February's laid back photo competition winner

The theme for February's photo competition was 'relax'. A lot of the entries, unsurprisingly, featured people with their feet up! And it happened to be two of those that we selected as our winner and our runner-up.

First to our winner, by Igor K:

He has won a 12" Fracture for his beautiful image that sums up taking the weight off your feet and letting the day flow away.

Our runner-up is Rob-Shanghai. I love this anonymously captured moment.

Well done! And thank you to everyone who entered. March's competition will open later today. We hope to see you and your entries over in the thread on Flickr.

Brilliant in black and white - December's competition winner

Wow! December 2012's black and white themed installment saw the most ever entries to our competition. Thank you so much everyone who submitted a picture. It was a delight to look through them to select a winner.

After a lot of deliberation–there were, afterall, a lot of pictures–we decided that Almost Gone by Rob-Shanghai should take the spoils of a 12 inch Fracture. We loved the story, the composition was great, and we felt that it made the most of being in black and white.

Congratulations Rob!

However, seeing as there were so many entries, we only thought it fair to name some runners up, too.

And we have:

Sweep's Festival, Rochester, by Tim Allen - pin-sharp and beautifully framed.

And Monterey Fog, by Luca Pisanu - haunting and delicate.

You're a super lot.

We're taking a hiatus from the competition for January, but we'll be back in February, and we hope you will be, too!

October's round winner

Crikey! You made it hard for us this month. We almost came to blows trying to settle on a winner for October's round-themed competition. To be fair, it would have been difficult, as none of us is currently in the same city, and we don't really go in for violence, but you get the idea that we struggled to agree.

Eventually, though, it was concluded that Martin's untitled picture should take the spoils of a 12" Fracture. Well done!

Congratulations everyone, you did a sterling job.

If you fancy having a go at November's competition, we're looking for images of wood. All the details are here.

The winner of Self-portrait September is...

Coo-ee you made it tough for us to settle on a self-portraitastic winner for September! We saw so many different elements that we liked, finding a picture that we could agree on was an exercise in endurance!

Eventually, though, we came to a decision. It was Milo Sees who walked away with the spoils for his Training in the Dark. Haje and I were both captivated by the lighting, and there was something about the juxtaposition of the sleek, smooth skin, the poise of the body, and oppressive darkness that made it my winner.

Congratulations, Milo! You've won a 12" Fracture!

Our runner up was Bubble Blastage by Kathleen Cassidy. Gareth thought that the idea was neat and he loved the high contrast look. It was the sassy attitude that blasted straight through my screen that I adored. Great stuff, Kathleen!

Thank you to everyone who entered. The theme for this month's competition is round. You can check out the details here. We're looking forward to seeing your pictures!

August's metallic medallist

EMP/SFM by Wntrmute

In a somewhat tenuous celebration of the Olympics, we asked for metallic images in our August photo competition. Judging was a slightly stressful experience, with a flurry of emails bouncing back and forth to decide who'd bag the 12 " Fracture prize. Thanks be to the gods of competition that none of us was expected to provide scores on diving, dressage, or gymnastics in a split second!

Finally, we settled on Wntrmute's enigmatically titled EMP/SFM as our gold medallist. There was something about the sense of texture it conveyed, and the warmth emanating from the structure that did it for us.

As for our runners up, Fred Dunn snatched silver with Stay out, stay in, which we adored for its composition and the ability to make razor wire inviting; bronze went to praire_girl76 for her macro of a wire whisk, which was entry 191 in her 365 project.

Congratulations all of you, and thank you to everyone who entered. We'll be posting details of our September competition later today!

A tremendous two-tone competition winner in July

We asked for two-tone images in July. Maybe red against yellow; perhaps purple shot with green; how about orange sidled up against pink; or in the case of our delightful winner, Dim the lights: blue contrasting with green.

So why did we choose this cracker by Hooker771, apart from the juxtaposition of the blue and the green that so perfectly encapsulated the theme? The lighting is beautiful. We loved the story. The lines are fantastic. And it made us smile.

That's bagged him a 12" Fracture.

We'll be announcing August's competition tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled, both here and on Twitter, for the details.

Photographing fun - June's photo competition

It's June. June's rammed with some of my favourite events and the weather is supposed to be 'flaming'. Whether or not it will be is another matter, but there's meant to be a whole heap of fun happening. So that's your challenge this month: fun in a photograph. From flying kites on a beach to getting all dressed up for Royal Ascot or covered in strawberry juice, capture a moment of people utterly enjoying themselves.

I bet you can come up with some crackers.

If it's your photo of fun that rocks our world, you'll win yourself a fabulous 12 inch Fracture, thanks to the super people there.

As ever, entries go in the Small Aperture Flickr pool, between today (Thurday 7 June) and Thursday 28 June 2012. Remember: one entry per person, please.

If you've any questions, please get in touch. Otherwise, I leave you with The Rules for your edification.

The Rules

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t be related to either me or Haje to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me and Haje) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Pixiq.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

If you've any questions, please just ask!

April's vitreous victor!

Well done to John Cavan for his Smooth Curves Ahead

First things first: we apologise for the delay in announcing April's winner. Haje and I both think that it's important to discuss the entries and the winner, and between me visiting the back of beyond and Haje being insanely busy, we just haven't had the chance to do so. Rather than leave you guys languishing, Gareth very kindly stepped in as Haje's stunt-double, and we thrashed out a winner between us.

Without further ado, then, we'd like to name John Cavan as April's winner, for his Smooth Curves Ahead. Gareth loved the 'insanely literal interpretation of the theme'. And I liked it for being so dark and brooding when glass is usually so sparkly and reflective and bright.

John has won himself a 12 inch Fracture from the lovely Fracture and a place in the Small Aperture hall of photo fame.

