Saturday, June 16^th 2012. Make a note in diary. It should be quite a day.

Cardiff is getting set to play host to the 8^th annual Photomarathon UK. The event will bring 400 photographers together for a day of creative expression, exploration, enjoyment not to mention a little exhaustion. The challenge is quite simple – to take twelve photos, over twelve hours on twelve given topics. But chances are, you probably knew that already.

What does it really mean? Well, Photomarathon will send an army of camera wielding enthusiasts scurrying across the city in search of perfect photographic expressions of a random set of topics. The real aim is to capture a great set of twelve images. Each set telling a different story, of a journey – both real and imagined – into an each entrant’s creative imagination.

It’s also a lot of fun. It’s a great way to spend a day being led a merry dance by your own creativity while at the same time, discovering a city as you’ve never quite seen it before.

We’ll be opening for entry later in the Spring, so if you want to make sure you receive details about how to enter, sign up to our mailing list. We won’t bombard you with e-mails, and we don’t pass on your e-mail to anyone else. We promise.

You could do worse than check out the Welsh Arts Review of the Year on BBC TWO Wales. A full round up of the very best in Welsh Arts in 2011 – which naturally – includes Photomarathon. The programme is on Boxing Day at 9pm, and is repeated on New Years Day at 6.30pm.

For more information visit the Wales Arts blog.

In the meantime, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We look forward to seeing you all again in 2012.

The selected images are a snapshot from the 2011 event and provide an insight into the process that our entrants go through in responding to the creative challenge we set them. The Cardiff event – now one of the largest in the world – attracts 400 hundred entrants, each one tackling the creative challenge in their own way. As they seek out their responses to the given topics some focus on the abstract, others on still life creations. Some tackle the task from their homes while others venture out – on foot, by bike, by bus and by train – criss-crossing the capital on spontaneous journeys of creative and photographic exploration.

The pictures taken on these journeys can be fun, personal, surreal or simple – the choice is really down to the photographer.

The pictures chosen for this exhibition features the work of following photographers;

Kate Mcculloch, Olwen Moseley, Gavin Jones, Brad Hamilton, Mark Turner, Lois Winnert, Malcolm Kingswell, Eloise Dawe, Lloyd Miller, Carolyn Pugsley, Keith Sims, Victoria Ahmed, Adam Chard, Paul Evans, Lau Mcdonnell, Ian Wang, Emma Thomas, Lucy Chippindale, Sara Jones. Matt Botwood, Martin Wilmore. Sam Cornwell, Claire Whittle, Randell John, Bryan Hopkins, Jo Hillier, Rhian Isaac, Carwyn Jones, Mark Thomas, Teresa Einon. Jacqui Collier, Sarah Whittle, Cazz Higgins, Kate Berg, Mike Kingdon, Richard Lewis, Ian Wootten and Emma Shepherd

A budding photographer from Efail Isaf, Pontypridd, has been crowned the winner of Photomarathon UK 2011, with her photographs taking pride of place in the newly launched Photomarathon Exhibition.

Emma Shepherd, 35, beat 399 other entrants to secure the coveted first place of overall winner, by impressing judges with her interpretation and execution of the 12 topics that were set as part of the Photomarathon competition.

The topics that participants were challenged with photographing were Inside Out, Community, Superhero, Drama, The Great Outdoors, Double, My Secret, Element, Movement, Obstacle, and I Have a Dream.

Upon hearing the news that she had scooped first prize, Emma Shepherd said: “I feel completely overwhelmed that I’ve won! It’s hard to believe because the standard of entries was so incredibly high this year.

“Photomarathon was such a fun day, although it’s certainly a challenge! Coming up with a photograph that captures ‘Inside Out’ or ‘I Have a Dream’ is really hard, especially at 8pm when you’ve been rushing around Cardiff all day and your brain and feet are exhausted!  But the atmosphere carries you along!”

Now in its eighth year, Photomarathon is the competition where participants must take 12 images on 12 given topics over the course of 12 hours, with all 12 images must be taken in the correct sequence.  This year’s event was a sell out once again with 400 people taking part on 11 June.

Judges then had the painstaking task of choosing one overall winner and 12 topic winners from among the 4,800 photographs that were submitted.

Now members of the public can have the chance to see the results in a free two-week-long exhibition from 30 July – 20 August at Cardiff Story Museum in the Hayes, Cardiff. Every single image taken on the day will be displayed, along with the winners of the competition.

