Competition: Win a copy of my most recent book

I wrote this. I'm proud of it. Now you can win one of 5 copies!

So it turns out that my most recent book, Focus on Photographing People, has sold 7,000 copies in under two months. That, ladies in gentlemen, is reason enough to celebrate, so I've just jacked open a bottle of bubbly.

Then I decided I wanted to share the celebrations with you lot: With a competition!

If you want a chance of winning one of five copies of my, simply fill in this Google form. The winner will be drawn on midday GMT, Monday 25 July, and announced in the bottom of this post on that date.

Competition details

What: 5 copies of Focus on Photographing People, written by yours truly, published by Focal Press.

Why: 'Cos I wrote it, and I'm proud of it selling well.

Where: Enter the competition here!

Who: You have to live on Earth and have a valid mailing address to take part in this competition. You also have to be over 13 years old (or else I can't collect your e-mail address).

When: Before noon GMT on Monday 25 July, 2011.

Samsung adds to the mobile phone megapixel monster

Whether or not the megapixel race has cooled down, or at least reached a simmer, in point-and-shoot cameras remains to be seen, but it seems to be hotting up in mobile phones. Last autumn Sony unveiled a 16mp sensor; now it’s Samsung’s turn, with 8mp and 12mp imagers for use in a smartphone. Because we all obviously need that much resolution in a device with the photographic control of an earth-bound asteroid.

The catchily named S5K3H2 is the 8mp sensor. It has back side illuminated technology, which will go some way to helping get a picture that is actually of something, especially in low-light conditions, as well as the ability to capture 1080p full HD video images at up to 30fps.

The S5K3L1 (now I feel as if the Samsung engineers are misplaced megalomanic chemists with naming conventions like these) is the 12mp sensor, which improves on the 8mp sensor with an optional RGB-white colour filter and a video capability of 1080p HD video at 60fps and 720p at 90fps.

They’ll be rocking and rolling later this year. I think I can probably contain myself until then.

iPhoneography meets environmental activism

Photographs of water + online exhibition = increased awareness of water pollution.

That’s the equation Greenpeace is working on, anyway. It has joined forces with Steply, the iPhone photo-sharing app, to create a user-curated online gallery of water-themed photographs and bring to people’s attention just what it is that we, and heavy industry, are doing to the earth’s water supply.

It’s a pretty simple process. If you use Steply, you take a photo to make Poseidon and the Naiades proud, you tag it with #gpwater in the photo description, and you share it to Steply between now and 12 December 2010. Steply will even send you a ‘special item’ to show that you support the campaign. (Although they’ve not been so kind as to tell me what the ‘special item’ is. I’m guessing it won’t be a Rolex.) If you don’t already use Steply, you can download it here.

Greenpeace is hosting the Hope and Pain exhibition of water-themed pictures by Eugene Smith, Aileen Mioko Smith, and Lu Guang at the Blindspot Gallery in Hong Kong, from 4 to 12 December, too.

You can find out more, and look at everyone’s contributions, here.