With a prize pot of more than £25,000 cash and vouchers and a purpose-built, stunning outdoor exhibition of the top 100 images, to be seen by hundreds of thousands of viewers at the world famous Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, throughout the summer, this competition promises to be the world’s premier garden photography show.

Competitors are invited to enter single images or themed portfolios in the following categories, Trees, Plant Portraits, Garden Scenes, My Garden and Life in the Garden, and there’s also a Young Garden Photographer competition.

BUT HURRY! Entries close on 31 January 2008. For more details and “How to Enter”, please visit www.gpoty.org.

The Fuse Factory is inviting Ohio artists to submit works and projects that explore and reflect the convergence of art, technology, and science, with a focus on the interdependency and reciprocity of their respective developments and impact on culture and society. Works in the fields of interactive media, animation, net art, photography, video, film shorts, computer games, wearable technology, performance art, kinetic sculpture, transmedia, experimental electronics, and sound art will be accepted.

Deadline is 29 February 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

Celebrating the beauty and delicacy of the marine environment, popular websites Wetpixel.com and DivePhotoGuide.com, in association with Our World Underwater, one of the largest consumer dive shows in the US, announce a final call for entries for their 3rd annual, international underwater photography and video competition. The competition has become the “Superbowl” of international underwater imagery competitions, with world-class prizes, major industry involvement, celebrity judges, and the opportunity to have your images showcased to the world as some of the best. Truly an international competition, last year winners hailed from 17 different countries.

Photographers will compete in seven still-image categories and two video categories, to win more than $50,000 in prizes including trips to some of the top dive destinations in the world, including Socorro, Wakatobi-Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Ambon-Indonesia, the Red Sea, Grand Cayman, the Solomon Islands and Vietnam. Other prizes include housings, strobes, lighting systems, signed books and other valuable items.

Deadline for submissions is 15 January 2008. The official competition website has links to entry forms, guidelines prizes and more information: UnderwaterCompetition.com.

It worked before, so they’re doing it again: Webware is launching its second Webware 100 Awards, honoring the people’s choice for the best Web 2.0 apps and services. There are 10 categories for awards in the Webware 100 including audio, browsing, video, publishing and photography, communications and more. Each category will have 10 winners in it.

The first stage in this contest is a nomination phase, so if you know of a site that you want people to vote on, nominate it now. Nominations will close on 25 January 2008.

As a warning, there’s no need to nominate a site more than once or to encourage friends to nominate an application or site that you’ve already nominated. Save those efforts for the voting phase, which will be announced after Webware has processed the nominations. Visit the site to learn more.

AIA St. Louis hosts AIA National Photography Competition for Architects each year. The competition was founded to capture and highlight the multi-talents of the architect. Winning images from the competition are published in a succeeding year’s Rizzoli Engagement Calendar, an internationally recognized and sold publication. Entries are juried by a panel compromised of acclaimed architects, professional photographers or graphic designers.

The competition is open to any and all architects actively registered in the United States. The contest is also open to Associate members of the AIA, and student members of AIAS in good standing. Professional Affiliate or Allied members are not eligible. Entries must be postmarked no later than 1 March 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

At Left: “Naomi - Katrina Survivor,” 1st place by Nanette Martin.

The Art of Photography Show 2008 is a world-class international exhibition featuring all forms of photographic art — images shot on film, shot digitally, unaltered shots, alternative process, mixed media, digital manipulations, montages, etc. The Art of Photography Show will be exhibited at the two-level Lyceum Theatre Gallery, a perfect venue for exhibiting a large showcase of awesome photographic art.

Fill out a short registration form online and then upload your digital files. Entry deadline is 1st March at 11:59 pm (PT). There are $5000 in awards.

Entry Fee: $25 for the first entry, $10 for each additional entry. There is no limit to the number of entries an artist may enter. Artists who entered work in any previous Art of Photography Show or the Art of Digital Show will receive a $15 discount towards the Art of Photography Show 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

Works carried out by students usually disappear into drawers after presentation to a relatively small college audience. There the work remains invisible. :output, the biggest international competition for students in design and architecture, wants to change that. The works selected by the jury will be published in the yearbook :output. The Deadline for submission will is 15 February 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

Anyone who is currently studying communication design, product design, architecture, interaction design or film at a university or a college is eligible to participate. Students who have graduated within the last 12 months may also submit final degree works. Any work, which has been produced as a student project, is eligible for submission. The work may not be older than one year. The project does not have to be published. Work related to any area of design and architecture, such as: graphic design / architecture / product design / typography / photography/ illustration / typeface design / multimedia, moving image and television graphics / experience design is eligible for submission.

Latest date for submissions is 15 February 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

At left: Issue Reporting Story First Place, Paula Bronstein Getty Images.

Pictures of the Year International invites you to take an early look at the categories and guidelines for the 65th annual photojournalism competition — the world’s oldest and one of the most prestigious.

You can find complete guidelines along with a printable summary, a Spanish and a Chinese language version. Online registration and entry platform deadline is 18 January 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

To celebrate the flair, colour and creativity of their Brasilian origins, Brahma beer is launching VISTOBRAHMA, a design competition which offers up and coming creative minds the chance to get their work seen. There is a main cash prize of £5,000, as well as the chance to see your design on our packaging throughout the UK.

All types of work are welcome, whether its painting, illustration, photography, street art or anything in between, we want to see it. You can see examples of artists work for Brahma throughout the site and in the gallery.

This competition is open to all residents of the UK who are over age 18 (except employees of the Promoter and their immediate families, the Promoters advertising agency and sales promotion consultancy, and anyone else connected with the creation and administration of this promotion). The closing date for the receipt of all submissions is the 25th January 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and its Regional Affiliates are reaching out to schools across the nation to identify America’s most accomplished teen artists and writers. More than 75,000 students will accept the challenge to present their best creative work for review by artistic and literary professionals. More than 30,000 teens will be recognized regionally and approximately 1,000 will go on to earn national awards.

Many of these young artists and writers will have their work exhibited, published, and presented to a national audience by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, and more than $1.5 million dollars in scholarships will be made available to high school seniors who receive national recognition. The Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design, a consortium of leading art and design colleges in the U.S., recognizes The Scholastic Art Awards program of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers as an appropriate and effective way for students interested in art and design to develop successful portfolios for college admission.

Learn more about The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and how to submit your work (or tell a talented teen you know about this contest). Check out the virtual gallery of the nationally-recognized work from 2007.