14 DAY TRIAL // Missed the chance to get your photo as the Bing background image for a whole day via the Summer Travel Photo Contest this past summer? Well, get your cameras ready, because Microsoft is giving you yet another shot to get one of your digital images as the Bing wallpaper for an entire day. The Home Sweet Homepage Photo Contest is scheduled to kick start today, December 1st, 2009, and will provide photographers around the world with the opportunity to submit their image for a competition whose winner will ultimately be featured as the Bing wallpaper on January 6th, 2010.
“The theme of this contest is “hometown pride.” It’s an opportunity for you to take photos that demonstrate the beauty of the places you live in and call home. The goal of the daily images on the Bing homepage is to inspire a sense of exploration and delight through a single stunning image that draws you in to the search adventure. So we’re looking for photos of your hometowns that do just that; draw people in and make them want to learn more and feel the pride you have for your town,” explained Kristin Meldahl, from the Bing team.
Meldahl noted that the Bing team had been immensely impressed with what users submitted for the Summer Travel Photo Contest in mid-2009. Partly because of the success enjoyed by the previous Bing wallpaper contest, the Redmond company is now opening up its search/decision engine yet again to photographers worldwide.
“All of the details and information for the contest can be found on our Bing Facebook page (to go live at 9:00AM). The winner will be decided by a combination of popular votes in the first round, editorial selection before the finals, and by popular vote in the finals. The winner will be announced on December 21, with the winning photo appearing on the homepage on January 6, 2010,” Meldahl added.
Of course, just as it was the case with the previous Bing wallpaper contest winner, the author of the top image this time around should also be prepared for the image to be seen by millions of people worldwide, and for the inherent fame. “Our first photo contest had more than 10,000 entries and upwards of half a million votes. The winning photo came from Jeremy Somers of Australia and was recently featured in a national television campaign in the United States,” Meldahl recalled. “Although we can’t make any promises about the amount of exposure and community love that the winner of this photo contest will get, we can say that the winning image will be featured on the Bing homepage in early January. So grab your cameras and get ready to start shooting!”