FORMAT 2011, the UK’s leading international festival of contemporary photography and related media, has announced its programme for its 5th edition. Taking place at various venues in and around Derby, from 4th March until 3rd April, FORMAT 2011 is curated around the resurgence of street photography. The Festival is organised in two strands, FOCUS and EXPOSURE. FOCUS will show curated exhibitions and new commissions by leading international artists, whereas EXPOSURE will feature work by some 50 of the most exciting new photographers from around the world.

SF Photo School has just announced a series of webinars entitled, ‘The Masters of Light’. Presented by the UK’s top photography trainers including Kevin Wilson, Martin Grahame-Dunn & Uzair Kharawala, this six-session webinar series will cover topics such as composition, lighting, posing, off-camera flash, using video and window light. The first webinar will take place on Sunday, 23rd January, while the sixth will be held on Wednesday, 9th February.The price for this webinar series is £29+VAT for all six sessions. For more details, check out the website below.

The Mead Gallery is hosting a major exhibition of works by photographer Hannah Starkey. Twenty-Nine Pictures “examines the development of a remarkable body of work, and marks the transfer of her image-making from film to digital photography”. The exhibitionm which runs from 15th January until 12th March, is curated by Diarmuid Costello of the Philosophy Department of the University of Warwick. The Mead Gallery is located at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry CV4 7AL.

Light & Land has announced a number of photography workshops in some brand new locations next year. These include classes in Jordan and Puglia, led by Charlie Waite, a workshop in Libya with Giles Stokoe and aurora hunting in Lapland with David Ward and aurora photographer Andy Keen. Full details including locations, dates and prices can be found at the website below.

Today at 8pm ET, Aperture 3 expert Ron Brinkmann will showcase stunning photographs from a recent trip to Venezuela in a free webcast presented by Peachpit Photo Club. Demonstrating essential techniques for editing and organising photos in Apple Aperture, Ron will provide you with insight and inspiration, and answer your questions. You may sign up for the webcast at the website below.

Website: Peachpit

New York Sleeps is an exhibition of photographer Christopher Thomas, to be held at The Wapping Project Bankside gallery from 12th January to 26th February. Christopher Thomas is a German photographer using a custom-made large-format camera, Polaroid film and long exposures. The exhibition features 30 large-scale cityscapes, devoid of people, carrying an air of “19th century tranquility while hinting at a cryptic, apocalyptic ending”. The Wapping Project Bankside is a London gallery focusing on lens-based media, located at 65a Hopton Street.

Top UK photojournalists David Burges and James Fraser have launched a new training business called Blink Photography Courses, aimed at sharing the secrets of their trade with everyone from novices to pros. Blink Photography Courses will welcome its first guests at the beginning of March 2011, offering a selection of courses, from classroom-based beginners sessions for compact-wielding novices, to multi-day courses focusing on picturesque parts of the UK and Europe. The courses will be based in the Leamington Spa area. Details of all of the courses can be found at the website below.

Polaroid Hotel is a new project started by photographer Patrick Hoelck. “I decided to pay tribute to the dying art of Polaroid photography with a book of images and an exhibition that capture intimate moments of my career through the years,” Patrick says. “I wanted to show that just because a certain technology has aged it doesn’t have to lose its appeal.” If you would like to help Patrick make this happen, visit the project’s Kickstarter page to read more and make a pledge.

For the first time in its history, the Sony World Photography Awards is being held in London, on 27 April 2011. The awards will take place during the annual World Photography Festival & Exhibition. Honorary Judges for the 2011 Awards will be present and participating in the Festival, and the winning photgraphs will be on display for everyone to see. Other Festival programme highlights include workshops covering such topics as book design, designing your portfolio, merging film with stills and more; a five-evening series of intimate conversations with some of the greatest living photographers; and the World Photography Seminar Series including a panel debate on the London photography scene.

Website: World Photography Festival

Manfrotto Distribution and Datacolor are offering a free webinar titled “Color Management in the Professional Photographer’s Workflow with Stacy and Datacolor”. Taking place on Wednesday, 8th December from 2pm to 3pm EDT, the webinar will feature Datacolor Education Manager Joshua Fischer and Manfrotto Distribution Product Manager Will Holowka, who will talk with accomplished photographer Stacy Pearsall. Webinar participants will have access to a number of exclusive advantages, including one?on?one interaction with the guest speakers, and automatic entry in a raffle to win one of the three exclusive prize giveaways. The prizes include a Datacolor Spyder3 Elite (pictured) valued at $249 and two Spyder Cubes valued at $59 each. To register for the webinar, visit the website below.

