Friday, July 30, 2010

The book “Wildlife Photography - On Safari with Your DSLR: Equipment, Techniques, Workflow” is now available in the UK. Author Uwe Skrzypczak wrote the book with several goals in mind—to teach the technical aspects and the workflow of digital wildlife photography; to show the beauty of East Africa and his beloved Serengeti National Park, and to educate about its habitat; and to provide a guide for the photographer who is planning to go on an African photo safari. Topics covered include equipment and accessories, conditions on the road, composition, light, migrations and mating seasons, habitats and animal behaviour, river crossings and more. The 240-page book, which was launched in the US a month ago, is now available in the UK priced at £30.99.

The Photography.Book.Now competition, presented by Blurb, today opened voting for the People’s Choice Award. Anyone may visit the Photography.Book.Now Bookstore and vote for their favourite photography book through 20th August. There will be one People’s Choice Award winner in each category – Editorial, Fine Art, and Photography Portfolio.

Website: Photography.Book.Now

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The district court in Utrecht/Netherlands rendered a drastic verdict against H.P. Ruitenberg and 4 respective entities of the so-called Crown group in favour of Tamron Europe. Tamron`s lawyers succeeded in providing evidence that Ruitenberg and several of his respective Crown companies violated the trademark rights of Tamron by dealing with illegally imported merchandise, which was not imported into the EU by or on behalf of Tamron. The verdict includes a penalty of €2,000,000 for non-compliance with an earlier verdict that Tamron had obtained in its favour.

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The Sinar p-slr adapter lets DSLR users attach their camera bodies to Sinar view cameras, and use them as digital backs. This allows superior perspective control, selective focus and focal plane tilting and gives DSLR users an opportunity to use high-resolution digital Rodenstock lenses. The Sinar p-slr can be used with all Canon and Nikon single lens reflex cameras currently on the market. Thanks to the quick locking adapter supplied with the Sinar p-slr, the format can be changed from vertical to horizontal with only a few motions and within seconds. A positioning- and centering aid serves for the exact positioning of the camera on the optical axis. This upgrading set will be available as of August 2010 and it can be ordered right now at the price of 1980 Swiss Francs (not including the Value Added Tax).

Website: Sinar p-slr

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Color Confidence has announced the launch of its inaugural ‘Push Your Creativity’ Awards. The Color Confidence ‘Push Your Creativity’ Awards are open to all creative professionals, including designers, illustrators and photographers of all levels, from student to professional, and invites submissions in any medium with the only proviso being that the work is creative and original. The winning entrants will be published as part of Color Confidence’s 2011 Graphic Supplies catalogue in the form of the cover and the section divider pages. The deadline for submissions is 5pm on Friday 22nd October 2010.

Website: Color Confidence Awards

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Tiffen has updated Photo fx Ultra, its photo enhancement software application for the Apple iPad. Version 2 adds a Paint filter to the Image group with the following brushes: Color, Clone, Blur, Black and White, Mosaic, Red Eye, Repair, Scatter and Eraser. Also new is the opacity control feature of the Mask brush, along with crop and rotation enhancements and a correction to the Tint feature. Photo fx Ultra v2 is available at the Apple iTunes store for $5.99 and comes as a free update to current Photo fx Ultra users.

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Panasonic has released firmware updates for the Panasonic Lumix LX3 and TZ7 (ZS3) digital compact cameras. Version 2.2 for the LX3 and version 1.3 for the TZ7 both optimise software processing without affecting camera performance.

Website: Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 Firmware Update Service
Website: Panasonic Lumix TZ7 / ZS3 Firmware Update Service

Thursday, July 29, 2010

TNT Magazine’s annual travel writing photography competition is back. The awards are judged by TNT’s specialist panel, including Lonely Planet’s Tom Hall, and are highly regarded within the independent travel market. Readers Choice Awards are also given for both the writing and photography categories with online voting. You have until 16 August 2010 to submit your work. Winners of the photography categories; People and Places, The Natural World, Your London and Readers Choice will each receive an Olympus E-PL1 mirrorless system camera (pictured) with retro camera bag.

Website: TNT Travel Writing & Photography Awards

A Panasonic TZ10 is up for grabs at PicStop - all you need to do is submit a winning image to their current photography contest. You have until 30th September to enter your work. The winner will be picked at random by PicStop and notified by telephone or email. Do note that this competition is open to 18+ legal residents of the United Kingdom and Ireland only. Terms & conditions apply.

Website: PicStop Competition

Skyclock Lite is a free app for the Apple iPhone that shows, on an analogue clock face, twilight times, in addition to the sunrise, sunset for any location on any day - a useful resource for landscapists and other “magic hour” photographers. “Skyclock helps you plan your activity by letting you know (easily) when sunrise/sunset is, but more importantly, how much light is available before sunrise, and after sunset,” says Skyclock developer Rob Baxtresser. Skyclock Lite can be downloaded free of charge from the App Store.