Professional photographer Tamara Lackey has just released a 100-page book and 90-minute DVD tutorial entitled Capturing Life Through Better Photography. Complete with before-and-after images that highlight Tamara’s tips, and simple sketches and lists to illustrate her points, the book aims to improve the skills of everyday photographers. Topics covered include lighting, composition, depth of field, and more; presented within a framework of typical shooting scenarios like Action, Group Settings, Babies & Children, Landscapes and Pets. The complete bundle sells for $59.99, but the DVD and the book can also be purchased as standalone products for $27.99 and $34.99, respectively.

The Sekonic DigiCineMate L-308DC is a versatile, easy-to-use digital exposure meter that can be used by photographers, videaographers and cinematographers alike. Users can pick the mode that displays only the specific information they need (e.g videographers ususally work with a fixed frame rate and shutter speed so they only need to know what f-stop to set on the lens, which the Sekonic DigiCineMate L-308DC displays with one-tenth of a stop accuracy). Lux and cande readout enables quick set up of lights for cinematographers. Photographers get all important information including EV. The meter can be used to measure ambient and flash light, and is capable of both reflected and incident light metering. The scheduled release is January 2011, with an suggested retail price of £239.99.

The Tamron 18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD is the world’s lightest and smallest 15x travel zoom for DSLR cameras with an APS-C sized sensor. Sporting an ultrasonic Piezo AF motor and vibration compensation (Nikon and Canon versions only), the Tamron 18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD weighs in at 450 grams, and spans a focal range equivalent to that of an imaginary 27-405mm (Nikon/Sony versions) or 29-432mm (Canon version) zoom lens. The Piezo AF motor built into this lens functions according to the standing wave principle, and is supposed to be faster and quieter than travelling-wave ultrasonic motors. The recommended retail price for the Tamron 18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD is £649.99 and the product will be available in the UK in limited quantity from the end of December 2010.

Mike Browne and Jayne Whitelock have produced a simple-to-follow photography video tutorial on photographing snowy winter landscapes. Topics covered include keeping the snow bright and white in your photos, the importance of always taking a camera bag with you, ideas on what to photograph, and making sure your batteries do not die in the field. The “snow photography” video can be found in the features menu on the new photography videos section of the PhotographyCourses.Biz website.

New research from Samsung reveals over a third of Brits are under-using their cameras, more so than other technologies such as mobiles or laptops. A quarter admit to feeling worried when they press a button which produces a display they don’t recognise and just over one in ten say they are so confused by their cameras that they hand it to someone else to take the shots. In addition, many Brits are unaware of key functions on their cameras: 27% aren’t aware of the built-in flash function; 35% claim to be unaware of the delete function and 48% aren’t aware of the Red Eye reduction options available on many cameras. Note that this research has been carried out by Samsung to mark the launch of their iFunction lens and the Samsung NX100 camera (and presumably to promote them at the same time).

The winners of the Epson Red Sea contest - billed as the world’s largest marine photography competition - have been announced. The best singular entry (see image above) was submitted by Argentinian photographer Paula Faiferman, while Mark Fuller from Israel has been found to have entered the “Best 5 images portfolio”. Mark has won a $10,000 check in addition to a three-week diving trip in Papua New Guinea for two, including airfare.

A new version of Zoner Photo Studio, which is claimed to bring a significant increase in speed for all operations thanks to multi-core optimisations, has just been announced. Other improvements versus the previous version include an improved catalogue, easier work with two monitors, and easier photo sharing.  The basic single-user licence for the PRO Edition costs $69.99, and a three-seat licence is $99.99.

LaCie has released a resilient new hard drive case that protects hard drives against hazardous situations. The LaCie Tank, design by Neil Poulton, is essentially a hard, rugged shell made of rubber and polypropylene snaps securely around any 2.5” hard disk drive, keeping out dust and rain. This robust exterior is also shock-resistant and tested against military-grade drop requirements. Manufactured in Italy, the LaCie Tank is priced at £19.99.

