12×12 committee member Lesley Tetlow Stefanski shares a story of her love for photography in this post. Do you want to share your story with the world? Drop us a line and we’ll feature it right here.

The shiny perforated waste basket seemed to glare at me from its shaded corner, as if it knew what I was about to toss into it. I tried to keep my eyes and mind on the task at hand but I couldn’t help but frequently glance at its silver mouth, hoping it wouldn’t suddenly come to life and gobble up my hand when I would eventually let go of the contents that I was gathering.

I sat on the floor surrounded by black wooden frames, faded by the sun and with nicks in different places from being used over time. I purchased the frames at different thrift stores to use as decor in my studio. Wanting a eclectic look, I sourced different styles and sizes to achieve the effect. But in the process I had found myself with a collection of photographs that I had removed from the frames beside me that I didn’t quite know what to do with.

The photos were all different – some black and white of girls in knee length skirts and high ponytails, a beautiful landscape of a barren desert, a couple sitting close together at a BBQ laughing into the lens. They were all beautiful and froze a piece of time that I wanted to jump into and experience myself.

Once my eyes and my imagination had had its fill of looking through the photographs, I quickly gathered them up and walked over to the corner concealed by the side table and let the photographs flitter into the bottom of the waste basket, quietly thanking whomever had left them in the frames for letting me have a peak into their world. It broke my heart a little to be tossing out the photographs, but I didn’t know what else to do with them.

The newly refinished frames are currently hanging in my studio space, now filled with images I’ve taken of my clients. I always smile at them whenever I pass, because I’m excited that I’ve captured a place in time of my clients happy and enjoying life and I hope someday, someone else will be wanting used frames and will pick mine and enjoy looking back into what life was like.

You can read more of Lesley’s musings and see more of her photos on her blog.

How to Enter

To qualify for the Gorillapod Original giveaway, all you have to do is follow @jobyinc and @12x12yvr on Twitter and Tweet the message below or another message that contains the @jobyinc and @12x12yvr handles and mentions Gorillapod.

No photog should be without a Gorillapod. Follow @JobyInc + @12x12yvr & RT this for ur chance to win one! http://ow.ly/2xuj4

Not-so-Small Print: Tweeting the message above and entering the contest does not guarantee a prize. Winners will be selected during the 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon on September 12, 2010 by a random draw from the pool of tweets posted. You must have an active Twitter account to be eligible. Winners must be able to come to the event location (Blenz Coffee in Yaletown: 338 Helmcken St, Vancouver) on September 12, 2010 between 8am and 8pm to pick up the prize. Prizes not picked up on event day will go back in the pool for a secondary draw.

Morten was lucky enough to get his hands and cameras on every Gorillapod available last year during his 6 week roundtrip around the USA and tested them extensively. You can read his review of the full line over at Design is Philosophy. Below is an ammended version focussing on the Focus, Ballhead X and Original for your reading pleasure.

Gorillapod Focus + Ballhead X = All the support you’ll ever need (within reason)

While the Focus distracted security, the SLR-Zoom made its move...

At the top of the foodchain in the Gorillapod family you find the Gorillapod Focus, a massive steel contraption that looks more like something dropped from an alien spaceship than a camera support. In addition to being a sturdy addition to your camera kit, it offers some excellent entertainment, especially while passing through airport security. I had it stuffed in my backpack when I went to the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C. and they forced me to take it out of my bag and demonstrate it to the guard before he would let me in. Once he saw what my three-legged friend was all about his first question was: “Where can I get one?”

The Focus is a solid piece of engineering, significantly larger in every way than the other plastic-based pods, and also weighs more than the other pods because all the joints are metal. In return, you get support for cameras up to 5kg which means it can handle pro-level DSLRs with massive lenses and even standard video fluid head and a prosumer video camera without any problems. That, in turn means you can now hang your expensive photo or video gear from a fence, put it up on tree branches, strap it to your car, or hang it from lamp posts without worrying that it’ll fall down. Any photographer will tell you that is pretty damn awesome.

