First of all, Thanks so much for all of the 45 entries!!! All of them so amazing. They made me laugh, cry, sing dance and one even scared me. yikes! I even want to learn to juggle, rap, wrap present better, and look both ways before crossing the street. Be careful! Awe, the kids, you gotta love the kids. But, most of all it was a fun little project to do. Don’t you agree? People from all over the world entered, South Africa, Sweden, UK, Brazil, Costa Rica, and across the US. Thanks for sharing 12 seconds of your life with us and most of all your time and talent to be creative and tell us why you want to come to Italy.

Honestly, Jose and I would love to take all of you with us. What a fun and crazy group this would be. It was a extremely hard decision to make, and it took all morning for me to do. But, here are the top 3 + 1 videos in particular order. The public will decide the winner of the scholarship. If you are in the top 3 + 1, we encourage you to get your friends to vote, twitter and facebook it. The winner will be announced on Friday, June 12 at 5:00 p.m. PST.

All votes must be cast here in the comments section. We ask that they simply post the videos name and why they think it’s the winning video.

Good luck to all of the top 3+1.

Thanks for all of the interest for the Italy workshop with us in Tuscany, Italy. We thought about how we could make this fun for you, us and even people who won’t be applying.

Here are the details:
The scholarship will cover a 3 days wedding photography workshop in Tuscany with Gene Higa and Jose Villa. Flights to and from the U.S., rooms at the Villa and any miscellaneous fees are not included. These items will be covered by the winner. The workshop value of $1950 cannot be transferred, or redeemed for cash.

If the winner is a husband and wife team only 1 of the photographers may take advantage of the winning scholarship seat, any and all other attendees will have to pay the $1950 workshop fee. The rate per night per person is $85 a night at the Villa.

This is all you have to do:
No boring essays, no applications for this scholarship. So how do you apply? Simple. A Italy Workshop account has been set up on 12 Seconds.tv. Simply log on to the 12second.tv website and record your video, it takes 12 seconds..

http://12seconds.tv/

Username: italyworkshop
Password: wedding

So how creative can photographers be in 12 seconds? Anything goes. We want to laugh, so sing, dance, and just have fun with this. Be you and tell us why you deserve to go to Italy. Be funny, creative and most of all, WOW us.

After you have recorded your video. Post a reply link on twitter to 3 different accounts  @italyworkshop, @josevilla and @genehiga.

Deadlines: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 midnight PST. From there we will select 3 of the best videos. They will be linked on our blogs the following morning (June 11th). From there the public will decide the winner of the scholarship. If you are in the top 3, we encourage you to get your friends to vote, twitter and facebook it. The winner will be announced on Friday, June 12 at 12:00 p.m. PST.

Good luck and see you in Tuscany!

Gene and Jose