One of the things that makes Flak Photo one of our favorite photography sites is their excellently curated and generously sized daily photo. Not to mention that Flak's online gallery has been known to feature the work of several Hot Shots, including Colleen Plumb, Brad Moore, and Alison Grippo.

This week Flak Photo started a 25-day showcase featuring the winners of this year's Photography.Book.Now, the photography book competition launched last year by Blurb. Among them will be 2009 First Edition Hot Shot Kurt Tong, who took home two prizes, including first place in the Editorial category.

Several months ago on a Tribeca rooftop, Darius Himes—Hey, Hot Shot! panelist and lead judge of Blurb's Photography.Book.Now competition—gave a speech about the future of photography books and the possibilities self-publishing affords.

Darius said,

Books are ancient vehicles for the dissemination of ideas and resonate with us as objects even today. Photography, by contrast, is no more developed than a toddler in the scope of human history. It is a gift of modernity and it is changing rapidly before our eyes...and all of that is as exciting as anything I can think of.

The Photography.Book.Now contest was not just another "photography" contest. This was a photography-book contest—and specifically, one that celebrates print-on-demand technology. Many thanks and shout-outs to all the photographers who submitted, attended the party and decided to participate in something fresh and exciting, without really knowing where we're all headed.

You can read the rest of the speech over at Darius' blog, and don't forget to check in with Flak to see the great books that they'll be featuring through mid-December.