A new and very welcome addition to the Focus is the new Ballhead X – a monster version of the original ballhead that ships with the SLR-Zoom. The Ballhead X features separate tightening bolts for the X and Y axis providing complete control of both where the camera is pointing and how tilted it is. The base plate also complies with the Arca-Swiss system so if you have other Arca-Swiss clamps you won’t have to change the mount around. This new ballhead is a welcome addition to the Focus. I pilfered the ballhead off the SLR-Zoom and matched it with my Focus but I found it to be a bit wonky both because one knob controlled both the X and Y axis and also because it was clearly never meant to handle something as heavy as my camera. The Ballhead X on the other hand is rated for up to 5 kg just like the Focus so it looks like what I asked for in my original review was made to order.

Gorillapod Original: A Great Companion for Your Point-and-Shoot

The Gorillapod Original is tiny – about the length of my open hand – and extremely flexible so it’s easy for storage. This makes sense seeing as it’s designed to hold small point-and-shoot cameras. It has an articulating joint above the legs which enables you to tilt the camera  in relation to the base of the pod when you start mounting it in weird spots that are not level. The Gorillapod takes up to 325g which means it can handle most point-and-shoot cameras as long as they don’t have massive protruding lenses. Right now ours is holding a Nikon Coolpix P6000 without any problems and that’s a fairly large point-and-shoot so smaller cameras should be no problem at all.

Because it is so tiny and versitile I’d say it is probably the best companion to a point-and-shoot I can think of. With the Gorillapod in hand you can easily improve on the dreaded MySpace pose and also place or hang your camera in places you never could before, making for some great angles and shots.

Oh and I almost forgot, the Gorillapod Original comes in 7 colours (grey, yellow, red, green, blue, pink and orange) just for the hell of it. Mine is grey which I have to admit I’m perfectly fine with. We’ll tell you what colours we’ll be giving away once we get the pods in house.

You know the Not-Enough-Experience Conundrum? When you apply for a job you know you can do better than anyone else but don’t have a chance of getting because you don’t have years of experience under your belt? It is such a universal stumbling block that it affects pretty much any career field you can think of, including that of photography. Everyone needs a start somewhere and Marc Koegel has come up with a program that offers up-and-coming photographers an invaluable stepping stone into their careers.

As the director of and an instructor at the Vancouver Photo Workshops, Marc is surrounded by amazing talent every day and it often reminds him of his own start in the business. His first works were displayed on the walls of Exposure Gallery and he had such great success that its curator Ian McGuffie went on to showcase his photography in more than 20 other shows in the years to follow. A great friendship was made and a career jump started.

With Exposure Gallery’s doors now closed, the cogs in Marc’s artistic brain began to turn. Since moving the Vancouver Photo Workshops to its West 7th location, he’s enjoyed putting together several impromptu shows, including the largest one the venue has ever hosted, Raw Talent on January 16th, 2010. With nearly 700 photographs dotting the over 7,000 sq ft of space that is the VPW and over 300 art lovers visiting on opening night alone, the venue’s true potential became abundantly clear and PhotoHaus Gallery was born.

The only Vancouver gallery that will now exclusively showcase the medium of photography, PhotoHaus Gallery will not only exhibit single professional photographers but will also begin holding regular group shows for new artists beginning in September. So if you are ready for your first exhibit, you can pay a nominal fee to submit your photo(s) for consideration. That’s all that needs to be done. There is no membership fee, no prior experience is required, nor a CV. Your work will speak for you and if selected by the panel of judges, will hang proudly amongst the artwork of your peers to be exposed to the general public. And you will indeed be proud, with guest judges such as Texas’ Arthur Meyerson and New York’s Joe McNally in the mix!

Each exhibit will encompass a different idea so photographers from all walks of life will be challenged with such themes as the Holga Show, the Cheap Camera Show, the Digital Artistry Show, and of course, our favourite: Film.

PhotoHaus Gallery will also offer printing and frame rental services, which gives new artists a more affordable alternative when preparing for their exhibit. This, in addition to the premium custom lighting setup will ensure that your first showcase is as professional as any art gallery out there.

Want to know what lies in store for you? Come check out the 2nd annual 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon photo exhibit on Saturday October 16th, 2010. It’s free and will be held at PhotoHaus Gallery, which also serves as the Vancouver Photo Workshops at 14 West 7th Avenue, Vancouver. Whether you are a true beginner, aspiring amateur or seasoned professional, the VPW’s intimate and focused seminars, workshops, and courses will help you achieve your vision. For details and start dates, click here.