May's competition theme is 'flora'; it closes on Friday 26 May, so get cracking! And don't forget that you can keep up to date with all our competition news and plenty of other crazy shenanigans from the photography world by following @SmallAperture on Flickr!

Our high-key photo competition winner is announced!

For January, we were looking for bright, airy, and positive high-key images to kick off the new year. This was the entry that made both Haje and me go 'Yes!' It's calm, delicate, and gorgeous.

Congratulations, Hooker771 (he doesn't give his real name on Flickr), for your charming First Year of Ballet. You've just won yourself a 12" Fracture.

Details of our February competition will be going up very soon!

Our August photo competition

We’ve done it! We’ve wracked our brains and thought of a theme for this month’s competition. It was terribly hard work, you should know. We’re looking for pictures on the theme of texture. It can be rough or smooth, you can do a macro of some fabric, you could capture the look of moss or lichen… we really don’t mind. We’re looking forward to seeing what you drop into the Flickr pool. Our winner gets a fabulous 12″ Fracture, too!

You’ve three weeks to submit a photo, so you have from today (Wednesday 3 August) until Wednesday 24 August. It’s only one photo per person, and they need to go in the Small Aperture Flickr pool.

If you’ve any questions, please be in touch. Otherwise, I’ve reproduced The Rules, just in case. Good luck and have fun!

The Rules

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t have written for Small Aperture or be related to either me or Haje to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me and Haje) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Small Aperture.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

May photo competition winner!

Last month we asked for pictures of insects, and you treated us to some absolute crackers. Thank you, everyone. However, for the first time in the… ooh… [counts on her fingers]… nine months that we’ve been running a monthly photo competition, we both settled on a single picture, immediately. In fact, when I laid eyes on it, it took my breath away. I really was that impressed. So without further ado, I present the winner of Small Aperture’s May photo competition:

Guêpe sur cimicifuga (1), by Luc Marc

Many congratulations to Luc Marc! Do get in touch with me and I shall organise for you to claim your awesome prize from the wonderful people at Fracture.

June’s competition details will be winging their way to you soon!

April photo competition winner!

We’re sorry that it has taken us longer than usual to announce the winner of April’s photo competition. Haje was struggling for connection to the intergoogles whilst idling on a boat somewhere off of Thailand (hard life, isn’t it?) and then we had our customary email avalanche to decide on a winner. But we’ve got there! We found a picture featuring a part of the human body that made us go ‘Oooh!’ So, Ladies and Gentlemen, please raise your glasses to April’s winner…

The Rickshaw Puller, by Sakshi Kumar

Many congratulations to Sakshi Kumar for his photo The Rickshaw Puller! Drop me a note, Sakshi, and I’ll arrange for you to collect your prize from the amazing Fracture.

Also, this month, we’d like to give an honourable mention. It’s the first time that we’ve done this, but it’s our competition, so why not? Well done to Kevin Thornhill for his photo Entwined in Love:

It’s a compliment to all of you who entered that we took so long to find a winner.

May’s competition is up and running. The theme’s insects. All the details are here, though. Fracture are providing a fabulous prize again, so please do submit an entry!

Our April photo competition

Portraits make great photos, but the human body can produce some of the most intriguing, inspiring, and delicious pictures, too. Hands can tell a story, hips can be sensual, and even feet can be made to look elegant. So that’s what we’re looking for this month: pictures of the human body. (Absolutely no dead ones, ya hear?) If you manage to produce the winning picture of a smouldering neckline or a marvellous macro of an eye, the super dudes over at Fracture will be giving you one of your pictures printed on glass.

We’ll accept submissions (one per person) from today – Wednesday 6 April 2011 – until Wednesday 27 April. They need to be added to the Small Aperture Flickr pool.

Any questions? No? Well you know where to find me if you do have any. And here are The Rules, in case.

The Rules

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t have written for Small Aperture or be related to either me or Haje to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me and Haje) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Small Aperture.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

Fracture: pictures printed on glass

How does having your photos printed on glass sound to you? A minimalist photo-and-frame-rolled-into-one deal, if you like. It’s what the guys over at Fracture can do to your pictures. No, there’s no paper involved; the image goes on the glass. No, I’ve not a clue how they do it. But I really wanted to know what they’re like, so I checked them out.

Fracture was dreamed up by Abhi Lokesh and Alex Theodore in summer 2008. They happened to be in Swaziland at the time, but they’re not anymore. Now they’re back in the US and run a very hands-on team of ten, printing, packaging, and mailing people’s photos on glass. No, no robots there. Knowing all these important details, and more – such as Abhi’s love of peanut butter – I sent three of my images for fracturing.

Hanging on the wall, they look as if they're floating

It was all rather easy. You upload your images (or you can email them), you choose the size of your prints (with a handy wineglass for comparison), you edit your pictures a bit if they need it, you select a border from about a billion options if you want one (I didn’t), and then you pay. At $12 for a 10″x8″ fracture, plus shipping, I thought it was quite reasonable. There are plenty of options, though; things start at $8 for a 7″x5″ and go up to $25 for a 14″x11″. They can be square, too. Oh, and then you wait with bated breath for your fractures to arrive.

In its packaging

Taa-dah!

Foamy protection and a hook for hanging

Did I like them? Definitely. The colours are great and when mounted on the wall, which is super-easy as the hook comes along with the picture, it looks as if it’s floating. There’s an option to have them mounted on a stand, too, and that looks pretty cool.

A stand-mounted Fracture, in the living room at the Small Aperture mansion

Would I order some more? Absolutely.

Fracture, pictures printed on glass.

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Disclaimer: Fracture provided me with three prints gratis for the purposes of this review