Have You Heard?

No, not about the bird.  About all the happenings here at SnapItToMe!

Two Contests, Two Winners!

This week SnapItTo.Me had our first winners of not one, but two contests!  We are proud to announce Steven Chan as our first winner in SnapItTo.Me history, whose entry for "A Beautiful Night In the City" took home the prize.  Steven's lovely shot of Amsterdam at night showcases his talent and we're proud to have him be our first contest winner.  Our second winner is Nadia Laniyan for her entry in "An Apple: In Normal and Not-So-Normal Places".  Nadia is one of our newer members and we're very happy to welcome her into our family.  We want to send a big thank you and congrats to everyone who entered.  We're clearly building a community of very talented photographers and we are very proud of all of you.

Join SnapItTo.Me and receive a $25 credit at CanvasPop!

In celebration of SnapItTo.Me's launch, we've teamed up with CanvasPop to give all new members a $25 credit at CanvasPop!  Besides this cool, limited-time offer, there are many more benefits to signing up here at SnapItTo.Me.  Our community is committed to opening doors for photographers and helping them get paid for their craft.  But you better hurry, while we're not going anywhere this offer ends August 10th, 2010.  

Want to know how to win SnapItTo.Me photography contests?

SnapItTo.Me's photo contest hosts will come from a variety of backgrounds, from advertising agencies, to creative design firms and mom-and-pop shops, all looking for the right photos for their needs. SnapItTo.Me provides a system for anyone to get that exact photo - the right one - they need. The closer a photographer gets to submitting a photo that a contest host is looking for, the more likely that photographer is going to win the contest. So, how do you get that - and win the reward money?

Well, an excellent photo blog called PhotoCritic has provided a detailed blog post all about it, at "How to win photography competitions". You should read the full article to get a complete understanding of his recommendations, but generally the writer mentions six key points, that we've paraphrased here:

1. Stick to the Topic

• This is immensely important and one that some photographers get wrong. Be sure to read the entire photo specification description. Contest hosts are usually looking for something very specific and if you provide a photo that has little to do with what they are looking for, then you won't even be in the running for the prize money. 

2. Know the Rules - then Break Them

• Photography is immensely subjective, and therefore, it's difficult to establish hard and fast rules that will ensure a winner every time. That said, there are general rules of thumb that photographers know, such as the rule of thirds, that can make photos better when followed. But photography is a creative art, which means the best photographers know those rules - and then know very well when to break them to add the right touch.

3. Keep it Simple

• It can be really tempting to submit photography that can show a complicated display of artistic features, photos that incorporate various aspects of your photographic talent. Yet, this is what your portfolio is for - to demonstrate all of that creativity. For photo competitions, sticking to the subject in a powerful way, using simplicity to bring focus on a story that your photo tells will be most often your best strategy. 

For the remaining three points, go check out the blog post at "How to win photography competitions" written by PhotoCritic.

These suggestions are a summary of a photo blogger, but seem to be very appropriate. What are other points that you, as a photographer or as a person looking for photos, may suggest? We would love to hear from the community!

The Difference in a Photo

Recently, the New York Times published an article called "To Sell a Luxe Apartment, No Ordinary Snapshot Will Do". The article discusses real estate photography and the importance of a good photo in the selling process - it can literally add thousands to the selling price of a house or apartment. Photography is a window into so much of what is unexplored in this world, it is the introductory image that can make or break our engagement with what we have never encountered. And thus, photographers, when brought on assignment, act as gate keepers for the objects, sights, and people in which they are commissioned to capture by lens. So it is the creation of a single shot, with all of the right elements in the right place, that unlock untold potential, unseen by the common man.

Thus it is essential that photographers are both story tellers and visionaries. Their talent is born from their eye but skill is practiced, both of which, taken together, lend to experience. In one single image, a story is told; in one glance, the heart of the viewer is captured. A photographer must be able to take something that could be bland and have the vision to turn it into the most compelling visual story.

Photography is a craft and the journey towards perfecting this craft is a long one. It's one of the reasons we created SnapItTo.Me, both to add opportunities on the journey and to walk along with everyone that is on it.

SnapItTo.Me Launches! and $200 is on the table.

