G-Technology by Hitachi has officially announced the winners and runners-up of its Driven Creativity Competition 2010. The professional photography category winner is The Henley Swim by Iain Weir; showing the misty, early morning gathering of swimmers set to embark on a journey down the Henley-on-Thames river. The runner-up is Fight in a blizzard by: Richard Costin, capturing a glimpse of Golden and White Tailed eagles during a stunning, intense snowstorm (see picture above). The winner of the amateur photography category is Eternal by Patty Palmtree.

UK photographer Adam Duckworth is launching a series of one-day workshops on off-camera flash work. Held on location around The Flash Centre in London and Birmingham, the course is suitable from beginners to more advanced photographers who want to control and sculpt light the way a professional does. In these workshops, Adam will demonstrate editorial-style lighting for portraits, lifestyle and fashion. Delegates will also get to put into practice what they have learned by shooting the models - including FHM’s High Street Honeys finalist Katie Green - in a variety of set-ups. Price is £99 and the dates are November 11 and December 9 in London and November 17 and December 7 in Birmingham.

East Central Gallery is going to host the first London solo exhibition by photographer David Adika. Titled “Oululu”, the exhibition opens to the public on 20th November, and runs until 23rd December. Oululu will present some twenty photographs and two prints, which will be displayed in the different rooms of the gallery as a complex installation by the artist. The images vary in sizes and will either standalone or be grouped, on pastel coloured walls. East Central Gallery is located at 23 Bateman’s Row, London EC2A 3HH.

MacPhun has announced the upcoming release of FX Photo Studio 3.0 for iPhone and iPod Touch. This update adds 31 new photo effects and filters, and further simplifies the editing and sharing of pictures, letting users mix and tune photo effects hundreds different ways. One can apply multiple effects to an image and use the multi-step undo option if not satisfied with the results. The update will be available in the App Store in mid-November.

In the Uk, Ilford’s range of Galerie Graphic RC photo papers is now available from JP Distribution. Manufactured in glossy, Lustre and Satin finishes and available in 24” and 44” wide rolls, the Ilford Galerie Graphic RC range is suited to a range of applications such as commercial graphics, in-store posters, window advertising and exhibition panels. Prices range from £56 to £84 depending on paper thickness and finish.

Emmy and ASC-nominated Director of Photography Gale Tattersall has just announced his new series of master class workshops on Canon HDSLR cameras. Famous - among other things - for being the first DP to film an entire episode of network television with hand-held digital SLR cameras, Gale Tattersall has decided to share his knowledge and his techniques with filmmakers, students and budding artists in a series of live workshops focussed on the video capabilities of Canon’s latest DSLR cameras in particular, and digital film production in general. For more information, visit the website below.

Fujifilm has just released a statement intended “to dispel rumours of an impending end to its E6 film processing service”. Fujifilm Professional’s product manager, Gabriel Da Costa, said: “Our range of transparency films is still very popular so I am delighted to state that Fujifilm is committed to E6 processing for the foreseeable future.” In the UK, Leeds based pro lab CC Imaging is responsible for the processing of all process-paid Sensia slide film, in addition to Fujifilm’s professional films when sent with Fujifilm’s pre-paid E6 135/120 vouchers.

The winners of the October 2010 Photography Blog Competition have been announced. The theme for September was “Tears” - you can view all of the entries in this gallery. Here are the 5 winners:

1st Place
Lifes lessons by phototoad

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

Canon has delayed the introduction of the new 400mm, 300mm and 8-15mm lenses until March 2011. Adjustments in the manufacturing process are the official reason for the 3 month delay of the EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM, EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM and EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM lense, which were first unveiled at the end of August.

X-Rite has introduced its new portfolio of i1 Professional Color Management Solutions. The portfolio is comprised of i1Basic Pro, i1Photo Pro, i1 Publish and i1Publish Pro.  All four feature groundbreaking new technology and applications: i1Profiler, X-Rite’s entirely new next generation color profiling software; new PANTONE Color Manager color swatch bridging software; and ColorChecker Proof, a new color checker chart for direct viewing analysis against a printed target. The new i1 Professional Color Management Solutions will be available in October 2010.

AKVIS Magnifier 4 is a new program that enlarges digital pictures to super-high resolution. The latest version of AKVIS Magnifier 4 includes the ability to make greatly improved reduced images of high quality. The program is available as a plugin to a photo editor, as well as a standalone edition,  for $129 USD or 99 Euro.

Transcend has started shipping CFast cards, the latest specification for Compact Flash cards. The new CFast cards integrate the rapid, more robust SATA interface into the existing CF card form factor, delivering transfer rates of up to 108MB/s. Transcend’s CFast cards are now available in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities.

The LaCie 2Big USB 3.0 is now available in 6TB capacity, offering speeds of up to 306MB/s. This capacity and speed boost over the original has been made possible through the inclusion of two 3TB hard drives. “There is no question heavy data users continue to demand higher capacities, and in turn faster transfer speeds,” said Erwan Girard, Business Unit Manager for Professional Products. “Today, LaCie answered this challenge by introducing the largest available capacity and fastest transfer speeds in a single solution.” The LaCie 2big USB 3.0 6TB will be available in November, pricing to be confirmed.

The Photographer’s Mind is Michael Freeman’s follow up to his best-selling book, The Photographer’s Eye. Containing more than 400 images with schematic illustrations showing how and why they work, the book is targeted at serious amateurs, intermediate as well as professional photographers. The Photographer’s Mind is available now, at a price of $29.95.

Mannheim-based daemgen.net has released ProCamera 2.95 for iOS, which now stores both location and directional metatags with each photo. Version 2.95 allows users to save the exact GPS location from which the photo was taken, plus the precise compass direction in which the camera was pointed. The developer warns that while the app is compatible with a variety of camera-equipped iOS devices, only the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 - which have an integrated gyrocompass - can make use of the new direction recording feature. ProCamera 2.95 is $2.99 and available exclusively through the App Store in the Photography category.

Simply Postcards is a free iPhone app that lets users mail their photos as real postcards from their mobile device to anyone in the world.“Our customers are snapping photos from the Great Wall of China and having their printed postcards arrive in three days,” says CEO Adam Fried. “It’s a really cool technology that we are extremely excited to offer consumers.” The app itself is a free download fromt hte App Store, and every user’s first postcard is also free. Additional postcard credits can be purchased within the app using a major credit card or PayPal.

Sprite Labs have released what it calls the biggest update to their Photo Captions iPhone/iPad app. The update allows users to import a photo from their own Facebook profiles or their friends’ profiles, enhance it, add a caption, tag it and re-post their creation on their wall in less than a minute. The richness of captions is further enhanced now by a set of more than 20 new custom fonts available on iOS 3.1 and above. Additionally, users can now apply special effects/filters to their photos, including Sketch, Posterise, Sepia, Colour Sketch and Burnt Photo. Photo Captions Premium is available on the App Store for $2.99.

The new GearGuard Lens Lock from Gary Fong is a security device that affixes directly to the lens, in place of the rear lens cap, “to safeguard expensive hardware against the constant snatch-and-grab threat photographers face”. Available for Canon and Nikon lenses, the irremovable device renders the lens useless to thieves, the company says. Made of industrial strength plastic, the Lens Lock can be paired with the optional GearGuard Security Cable (also pictured) and Combination Lock and attached to a secure anchor point for safe storage or attached to other gear inside a camera bag for loss prevention. Available now, the GearGuard LensLock from Gary Fong is priced at $29.95.