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This weekend was no ordinary weekend for Calgarian teen Danyka, who won AMP Radio’s Bieber Fever Contest. Danyka was the very ecstatic winner of a trip to Toronto to see Justin Bieber in concert!

Now AMP Radio was not just going to let this chance to celebrate all things Bieber pass by and they definitely made sure it didn’t. About two thousand teens (and some moms) with Bieber Fever packed themselves into Eau Claire Market Plaza on Saturday to enter themselves into the draw, sign AMP Radio’s Bieber Banner that was sent to Justin Bieber himself and get their photo taken with AMP Radio’s “Alternative Bieber”. Now all this Bieber in the sun wouldn’t have been much fun without local band, Seventh Rain, who entertained the crowd with songs from their CD’s “The Ghost In Me” and “BYDA” and they even included a cover of JB’s current hit song “Baby”.  Check out the rough copy I was able to capture.

“Baby, baby, baby ohh! I thought you’d always be mine…” (Sorry, it’s just SO catchy!) Now with 2000 Bieber Fans you can imagine the energy was high and when Danyka’s lucky name was called you could hear a few groans from the girls beside you. The line up for entering the contest wrapped itself around the plaza and while I rocked out to Seventh Rain and awaited to hear who the lucky winner was going to be I snapped a few photos to try and bottle up the excitement.

This Friday, May 14 is the deadline for our ROCK THE HOMESTRETCH contest.

The Homestretch on CBC Radio One is searching for the best teenage rock band in Southern Alberta. If you’re 18 and under and in a rock band, they want to hear from you!

GRAND PRIZE:

- day-long recording session at The Beach music studios in Calgary. You’ll walk away with a radio-ready copy of your single

- National airplay on CBC Radio 3

- an interview on CBC Radio 3 on Lisa Christiansen’s show, Appetite for Distraction

- 7-inch copy of your single, courtesy of Saved By Vinyl and Saved By Radio

- photo shoot with professional photography, David Kenney

- a spot on stage at the Sled Island festival in Calgary this summer

ADDITIONAL PRIZES: The top three bands will get to perform in front of a live audience at the Plaza Theatre in Calgary on Friday, June 4th. The show will be broadcast LIVE across Southern Alberta on CBC Radio One. At the finale show, industry judges will give the bands feedback on their sound and performance, and choose the winning band.

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO ENTER THE ROCK THE HOMESTRETCH CONTEST:

1) Go to http://www.cbc.ca/homestretch/rockhs.html and read through the contest rules and regulations. You’re going to want to make sure you’re eligible for the contest before you enter!

2) After you’ve read the rules, go to http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/profile/ROCK-HS and follow the instructions on the screen. You’re going to need to create an Artist Profile on Radio 3 and upload one ORIGINAL song and a photo of your band (don’t worry if you’re band doesn’t play music from the “classic rock genre,” because we’re accepting everything under the sun: indie, rockabily, grunge, alt-rock, punk, death metal, funk, etc.)

3) Every band MUST EMAIL US to let us know that they’re OFFICIALLY entering the contest. Our email address is homestretch@cbc.ca

4) You’re email MUST include the following info:

- your band name
- the name and ages of your band members
- what school you go to
- the lyrics of the song you’ve uploaded
- a designated person, email and phone number for your band

Deadline to enter the contest is 7 p.m. THIS FRIDAY, May 14

If you didn’t already know, Canada is well on its way to having its very own human rights museum. Construction of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) started in 2008 and will open for business in 2012. The museum has stressed the importance of educating young people especially, so it’s only suiting that they’re holding an art contest for youth in partnership with Taking IT Global (TIG).

The contest, called Evoke, aims to give youth a medium through which to reflect on the past, present, and future potential of human rights movements and events. Open to youth aged 13-25, the contest will be open for submissions until the 25th of May. 13 winners will be chosen (one from each province/territory) and will be given the opportunity to travel to Winnipeg this summer to have their art exhibited during a ceremony for the CMHR.

For more info on submitting to the art contest, head here. If you’re interested in learning more about the museum, head to their website and check out the live construction feed. If there’s no construction going on in the evening, you can always watch the skaters in the skater park!

To start off, I’d like to express my disappointment at the turnout for the photography contest. Aside from one of my friends and myself that entered, there was only ONE other entry. Sadly, this means the contest is over. You can all feel free to post to the Flickr group at any time if you like, and stand-out photos may be featured in a post, but there is no longer a posting limit or specific topic.

On a happier note, congratulations to user cmmcn, who won this contest with this picture:

(If this is you, please check your Flickr inbox!)

For this week’s topic, I thought I’d try out a neat little app for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad, made by architecture and design giant Autodesk, called Sketchbook. After using it for a while, I am very pleased with how it works, and decided it’s worth the review, even if it isn’t strictly related to photography.

The first thing you’ll notice about it is that it’s a very professional app. Even the icon is formal.

After the title screen, there’s not much to see. You are literally presented with a blank slate, save for one all-important button at the bottom.

From this button, you have full access to any drawing and editing tools you may want: from transform tools to brushes to colour pickers, they’re all under that one button.

To start a project, just choose a brush…

… Choose a colour…

… and away you go!

To check out the full-featured app, click here.

To get the free version, click here.

Happy doodling!

I know this is what you’ve all been waiting for… an actual photography contest where you could win a prize! (albeit a small one). There will be four contests in all, encompassing the skills you have learned as students of the Perspective series. The winner each week will be announced prior to the next week’s challenge being posted. The winning photos will be chosen according to originality, following the challenge objectives and overall awesomeness!

Instructions:

1. Make a Flickr/Yahoo! account here. If you have one already, please don’t feel pressured to make a new one ; )
2. You’ll need to first upload the picture to your Flickr account, and then add the picture to the group pool. Here’s the page; it’s pretty self-explanatory.
3. Head on over to the YAA Perspective Photography page. Feel free to become a member if you want, but it’s not necessary for the next step.
4. You are allowed to upload 3 pictures per week to the pool, so try to pick your favourites. RULE: IT MUST BE YOUR OWN PHOTO. We have ways of checking.

When a winner is chosen for that week, I will directly message your Flickr account asking for a code and your email; this code will be included at the end of the contest posting on Youth Are Awesome, so that only YAA readers are getting the prizes, and the email is so that I can send you an awesome iTunes song. Or, if you’re not an iPod person, a song from Puretracks.

The winners will also be featured in the next week’s post! SO… Let’s get started!

Week 1 Challenge:

A macro photo. Pretty simple, but there are so many places you readers could take this. Please try to keep the editing to a minimum. If you need a refresher, I touched on macro photography in Perspective Pt. 2: The Basics. Good luck, and happy shooting!

Keyword: Analog