Update: This giveaway is now over. The winners were randomly selected by the giveaway system we used. Here they are: @sam_decker, @jdenham, and @gregoriusness.

Hullo y’all. We’re giving away 3 copies of travel photographer Trey Ratcliff’s latest book, A World in HDR. The book is filled with spectacular HDR photographs of scenes around the world, and also includes a solid tutorial in the back for learning how to create your own HDR images.

The book costs $30 on Amazon, and you can see some sample images and find out more on Trey’s website.

We’re going to be doing this giveaway a little differently: it’s going to be done completely through Twitter using a new system we developed. In the past we asked that you tweet certain keywords, and I used a custom-written program to collect all the tweets. The problem was that it wasn’t very transparent, and you didn’t even know whether we did in fact count your tweet as an entry.

So what’s our solution? Instead of using the behind-the-scenes program I wrote, I turned the system into a Twitter giveaway web app! Everything will be automated, and all you need to do is follow the instructions on the page and post a tweet through the app. When the giveaway is over, the application will randomly select and display the 3 winners using random.org.

To enter, simply post a tweet through the giveaway page!

You must tweet through the app in order to enter, since it tallies entries posted through the app rather than search on Twitter for matching tweets. You can also visit the giveaway through the following widget:

The application requires that you tweet http://j.mp/ppawihdr, which is a link back to this post. Unlike previous giveaways, you can say whatever else you want. You can even post a normal, everyday tweet through the app as long as the link is thrown in there.

The giveaway ends on the evening of February 21, which is this Sunday. Good luck!

P.S. If you run into any bugs in the app, please leave a comment here letting me know and I’ll get it fixed ASAP! This is the first giveaway ever through the app, but feel free to run your own!

Also, this giveaway is open to international readers as well!

Thanks to Trey for providing the books for this giveaway!

Our latest giveaway for a Tamron AF18-270mm is now over, and it was by far our most popular giveaway ever. We received 909 entries via comments and 543 entries via Twitter, for a grand total of 1452 entries.

And without further ado, the randomly selected winner of the lens is…

#460: Lydia King (@lydking)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lydking/4084984279/ one of the first pictures I’ve ever taken.

Here’s the photograph:

Congratulations Lydia! Please email editor@petapixel.com to claim your prize.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this giveaway. It was very interesting seeing all of the favorite photographs that were linked to as entries.

We have more giveaways lined up, so please stay tuned!

Update: This giveaway is now over. We’ve randomly selected a winner and posted the announcement here. Thanks for participating!

Hello friends. Ready for another giveaway? Here it is: We’re giving away a Tamron AF18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di-II VC LD Aspherical IF Macro, a lens Wikipedia classifies as a “superzoom“. This lens has a list price on Amazon of $1,333.95, and a “street” price of $629.

This lens goes from very wide (18mm) to very telephoto (250mm), giving it the largest ratio (15x) for DSLR cameras on the market today and making it very useful as a walkaround lens.

This lens is available for crop factor cameras only. If the winner has a full frame camera, we can substitute the lens for the Tamron AF28-300mm (same list price). You can choose either the Canon or the Nikon version of this lens.

To enter, all you need to do is:

Link us to the favorite photo you’ve taken

There are two ways to enter, and doing both methods will give you 2 entries in the contest, and thus double the chance the win!

1. Leave your response as a comment (on this PetaPixel.com post, not Facebook)
2. Tweet your response, and include the following link to this post anywhere in the tweet: http://j.mp/pptamron

   As long as the link appears in the post, you’ll be automatically entered in the contest.

This contest will end next Wednesday on February 3rd, 2010. We’ll randomly pick a winner using random.org and post an announcement. Good luck, and we look forward to seeing all your favorite photographs!

A big thanks to our sponsor Tamron, who is providing the lens for this giveaway!

Update: This giveaway is now over. The three winners were randomly selected and announced below. Thanks for participating!

