Flickr have updated their iOS app to include new auto upload and auto straightening features. Auto upload enables users to automatically send photos from their iOS device to their Flickr accounts  Flickr says: "Up until now, you’ve had to upload photos from your iPhone manually. That can be a really painful and time-consuming process. We’re introducing Auto Upload for iOS 7 users to automatically save your photos to Flickr, securely and privately, until you’re ready to to edit and share them." The auto straightening feature is pretty much what it says on the tin, with Flickr claiming that it's a "tool that works like magic when your photo is just a little bit off."

Source: Flickr Blog

Hahnemühle has added three new media grades to the Hahnemühle Photo line. In addition to its Photo Glossy 290 gsm and Photo Lustre 290 gsm, the company is debuting the Photo Matt Fibre 200 gsm and Photo Matt Fibre Duo 210 gsm papers and the Photo Canvas 320 gsm poly-cotton canvas. Each of these products will be in display at PhotoPlus Expo (PPE) October 24-26, at Javits Center in NYC.

Portland-based plasq has unveiled Comic Life 3, the latest major release of its award-winning photo comic creation software. Comic Life 3 introduces a script editor letting you create stories right in the app and easily take your words to the comic page thanks to new SmartScript technology. New graphics options for strokes, fills and opacity make it easy to create good-looking designs. Comic Life 3 also features a re-engineered editing engine allowing two-up display of your comic, element grouping, find and replace and master page. Comic Life 3 is available today on the Mac App Store and plasq's website for $29.99.

Canon has partnered with Norman Reedus, COMMON and Tyler Florence to deliver a three-city gallery series aimed at encapsulating an emotion and moment-in-time through the power of printed images. Within the framework of the Pixma Pro City Senses gallery experience, three celebrities hosted photography exhibitions in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Using the sensory triggers of touch, taste, smell and sound as inspiration, the celebrity hosts and photographers were tasked with bringing their iconic city to life through photographic prints displayed in each gallery. Once captured, the images were printed using Canon Pixma Pro printers, and displayed as 13-by-19 inch works of art.

The Gary Fong Speed Snoot is a collapsible, gridded snoot that comes with a new Speed Mount for easy attachment. When mounted to an off-camera flash, the new Speed Snoot allows you to focus light into the areas you want to highlight, and more importantly away from the areas you don’t. The black finish of the Speed Snoot blocks the light spilled out of the sides of the diffuser so instead of filling a room with light, the photographer can project the light directly onto the subject with a controlled yet soft burst that is great for hair highlighting, selective lighting of subjects, or highlighting a subject against a busy background. Going on sale on 18 October 2013, the Gary Fong Speed Snoot sells for $59.95.

Gary Fong has introduced the 5th-generation Lightsphere, which comes with a new Speed Mount. Collapsing down to a 1½ inch thickness, the new Lightsphere Collapsible Speed Mount boasts a newly designed mounting system which allows photographers to securely attach and switch out modifiers in seconds. Just like its predecessors, the new-generation Lightsphere diffuses the harsh light emitted by a speedlight to create soft, even illumination with minimal loss of power. The Gary Fong Lightsphere Collapsible Speed Mount is priced at $59.95.

Nest has just launched three new ranges of tripods, a clutch of monopods and an extensive line-up of tripod heads. The new tripod ranges include the Pioneer, Systematic and Traveller collections. Pioneer tripods start at £59.99, Traveller models cost £129.99-£299.99, whereas the class-leading Systematic NT-363CT modular tripod (pictured) is available for £749.99 including a Nest NT-530H gimbal head with a load capacity of 25kg, NT-363CT legs, NT-36CE carbon-fibre elevator centre column and NT-36P platform. For more information, visit the website below.

Photocrati have named documentary photographer Alex Masi as the 2013 Photocrati Fund Fellow, awarding him $5000 for his project "Bhopal Legacy." With this grant, Masi intends to document the efforts of medical advocacy groups who work to improve the lives of the survivors of the devastating 1984 Bhopal gas leak. Masi’s project was selected from a competitive group of more than 400 applicants by the 2013 Photocrati Fund juror panel which included some of the world’s premier environmental and humanitarian photographers: Jim Brandenburg, Michael “Nick” Nichols, and Steve McCurry.

If you are looking for a camera bag then look no further. The Hama Defender 220 is the ultimate protection for your gear. Photography Blog and LoveCases are giving you the opportunity to win this great bag worth £114.95.

The lucky winner is Lynda Mansell. Congratulations!

