Professional photographer Erick Danzer has recently started a blog with a group of fellow photographers. The new site is called Photocrati and is created specifically for professionals, though enthusiasts are also welcome. “Our mission is to foster discussion between photographers working in diverse fields and to share resources that encourage technical, artistic, and professional growth for pros and enthusiasts alike,” Danzer says. They also sponsor the Photocrati Fund, which provides grants to photographers working on important environmental and humanitarian projects.

Website: Photocrati

Photobox.co.uk has unveiled new revenue generating tools for professional photographers.  Photobox, which bills itslef as the UK’s biggest online community for photo printing and personal publishing, now offers a new tool for marketing photobooks whereby photopreneurs can create event or portrait session photo books via photobox’s Pro Gallery service and sell to the public at the price of their choice. What’s more, photopreneurs can create Photobooks in 8 different designs and sell their Photobooks in over 70 print sizes. A PhotoBox Pro Gallery is totally free to set up and fully customisable. PhotoBox charges a 10 % commission for each sale.

Shutterfly has announced the launch of Shutterfly Video, which makes it easy to share video privately and safely with friends, family members and groups on Shutterfly Share sites. With Shutterfly Video, users can upload and post up to 10 free video clips to their personalised websites. Users have the option to upgrade to a Premium video account, which gives them unlimited video sharing and storage at an introductory annual subscription fee of $29.99.

Website: Shutterfly Video

Avanquest Software has announced that the teams responsible for developing its Avanquest SendPhotos all-in-one photo-sharing solution have incorporated the most important changes suggested by the SendPhotos user community. The Avanquest SendPhotos free photo sharing solution is driven by convergence between the Web, PC/Mac and mobile, combining the SendPhotos.com Internet site with a Mac plug-in, a PC client and a Mobile client with certified support for more than 160 telephones, including iPhone and Blackberry. Some of the most important changes include a complete revision of the Web client interface, the acceptance of the iPhone and the creation of a specific plug-in for iPhoto, and native management of the leading social networks including Facebook, MySpace and Picasa.

Online photo site snapizzi has announced that its newly upgraded IZ tag technology was successfully used to provide a personalised photo gallery for each participant at the 2009 Vision 5K held at Boston College on June 7. Participants in the Vision 5K, a unique annual event featuring world-class blind and visually impaired athletes competing with sighted runners, each wore a bib imprinted with a small, customised IZ tag (essentially a barcode).  With the IZ tag technology, photos uploaded to the snapizzi website were automatically associated with that participant and sequenced.  In this way, the photographs of multiple photographers shooting from numerous positions were automatically merged into an instant private photo gallery for each individual participant.

Website: Vision 5K
Website: Snapizzi

Fotopedia is a new online photo encyclopaedia that lets photographers, curators, and visitors contribute, collaborate and enrich images to be useful to the whole community. The new site can be used to organise photos from personal storage, Flickr, Picasa, and other services based on subject or any user-defined index, alongside a mashup of contextual information. Unlike other photo networks, Fotopedia does not force users to store their files on its site. Rather, it creates a complete “ecosystem” around the pictures, regardless of where they are stored or hosted. Photographers build albums featuring their best photos, select Wikipedia articles that add context to the photos and are then nominated in Fotopedia. Anyone can start participating at Fotopedia today and help build the world’s first photo encyclopaedia.

Website: Fotopedia

Photobucket today announced the availability of a native photo upload solution for the new Palm® Pre™ phone. As a pre-installed photo upload partner, Photobucket lets Palm Pre users easily send photos taken on their mobile device to a Photobucket album without having to download an application. To set up a Photobucket account on Pre, select “Photos” from the launcher, tap “Preferences and Accounts” from the application menu and select “Add An Account.”

Ritz Interactive, Inc., the e-commerce network that includes RitzCamera.com, WolfCamera.com, BoatersWorld.com and other online shopping sites, has announced the launch of their newest website, ScrapbookingAlley.com. “Scrapbookers represent a lucrative segment of the photo market,” claims Ritz Interactive President and CEO Fred H. Lerner. ScrapbookingAlley.com carries over 11,000 products from most major scrapbooking manufacturers. Such well known brands as We R Memory Keepers, Spellbinders, Ellison/Sissix, Provo Craft, Making Memories, and many others are available for purchase. Moreover, the website offers users project ideas from Ranger and Kaisercraft, the ability to shop products by theme, a quote and sayings library and many other community features.

Website: ScrapbookingAlley

FolioLink, an online website service for photographers, has announced the immediate availability of scaling technology in their latest FLASH design. With scaling websites, photographers no longer have to choose between large or small images for their online portfolios. They can upload full-resolution photographs, which are seamlessly scaled down to fit the viewer’s monitor if needed. According to FotoLink, past arguments that most web visitors do not have sufficient bandwidth to view large images or that most screens are 15 inches or smaller no longer apply. Technology trends have led to the use of large, high resolution screens and increased Internet bandwidth. To see the scaling feature in action, visit http://www.joelgrimes.com

LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph has opened submissions for YourSpace Online - a new feature that will enable photographers worldwide to participate in this year’s festival. Photographers everywhere may submit images to be projected live via large screens at the festival and displayed in online galleries as well. Submission is free and requires a free PhotoShelter Starter account. Participants may submit up to 3 images for consideration and should represent each photographer’s interpretation of this year’s theme, which is “fortune.” Submissions will be accepted and reviewed through 11:59 PM on June 13, 2009.