Matthew Johnson & Julia Kuo, Blenz Yaletown

When we first set out to find our home base for the 12×12 last winter, we knew it had to be a central coffee shop that not only offered the refreshments necessary for a day-long event, but also had comfortable surroundings for our photographers to kick back and relax.

During one of the early committee meetings, we were down in Yaletown and decided to take a walk around the neighbourhood to see if there were any locations that would be up to the challenge of hosting our large group of artists. There were a couple that shook their heads at the prospect and we started to get a little worried when Blenz suddenly came into view. They had a spacious outdoor heated patio with lots of seating, and the interior was warm and cozy with wonderful ambiance. With fingers crossed, we approached and asked to speak to its manager who turned out to be Matthew Johnson, just about the nicest fella, as was Blenz President George Moen, who phoned Morten personally to offer his support. They not only welcomed us into their space, but did so without batting an eyelash and for that we are so very thankful.

And we couldn’t have picked a more ideal coffee chain. With a mutual love for the arts, they were the perfect venue to collaborate with. Not only did we hold our inaugural marathon at Blenz Yaletown but our winners were also featured in the franchise-wide Blenz Digital Media Network for all its customers to enjoy. As a tribute to their generosity and for welcoming us back this year, here’s a bit of coffee art by Master Barista and Trainer Julia Kuo with shots of pouring and stencil latte art.

Thanks to George, all of our marathoners will receive a gift certificate on the day of the event so they can all enjoy a cuppa joe on him. Julia, you’re going to be one busy barista on September 12th!

Don’t forget to view the gallery at the bottom of this post for some of Julia’s fun works of coffee art.

Gear: Canon EOS 5D Mark-II, KinoFlo Kamio ring light, EF 24-105 F/4L IS USM, Sennheiser 112/G2 wireless kit + Audio-Technica shotgun.

Some helpful tips from Julia if you’re making your own cup of latte art:

• It’s not necessary to press the espresso super tight, but you do need a certain amount of pressure to eliminate any voids in the coffee bed. Press too loosely and the water will go through the espresso cake really fast, leaving you with a very watery crema that lacks the rich caramel colour that is needed to reveal the latte art. On the other hand, pressing too tightly will impede the water from going through and you’ll end up with a bitter and burnt shot
• When preparing the milk, gently let the steam wand touch the surface of the milk (called “kissing the milk”) and turn on the pressure to blow air into the milk. By this time you should hear the familiar “hisssssssss.” Since these are lattes and not cappuccinos, don’t steam that much foam; 2-4 secs will do. Foam can only be created before 100°F. Higher than 100°F and you’d basically just be heating up milk
• After the foam is created, lower the steam wand further into milk and make the milk spin in a circle. This not only mixes the foam with the milk but also makes the bubbles smaller (called “micro-foam”)
• When pouring the latte, try to grab the jug tightly but loosen your wrist. Without rushing it, gently wiggle in the milk. Remember that by the time you reveal your foam on the espresso crema, your jug mouth should be really close to the surface of coffee

At 1:19am on Saturday August 14, 29 hours after the tickets for the 2nd annual 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon were released online, the last ticket was sold. The 59 other tickets were snapped up within 24 hours of the release. In fact, half the tickets were sold within 10 minutes of the release! For a while, we thought people were mistaking our event for a Justin Bieber concert. But looking at the list of participants and the chatter on Twitter, it’s clear we now have a full roster of eager photographers from all walks of life ready and willing to take on the challenge that is the 12×12. Congratulations to one and all for getting a ticket!

Waiting List in Effect

Last year we had far more people wanting to attend than we had tickets. In our rush planning we had not anticipated this and had not made contingencies. In the end, 5 ticket holders were unable to attend but we were only able to pass on one of the tickets on event day. To avoid this problem and ensure that we actually have 60 participants this year, we have started up an official waiting list through Eventbrite. That means even if you were not able to get a ticket in time you can join the waiting list, and if someone backs out, something comes up or just doesn’t show the day of, we’ll pass their ticket on to you. To join the waiting list, go to our Tickets page or go straight to Eventbrite.

To further ensure that we have a full 60 participants, we have introduced a new rule:

Ticketholders who do not register at the event location on September 12 by 8:30 am (registration begins at 7am), and who do not notify us in advance or on the day of by phone or email that they will be arriving late, will automatically forfeit their ticket and it will be passed on to the next person on the waiting list.