Manfrotto School of Xcellence has announced a webinar titled, “Shooting the Forests Series”. Held from 2pm to 3pm EDT on Monday, 6th December, the webinar will be hosted by Drew Gardner, a renowned London-based photographer, who will take participants behind the scenes of his acclaimed series, “The Forest”. Topics for discussion include dealing with difficult terrain, managing without power, working with smoke machines, and more. To register for the webinar, visit the website below.

Prestigious photography magazine DayFour is returning to East London photographic gallery, theprintspace, for a special exhibition. The Ulysses II exhibition documents a day in the lives of 37 contributors around the world. The rules of the challenge were simple - participants had to avoid staging their photographs and had to work with whatever’s in front of them, no matter what. Ullysses II opens at theprintspace with a great opening night on Thursday, 2 December 2010 7pm-10pm and continues until 5 January 2011 Monday-Friday 9am-7pm (except for Christmas, 24 December – 4 January). Admission is free.

On Monday 22 November, join Uzair Kharawala of SF Digital for a talk about photographing weddings in extreme conditions, from shooting at the world-famous ICEHOTEL in Sweden at -30° C to photographing in Borneo, Malaysia in temperatures over 30° C. Participants will learn about using Aperture 3 for a complete workflow, sorting through images to find the keepers, batch processing and more. The event will take place in the Apple Store at 235 Regent Street, London, starting at 7pm.

Recommended Reading: How to Take Photos in Extreme Cold by Uzair Kharawala

The five winning young photographers of a global photography competition run by the World Photography Organisation and UNICEF have just returned from Ethiopia following a week of unique workshops. The five youngsters - aged 16-19 and from Brazil, Morocco, New Zealand, Romania and the United States - took part in the Eye See workshop themed around children’s rights alongside local Ethiopian children and was led by acclaimed photography and humanitarian Reza. The five young photographers were among thousands of young people from around the world who submitted photographs to a competition launched last year by David Beckham and Ewan McGregor asking for images that highlighted one of the five fundamental rights of a child.

The Broadway show ‘Time Stands Still’, which follows a photojournalist and a foreign correspondent trying to find happiness in a world that seems to have gone crazy, is running a talk back series. The next event in the series will take place on 16th November at the Cort Theatre, 138 West 48th St, New York. Moderated by Newsweek senior international photo editor James Wellford, the talk back will feature Pulitzer Prize-winning Getty Images staff photographer John Moore, Getty news photographer Mario Tama, and Reportage by Getty Images photographer Shaul Schwarz. Past talk backs can be listened to online at the website below.

Website: Time Stands Still Talk Backs

Sixtyone North has announced its second photo tour for 2011. The tour, titled “Wild Lands & Wild Life: Cordova” will kick off on 18 June 2011 and end on the 24th. Participants will be staying in an adventure lodge tucked in a secluded coastline on the edge of the Prince William Sound. As the name of the tour suggests, the region around Cordova, Alaska will be the main focus of the tour, to include a wide variety of marine and land mammals, rainforest, mountains, glaciers and vast fields of wild flowers.  The cost per participant is $3575; which covers 6 nights of accommodation in the lodge, meals and transportation while on tour, and tuition. Transportation to Cordova is not included. The first $1000 is payable upon registration.

Tonight, the Vienna Tourist Board is holding a 3D projection photography competition outside London‘s award winning Imagination building.Using cutting-edge 3D projection technology, the the Edwardian-era building will be digitally ‘reskinned’ and transformed into a living 3D taste of Vienna. The five-minute projection will encompass elements of Viennese art, culture, music, food and architecture. The Vienna Tourist Board is challenging photographers to capture the event, for a chance to win a weekend holiday for two to Vienna (including travel, dinner and accommodation). The projection starts tonight at 8pm.

The Wapping Project – Bankside gallery is hosting a new exhibition titled “Photography 1948 – 2010: WOMEN”. The exhibition looks at the female as both a subject and object and explores the topic from male and female perspectives. Bringing together three outstanding fashion photographers, a narrative photographer and two fine art photographers, “Photography 1948 – 2010: WOMEN” will be on display until 23rd December, Admission is free. The Wapping Project – Bankside gallery space is located at 65a Hopton Street, London.

Wedding & Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) today announced that registration is now open for WPPI 2011 via its convention and trade show website. Billed as the largest annual expo and conference in the world for professional photographers, WPPI 2011 will be held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, from 17-24 February 2011. The early bird registration rate is $199 for members and $379 for non-members. After 15th December, WPPI 2011 registration will be $259 for members and $399 for non-members.

The Epson Red Sea 2010 marine photography competition will be held in Eilat, Israel, from 8-13 November. The sixth annual competition also plays host this year to fashion photographers. Confirmed fashion industry participants in the competition already include Swiss photographer Kurt Amsler (Rolex) and German Marc Hillesheim, who has worked with brands including Orsay. The photograph accompanying this story was taken during the 2009 competition by Swiss photographer Mirko Zanni.