We were all astounded by the news that Peter Lik’s “Phantom”, a black and white photo of Antelope Valley in Arizona, sold for a record $6.5 million.  We applaud Mr. Lik for this monumental feat and for the credibility it brings to photography as an art form.  For the rest of us who don’t happen to have $6.5 million lying around but would like to have the pleasure of viewing Antelope Canyon on a daily basis our fellow Pixoto members have the answer.  Here are 3 exceptional takes on the iconic location – and there’s still time to order amazing canvas prints for the holidays!

“Navajo Ghost” by David Long  [BUY]

“Lady in the Wind” by Stephen Berry  [BUY]

Light Dance by Flavio Mini  [BUY]

There are hundreds more for sale in our art shop!

It’s now easier than ever to submit photos to Pixoto because you don’t have to spend hours using tedious drop downs to get them in the right categories and subcategories.  Now you can just click publish immediately after uploading and your images will automatically be added to the “Uncategorized” category and submitted for voting.  This is a great way to get a quick read on what Pixoto voters think of your images.  It’s also a great way to upload a large catalog of images to make them available in the Pixoto market.  All of your embedded titles and keywords will be automatically added to your images as usual.

We love having all of the images on Pixoto categorized.  It makes it easy to find the photography that you’re interested in and we believe that the voting is more accurate that way.  That said the single biggest obstacle for people to upload photos is the amount of time it takes to type, categorize and subcategorize each one.  Furthermore successful mutli-subject categories like Black & White have shown us that we can get great photographic diversity and bring amazing photos to the top of the leaderboard in mixed subject categories.

Pixoto moderators will go through the best of the Uncategorized images and assign search terms/keywords so that they will appear in the correct stock and art shop searches.

Uncategorized images will get paused a bit earlier than categorized images and they won’t get the extra votes assigned to images submitted by PRO members.  We believe it is likely that the overall quality of Uncategorized images will be lower than that of more carefully considered submissions.  As such we don’t want to end up with ImageDuel getting flooded with thousands of poor quality images and degrading the voting experience.  Our goal is to make sure that poor quality images get paused as soon as possible.  We’ll monitor this and will make any changes necessary to keep voting on Pixoto fun and interesting.

For more information on the Uncategorized category see Category Descriptions

So what are you waiting for? Go through your back catalog, choose a few hundred (or thousand) images and try them out.  You may find some crowd pleasing gems you didn’t even know you had.

Happy Shooting!

We’re now putting all of our weekly challenges through our new system.  All challenges (open/voting/awarded) can be found at Pixoto Photo Challenges.

In this week’s challenge we honor motherhood with the introduction of a new category (captioned photos).  Share a photo with a caption that you feel illustrates Mothers or Motherhood. We’ve never allowed text on photos before on Pixoto – so we’re taking a chance on this.  Please help us make it a success.

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THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE
“Mother’s Day”
***

To enter:

1. Take a photo and add some text / caption to it to that illuminates some element of motherhood
2. Submit it under: Captioned Photos / Mother’s Day
3. Select “Add to Market” when submitting the photo
4. Tag the image with: PWCmothers

Submit your Entries Now

Preview This Weeks Entries

Prizes:

• Top Entry will win a year of Pixoto Pro + an 11×14 Canvas Print of their winning image (US members only)
• Winners will get Award Badges, 1000 Points plus 1,000 credits for future image submission
• A blog post will highlight the winners
• The opportunity to make some money off of stock sales in the future

Rules:

• The photo must have a caption that illustrates the motherhood theme
• The photo must be added to the Pixoto Market
• Improperly categorized images will be re-categorized and disqualified
• Image quality (through ImageDuel) will determine the winner. In other words… the better image will determine the winner not the better concept.
• Enter as many images as you like – only highest scoring one will be chosen for top 10 winners.
• Images must be submitted/resubmitted during the week
• Images must be tagged “PWCmothers”
• You may resubmit an image already on Pixoto, but please be aware that ImageScore, awards and points for the image will be reset upon resubmission
• Duplicates of previously uploaded, and not deleted, Pixoto submissions will be removed.

• Due to the popularity of weekly challenges, we not review qualification requirements for image images with an ImageScore of less than 500
• Be true to the category: Images in the wrong category will be recategorized and disqualified.
• Entries that do not comply with the above rules will be disqualified (a PWCmothers-dq will be placed on the image).