//New Features / New Site

Hello everyone! SnapItTo.Me Beta version 2.0 is live and it's super exciting! We're happy to be able to offer everyone an awesome set of features that will help photographer make money, build portfolios and get recognized while providing people who need photos with a better resource for finding custom photography. Our lineup of features are:

• Launch a custom photo contest here.
• Find a contest to participate in (and make some money!) here.
• Browse photographer profiles and portfolios here.
• Update your profile and portfolio (because everyone is going to check it out now!) here.

If you'd like to find out more about how SnapItTo.Me works, go here to watch a short 2 min video and learn.

//SnapItTo.Me's Inaugural Contest - Win $200!

In celebration of our new site, we're hosting our first contest, looking for awesome photos that would be perfect on the front page of our site. The first place winner will win $200 and their photo will go on the site's front page with featured links to the photographer's portfolio. 20 other top winners will also be selected and their submitted photo will be featured on the front page of SnapItT.Me, where people all over the world will see the incredible talent of our photographers.

Find out more at our contest page here!

//Tell Your Friends about SnapItTo.Me!

If you have photographer friends who are looking for opportunities, please send them to SnapItTo.Me. If you know people who need custom photos, send them our way as well.

Looking forward to growing our community with you!

Happy Snapping!

The SnapItTo.Me Team

Radio Silence: What's Up and Coming

Many of you might have noted the slow movement and radio silence in communication to our users over the last few weeks. Don't fret, there's a good reason. SnapItTo.Me has been working on the launch version of our site, design version 2.0 if you will. It's a clean, slick look that will be launched with our contest platform and a few contests themselves. We're really excited about this!

Our target date to release is June 4th, in a couple weeks! We encourage our users to help us out in testing, poking holes and letting us know what you want and what you don't want. 

Thanks again for being patient as we learn how to build a better product for you!

Contests are Everywhere. Congratulations to iStockPhoto and it's 10 Year Anniversary!

iStockPhoto.com is 10 years old. Happy Birthday!

iStockPhoto.com revolutionized online photo as we know it. With the advent of its microstock photo product, it made it possible for stock photography, illustrations and video to be available to the masses and allowed for amateur and rising professional photographers, artists and videographers to compete with the professionals. Of course there was controversy in the beginning but 10 years later, they are revolutionaries. 

And now, to celebrate their 10 year birthday at http://www.istock10.com/, they are hosting two types of contests:

1. By purchasing istockphoto credit today, April 7th 2010, you are automatically entered in to win $10,000.
2. By tweeting the istock10.com website every hour on this day, there will be $10,000 worth of prizes to be given out.

Amazing revolutionaries are now also using the contest format to get the word out.

Maybe there's something there.....

Our Beta Community Photographers

Hello SnapStars and SnapItTo.Me followers! well it's about time for a quick update and we've got a lot of exciting things coming along.

First, since we've gone into our private beta program at the end of February, we have nearly 100 active photographer profiles being built and helping us testing out the user interface and photographer platform. This has been truly exciting working with half of our core customer group and interacting with some really awesome photographers out there. We've gotten some really great photographers with a diverse set of artistic talent and tastes.

Just to give you a taste of some of the talent, check out a couple of our photographers Joe Lekas and Atisha Paulson. Both of them are artists - Joe's brilliant use of HDR and Atisha's amazing talent for Lomography. These are just two of the many awesome photographer's we've got.

We'll be releasing our site into the public realm, taking the site out of private beta, in a couple of weeks and we'll be launching with a couple very public platforms:

• The Photo Contest Platform
• Photographer Directory & Public Profiles

Now, people who are searching for photos can directly request for photos they are looking for as well as search for photographers that interest them.

If you've got any thoughts before we launch, we'd love to hear you out! Is there anything else in particular that you're looking for?

Calling All Photographers! You're Invited to Join the SnapItTo.Me Beta Launch Community!

SnapItTo.Me is officially launching our Private Beta! We're welcoming all photographers to join us as we build our community and prepare for public beta launch! We're looking for photographers who:

• Want to build their portfolio
• Want to build their experience, credentials and reputation
• Want to become part of a community that will have exclusive access to new products and features that will help them get access to opportunities they didn't have before.
• Want to get paid for their work!

Please go to: http://bit.ly/SITMbg if you're interested! 

It's completely free. After answering a couple questions, if you are accepted into our Photographer Beta Launch Program you'll be given one year of free premium features and exclusive preview of our products and features.

We look forward to hearing from you!