Buddy Darren Hester over at pixelperfectdigital.com has launched a new design today. It’s a good looking design, and with a new gallery script he’s taking his site one step closer to a community driven resource site. I have similar ideas for stockvault in the near future, so watch out. But until then, pay Darren a visit.

My trip to London was excellent, I managed to sneak out to an internet cafe a couple of times to update the contest. I’ve been working on the gallery all day resizing all the thumbnails. I’ve also added a few logos that I had backed up before the data loss. Keep them entries coming guys and girls!

Im going on a short trip to London tonight, and I will be back on Friday. If I find any internet cafes I’ll try and update the contest as often as I can while Im gone.

I have removed all the dead files from the gallery and restored everything I could. The contest is back online, but unfortunately all the previous entries were lost. I hope you guys will submit your images again and help me to get the site and contest back on track. I apologize for these problems, but as you might know, they were totally out of my hands. We have to cut our losses and focus on the future with a positive attitude.

Our hosting company dinohost, has been working on our server for the past 12 hours due to a software problem. They had to format the harddisks and reinstall all the software along with all hosting accounts. They have informed me that they didnt successfully back up stockvault’s data which means that all files dated back to August have most likely been erased.

The contest has been put on hold for the time being, and I will do my best to get things running again.
As you can believe, this is a painful blow to my stomach, and I feel mostly like crying right now…..

I’ll keep you updated on the progress.
Regards, Bjorgvin Gudmundsson

The photography contest is really starting to take off. We already have over 180 entries, and more are being submitted every hour. The contest promotion is slowly (but steady) gaining more exposure, and I would like to thank all webmasters and bloggers for mentioning us on their sites. I also want to express my gratitude to all of those who have submitted their images, the quality and standard are excellent! Thank you guys and girls.

Remember, if you haven’t submitted your entries yet, you have until December 10th @ midnight EST.
And finally I want to thank the following sites for their support:
k10k.org – Photoshop Support – Pixel Perfect Digital – Picture Correct – Phirebrush – FreshCut – PStutorialsBlog – Texture King …and all of you that have mentioned us.

I just found out that some parts of the gallery have ask for a login when people try to download full size images. It looks like it’s been like that since yesterday. I’ve located the error and im fixing it right now.

Im sorry for the inconvinience.

Today we launch a new competition. The winner gets $1,000 in cash!
Click here to view the contest page. I also need everyone to spread the word and help us to promote this event.

Digg users, please digg this contest!

Official press release:

Best Stock Photo Of 2006 – Competition.
Submit your photo for the chance to win $1,000

Stockvault.net, one of the largest free stock photo sites on the internet, today launches a $1,000 competition, aimed at photographers of all ages and backgrounds, amateur or professional. The prize is $1,000 in cash, and is offered for the best stock photo submitted to the site over the next three months.

Stockvault.net has rapidly grown in popularity and reputation over recent years, and is now one of the best known and respected resources for free stock photos, used for non-commercial reasons.

Stockvault.net currently offers 4,700 hand selected free images and photos, all of a high quality and at least 1600×1200 pixels in size.

That standard is mirrored in the Stockvault.net competition, with high quality entries expected from all corners of the world. But don’t be intimidated, some of the best photos in the world came from amateur photographers with basic equipment.

To enter the competition or learn more, please visit http://www.stockvault.net