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.

Tamron has launched a free smartphone app called “Tamron Lenses & How-To”. Available for Android and iOS platforms, the app is designed to be a handy how-to and product reference guide. With much focus on the How-To aspect, this app will be especially useful for photographers who are out in the field shooting and would like a quick tip on how to create a better shot through the many articles and videos tailored to specific situations and photographic environments. “Tamron Lenses & How-To” is available to download from iTunes and Google Play.

Nikon UK has launched a new promotion offering £50/€60 cashback on Nikon 1 J1 and V1 kits purchased before 31st August 2012. All claims must be received by the 30th September 2012 in order to qualify. For more information on the promotion, and how to submit your claim, visit the website below.

The Master Photographers Association (MPA) has announced that it will be accepting submissions from 6th June 2012 to its Master Photography Diamond Jubilee Awards. The Awards are open to all qualified members of the MPA, plus there are also several open categories this year that are available to other professional photographers from the UK and around the world. Additionally, two new categories are launched for this year’s Awards; the Young Photographer Award (Under 16s) which is free to enter, and the Jubilee Award, a category created especially for images of the 2012 ‘Jubilee’ events, which has a reduced fee of £2.50 to mark the special occasion. For other categories, the cost per image/print entry is set at £6, with entries into the Mario Acerboni Creative Wedding Award fixed at £6 per-three prints. The category of ‘Wedding Album’ requires a £12 fee. The submission deadline is 3rd August 2012.

Create Your Own Photo Book by Petra Vogt is a new title from Rocky Nook. Guiding readers through the process of creating a printed and bound collection of photos, this volume covers every step of the process, from selecting a book publishing service all the way through designing and proofing their photo book. You’ll get practical advice on how to work with software provided by services such as Blurb and Picaboo, and will learn about relevant concepts of book design, colour management, and digital printing. Published as an e-book ($16.95) and in printed form ($39.95), Create Your Own Photo Book will be available later this month.

Revolution Mosaic, a free iOS photography app that allows iPhone users from around the world to submit their photos to create a gigantic photo mosaic, is now available to download. “With the Revolution Mosaic app, 360,000 iPhone photos will come together to form 1 iconic image that will symbolize our mobile generation,” says developer Ian Tuason. Once the 360,000 photographs are submitted, one of the photos will be chosen to form the final mosaic image. This image will be chosen based on its depiction of the mobile generation. The final mosaic will then be turned into a 48” by 72” mural poster that can be viewed and purchased through the app, the website, or in commercial art galleries.

Website: Revolution Mosaic on iTunes

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.

Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) 7.1, Photoshop Lightroom 4.1 and Adobe DNG Converter 7.1 are now available to download. “Camera Raw 7.1 adds new Defringe controls to help address chromatic aberration,” says Sharad Mangalick, Adobe’s product manager for Lightroom. “Camera Raw can also now read 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit HDR files.” Note that ACR 7.1 is only compatible with Photoshop CS6. Additionally, Lightroom 4.1 is now available as a final release on Adobe.com and through the update mechanism in Lightroom 4.

Lynda.com has released its 500th course on Adobe software. ”With Adobe Creative Suite 6 and Adobe Creative Cloud, we created products that work at lightning-fast speed, deliver new Adobe magic to maximise user creativity as well as a new modern user interfaces in key applications to enhance productivity, and new capabilities for responsive HTML5 experiences for mobile devices,” said Scott Morris, senior director of product marketing at Adobe. “We congratulate lynda.com for their 500th course on Adobe software and applaud their efforts to give users the opportunity to receive quality education on the new CS6 and Creative Cloud capabilities in an easy and accessible format, so soon after their release.”

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.

Nikon has issued a firmware update for the Nikon D4 professional DSLR camera. As with the Nikon D800/D800E, firmware version 1.01 resolves an issue that, on rare occasions, caused the camera to lock up; and addresses a couple of bugs related to network functions and Custom Setting F15. You can download the firmware update from the website below.

Website: Nikon D4 Firmware Update 1.01

Nikon has posted a firmware update for the Nikon D800 digital SLR camera. Version B 1.01 resolves an issue that, in some rare cases, caused the camera to “lock up”, i.e. become completely unresponsive to all controls including the power switch (while reviewing the camera, we ran into this issue once - then and there, removing and reinserting the battery solved the problem). Additionally, the firmware update offers a fix for two minor bugs related to I) using the Nikon D800 with the optional WT-4 wireless transmitter and II) shooting in 5:4 crop mode with Active D-Lighting turned on. You can download the firmware upgrade from the website below,

Website: Nikon D800 Firmware Update B 1.01 | Nikon D800E Firmware Update B 1.01

Fujifilm has released a firmware update for its ruggedised FinePix XP150 digital compact camera. Version 1.02 improves performance when shooting underwater. You can download the firmware update from the website below.

Website: Fujifilm

MoreVibrant.com has launched a Jubilee photographic competition. Entrants are asked to submit a photograph showing either their favourite “jubilee themed” product packaging, the most vibrantly coloured items they use at home, or how they decorated their home for the jubilee weekend. The deadline is 5th June and only two pictures per person can be submitted. The results will be announced after the Jubilee weekend. Three lucky winners will receive £50 of Marks and Spencer vouchers.

The PluginSite has released its ColorStyler software, which is the seventh product in the PhotoWiz series. According to the software developers, ColorStyler reproduces the whole workflow of colour film photography, recreating traditional film effects and giving photos a special style. It features more than 20 effect types, 600 presets and plenty of masking options for applying the effect only to selected areas of a photo. Priced at $69.95, ColorStyler is currently available as a Photoshop-compatible plugin for Windows as well as a standalone application. A plugin version for MacOS X will follow soon.

The lucky winner of a great Tamrac DSLR bag, courtesy of Lovecases.co.uk, is Robin Stanford.

The Tamrac Rally 5 will comfortably accommodate your DSLR with up to a 6” lens attached, 1 long tele photo lens and one mid size zoom lens plus a flash and all your accessories. There is also space for your iPad, small laptop or Tablet PC.

Check out Lovecases’ camera cases and dslr camera bag range.

This contest closed on Tuesday 22/05/2012.