Good news: we are The Something New Project to photo submissions.

Keeping the same sharing theme, only from a different angle we are opening up a new way to submit an entry to the Something New Photography Project.

That means that in addition to the original way of submitting an entry – by sharing a New Gear Experience, you may also enter to the contest by sharing an image that relate to the friends theme.

The Sponsor

We have a really awesome sponsor for this project, BorrowLenses.com. BorrowLenses will provide 3 two-weeks rentals of some great gear to the lucky talented winners.

1st Prize is a two-weeks rental of
any camera and lens from the great collection over @ BL. This means
that the winner can spend a two week solo time with a nice set like a
5D and a 70-200 2.8 IS combo or a D300 and a 24-70 if you are a Nikon
person.

2nd Prize is a two-weeks rental of
any body. That means you will have to decide between a D300, a D90 or a
50D. The thrill of making this choice alone is rewarding enough,
provided you can stand the pressure of making this tough decision.

3rd Prize is a two-weeks lens rental.
Same deal. If you shoot Canon this is your chance to try out a cutie
like the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS. If you are yellow, it means two
weeks with the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G AF-S ED or the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G
ED AF-S.

There is some fine print: At the moment we can only deliver prizes
to the US. I am still working on European prizes, but at any rate
everyone is welcome to join this project. If a non-US entry wins one of
the 3 top spots, the prize will be given to the next in line; To make
the order we will need your credit card number, you will not be
charged, but we need to ensure you don’t run off with the lens. For all
the prizes, you’ll have for your selection any of the non-pro camera
bodies and the non-super telephoto lenses. 

How To Submit?

This time the rules are much simpler:

1. Theme if image is Friends

2. Image is taken in 2008

3. Post to Flickr, submit to DIYP Flickr pool, and tag with somethingnew.

4. Deadline: January 20, 2009

Watch  submissions here.

Entering The Contest

Each US-located entry will automatically get a chance to win a loaner
from our sponsors. Two judges will select two of the winners based on
originality, the quality of the review and the submitted images. The
remaining prize will be selected by you – DIYP readers.  Please give a
big hand to our judges:

Jim Talkinton – Jim has been
a professional photographer for over twenty years and he has been all
around the industry. Jim dabbled his hands in advertising,
photojournalism, editorial, catalog, as well as working as a darkroom
technician, retail photo salesman and writing. He has tried all sorts
of equipments. Today, he co-owns daylight photo studio and writes a
great blog at prophotolife.com.

Brian Auer –  Brian is an
enthusiastic hobbyist and an active contributor to the online
photography community. Among his many trades are The Epic Edits web blog, The Fine Art PhotoBlog and the Photo Net Cast. Brian has a wide angle view on photography, and is a beacon in the online photography community. It was his 50$ camera challenge that inspired this project.

So Why The Change Of Rules?

Initially I thought that Something New will serve three major goals: The first of which is provide a little push to get photogs together. When I started out in photography, it was very common for me to go on photowalks and to do collaborative projects.  Working with other, more experienced photographers, gave me a great jumpstart in my early days. When I got better, I shared my knowledge with others and this help both me and them; The second reason was to increase the number of online reviews available on the web. I did not try to compete with Tom Hogan, DPRviews or other sites, but promote real-world-hobbyist point of view.

Sadly, submissions were low. Why, actually? from the mails I got and comments on the original post I can see several reasons: I think that the combination of complicated instructions along with the fact that it is hard to find someone who is willing to swap gear, contributed to the low submissions rate. This is also why we are making a shift to something that can be done solo.