The winners of the June 2011 Photography Blog Competition have been announced. The theme for June was “Clouds” - you can view all of the entries in this gallery. Here are the 5 winners:

1st Place
The English Channel by Kurt

Prize: X-Rite ColourChecker Passport
Kindly donated by X-Rite
http://www.xritephoto.com/

East London printing lab theprintspace has launched a photo contest on Facebook. Competition II has no theme, so photographers can enter their best work regardless of genre or subject. The winner will receive a day at professional photo studio the Slaughterhouse, worth £220 and a one-day photo course of his/her choice at Photography Course London worth up to £129. The finalists get their image printed on an Earth Positive organic t-shirt from icon printing. Entering the II competition is easy. Everyone, who wants to participate, just needs to go to theprintspace’s Photography Competition Facebook group, become a member and upload 1 image. The entries are judged by a panel of 4 professional photographers including Calum Macdiarmid, Laura Pannack, Linda Brownlee and Niko Mitrunen. The competition runs until the end of this month.

Canon today announced the launch of a new EOS training promotion - ‘Your EOS Adventure Starts Here’. Canon will be giving away a free training DVD and up to £150 worth of training vouchers when photographers purchase a Canon EOS 1100D, EOS 600D or EOS 60D. Customers will be sent their welcome pack, which includes their choice of DVD and their training voucher which can be redeemed against an Experience Seminars training course. Photographers have until 31st October 2012 to use their training voucher and the value of the voucher is dependent on the EOS camera that is purchased: Note that this promotion is only available to customers in the United Kingdom.

Plustek has announced its partnership with Luxipics that allows Plustek OpticFilm 7600i SE and OpticFilm 7600i Ai scanner customers to create and personalise a fully-hosted portfolio website for £49.99 for a whole year (normally £79.99). Those who purchase a Plustek OpticFilm 7600i SE or OpticFilm 7600i Ai 35mm film scanner will find a voucher inside the product box entitling them to the £30 discount. The offer is valid on purchases made in the UK only and ends June 2012, although the voucher codes will expire in June 2013. To create a website, users simply have to enter the Plustek voucher code during the Luxipics’ sign-up process.

Travelshooters have just announced their new Goa, Kerala & the Deccan Photography Tour. The tour “takes in some of the most iconic visual opportunities of Southern India: from the famous Portuguese colonial influences of Goa all the way to the balmy backwaters of Kerala,” says Bruce Stidston of Travelshooters.com. “Along the way, clients get to experience and shoot the lost civilisations of the Deccan plateau, the British colonial resorts of the Nilgiri hills (including one of the most remarkable steam-train journeys in the world) and even a short wildlife exploration.” The photo holiday runs for 15 days from 19 November 2011, the prime time of year to visit the region. The cost is €3,650 per person, excluding international flights. For more information, visit the website below.

Website: Travelshooters - Goa, Kerala & the Deccan 2011

Kenigart has released Camera PRO+ for iPad 2, an app which allows users to improve pictures taken with the iPad 2’s camera. Claiming that its app uses “special photo improving math algorithms”, the Kaliningrad-based company has packed ten photo effects into the program, which also comes with a simple and easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) that’s fully optimised for the iPad 2. Camera PRO+ sells for $5.99 and is available now on iTunes.

A hands-on preview of the new Olympus PEN E-P3 compact system camera, accompanied by a gallery of images.

A gallery of 15 hands-on photos of the new Olympus E-PM1 PEN Mini compact system camera.

A gallery of 12 hands-on photographs of the new Olympus E-PL3 compact system camera and Olympus FL-300R wireless flash.

Ventizz Capital Fund IV L.P. has agreed to acquire 100 percent of the shares of Hasselblad from Hong Kong-based Shriro Group. Founded in 1941 in Gothenburg, Sweden, Hasselblad has become the world market leader in the field of high-end medium format cameras. The extraordinary quality of the company’s products became famous in 1962 when Hasselblad cameras were selected for NASA space missions, which resulted only a few years later in the first world-renowned images taken on the moon. Shriro, a long-standing Hasselblad distributor in the Asia-Pacific region, has held ownership of the company since 2003.

The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

Ricoh has bought Pentax Imaging Systems for $124.2 million / 85 million Euros. The transfer of Pentax Imaging Systems, essentially Pentax digital cameras, will be made by October 1st 2011. Pentax’s other businesses (digital camera modules, DVD pickup lenses, endoscopes, artificial bones, and voice synthesis) will continue to be devloped by Hoya.

Jonathan Martin, General Manager, Pentax Imaging Systems UK said: “Ricoh is globally renowned within the digital camera industry, having successfully brought a range of products to market since its inception in 1939. We are extremely pleased with today’s announcement and see this as the natural next step in the evolution and continued development of the Pentax brand in the UK and abroad. With Ricoh’s involvement we can continue to grow the Pentax business in the UK and ensure we maintain our commitment to provide our customers with innovative, cutting edge, high quality products to suit all camera users.”

Panasonic has unveiled a range of special and limited edition collectables to celebrate London 2012. Custom designed versions of the Lumix G3 compact system camera and DMC-S3 compact camera are amongst the products on offer. Panasonic has manufactured just 2,012 of each model, and each comes with a commemorative one-year-to-go £5 coin from the Royal Mint and new London 2012 packaging.

The Rollei Bullet HD is a new all-action camera weighing less than 100 grams and offering 720p video. Protected by a robust aluminium body, the camcorder is guaranteed dust-proof, impact-resistant and unsusceptible to vibrations. The Rollei Bullet HD will be available from late July 2011 for € 249.95.

Get a free Coolpix P300 camera worth £299.99 when purchasing any Nikon binocular from the EDG range. From 20th June - 31st August 2011 customers will be able to claim a P300 compact digital camera with purchases of one of the five models in Nikon’s flagship range of binoculars. The P300 is a premium camera that packs high quality features into a small and lightweight body. Claims must be received by 30th September 2011 inclusive.

The Canon Pro Solutions Show will be returning again on 25th and 26th October 2011 in London. Held at the Business Design Centre in Islington, the public show is aimed at video, broadcast and still imaging professionals. Entrance to the show will be free for all those who pre-register online.

BuyPolaroids.com brings well priced, top condition, instant Polaroid cameras to the world. Buypolaroids.com is regularly updated with new stock every month and is actively expanding the product range. Recently, the full range of The Impossible Project films was added, so that supply of instant film will always be on hand.

The 41st edition of the free PhotographyBB magazine is now available to download. This month’s edition features photography techniques for shooting brilliant fireworks photos and how to post-process them, discusses how photographers can find and create their own gallery showings, and provides techniques for creating impressionist style photography.

Paint FX 1.0 is a new new photography app for iOS. Paint FX allows anyone to selectively apply photo enhancements, filters, visual effects and colors to specific parts of a photo, simply by painting with their fingers. Paint FX 1.0 is available now for $1.99 USD.