The Lomo LC-A+ White is a limited-edition Lomography camera with a few tricks up its sleeve. Using standard 35mm film, the Lomo LC-A+ White features a 32mm f/2.8 Minitar lens, a multiple exposure switch for easy, real-time double-exposure, an industry-standard cable release thread, a flash hot-shoe and a “whirling white kimono of elegant metal and smooth leather”. Limited to one thousand pieces, the Lomo LC-A+ comes with a white L-Case and can be yours for $399 or €379.

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.

Alive, a Tokyo based consulting company, launched today Shakodo, a new web service aimed at photographers. “Shakodo is a simple to use and innovative free service, designed to give a boost to the photography business by educating amateur and professional photographers through an interactive and open exchange of real business situations and real prices,” the company says.  Members can earn reputation points and awards by asking good questions and providing good answers. Along with this, Shakodo also introduces a new Price Slider technology which allows members to set price ranges in different currencies with the ability to have real-time price conversions, enabling members from different countries to compare prices in their native currency. For more information, visit the website below.

Unified Colour has released HDR Express, a program that allows HDR newbies to create convincing HDR images quickly. HDR Express automates key aspects of the HDR production process, such as tone mapping and halo elimination, offering a streamlined and very easy-to-follow workflow. After merging the multiple exposures required for the HDR process into a 32-bit image, the simplified user interface presents an animated exposure range preview of the HDR image along with five tone mapping preset options. For the fastest results, users can then choose from a series of colour and style presets or create their own presets using the program’s adjustment sliders which manipulate brightness, highlight and shadow recovery, black point, contrast, saturation and white balance. HDR Express is available for $99 at the website below.

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.

Adobe has posted the full versions of Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) 6.3 and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.3, adding raw file support for 15 new cameras and distortion profiles for a number of lenses. Previously available as Release Candidates only, ACR 6.3 and Lightroom 3.3 add support for the Canon PowerShot G12, Canon PowerShot S95, Nikon D3100 (pictured), Nikon D7000, Nikon Coolpix P7000, Olympus E-5, Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF2, Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2, Pentax K-5, Pentax K-r, Ricoh GXR & GR LENS A12 28mm f/2.5, Samsung NX100, Samsung TL350 (WB2000), Sony A560 and Sony A580 models. Adobe has also released the free Lens Profile Downloader 1.0 for Camera Raw 6, Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5. This companion application allows customers to search, download, rate and comment on over 300 lens correction profiles provided by the Adobe user community.

MacPhun today announced the upcoming release of FX Photo Studio 3.1 for the iPhone, IPad and iPod Touch. Billed as the collection of photo effects on the AppStore, The new version adds 10 new filters, introduces faster image processing and sharing via Tumblr. The most innovative new feature is the sharing of presets - the user gets a unique code for every preset created, which can then be emailed or shared from inside the app via Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr or Facebook. FX Photo Studio sells for $2.99, with this version expected to be available in the App Store within a week or two.

BenVista released PhotoZoom Pro 4 and PhotoZoom Classic 4 today. With PhotoZoom Pro 4, BenVista claims to offer a breakthrough in “uprezzing” and cleaning up mediocre or even low-quality photos to produce acceptable enlargements. Says D.S. Schoolwerth, CEO at BenVista: “We have developed a technology that combines perfectly with our S-Spline Max resize method. Not only it cleans up JPEG compression artifacts and noise, the image will also look perfectly sharp and true to nature after enlargement.” Other improvements include 64-bit support, additional fine-tuning options, new pre-defined settings for different types of images, and additional presets for common print and pixel sizes. PhotoZoom Pro 4 costs €169, while the less feature-rich but still powerful PhotoZoom Classic sells for €79.

The Plugin Site just released Version 2 of its FocalBlade plug-in for Mac Os. FocalBlade is a plugin that sharpens photos for display and print with the help of various automatic and manual tools. It also reduces noise and produces natural-looking bokeh, soft focus and special effects. Version 2 renders 10 to 100 times faster than Version 1 (depending on the used settings and CPU). It supports multiple sharpening workflows and various output devices. Additionally, FocalBlade 2 achieves better sharpening effects with less artifacts through improved edge masking and halo reduction. FocalBlade 2 for Mac OS X is $69.95 for the regular licence and $39.95 for the academic licence. A Windows version is also available.