The prestigious awards in photo journalism “Pictures Of The Year International” were announced by the Annenberg Space Organization.  In this competition, the four main categories were  Photographer year (newspaper), Photo of the Year (freelance or agency), outlook, global view.

First prize in Photo of the Year ( freelance or agency ), a historical reconstruction of the battle for Yanan

First prize in photography , the (newspaper), a Swedish girl Michelle Oloffson . She was born premature and had little chance to survive , but survived .

First prize in a global perspective . Photo Story of the death of the Colorado River .

First prize in public awareness. Photo Story of polygamy in the United States.

First prize in Science dike Nurek in Tajikistan .

Special prize, the civil disobedience campaign in Iran.

Finalist nomination outlook . Reporting on environmental pollution in China.

Finalist nomination global view . Photos of the environmental problems associated with coal mining in Appalachia.

Third prize in Photo of the Year ( newspaper ). Boy dancing hip – hop.

Special prize in the nomination news . Adulthood .

The winners of the International Award in Photography for the Conservation of Wildlife were published.  In total more than fifty works in 10 categories were announced.  The categories are Special Award, Landscape, Wildlife, Flora, Scuba, Community at Risk, Environment at Risk, Documenting project related to conservation of wildlife, Puget Sound is in danger, student work.

Snowy Owl

Bristlecone pine in the mountains of California.

In Katmai National Park

Death Valley

South Island , New Zealand

Badlands of North Dakota

Iceland

Harbour in Nevada

Cape Arago , Oregon

Death Valley

Japanese macaque in the national park Joshinetsu Kogen

Kaziranga National Park, India

Falklands

Karnataka, India

Wild turkey , Mexico

Etosha National Park , Namibia

National Park Namib-Naukluft, Namibia

The struggle for life, the National Park Namib-Naukluft

Lonely tree in a national park Namib-Naukluft

The algae in the waters of California

The National Marine Park Bonaire

The end of the forest wars in California

Hit antelope, Wyoming

The bridge over Lake Washington

Puget Sound

Student work (first place) – Sunlight in the pines

Student work (second place)

Student Work (special prize )

Student Work (special prize )

Student Work (special prize )

Student Work (special prize )

Extraction of turtle eggs

Extraction of turtle eggs

Extraction of turtle eggs

Extraction of turtle eggs

Search Confidence

Search Confidence

Search Confidence

Search Confidence

Search Confidence

Search Confidence

Savannah Oregon

Savannah Oregon

Savannah Oregon

Savannah Oregon

Savannah Oregon

Savannah Oregon

Recovery after the 2004 tsunami in Thailand

Recovery after the 2004 tsunami in Thailand

Recovery after the 2004 tsunami in Thailand

For the “Best Photographer 2009” title a total 14500 works were presented by two thousand photographers from 29 countries. Winners were determined in 12 professional categories and 10 amateur. In addition, were presented with awards in key categories: “Grand Prix”, “Photo of the Year”, “photo series of the Year”, “Discovery of the Year” and “Special Prize for Students.

Photo of the Year, Emil Gataullin – “Province”

Photo of the Year

Anna Voitenko – Series “Iza”

Discovery of the Year

Tatyana Ilyina – series “Paris Portraits”

Professional category – Animalistic shooting

1st Place, Valery Moseykin – “Diamond Fighter”

2nd place, Dmitry Monastery – “Morning dragonfly”

3rd place, Alexander Safonov – “Plunge diver”

Architecture

1st Place, Alexander Petrosyan – “Suspension bridge in St. Petersburg”

Genre shooting

1st Place, Vladimir Smirnov – “At the very root”

2nd place, Marina Fedoseev – Untitled

3rd place, Ivan Dementievsky – Seagull

Landscape

1st Place, Konstantin Dyachkov – “Gates Kolodozerskogo graveyard”

2nd place, Sergey Rumyantsev – “Music Wave”

3rd place, Eugene Timashev – “Cloud and Boat”

Portrait

1st Place, Alexei Sorokin – “Beauty”

2nd place, Oleg Videnin – “Last Call”

3rd place, Victor Zagumenniy – “Those northerners”

Advertising photography

1st Place, Georgy Rozov – “Cats. Musical ”

2nd place, Daniel Komov – Untitled

3rd place, Dzmitry Rusak – “Credo”

Reportage

1st place, Anna Voitenko – “Iza”

2nd place, Alexander Petrosyan – “Different people”

3rd place, Stanislav Dvir – “South Sudanese refugees”

Wedding Photography

1st place, Constantine Koreshkov – Alina

2nd place, Oleg Samoilov – “His victory”

3rd place, Galina Nabatkina – “Beginning”

Art photography

1st place, Alexander Kagan – “Mystik”

2nd place, Said Atabekov – “Battle for the square”

1st place, Anna Voitenko – “Iza”

2nd place, Emil Gataullin – “Province”

3rd place, Alex MYAKISHEV – “Tskhinvali”

Amateur category – Animalistic shooting

1st place, Igor Gushin – “Antarctica, Summer, beach ”