The Defender 220 is the ultimate in protection when it comes to keeping your SLR or DSLR camera safe from scratches and damage. The bag is thick and gives solid resistance to all bumps and knocks, the lid of the bag is kept securely with two interlocking clasps and each part of your camera and camera accessories are kept separate internally - preventing them from rubbing and scratching.

The bag has further storage for your everyday accessories such as keys, identification, phones and more. This bag has the capacity to store the vast majority of additional camera lenses meaning that you can be sure that all of your camera carrying needs are met.

Legendary 70s and 80s fashion photographer Willie Christie has been announced as the Executive Director of Britain's first reality show for style photography. Christie's portfolio includes award winning advertising campaigns, fashion and portrait work for international icons, notably Cary Grant, Grace Jones, Douglas Fairbanks Jnr, Sir John Mills and Catherine Deneuve; and Rock 'n' Roll album covers and portraits for Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Bryan Ferry and Lou Reed. The 9-episode series developed by Christie and Back to Front TV is a first for Britain and will celebrate the essential relationship between style and photography. Casting for the series will be conducted through a call for contestants later this month when Back to Front TV will invite anyone with a keen interest in photography to submit their best images and describe their motivation for participating in this exclusive series.

Alien Skin Software has announced Snap Art 4, the new version of its artistic natural media application for photographers. Snap Art 4 features a redesigned user interface and improved speed of operation. In addition, the new visual preset browser shows how each preset will look when applied to an image.Snap Art 4 integrates with many popular photography programs including Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Apple Aperture, and can now also be launched as a standalone app. The software will be available in November 2013. Owners of earlier versions of Snap Art may upgrade for $69. Free upgrades will be automatically sent to everyone who purchased Snap Art 3 directly from Alien Skin Software in August 2013 or later.

Red Bull have released a new stop motion film, made up of thousands of photos taken by the UK’s top Instagramers at their recent Cliff Diving event. On 14th September Red Bull Cliff Diving returned to Wales - the 6th stop of the World Series which sees ten athletes performing unbelievable dives from a 27m high platform. Red Bull collaborated with leading instagramers @danrubin, @jeera and @chaiwalla with support from @Finn to take on the ambitious challenge of creating a stop motion film, capturing all of the breathtaking views and action from the day. Click through to see the film.

The Societies have launched a new competition for photography students. Phil Jones, The Societies CEO says “We are looking forward to seeing the talented work of student photographers. Open to all full-time students with no preference on genre, we are eager to see a broad range of topics entered in to this competition, from images captured on high-end cameras to images showing the capabilities of smaller cameras or even mobile phones. We are simply looking for creativity and imagination." The submission date is 31 December 2013. For details and to enter, visit the website below.

FotoDC has announced the 2013 FotoWeekEDU line-up, FotoWeekDC’s second year of educational programming at the Goethe Institut. From 2-7 November, FotoWeekEDU will present eight half-day workshops that will range in areas of focus, from industry knowledge and photojournalism to fine art and marketing, as well as various other topics relevant to photographers. Additionally, FotoWeekEDU will offer a full day of Portfolio Reviews on Sunday, 3 November from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Click through / scroll down for the detailed programme.

Tiffen today announced newly available updates to its award-winning apps for iOS devices. Tiffen Photo fx version 5.03 and Tiffen Photo fx Ultra version 5.02 are now compatible with and fully optimised for Apple iOS 7. The updated apps also benefit from a number of improved Help menu functions, including new icon images. Tiffen Photo fx costs $2.99, whilst Tiffen Photo fx Ultra sells for $4.99.

PhotoVoice has teamed up with the National Working Group network for Sexually Exploited Children and Young People to run participatory photography projects across the UK on a two- year project. All projects have run in partnership with specialist support providers who work directly with young people, who have experienced sexual exploitation or who have been identified to be at risk. The ‘Having Our Say Too’ exhibition, which features work from the project, will launch at The Photographers Gallery, London from 6-8pm on Thursday 17th October.

Brian Griffith has released Iridient Developer 2.3, an update to his photo editing software for Mac OS X. This release includes support for the Sony NEX-5T and ILCE-3000, the Samsung Galaxy NX, the Olympus OM-D E-M1, the Nikon Coolpix P7800, the Fujifilm: X-A1, the Canon PowerShot G16 and the PowerShot S120. The automatic chromatic aberration correction algorithm has also been greatly improved to give better, more consistent results under difficult image conditions. This release is a paid upgrade for users who originally purchased a license prior to 1 April 2012.