We are so excited to announce the immediate availability of Pixoto Canvas!  We’ve partnered with an amazing new canvas manufacturer that provides museum quality canvas gallery wraps and easel backed desk canvases at a price that is… in a word… incredible.  Your Pixoto Portfolio can now be enabled as an instant art shop where visitors can purchase your work for their walls and you keep the majority of the profits.

Buy at wholesale:

You can now buy canvases at ludicrously low wholesale prices from any image you post.  Don’t want to submit your image to our contests – no problem – canvases can be ordered right from the upload page.

Did we mention the price?  We’re talking one fifth the price of most of the big manufacturers (yes that’s 80% off).    These canvases are priced so well that you’ll be able to have a whole collection for your home or office that you switch out on a whim.

Sell at Retail

Your Pixoto profile is now an instant canvas shop.  Just click the “add to market” button when you’re uploading an image (or click on the edit button from the image detail page) and we’ll make your image available in the Pixoto Market and available for purchase from your profile page.  You can set your retail markup on your my account page (the default is 50%) which will price your canvas at a fixed percentage above our wholesale price.  You keep 70% of the net proceeds.

Example: a 24×36 canvas sells at wholesale for $59.99 at a 50% markup will be $89.98 at retail and your commission would be: $21.00.  The same canvas marked up at 200% would sell for $179.96 and yield a commission to you of $83.98.

Canvas and/or Stock: Set Your Market Defaults

By default every image you add to the Pixoto Market is available for Stock and Canvas.  If you want to offer your images only as canvas (or vice versa) adjust your defaults on your my account page.

It’s time to dive into your  travel picture archive and show us the your best shots of the world’s landmarks. Make sure to label the landmark in the title and provide a description if it is not obvious.

Note: if you are submitting it for commercial stock then make sure the landmark is not copyrighted (if not – submit it as “editorial only”). For example photos of the Eiffel Tower taken at night must be submitted as “editorial only”.

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THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE
“Landmarks”
***

To enter:

1. Take a photo of a landmark travel location
2. Submit it under: Travel Locations / Landmarks
3. Select “Add to Market” when submitting the photo
4. Tag the image with: PWClandmarks

Submit your Entries Now

Preview This Weeks Entries

Prizes:

• Top Entry will win a year of Pixoto Pro
• Winners will get Award Badges, 1000 Points plus 1,000 credits for future image submission
• A blog post will highlight the winners
• The opportunity to make some money off of stock sales in the future

Rules:

• The photo must have a travel ‘landmark’ as the subject (i.e. a building, natural formation, statue, etc that tourists would frequent). 
• The photo must be added to the Pixoto Market
• Shots must be taken outside
• People in the shots must be unidentifiable and may not be the subject
• If a property release is required – please add it
• Improperly categorized images will be recategorized and disqualified
• Image quality (through ImageDuel) will determine the winner.  In other words… the better image will determine the winner not the better concept.
• Enter as many images as you like – only highest scoring one will be chosen for top 10 winners.
• Images must be submitted/resubmitted during the week
• Images must be tagged “PWClandmarks”
• You may resubmit an image already on Pixoto, but please be aware that ImageScore, awards and points for the image will be reset upon resubmission
• Duplicates of previously uploaded, and not deleted, Pixoto submissions will be removed.

• Due to the popularity of weekly challenges, we not review qualification requirements for image images with an ImageScore of less than 500
• Be true to the category:  Images in the wrong category will be recategorized and disqualified.
• Entries that do not comply with the above rules will be disqualified (a PWClandmarks-dq will be placed on the image).

Show us your best living room shots for this week’s challenge.

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THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE
“Living Rooms”
***

To enter:

1. Take a photo of a living room in a residential house.
2. Submit it under: Buildings & Architecture / Homes
3. Select “Add to Market” when submitting the photo
4. Tag the image with: PWClivingrooms

Submit your Entries Now

Preview This Weeks Entries

Prizes:

• Top Entry will win a year of Pixoto Pro
• Winners will get Award Badges, 1000 Points plus 1,000 credits for future image submission
• A blog post will highlight the winners
• The opportunity to make some money off of stock sales in the future

Rules:

• The photo must a living room in a private home
• The photo must be added to the Pixoto Market
• If a property release is required – please add it
• Improperly categorized images will be recategorized and disqualified
• Image quality (through ImageDuel) will determine the winner.  In other words… the better image will determine the winner not the better concept.
• Enter as many images as you like – only highest scoring one will be chosen for top 10 winners.
• Images must be submitted/resubmitted during the week
• Images must be tagged “PWClivingrooms”
• You may resubmit an image already on Pixoto, but please be aware that ImageScore, awards and points for the image will be reset upon resubmission
• Duplicates of previously uploaded, and not deleted, Pixoto submissions will be removed.