2nd place, Andrew Narchuk – “The opening of the bathing season”

3rd place, Dmitry Utkin – “Chudy-Yuda”

Architecture

1st place, Vladislav Musiyenko – “Man, space, time,

2nd place – Oleg Baraboshin

3rd place, Eugene Shapkin – “The City”

Genre shooting

1st place, Emil Gataullin – “Province”

2nd place, Constantine Kaminsky – “Street Sports on the island of freedom”

3rd place, Cyril Ponomarev – “Dream”

Macro

1st Place, Ruslan Salikhov – “Dark Forest”

2nd place, Andrei Chistyakov – “The last trolleybus”

3rd place, Alexander Bolgov – “Lunch systems”

Still life

1st Place, Marina Volodko – “On the fragility”

2nd place, Maria Pleshkova – “Breath”

3rd place, Vlad Antonov – “Things are not in themselves’

Portrait

1st Place, Dmitry Baidachny

2nd place, Roman Nikulin – “Crafty Farmer”

3rd place, Vera Fetischeva – “Drafts subconscious ”

Art photography

1st place, Emil Gataullin – “Sketches”

2nd  place, Vassily Kochetkov – “Shadow in the sky”

3rd place, Yevgeny Ponomarev – “ Burmese Dreams ”

Digital processing

1st place, Dmitry Bubbles – “Patch work”

2nd place, Nikolai Gorski – “Oh, those stairs”

3rd place, Alex Chernyaev – “Aboriginal”

Student category – Grand prix

Alina Kuznetsova – A series of “Choice”

Lots of fireworks took place for the opening ceremony which was taken place at Shanghai, China for the Expo 2010. Chinese President Hu Jintao presided over the opening ceremony for Shanghai’s World Expo in the evening on Apr. 30.

Here is the interesting topics of holidays and festivals of all over the world.  There are different festivals of the world where Thailand observes Thai new year, Indians play holi and Kumbh mela, Bolivians keep skulls of relatives at home, etc.  Check out this different collection after the jump …

Thailand celebrating the Thai New Year.

Women enjoying Pancake on Tuesday in Belarus.

Holy festival called the festival of colors in India

Festival of large dolls made of papier-mache Falla in Spain.

Burning cowl festival in Spain

Kumbh mela in Indai, taking bath in the Ganges

Sumo Wrestler throws bags of beans and beans a day Setsubun, is that those who catch the package will receive good luck for the whole year.

Thaipusam festival, which marks the day when the goddess Parvati gave him a god Murugan, in Malasia

During Taypusama festival believers fast and organize mass piercings.

Up Helly Aa festival celebrated in connection with the emergence of the Scandinavian Vikings in the Shetland Islands

Brigade Commander oversees the remains of the dying ship.

Jumping on people personifies the devil, taking away sins and sickness during the Corpus Christi – Catholic feast of Corpus Christi.

A girl who takes part in the annual Wave-Gothic festival

Local Sports in Gloucestershire, England. Competitors climb to the top of a steep hill Coopers Hill and try to catch a wheel of cheese Double Gloucester.

Festival of marine mud. For the first time this festival about two million people expected to visit.

The newcomers to the summing up of the competition for the 50th anniversary of the Roswell UFO crash UFO in New Mexico.

UFO Museum in Roswell.

Tens of thousands of participants come from different countries to participate in the battle, “weapons” which are the tomatoes.

Indian priests perform a ritual call rain titled “Varuna Yajna”.

People taking part in Hudak Festival in Japan.

Festival of monkeys in Lopburi.

Festival of monkeys in Lopburi.  There is the worship of the god Rama.

Bolivia has one of the most terrible and wonderful holiday – the Day of the Dead

The Holy week of the last week before Easter – began Monday with Christians around the world. This year, the Catholics and the Orthodox Easter falls on one day – April 4. The believers in these days remember the suffering on the cross of Christ. Week – the most severe during the whole of Lent. Holy Week is completed on the sabbath – at midnight, when the believers greet each other with joyful exclamation “Christ is risen!”, Announcing the attack of the main Christian holiday.

The winter Paralympics games 2010 started at Vancouver on March 12. More than 500 participants from 44 countries took part in this event. Five different games are going to be conducted which includes Hockey sledges, curling in wheel chairs, alpine skiing, biathlon and ski races. As on date Russia is leading the race for medals. This event last for 11 days and will conclude on 21st march.

Recently you have enjoyed the Opening Ceremony images from the XX1 Winter Olympics Games at Vancouver. Check out the images of the events going on at Vancouver.  The event is for 17 days.  So far almost 300 gold medals are given to the winners. The United States, Germany, Norway and Canada leading the medal race.

The worlds press photo contest is one of the largest photo competition of Journalists. The winner of this contest was an Italian photographer who will receive a prize money of € 10 thousand. All the winning photos from all categories will be kept for exhibition in Amsterdam. The award giving ceremony will be conducted during the month of May 2010 in Amsterdam.