Canon U.S,A, is once again joining forces with several of the country’s acclaimed national parks to offer free photography workshops to visitors this summer. Providing participants with free equipment loans and professional photography instruction as they take part in a guided walking photo tour, the workshops also offer an opportunity to print images for free. New to this year’s program are Canon video workshop sessions.  Visitors can experience and learn about shooting video by using a Canon VIXIA camcorder or EOS digital SLR camera and participating in a hands-on videography demonstration with experts. Click through / read on for the detailed schedule.

Canon today announced its support for the inaugural UK National Photography Month. The company has been particularly involved in supporting the “My School in Focus” competition which runs until November 2012. My School in Focus is an opportunity for secondary schools to get involved in National Photography Month by using photography to engage with key concepts in geography, especially during fieldwork.  The My School in Focus project is part of Colliers Green Focus, an innovative educational programme and photography competition which supports Geography at Key Stage 3 (S1-3 in Scotland).

The UK’s first ever National Photography Month (NPM) – a nationwide initiative that celebrates the importance of photography in our daily lives - has just been launched. “The campaign, based around the theme ‘Capture and Keep’, will provide a range of workshops, tools and ideas that will help the nation create and safeguard better pictures that people are proud to share with future generations,” the organisers say. Furthermore, in celebration of the launch of NPM and to coincide with the Diamond Jubilee, Photo & Digital Specialists Snappy Snaps will invite the public to take a ‘Snap with the Queen-’ The Snappy Snaps photo advisors will hit the streets of London at 30 of the most photographed sights in and around the capital, where they will be on hand to give photography tips and take photos of the public with a range of props including a life-size cardboard cut-out of the Queen, creating fun and memorable photographs. The team will be handing out branded ‘Snap’ cards featuring a QR code link to a uploaded these pictures to Snappy Snaps social media and give participants a chance to win prizes incorporating their photos.

CENTER has announced the 12th Annual Review Santa Fe, a juried portfolio review event and conference for photographers. Participants travel from all over the world, representing 23 U.S. states and 12 countries including Hungary, Argentina, Norway, South Korea, and Japan, to attend the prestigious event. There are several events free and open to the public surrounding Review Santa Fe including a portfolio review, exhibits and tours as well as a panel dsicussion on photography and its cultural impact. Click through / scroll down for the details.

Lomography Manchester has been invited by CityCo – Manchester’s city centre management company – to erect a LomoWall to celebrate the start of the 2012 Canal Festival. A LomoWall is an actual physical wall covered in thousands of snap shot-sized analogue photographs. “Close up, visitors will be able to enjoy each photo individually, but when viewed from afar the LomoWall resembles a fascinating mosaic artwork in its own right,” the organisers say. The wall will inhabit a 30 meter by 3 meter space and will be made up of over 14’000 individual photographs. Submission will be accepted until 3 June 2012. For more details, visit the website below.

In addition to the LomoWall Manchester, Lomography UK is also planning to erect an Olympic themed LomoWall at the Museum of London this summer. An actual physical wall covered in thousands of snap shot-sized analogue photographs, the LomoWall will span the Museum of London’s foyer and rotunda. “The LomoWall is likely to be the largest collection of analogue photographs and contributing is a fun way to get into the spirit if the London 2012 Games,” says Linda Scott, Marketing Manager at Lomography UK. “For the display Lomography has photographed over 30 judo, equestrian, archery and tennis Team GB athletes training for the London 2012 Paralympic Games. You can also submit your film-based snapshots until 10 June 2012. For more information, visit the website below.

X-Rite has announced its schedule of June webinars that have been developed to address specific colour management topics. Designed to appeal to both professional and serious amateur photographers, the schedule comprises three webinars including “Beyond Monitor Calibration - Get Prints That Match Your Display!” on the 7th, “Get to Know X-Rite, Wacom, and OnOne Software Part II” on the 14th and “The New i1Photo Pro 2 | A New Standard for Colour Management” on the 20th of June. Click through / read on for the details.

On 7th June, Manfrotto School of Xcellence will be hosting renowned filmmaker and photographer Phil Coates for a webinar entitled “Adventure Film & Photography From Pole To Pole.” Phil Coates will share stories from a life behind the lens filming and photographing explorers and adventurers in some of the most remote and hostile parts of our planet. Taking place from 4pm to 5pm, the webinar is free and open to all. For more details and to registe visit the website below.

The Photocopy Club, a photographic exhibition of photocopied work from global submissions will take place in 71a Gallery (The Church of London, 71A Leonard Street, London, EC2A 4QS) on June 21st, 7pm - 11.00pm and 22nd June, 10.30 - 5pm. You have until 18th June to submit your own photos for consideration Tickets to the exhibition are free but must be booked in advance, via the website below.

To celebrate the London Festival of Architecture, Roca London Gallery and International Art Consultants (IAC) have united for an exclusive photography exhibition ‘Architect’s Eye’ in Chelsea, London. The exhibition is split into two categories: Architecture and Place (focusing on the aesthetics of the architecture and the places it creates), and Architecture and People (celebrating the interaction of people with the environments created by architecture).  The ‘Architect’s Eye’ exhibition will run from 23rd June until 8th July. The Rica London Gallery is located at Station Court,
Townmead Road,
London, SW6 2PY.