• Due to the popularity of weekly challenges, we not review qualification requirements for image images with an ImageScore of less than 500
• Be true to the category:  Images in the wrong category will be recategorized and disqualified.
• Entries that do not comply with the above rules will be disqualified (a PWClivingrooms-dq will be placed on the image).

Photographers have been enjoying the additive challenge and feedback of Pixoto for over a year.  Now Designers & Artists can get their duel on with Pixoto’s new Content Types: Design & Illustration and Traditional Art.  Each content type has multiple categories and subcategories that should appeal to a wide range of artists.

All new categories will all participate in Pixoto’s “Best of” awards which are handed out for the top images each day, week, month and year.  Top designers and artists will also be highlighted in the Top Players leaderboard on Pixoto.com.

Content creators can also make money with their images by adding them to the Pixoto Marketplace including Pixoto Stock and the soon to be announced Pixoto Canvas.

Of course every category of image on Pixoto has the opportunity to win cash prizes each week.  See www.pixoto.com/contest for details.

Full descriptions of the new types and categories can be seen at:  https://blog.pixoto.com/category-descriptions/

Let’s see your favorite paths to nature.  Submit your photos of a trail or a path in a landscape.

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THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE
“Paths in Nature”
***

To enter:

1. Take a photo that contains a path or trail in a landscape setting
2. Submit it under: Landscapes / Any category
3. Select “Add to Market” when submitting the photo
4. Tag the image with: PWCpaths

Submit your Entries Now

Preview This Weeks Entries

Prizes:

• Top Entry will win a year of Pixoto Pro
• Winners will get Award Badges, 1000 Points plus 1,000 credits for future image submission
• A blog post will highlight the winners
• The opportunity to make some money off of stock sales in the future

Rules:

• The photo must contain a easily identifiable path or trail
• The photo must be added to the Pixoto Market
• Improperly categorized images will be recategorized and disqualified
• Image quality (through ImageDuel) will determine the winner.  In other words… the better image will determine the winner not the better concept.
• Enter as many images as you like – only highest scoring one will be chosen for top 10 winners.
• Images must be submitted/resubmitted during the week
• Images must be tagged “PWCpaths”
• You may resubmit an image already on Pixoto, but please be aware that ImageScore, awards and points for the image will be reset upon resubmission
• Duplicates of previously uploaded, and not deleted, Pixoto submissions will be removed.

• Due to the popularity of weekly challenges, we not review qualification requirements for image images with an ImageScore of less than 500
• Be true to the category:  Images in the wrong category will be recategorized and disqualified.
• Entries that do not comply with the above rules will be disqualified (a PWCpaths-dq will be placed on the image).

Go to your local park to find the subject of this week’s challenge.

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THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE
“Park Benches”
***

To enter:

1. Take a photo that contains a park bench
2. Submit it under: City, Street & Park / City Parks
3. Select “Add to Market” when submitting the photo
4. Tag the image with: PWCbenches

Submit your Entries Now

Preview This Weeks Entries

Prizes:

• Top Entry will win a year of Pixoto Pro
• Winners will get Award Badges, 1000 Points plus 1,000 credits for future image submission
• A blog post will highlight the winners
• The opportunity to make some money off of stock sales in the future

Rules:

• The photo must contain a bench in a city park
• The photo must be added to the Pixoto Market
• Improperly categorized images will be recategorized and disqualified
• Image quality (through ImageDuel) will determine the winner.  In other words… the better image will determine the winner not the better concept.
• Enter as many images as you like – only highest scoring one will be chosen for top 10 winners.
• Images must be submitted/resubmitted during the week
• Images must be tagged “PWCbenches”
• You may resubmit an image already on Pixoto, but please be aware that ImageScore, awards and points for the image will be reset upon resubmission
• Duplicates of previously uploaded, and not deleted, Pixoto submissions will be removed.

• Due to the popularity of weekly challenges, we not review qualification requirements for image images with an ImageScore of less than 500
• Be true to the category:  Images in the wrong category will be recategorized and disqualified.
• Entries that do not comply with the above rules will be disqualified (a PWCpwcbenches-dq will be placed on the image).