customer service to the photography community.

WHCC is providing a 10x10 or 8.5x11 Press Printed Book with 40 sides (20 pages/sheets) on standard hinged paper with a custom photo cover!

 

onOne Software makes award-winning Adobe Photoshop plugins that solve the most common Photoshop problems like enlarging, adding professional photographic effects, edges and adornments, masking, and easily correcting color. Our plug-ins help photographers maximize the power of Photoshop, making digital photography easier, faster, and better.

onOne Software is providing a FULL VERSION of their Plug-In Suite 4.5

 

2BrightSparks - a software company that develops simple yet powerful applications including SyncBackPro for backing up and synchronizing files on a local drive, network drive, FTP server, ZIP archive, or removable media.

2BrightSparks is providing a copy of SyncBackPro, their award winning backup software!

HDRSoft develops innovative software in the field of High Dynamic Range imaging for photography.

HDRSoft is providing a copy of its award-winning Photomatix Pro HDR Software Tool!

BorrowLenses.com is one of the largest camera gear and lens rental stores in the USA.

BorrowLenses.com is providing a one week rental to our winner! 

(One small caveat, right now they only ship to the USA, so this prize can only go to a winner here in the States.)

 

And as always, Towner Jones Photography will be throwing in a B&H Photo Gift Card, but this time it'll be for $100!

 

You can find general rules related to TJP contests, here.

So are you ready to get started?!? We're looking forward to seeing your emails come in soon (onassignment@townerjones.com). Best of luck to everybody!

Updated: June 1, 2009

More Photos, Contest Teaser

As promised, here's a couple more from all the weddings I processed over the weekend.

Also, a number of you have been asking when I'll be announcing the big photo contest I've been setting up - make sure to check out the site on Friday, May 22nd - you'll find all the details here. I'm going to be taking things up a notch, so those of you willing to take on the challenge need to be thinking of your own theme - something that will personally inspire you to do some great photography. I look forward to sharing what's up my sleeve on Friday.

Mike Palmer and Washingtonian Magazine

Hello all - our friend and fellow DC-area photographer Mike Palmer (of Mike Palmer Photography) has been chosen as a finalist in Washingtonian Magazine's May photo contest with the picture below. Click on the photograph and it will link you to the site where you can vote for Mike. The selected winner will be published in the July issue. Best of luck, and great work, Mike!