We will attempt to contact the ticket holder by phone (thus the request for your cell phone number during ticket purchase) before passing the ticket on.

Participants: Give us your Twitter and Flickr handles! (if you haven’t already done so)

This year we’re doing some cool interactive things online in preparation for and during the event itself (tba). To start off we are making an official 12x12yvr Twitter List so if you’re a participant and you have a Twitter handle (name), send it to us and we’ll add you to the list. Likewise, send us your Flickr handle. And finally, if you’re on Facebook, like our event and we’ll share more links and info with you.

Lace up your runners people, because there’s going to be a sprint to the box office on Thursday, August 12th at 8pm when the 60 tickets for the 2010 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon go on sale  through Eventbrite!

Last year the tickets went in one week and we already have a lot of interest so we deliberately placed the release at a time when we figure everyone can be at home and in front of their computers. We’ve also set up a waitlist so if someone gets a ticket and then can’t attend, we can pass it on to the next person on the list. Very important: Make sure to leave your email and a phone number.

Be advised: To ensure we have 60 participants, we have created a new rule for the event. If you hold a ticket but do not register before 8:30am on the event day, we will release your ticket to those on the waiting list unless you contact us in advance to let us know that you are planning on arriving late or that you are delayed. Before releasing a ticket to the waiting list, we will attempt to contact the original ticket holder using the phone number entered during the ticket purchase process. Therefore, make sure you provide a phone number you can be reached at on event day (i.e. your cell phone number).

If you are planning on arriving late on the event day, notify us in advance or you will lose your spot!

This year the ticket price is $24. The ticket includes participation in the marathon itself, free film and development, your photos exhibited at the free gallery showcase, the chance to win some great prizes and lots of other goodies.

There was some confusion last year as to the name of the event so the team decided to make the video you see above to shed some light. Feel free to spread it far and wide: YouTube.

A big thank you goes out to our fabulous Lesley Tetlow Stefanski, for directing and editing this award-winning piece of comedy!

Date: Sunday September 12th, 2010
Location: Blenz Yaletown at 338 Helmcken St, Vancouver
Time: Registration begins at 7am and the marathon takes place from 8am – 8pm
Tickets: Available on Thursday August 12th, 2010
Cost: To be confirmed

2010 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon Poster
2010 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon Press Release
2010 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon FAQ
2010 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon Sound Bites
2010 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon Event Photos
2010 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon Sponsor Profile
2010 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon Sponsorship

See you all in September!

12×12 QR Code

This year we are trying to raise the bar a bit where our digital presence is concerned. Among the many new features we are introducing is the weird graphic you see here – the newly minted 12x12YVR QR-Code. If you have a barcode scanner app on your phone you probably already know what this is, but in case you don’t here’s a very very short primer:

A QR Code is a two-dimensional bar code that contains more information than a regular one dimensional barcode. With a QR Barcode Scanner (i.e. your cell phone) you can lift information off this code including links to both this website and all our social media outlets.

You can get a barcode scanner app for pretty much any smart phone. Here’s a link to the free Android one I’m using. I’m going to venture a guess and say that you can probably get one for your iPhone at the App Store for a dollar or two.

New Short-Form URL

In addition to our tried and trusted URL www.VancouverPhotoMarathon.com we have acquired the shorter www.12x12YVR.com domain to make it easier for everyone to create links to our posts and other information. The new 12x12YVR.com domain points to the same site and the same pages as the longer form original and they can be used independently. That means next time you want to link to us using Twitter and you don’t have enough characters left for the long version, just swap out the long domain name for the short one and get the same results.

Simpler Social Links

To make it easier for everyone to find us on various social networks, we have created some new and simpler social links. They are:

• Twitter: www.12x12yvr.com/twitter or www.vancouverphotomarathon.com/twitter
• Facebook: www.12x12yvr.com/facebook or www.vancouverphotomarathon.com/facebook
• Flickr: www.12x12yvr.com/flickr or www.vancouverphotomarathon.com/flickr

All of these links will take you straight to the various social network profiles. No magic, or mumbo jumbo. They are just easier to remember.