Website: Instructions

LifePics have announced the option for retailers to offer hundreds of new online photo book options to consumers via LifePics-powered retail photo sites. This means that LifePics’ online photo book offering has increased to a total of 450 possible books, allegedly the largest number available to retailers on the Web. The new additions include several in-house options that retailers can print on a variety of creative printing solutions that LifePics integrates with, including HP’s Photo Center, HP’s Indigo printers, Noritsu’s D701, several Xerox printers, and others. LifePics also added new book options via Proven Direct, a wholesaler that specializes in high-end custom cover wrap-around and lay-flat books.

Online photo site snapizzi, the one-stop shop for portrait and event photographers, today announced that it has added an array of new web tools and print products. The photo site recently added a suite of high-quality print products that includes a variety of formats (matte, gloss, lustre) as well as a wide choice of print sizes (from wallet to 20”x30”).  snapizzi also added an FTP uploader that allows high-volume photographers to upload hundreds of photos at a time – up to 4 GBs worth, since most photographers allegedly use 4-GB memory cards.

ExposureManager has announced a new Two-Image Group Package template for event photographers. Photographers using ExposureManager can now offer their customers a range of package options when selling both group shots and individual portraits. For photographers, the monthly price to subscribe to ExposureManager’s premium package is $24.95 and the yearly price is $249.00. Features include unlimited image uploads and storage plus a range of e-mail marketing tools. The Event package features unlimited image uploads and storage for $12.95 a month or $99.95 annually. Finally, the Art package offers 1 GB image uploads and storage for $6.95 a month or $64.95 a year.

Website: ExposureManager

MovieLocker.com is a new website that provides a unique online platform for storing, distributing and selling videos with no initial investment required. This means filmmakers can create their own online video store in less than 5 minutes for free and have guaranteed copyright control with advanced Digital Rights Management software. Users can set the price of their video material, show previews, and utilise MovieLocker’s payment processor to complete transactions.

Website: MovieLocker

Jalbum, a photo sharing service and personal web album creator, connects to bloggers around the world by introducing a brand new tool called Jalbum Blog Badge. Any blogger can now conveniently display their photo album news in the sidebar of their blog. The blog badge is automatically updated and shared when an album is published with Jalbum. The Jalbum Blog Badge was launched as Beta in March 2009. Since then, thousands of bloggers have already added the Blog badge to their sites. In addition to a general code to copy-and-paste into blogs, the Blog Badge also comes as plug-ins for leading blog services Wordpress and Blogger.

Website: Jalbum

Warehouse Express, the company billed as “the largest independent online photographic specialist retailer in Europe”, has joined Twitter under the username WexTweets. Followers of WexTweets can expect to get real time updates on product deals, new releases and the latest information on stock levels. Additionally, there are Tweets on Warehouse Express events and seminars as well.

HireACamera.com, a company that lets you hire cameras, lenses and video cameras has announced the full introduction of “flyaway Thursdays” across the whole product range. Any booking made between 1pm and 4pm on Thursday for the weekend will immediately get a 25% discount for this hire across the whole of the weekend. The introduction of this offer means that photographers and videographers will be able to hire equipment for the weekend, have it arrive on Friday lunchtime and not need to return it until Monday.

Sam Street and Sean Miller, creators of Picli.com, have announced the beta launch of Twicli, a free service that allows users to upload both photos and videos through the Twicli platform and display them to their friends on Twitter. Users can upload photos and videos and comment on each, these comments are then broadcast on twitter via the means of @replies. Unlike many other apps, Twicli is built to support OAuth, an authentication platform used by Twitter for all upcoming apps. With OAuth Twitter users never need to provide their password, they simply click ‘Authorize’ which tells Twitter to allow Twicli read/write access to certain account functionality (i.e. posting tweets). Twicli is also ready to support iPhone 3.0.

ScanMyPhotos.com have launched ScanMyGrandparents.com, a service targeted at families striving to archive old photos. The package includes up to 100 photo scans on a DVD, a 20-page, double-sided Kodak Photo Book and free return delivery. Acceptable photo sizes are from 3"x3” up to 8"x10”. The service costs $49.95. Same-day service is available for an additional fee of $19.95.

Website: Scan My Grandparents

Olympus have launched a new service on their website, called Lensfinder. As its name suggests, the Lensfinder helps you find the right lens for you, by showing you the same scene photographed from the same viewpoint, but at different focal lengths. For each focal length, the Lensfinder displays all Olympus branded FourThirds lenses capable of shooting at that focal length, shows which tier they belong to, and lets you click through to the detailed product page of each. The Lensfinder does not show any of the Sigma and Leica branded FourThirds lenses though.

Website: Olympus Lensfinder