Phase One is launching a series of free online events entitled “Phase One Live: Your Inspiration Stream.” Hosted by Phase One and some of the world’s leading photographers, each event will showcase a specific photography project, tracking each step in that project’s workflow from conception through completion. The première event on May 23 at 9 am CET features award winning British landscape photographer Joe Cornish. To register, visit the website below.

Unified Color Technologies have announced an upcoming free webinar on architectural HDR photography to be hosted by professional photographer Michael James. For Michael, HDR is one technique he employs to represent a scene just as he saw it on location, ensuring his client’s properties are reproduced true to life. During this webinar, James will demonstrate the power of Unified Color’s proprietary Beyond RGBTM colour technology and how it can combine with the latest colour-safe editing tools and workflow-simplifying features of Unified Color’s HDR Expose 2 software and Photoshop plug-in, 32 Float v2. The webinar will be taking place at 11am EDT on 15th May. Attendance is free, but advance registration is required.

On 17th May, Manfrotto School of Xcellence (MSoX) will be hosting the renowned photographer Drew Gardner for a webinar devoted to celebrity portraiture. During the hour long webinar Drew will share some insider tips based on working on a large number of high profile shoots, which can be applied to all portraiture photography. Free and open to all, the webinar will take place from 7pm to 8pm BST. For more details and to register, head to the website below.

Winning entries from the 2011 Travel Photographer of the Year awards (TPOTY) are going on display at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in London from June 22nd to August 19th 2012. The free-to-view exhibition -  open daily (including bank holidays) - offers a visual journey around the globe, through the eyes of the hugely talented amateur and professional photographers who beat entrants from over 90 countries to take the top places in the awards. Visitors will also be the first to have the opportunity to buy the beautiful new Travel Photographer of the Year portfolio book (£25), Journey Four. This will contain not just the TPOTY-winning images on show at this year’s exhibition, but also the 2010-winning images.

X-Rite has announced its schedule of May webinars that have been developed to address specific colour management topics.  On 14th May, photographers can join X-Rite for an in depth look at the new i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer and the three new professional solutions, including the i1Photo Pro 2, featuring this new hardware device. Next up is a webinar that will walk attendees through the tools that X-Rite, Wacom and onOne Software provide to photographers (15th May). The third webinar, Landscape Photography Enhancements with Nik Viveza 2 and Silver Efex Pro 2, will take place on 24th May at 11am and 1pm EDT. Click through / scroll down for more information and links to the registration forms.

The inaugural Eye International Photography Festival will take place from 29th June - 1st July at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre in Aberystwyth, Wales. A department of Aberystwyth University, it is situated at the heart of the University campus with stunning views over the coast of Cardigan Bay. Tickets are £50 per person for the whole weekend, £40 concessions (students, seniors) / Groups of 10 or more, £35/ £30 concessions Day Tickets for Saturday /Sunday. A limited number of self-catering rooms have been reserved in the University Residential blocks and are available at the discounted rate of £24.50 per person.

The Association of Photographers (AOP) has announced the launch of Exposure 2012, a range of photography related events beginning on 17th May 2012. “Exposure will be taking place in a fantastic exhibition space nestled alongside the Students Awards exhibition and will run on Thursday 17th and Friday 18th May, whilst the Students Awards will run from Wednesday 16th May through to Saturday 19th May,” the organisers say. Hosted by the Hoxton Gallery, 12-18 Hoxton Street, N1 6NG, Exposure 2012 will see some of the most talented speakers in the industry giving talks, demonstrations and workshops on topics as varied as fashion photography, using Hasselblad cameras, self-publishing and disseminating your work online. Click through / scroll down for the detailed schedule.

From 6 July to 28 October 2012 one hundred photographs from the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest will go on display at the World Museum in Liverpool. The overall winner of the competition was Daniel Beltrá from Spain for his work Still life in oil, a striking image of eight brown pelicans rescued from an oil spill (above). Young Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year winner was Mateusz Piesiak from Poland with his work Pester power, a picture that depicts two American oyster-catchers on a beach on Long Island, New York. This will be the first time that the exhibition will be seen in the UK outside London.

Christopher Walker Art has announced a major solo exhibition for new artist Nicky Taylor at The Strand Gallery, London from June 11th-17th. “The title [The Return to Beauty] is close to the Artist’s heart, as it represents a rebellion against what he sees as the monopoly of ‘fashionable,’ ‘shock photography,’’ which limits its subject matter to the grotesque and the shocking, the ugly, or the perverted,” the organisers say. “The viewer of Nicky Taylor’s work is lifted out of the urban environment to confront the awesome majesty of Nature. Explore the Salkantay trail to Savage Mountain in South America, rising to 20,000 feet above sea level, or plunge down into the depths of the ocean to experience the depths, and the almost alien like creatures that it supports.” The Strand Gallery is located at 32 John Adam Street,London WC2N 6BP. The exhibition is accompanied by the release of an 11” x 8.5” coffee table book of the same title, featuring 75 full colour photographs..

Photoshelter has announced Luminance 2012, a “fresh new conference that will bring leading voices from across industries to explore the intersection of business, technology, culture, and photography”. Speakers at Luminance 2012 will each deliver 20 minute talks (plus Q&A) in their area of expertise. The conference will be held 12-13 September 2012 at BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York. Limited early bird registration discounts are available now atthe website below.  An optional, limited attendance photography workshop will also be held on 11 September at Root Drive-In Studios.