Last night, the annual fireworks extravaganza known as the Celebration of Light kicked off in Vancouver. The show – amazing fireworks displays choreographed to music – is a true spectacle and offers up a great opportunity for some amazing shots…if you know how to set your camera that is. Even pros can get this very wrong but believe it or not, even a cheap point-and-shoot can catch a magical moment. The sparkle is in the details.

To help snap-happy Vancouverites capture some of the glory for their computer screens and walls, the 12×12 friends at CBC Radio One’s On The Coast called me for some tips and tricks. You can hear the full interview right on their website but here is a more comprehensive rundown of how to capture those transient sculptures of light for posterity.

The 6 Rules of Fireworks Photography

Getting great shots of fireworks, whether they be the massive constellations created during the Celebration of Light or a simple sparkler, requires some basic understanding of your camera along with some basic planning. In short, it can be boiled down to a 6-point list:

1. Long Exposure
2. Slow-to-Medium Aperture
3. Stable Surface
4. Low ISO
5. High Image Quality
6. No Flash

1. Long Exposure

The human body is an amazing machine. One of the things it is incredibly good at doing is merging images. As a result, when we watch fireworks we see wonderful streamers and ribbons of light. But when we snap a picture of fireworks, we are faced with the grim reality: They are rarely actual streamers of light. For the most part, they are simple points of light that move through the air. And with a short shutter time, the camera only picks up a fraction of a second, leaving all these points of light hanging in the air disconnected from each other.

To capture the true beauty of fireworks, you need a longer exposure time: 2 – 4 seconds is usually a good setting. That’s easy enough if you have an SLR camera, but what if you only have a cheap point-and-shoot with no shutter settings? The answer is simple: Trick the camera. There are many ways of doing this, and they depend on the camera. If your camera has a fireworks setting you’re good to go. If not, you need to set it to either a “night” setting with no flash or a “party” setting with no flash. By omitting the flash, you force the camera to leave the shutter open longer and that means you get  more movement in the light.

2. Slow-to-Medium Aperture

You may think you need a fast lens to take good fireworks photos, but the reality is you need a medium-to-slow aperture to get the good shots, especially if you are taking them from far away. An f-stop of between 8 and 16 will work best because it will give you a deep focus plane and produce clearer photos all around. Unless you are doing extreme close-ups like the sparkler at the top of this article, bokeh (shallow depth of field) should be avoided at any cost. Focusing on fireworks is pretty much impossible, especially with a point-and-shoot. A fast lens (aperture numbers lower than f4) pretty much guarantees blurry photos you’ll hate.

3. Stable Surface

The third rule comes as a result of the first: With longer exposure times you need a stable surface, otherwise everything will get awfully blurry. A photography teacher once told me no one can really hold a camera steady for more than a quarter of a second (1 / 15). This can be improved somewhat with optical image stabilization but even then you are pushing it with an exposure longer than half a second. In short, you need to put your camera on something.

The optimal solution for a stable surface is of course a tripod, but that’s not necessarily something you have lying around or something you want to drag with you to a fireworks show. Fortunately, there are many other options. In lieu of a proper tripod, any solid stable surface may do the job just fine. A table, a fence post, a tree branch, the hood of a car…as long as it is stationary and your camera can balance on it, you can use it.

You can also experiment with some stable body support: Your head for instance, is far more stable than your hands so simply looking through the viewfinder and holding the camera against your face will result in far less shaky photos. You can add to this stability by leaning your dominant arm against something stable like a fence, a car, a tree or a lamp post. It’s surprising how effective this is.

The bottom line is the longer your shutter is open, the more stable your surface needs to be. Experiment and see what works best.

4. Low ISO

ISO is a number that signifies the light sensitivity of your camera. The higher the number, the more light sensitive the camera becomes. But with light sensitivity comes film grain, or its evil digital sibling noise.

Back when film was the norm, we had to pick an ISO value in the store. With digital cameras you can usually set the ISO value yourself. That also goes for point-and-shoots, though you may have to search a bit or even crack out the manual to find the setting. Most point-and-shoots are set to Auto ISO by default. This is the worst possible setting for fireworks photography. With the flash turned off, the camera will panic, raise the ISO value to its highest point and in many cases, it will even add “exposure compensation” to further ramp up the ISO. As a result, your photo may end up being noisier than the actual fireworks.

