Photo competitions - yes there are a lot of them, so thankfully the guys and gals at Canon Australia (an H&K client) are back with a photo competition that joyfully doesn't have a "cutest baby" category. Canon's "Photo5" competition is back for another year, bigger and better thanks to more possible participants, both an amateur and professional division and what we really love, more cash and prizes.

The concept is fairly simple, which is always a plus.  Anyone with a camera or cameraphone registers at the campaign site and waits for the surprrise - a box containing 5 every day objects that each entrant has to photograph in a creative way and then upload to the site to enter.  That's it - your imagination does the rest.  Last year's objects included chalk, yellow dots, blue cellophane, a red balloon and the cardboard box itself.  Even though H&K is working on the campaign I couldn't get anyone to tell me any of the objects for this year - all I got was a "stop bugging me Ryan I'm not going to tell you."  Rude :-)

The first round of the competition is just for the month of September, where the first 10,000 registrants will then make it to the next round where they'll get their box of goodies and then let the happy snapping begin.  The campaign this year has launched its own blog which should also help spread the word about this fun campaign.

I think the campaign works on a number of fronts - it taps people's creative minds, it's obviously visual, incredibly simple and the prize and product package should be an extra motivator for all. Go Canon, definitely in focus with this campaign.  I wonder what is in the box?