PhotographyCorner.com Announces Carl Chalupa of Ontario, Canada as the Winner of the 2012 Photograph of the Year Contest

Online, February 5, 2013 (Newswire.com) - The 7th Annual PhotographyCorner.com ( http://www.photographycorner.com ) Photograph of the Year contest, which announced in early December 2012, recently concluded after two rounds of voting by the photography community. Once the votes were tallied, Carl Chalupa of Scarborough, Ontario, Canada was named the winner of the popular contest. The seventh Photograph of the Year contest held by PhotographyCorner.com, which featured seventeen, high-profile sponsors with over $12,500 in prizes to be won, drew in hundreds of entries and thousands of votes. The top prize awarded to Carl Chalupa consists of a variety of photography-related equipment, software, products and services valued at $5,700, with the remaining prizes given to the top 10 finalists.

Carl, who has also won over a dozen smaller photography contests on the site, took top honors with his photograph titled "Silent." The top 10 finalists, in order from 1st runner-up to 9th runner-up include: Mike DiRenzo, Daphna Paz, Jim Garrison, Stacy Niedzwiecki, Doug Hagadorn, Sudip Roychoudhury, Tim Murray, Vince Maidens and Putu Sadiarta. All submitted entries can now be viewed in the Photo Galleries on PhotographyCorner.com ( http://bit.ly/2012PotYPhotos ), with the top 25 entries from the final voting round viewable in the Photo Galleries here: http://bit.ly/2012PotYFinalRound.

With over $12,500 in prizes available to be won, and with first prize alone valued at over $5,700, the PhotographyCorner.com 2012 Photograph of the Year contest received hundreds of entries from all over the world. The entries were narrowed down to 125 photographs in 5 voting groups, where the top five entries in each group moved on to the final voting round, which ended on January 28th, 2013.

There are several things that set the contest apart from some of the other "Best of the Year" photography contests. Firstly, winners can be from anywhere in the world, not just limited to the United States, making the contest truly a worldwide photography contest. In fact, some of the past winners are from various places around the world which include the USA, Sweden, the UK, Australia, Canada, Pakistan, Argentina, Israel, Africa, India, Serbia, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. In addition, instead of having a select group of judges pick a winner, the entire community voted on every photograph, broken down in several rounds. With this unique voting process, every eligible submitted photograph was given a chance to win, not just a select few picked out by judges, giving the community complete power over which photographs were awarded "Best Photograph of 2012."

In an interview about the Photograph of the Year contest, the owner and founder of PhotographyCorner.com, Tim L. Walker, expressed that "the excitement and unique features of this contest display exactly why PhotographyCorner is such a popular and unique home for photographers on the web. Anyone can enter the contest, and anyone can win. I don't decide. A bunch of 'professional' judges don't decide. The community decides. They're the photographers - they should pick the winners." He continued by adding that "it's encouraging to see such an amazing and diverse group of sponsors step up to reward and encourage photographers from around the world. With over $12,500 in prizes, the winners have added thousands of dollars worth of equipment, software and services to their arsenal, allowing them to further improve their photography - and that's what it's really all about. Photography enriches all of our lives in one way or another, and contests like this serve to improve the photography we see all around us every day."

The 17 contest sponsors, including the lead sponsor LaserSoft Imaging, have offered up an amazing collection of cash and prizes ( http://bit.ly/2012PotYPrizes ) that includes software, photo sites and hosting, Photoshop plug-ins, camera bags and accessories, prints, tutorials, storage devices and photography equipment. The contest rules, and all information about the contest can be found at http://www.photographycorner.com/2012-photograph-of-the-year.

About www.PhotographyCorner.com

PhotographyCorner.com is a leading photography resources portal for photographers, which includes member-written articles, tutorials, forums, a community photo gallery, a photography directory, a photography blog, and a collection of photography projects. The site runs a monthly Photograph of the Month contest and numerous Contest Corner Challenges, as well as providing an area of the site for photographers to receive constructive criticism of their work in the Critiques Corner. PhotographyCorner.com was launched in 2004.

About LaserSoft Imaging ( www.Silverfast.com )

LaserSoft Imaging is renowned worldwide as a pioneer in the field of scanner and imaging software - both in the area of private and professional usage. The core product SilverFast manages to regularly come up with advanced technical innovations. LaserSoft Imaging also produces very high quality targets for IT8 color calibration.

For more information, please visit www.PhotographyCorner.com and http://www.photographycorner.com/2012-photograph-of-the-year. Tim L. Walker can be reached at 1.888.427.8299 or via email at [email protected] to answer any questions.

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