When Udi Tirosh over at DIYPhotography launched the Bokeh Masters Kit a few weeks ago, we said we’d be giving away a couple kits here on PetaPixel in early January 2010. Well, here it is! We’re giving away three (3) Masters Edition Bokeh Masters Kits that each normally cost $35. Over 500 of these bokeh-customizing kits have been sold since they were introduced.

To enter, all you have to do is answer the following question:

What is your favorite book?

There’s two ways to enter this contest, and you can use both methods to double your chances:

1. Leave your response as a comment (on this PetaPixel.com post)
2. Tweet your answer, and include the following link to this post anywhere in the tweet: http://j.mp/ppxlbmk

   As long as the link is found somewhere in your tweet, you will be entered in this giveaway.

We will randomly select the three winners in two days on 1/13/10, and announce the winners in this post. Good luck!

Thanks to Udi for donating the kits for this giveaway!

Winners

This giveaway is now over. We received 159 entries via comments and 108 entries via Twitter, for a total of 267 entries. Here are three winners we randomly selected:

#194: suprspi (@suprspi)

My favourite book atm is “The Way of Shadows” by Brent Weeks – it changes constantly though.

#67: Nianya (@MagicalMischief)

Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien.

#145: Saurabh (@sloth13)

Sarah Moon: Coincidences by Sarah Moon

Congratulations! Please email editor@petapixel.com to claim your prize.

Thanks everyone for participating in the contest and sharing your favorite books! We’ll have another contest soon, so stay tuned!

Merry Christmas! It has been a week already since we posted our latest giveaway for a Lensbaby Composer, and this one has been our most popular giveaway so far. We received a total of 584 comment entries and 427 entries through Twitter, for a whopping total of 1011 entries.

Without further ado, the randomly selected winner of a Lensbaby Composer and Creative Aperture Set is…

#581: Henning Wüst

The top item on his Christmas wishlist was:

simple wish: peace on earth

Congratulations! Please send an email to editor@petapixel.com to claim your prize (We emailed you as well).

A big thank you to everyone who participated. We hope you’re all having a fun and safe holiday season!

Image credit: white christmas by brianjmatis

Update: This giveaway has ended. The winner was randomly selected and announced here.

Hello all you awesome readers out there! To celebrate this Christmas season, we’re going to be giving away a Lensbaby Composer lens + a Creative Aperture Kit (a $280 value).

To enter, all you need to do is answer the following question:

What’s the first item on your wishlist for Santa?

There are two ways to send your answer to us, and if you use both ways you will receive two entries in this contest:

1. Leave your response as a comment (on this PetaPixel.com post)
2. Tweet your response, and include the following link to this post anywhere in the tweet: http://j.mp/ppchstms

   If the link appears in your tweet, then the elf Santa loaned us will automatically find it and count it as an entry. If you don’t include the link, then the elf won’t be able to find it and it won’t be counted.

We’ll be picking a winner randomly on Christmas morning – December 25th, 2009. Good luck!

Thanks to everyone who participated in our giveaway on black friday. In response to the question “what are you most thankful for?”, we received 80 comments and 33 tweets for 113 entries total.

Here are the randomly selected winners:

The winner of a Trade Secret Card Pack:

#108: headedforhades (@headedforhades)

I’m thankful for Petapixel’s tweets! ;o)

The three winners of Digital Photography School’s new book The Essential Guide to Portrait Photography:

#2: Corey Russell (@MeatJacket)

I’m pretty thankful for living in one of the nicest parts of Canada , wouldn’t wanna be anywhere else.

#107: thedudeabides67 (@thedudeabides67)

I am thankful for the rich colours of life.

#109: matiassingers (@matiassingers):

I am thankful for @punkpolkadots, @ashwinpande and all other friends who make the next day worth looking forward to

Congratulations! Please contact editor@petapixel.com to claim your prizes.

Thanks again to everyone who participated. We have some pretty massive giveaways lined up, so keep your eyes peeled!

Image credit: Giraffe kindergarten by Focx.