The general rule for fireworks photography is to set the ISO to 100. It’s a very low number (for reference the “standard” ISO value in film is 200) but it produces very little noise and very clear photos. At the same time, it forces your camera to create longer exposures.

5. High Image Quality

A photo is only as good as its image quality. Fortunately digital cameras, even the really cheap ones, now produce very high quality photos…as long as they are told to. For unbeknownst reasons, many cameras have a default setting that is not the best quality possible, and a lot of people roll the quality back as well.

When you take photos of fireworks, you should always set the image quality as high as possible. There are two reasons for this: First off, you will want to zoom in on the image later on (fireworks look amazing up close) and secondly, you should frame your images quite wide when shooting fireworks so you will more than likely do some cropping afterwards. The higher the quality, the more cropping you can do without losing resolution in the process.

6. No Flash

I worked as a photo developer and retoucher for 3 years while in university. More than anything, I walked away with one observation: On-camera flashes were invented by someone who really hates people. The number two photo problem (after cropping people’s heads or legs off) was incorrect use of the flash. The best example of this is clearly visible when you go to large sporting events or concerts. Every time you see a flash go off you can rest assured that photo is going to look terrible. Why? Because an on-camera flash is meant to illuminate objects no more than 3 meters away from the camera. In other words, if you take a photo of something far away using a flash, the camera will assume the object is properly lit and expose it accordingly. As a result, you get a horribly underexposed photo with washed-out colours and some really bright objects in the foreground.

Think of it this way: When taking photos of fireworks, you are taking photos of light, not illuminating the subject. So turn the flash off. As a bonus, this will also force the shutter speed up and give you longer exposures.

Bonus: Landscape Mode

As mentioned in point 2, focus is a challenge, especially with a point-and-shoot. Auto-focus will not work in this type of low-light environment and leaving it on may result in blurry photos or a camera that refuses to even take a picture at all. To circumvent this issue, try setting your camera to Landscape Mode. This will set the focus to infinity, which works well for any object farther away than 8 meters and the camera won’t bug you with flashing focus lights.

Other Tips and Tricks

• Get to the location early. Chances are there are some serious photographers out and they will stake out the best spots. Tag along and get the best view.
• Stand up-wind. Fireworks use black powder, and black powder makes a lot of thick white smoke. Standing up-wind means the smoke will blow away from you and cause fewer problems with smoky photos.
• Take a lot of photos. It’s hard to guess when a particularly dazzling firework will go off, and if you see one and then click the shutter release, you’ll only get the tail end of it. Shooting more frames means you’ll have more chances of getting that great shot.
• Shoot wider frames. Don’t zoom in on the fireworks themselves. The best fireworks photos are always the ones that have something else in the foreground or background. Try to frame your photos so that you get reflections off windows, water or other people. That way the photo also has a scale reference. A bridge or building in the background gives scale to the light show.
• Experiment with your settings. If you have a digital camera, you are blessed with the ability to instantly review your shots. That way you can mess around with the settings on your camera to get the best possible shot.
• Catch the beginning of the show. More often than not the end of the show is the best, but it’s also the smokiest. White smoke tends to pop out in photos so you are likely to get the clearest fireworks photos early on in the show.
• Have fun. Spending too much time focusing on getting that perfect shot will ruin your experience. Try to have fun and enjoy the show as you snap away.

For further reading, Digital Photography School has a great article on the subject with hundreds of comments that offer additional tips.

Have a tip of your own? Post it in the comments section below!

Surprised by last year’s vague and unusual 12×12 themes? Wondering how you can warm up in preparation for the September 12 event? Well wonder no more:

12×12 sponsor London Drugs and the Lung Association are currently running their 26th Annual “Fresh Air” Photo Contest. The concept is simple and one you can really cut your teeth on: Take a photo of the theme “Fresh Air” and you could win some snazzy camera gear.

From the site:

The contest challenges photographers from across Western Canada (BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba) to send in their best fresh air photo to win fabulous prizes.

First, second and third prizes will be awarded. Entries will be judged on originality and overall photographic quality in conveying the theme “Fresh Air”, with one overall Grand Prize for the photo judged best overall.

So crack out your cameras and start shooting. The submission deadline is August 15, 2010. For full contest details visit www.londondrugs.com/freshair