A big thank you to everyone who participated in our latest giveaway and shared your favorite photographers with us. We received 191 comment and tweet entries this time (a new record!), and I’ll share the results of the question in a bit.

The winners of a free Photomatix Pro Plus license, chosen using a random number generator, are:

#9: Max Vernon (@max_vernon)

my favorite photographer: http://www.flickr.com/photos/muzzlehatch

#14: riNux (@riNux)

My Favorite Photographer is Joe McNally @JoeMcNallyPhoto http://portfolio.joemcnally.com/ #Petapixel #Photomatix

Congratulations! Please drop me an email at editor@petapixel.com to claim your prizes.

A big thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway, and to all our loyal readers! We have a lot more awesome stuff lined up to be given away, so be sure to check back soon!

Now, onto the results of the question, “Who is your favorite photographer?”. The top three responses we received were:

1. Ansel Adams (24 people)
2. Joe McNally (6 people)
3. Sam Javanrouh (4 people)

I never would have guessed that Ansel Adams would have been the overwhelming favorite, and found that pretty interesting.

Update: This giveaway has ended, and the randomly selected winners were posted here. Thanks to everyone who participated! Stay tuned for more awesome giveaways!

High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography is really interesting, and is mentioned a lot these days. Some people love it, while other hate it. Whatever camp you’re in, I would still recommend that you at least try it out, since I believe you actually learn the most in photography from experimentation.

Here’s an HDR photograph I took in 2008 of the Campanile on the UC Berkeley campus:

It’s composed of two photographs that I took without a tripod, and was created using Photomatix by HDRsoft. It seems like everyone these days is using Photomatix for their HDR work, and if you’ve heard of HDR, you’ve probably also heard of Photomatix.

Well today, I’m giving away two (2) copies of Photomatix Pro Plus, each worth $119. This bundle includes not only the standalone program, but also plugins for Photoshop, Lighroom, and Aperture. Of course, feel free to downgrade to one of the individual packages if this much software is overwhelming.

Entering this contest is simple. All you need to do is answer the following question:

Who is your favorite photographer?

Any photographer is okay, though try not to say it’s yourself. Links are definitely encouraged if the photographer is modern enough to have a website!

There are two ways you can send your answer to me, and feel free to use both methods for double the chance to win! You can…

1. Leave a comment on this post
2. Tweet your answer to @petapixel on Twitter

Winners will be randomly picked and announced in a week on the evening of July 18th, 2009.

Good luck!

If you’d like to view more examples of what you can do with Photomatix, check out the Photomatix group on Flickr, and to learn how to actually do HDR photography, try reading this tutorial by Trey Ratcliff on Stuck in Customs.

Another tip: If you include a link in your tweet back to this post, your tweet will automatically show up below the comments section, allowing you to share your answer not only with me, but with PetaPixel readers as well!

A big thank you to everyone who entered our latest giveaway. The winner of the free QuikPod handheld tripod is:

#12: Patricia Reiser

Congratulations! I hope you enjoy your new accessory and put it to good use! Please send an email to editor@petapixel.com to claim your QuikPod.

We have many more giveaways planned, so please check back soon. Also, I’m definitely looking forward to Monday, when we’ll be hearing from David Nightingale of chromasia!

Have a great weekend!

Update: This giveaway is now over. The winner was randomly selected and announced here. A big thank you to everyone who participated!

A while ago I received a camera extender/hand held tripod to review on Photoblog. Here’s a photograph of my brother that I took while fooling around with it:

Yeah… that’s right. It was taken from above a regulation basketball hoop. Sadly, my brother wasn’t able to keep his eyes open due to the fact that he was staring straight into the sun.

Today, I’m giving away either a QuikPod Pro Kit ($29.95) for you point-and-shoot users, or a QuikPod DSLR ($49.95) for those of you who lug around a bigger camera.

The QuikPod Pro includes adapter legs that can transform it into a table top tripod, while the QuikPod DSLR is large and sturdy enough to be used as an ultra-portable monopod. Here’s what the thing looks like when used as a monopod:

You can also use them as a flash stand or extender. Click here to see what I mean.

To enter this contest, all you have to do is

1. Bookmark PetaPixel on Delicious
2. Leave a comment stating your Delicious username and which QuikPod you would like

One entry per person, please. Winners will be announced on the evening of July 4th, 2009.

Good luck!

The first PetaPixel giveaway has come to an end, and I’m definitely surprised by how many entries we received. We received 101 comment entries, and 76 entries through Twitter. To choose the winners, I used random.org to generate a random number between 1 and 177. Numbers 1-101 were comment entries, and 102-177 were Twitter entries.

Here are the winners:

#102: Frank DelValle (@frankdelvalle)

Canon EOS 1D Mark III

#84: Diana Pink (iamdianthus.com)

While I love my D80 with the 18-50mm 2.8 lens, it will never replace the 1970′s Minolta with 35mm lens I learned with.

#141: Chris Scott (@nzcjs):

Just starting HDR, see http://tinyurl.com/nhl4yg Favourite camera would have to be my Nikon D300. Do I win now ;-)

#140: Jon Krombein (@Krombein)

my favorite camera is the Canon 1Ds Mk3.

#79: Dustin Dodge (dustindodgephotography.com)

Camera: Canon 5D
Lens: 24-70mm 2.8L

#123: Donnita Mae (@DonnitaMae)

My favorite lens in the Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS.

#34: Robin (aroundtheisland.blogspot.com)

My only SLR is my Nikon D40 so I’ll go with that. It’s either that or the older than ancient Yashica I had as a teen many (far too many) years ago.

Congratulations to all the winners! Please send an email to editor@petapixel.com to claim your HDR PhotoStudio license.

If you didn’t win, don’t fret. I have some more giveaways planned for the near future, including more HDR software licenses!

Now, some interesting things I discovered through laboriously tabulating the entries by hand:

The most popular cameras were the Canon 5D Mark II with 12 entries, and the Nikon D90 with 10 entries.

The most popular lenses were the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS with 8 entries, and the Nikon 50mm f/1.8D with 4 entries.

You can download the final tally here, though I’m not sure why you’d want to.

Thanks again to everyone who participated in this first giveaway. I definitely had a lot of fun reading through everyone’s favorite cameras and lenses, and am definitely looking forward to the next giveaway.

P.S. PetaPixel just broke the 1,000th follower mark on Twitter (@petapixel). Thanks everyone!

Update: This giveaway has now ended. The winners have been randomly selected and are posted here. Thanks to everyone who entered this first contest!

Something I hope to do regularly on PetaPixel is give away gear, accessories, and software to my readers. Today I’m giving away seven (7) free licenses to Unified Color’s HDR PhotoStudio, each worth $149.99.

If you don’t know what HDR is, check out the Wikipedia article on it or take a look at the HDR Flickr group. Here are some sample images showing you what you can do with the software:

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

What is your favorite camera or lens?

There are two ways you can tell us your answer (feel free to use both methods to increase your chances, but one entry per channel please):

1. Leave a comment on this post
2. Send @petapixel a tweet on Twitter. Please hashtag the tweet with #photography

Winners will be announced in a week on the evening of June 20th, 2009.

Good luck!