Great student opportunities in 2009 Travel Photographer of the Year

Entries are now open for the international Travel Photographer of the Year awards (www.tpoty.com ). There’s an outstanding array of prizes on offer to talented amateur and professional photographers, and, with two categories - New Talent and First Shot - aimed in particular at students, it could be a prime time to dig out those gap year photos, or to grab your camera and start shooting.

TPOTY 2009 winners will go to some highly photogenic locations, traveling to China, Costa Rica and Morocco with Intrepid Travel and to Slovakia’s Tatra Mountains with Mountain Paradise. They’ll also receive some great equipment prizes, including a 26” NEC Spectra View monitor, an Apple MacBook Pro, Wacom Cintiq 12WX interactive pen display, Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom software, a total of £1,000 to spend with Jacobs Digital Photo & Video, Plastic Sandwich leather portfolio books, HARMAN PHOTO and ILFORD PHOTO paper, prints and darkroom products, LEE filters, Lexar CF cards and card readers, Photo Iconic photo courses, and £300 to spend with Linhof Studio.

New Talent This is the category for amateur or semi-professional photographers who are looking to start a career in photography - and winning it could also give a great boost to a photographic student. They need to construct their own Traveller’s Tale, on any subject they choose, in four images. The winner travels to the Tatra Mountains Photography Centre for a photography course in Slovakia with Mountain Paradise and Photo Iconic, receives Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom plus a £300 spend with Linhof Studio, a Plastic Sandwich personalised leather portfolio book, and an 8GB Lexar Professional CF card and reader. And they’ll have their images showcased in the Travel Shooters Photographers’ Showcase on www.tpoty.com . First Shot: Postcards from Anywhere This is for adults who are new to photography and for images taken on a mobile phone, compact camera or basic SLR or DSLR. They need to take a shot that they’d choose to send as a postcard to a friend - one single image which sums up a place or an occasion.

Five winners will receive a Photo Iconic course or image critique session and also win Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 and Premiere Elements 7. Other TPOTY categories The TPOTY awards also include four portfolio categories - on the themes Homeland, Natural Wonders
photographers from around the world. You can enter online or send in prints. Entry fees start at £10, and entries close on September 22nd. Full details can be found on <a href="http://www.tpoty.com">www.tpoty.com</a>; , along with galleries featuring the images from all the previous award winners.