Mathew Talfan, Photomarathon director and judge, said: ‘‘It’s really interesting to see how many different interpretations there are of the same topic, which is what makes Photomarathon so fascinating! Trying to pick winners is always a very, very difficult task.  But the judges spent two days viewing the images, and we believe that the winners have each captured the spirit of the competition.

“Emma’s set of photos, in particular, stood out because they were immediately extremely striking.  She had interpreted the topics really well, adding touches of human interest in a subtle way.”

Emma Shepherd added: “This is the second year that I’ve taken part and I’d really encourage anybody who hasn’t tried Photomarathon yet to give it a go next year!  You get to meet lots of lovely people and it really gets your creativity flowing. It makes you think completely differently about how you take pictures.”

The fill list of winners is:

Portfolio Winners
First Prize: 437 – Emma Shepherd
Second Prize: 336 – Steven Fung
Third Prize: 319 – Sarah Barnes
Junior Prize: 201 – Steffan Edwards

Topic Winners
01 My Entry Number/Work of Art: 293 Olwen Moseley
02 Inside Out: 116 Mark Turner
03 Community: 381 Victoria Ahmed
04 Super Powers: 373 Paul Evans
05 Drama: 366 Emma Thomas
06 The Great Outdoors: 357 Martin Wilmore
07 Double: 170 Sam Cornwell
08 My Secret: 183  Jo Hillier
09 Element: 166  Mark Thomas
10 Movement: 170 Sam Cornwell
11 Obstacle: 417 Richard Lewis
12 I Have a Dream: 183 Jo Hiller

The Photomarathon Exhibition is open at the Cardiff Story Museum from 30 July – 20 August. Opening hours are 10am – 4.00pm (Monday – Saturday) and 11am – 4.00pm on Sunday.

Photomarathon is now underway across Cardiff. After the morning registration at Wales Millennium Centre, the 400 entrants set off at 10am to tackle the first four topics. It’s the beginning of what will be a long, but hopefully enjoyable day.

Media Wales popped down to catch some of the action.

1. Information for Entrants
We’ve put together a pack of information for entrants for you. Can we suggest that you read this in advance of the event. It’ll help you prepare, and hopefully ensure that you don’t have any unforseen problems on the morning. That way, come June 11th, you can focus all your efforts into capturing the best 12 images you can. You see, we really want you to have a great day out!

2. Twitter Hashtag
For those of you using twitter, we’ve decided to adopt a slightly shorter hashtag this year. It will be #PHM11. We’ll be setting up a live feed on the day, so would encourage you to make use of it. If you’ve never used twitter before and want to give it a go… now’s your chance.

3. A request for volunteers
For those of you familiar with Photomarathon, you’ll know all about the registration process. We’re looking for a handful of volunteers to help with the process. Ideally, you’ll have taken part before, so you’ll know the drill and the sorts of questions you might get asked. If you’d like to help out with the morning registration (8am – 10am), please drop us a line to info@photomarathon.co.uk. We might just throw in a free lanyard!

We hope this information will get you through the next week. It might also be a good time to get your camera out, make sure it’s working, and that the batteries charge properly. Just so there’s no panic on the day.

Keep in touch with us – as ever – on facebook and twitter and we look forward to seeing you next Saturday.

We’ll be sending information out to everyone early next week, so keep an eye on your e-mail inbox for all the information you’ll need for the big day.We’ll post latest information on the site as well – and as ever you can keep in touch via our facebook and twitter pages too.

We look forward to seeing you all on June 11th.

Nice piece on the Your Cardiff site about a some of our regular Photomarathoners – meet the Manton and Berg gang. A pretty succeessful gang too. Last year they picked up a third prize, a topic winner and a junior winner.

They’re all on board again for 2011. Are you?

If you took part last year, and blogged about the experience, please let us know and we’ll post a link so that others can see what you got up to.

We’ve been working hard over the past few months to improve the Photomarathon website. We hope you like the new look, and can find your way around with ease. We’ll be working to add more images over the coming weeks, but if you’ve got any feedback, please just drop us a line. A big thank you to Ben – our web man – for all his hard work and late nights.

We’ve added a twitter widget to the front page, so you can follow our tweets live on the site. Last year, we trialed a live twitter feed on the day of the event, which proved popular amongst those on twitter. If you haven’t tried it out, here’s a prefect excuse to give it a go. For those on twitter, this years hashtag is PHM11.

We’ve also got an active presence on facebook, so,wherever you might be, we hope we can keep up a dialogue with you over the coming months, as we build towards the 2011 Photomarathon.