We are very pleased to announce the results for our first dog photo competition. You can view the winning photos here:

Dog Photo Competition 2012

Thank you to everyone who took part. The standard of photography was very high and it was very difficult for our dog photo judge to pick out the best photos.

Our dog photo competition judge, Illona has kindly added comments to some of the best photos in the competition. There are links to all of the photos she has commented on here:

Dog Photos With A Comment From The Judge

The results are in for the Bird Photo Competition. You can view the winning photos here: Bird Photo Competition 2011/12. We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who took part, as there were so many fantastic photos.

If you missed your chance to enter this competition, don't worry - as this competition was so popular we've decided to continue with another bird photo competition here: Bird Photo Competition 2012.

There are many reasons why a photo is a great photo. This video gives good examples of some of them.

The result are in for the final competition of 2011. The winning photos can be viewed on the competition page here: Premium Competition 2011 Q4. The winning prize of $4625 is our largest prize to date. There were so many wonderful photos in this competition. We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who took part, and for making the standard of photographs so high in this competition.

I am a lover of strong colour landscapes and interesting light and usually these ingredients make the most beautiful images for my eye. But the magic of photography goes much further than that; strong composition and simplicity, the harmonious blend of form and shape, an unusual subject and the photographer’s technical and artistic interpretation of that can all make a capture great and unique.

Sometimes a photograph is so beholding it can be looked at and studied at length, nourishing the viewer’s emotions, becoming seemingly more and more beautiful at every new inspection. This is certainly the case here where a black and white photograph takes the top spot, where the photographer has made a beautiful and faultless image out of an everyday, not particularly noticeable scene, giving us all an important lesson in the basics of photography and encouragement in our search for subject matter which can often be right there, unnoticed, under our own noses.

Duncan MacArthur

We are very pleased to announce that we have a new judge for our dog photo competition. Illona Haus is a professional dog photographer with a fantastic portfolio of dog photos at her website: scruffydogphotography.com.

Illona said, "For a winning dog photo, we're looking at overall composition and use of light, how the dog is interacting with his environment, whether the image evokes any kind of emotion, and whether there's a sense of the dog's character having been captured."

More details about the competition can be found on the competition page here:
Dog Photo Competition 2012

Thank you to everyone who entered their photos into the 2011-11 free photo competition.

The results can be viewed on the competition page here:
Free Competition 2011-11

We have also published the results of the voting here:
Voting Results

There were thousands of photos entered which was wonderful to see. Unfortunately this made it very difficult for people to search through all of the photos to find the best ones to vote for. In the new year (Jan 2012) will will make some changes which we are sure will improve the free competitions and the voting system. We look forward to making an announcement soon.

We have a new addition to the I Shot it family of competitions - Saturday 19th November will see the launch of our Bird Photography Competition - and a new addition to the I SHOT IT panel of judges as we welcome specialist bird photographer Mike Atkinson.

We have asked Mike to tell us what he thinks makes a competition winner.

We are please to announce the winners for the Free Competition 2011-10. Thank you so much to everyone who entered. There were over 5000 wonderful photos entered last month for our judges to ponder over. We hope you like the winning photos. The results are on the competition page - scroll down to see all the winning photos and comments.

The I Shot It Facebook page is a useful community resource - it helps us provide you with the technical help you need whilst allowing us to hear your views about the services we provide. One of the things that you have said you'd like to see is user voting in the Free Competition. It's taken us a little while to set up and test the systems - and now we are set to go - so the Free Competition 2011-11 will allow you to vote for the photos you'd like to win. Here's how it works: