Digital Foci, creator of Picture Porter Advanced, a portable digital picture management tool and high capacity storage device, has launched a campaign entitled, Picture Porter – Essential Digital Photo Manager, to raise $63,000 by 14th December. Picture Porter Advanced boasts a 5" TFT-LCD screen, up to 1 TB of storage via HDD or SSD, and USB connectors for devices ranging from laptops to USB flash drives and external hard drives. Photographers will benefit from the unit's compatibility with a wide variety of memory cards. "This device will change the way people back up, protect, organise, view, and share all of their digital photos," said Charles Huang, Chief Designer of the Picture Porter Advanced. "It is designed to improve every aspect of one’s photo management routine." Interested readers are encouraged to visit Picture Porter Advanced's Kickstarter page.

Issue 34 of Landscape Photography Magazine is now available to download. This edition includes a tutorial on photographing winter landscapes, a review of the book "Colours of the Earth" by David Hay, a free article on women in landscape photography, a guide to starting a photography business, a free advice on the art of concealment, and much more. Do note that the full contents of Landscape Photography Magazine are available to subscribers only.

Eizo has launched a 40-second animated film on its global YouTube channel to help promote its ColorEdge range of monitors. Animation designer Katy Beveridge says, "The inspiration for the Eizo Christmas animation, initially came from early Russian Stop-Motion animation films which used built models and small scale sets. I often find inspiration from the rich and diverse history of the animation industry which extends far beyond the more popular cell, or drawn animation”. Click through / scroll down to view Eizo's Christmas animation.

Cities at Dawn Photography have announced their Christmas offers on a number of workshops planned for 2014. Those booking a place for one of their £245 London at Dawn workshops will get a complimentary copy of Anthony Epes's book, London at Dawn. Photographers enrolling for the company's £850 Paris at Dawn workshop, held from 19-22 June 2014, will get copies of London at Dawn and Paris at Dawn plus a place on a one-day London at Dawn workshop, for free. The same offer applies to the £850 Venice at Dawn workshop scheduled for 15-18 March 2014.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation and Nokia have launched a new international photography contest aimed at empowering women around the world through the power of images. Photo entries will be submitted to the public vote and judged by a distinguished line-up of experts from the world of photography, journalism and women’s rights, including: Reuters Photographer and World Press Photo Winner Finbarr O’Reilly; Journalist, Author and Chime for Change Managing Editor Mariane Pearl, Thomson Reuters Foundation Editor-in-Chief Tim Large, and Nokia Imaging Technology Marketing Manager Kristina Bjorknas. Ten finalists will be chosen from the pool of entries and asked to put the new Nokia Lumia 1020 to the test by using the smartphone to create a portfolio of photos that capture the empowerment of women..The winner will receive the first Thomson Reuters Foundation–Nokia Photography Award.

The winners of the EyeTime 2013 contest have been announced. EyeTime 2013 was assembled as a means to publicly promote the research, exploration and investigation currently happening amongst today's emerging talent. Winners include Dean West, Simon Chang, Edward Neumann, Tiberio Ventura, Michael Santiago and Nicholai Go. Jessica Lum Awards winners include Alessandro Falco and Tiberio Ventura. Public winners include Javier Corso and Rainer Weston.

Delix Software has released version 1.1 of Alayer, an iOS app that promises to "give anyone unprecedented control over the aesthetics of their [smartphone] photos." Now you can clone/duplicate the photo you are working with as a new layer, and choose from  over 100 presets and 15 different blending modes to manipulate the image. Alayer is available for $0.99 on the iTunes App Store.

The Society of International Nature and Wildlife Photographers has launched its newest competition entitled ‘Celebrating Nature.’ The challenge this month is to enter stunning images that reflect the beauty of nature and capture the true essence of the world around us. The judges will be looking for  a strong and interesting narrative as well as the highest technical skills. The deadline for entries is 31st December.

TeoreX has updated iResizer, a simple yet capable utility designed to resize pictures and remove undesired objects. Version 2.4 adds a feature enabling users to automatically resize their photos for Instagram without cropping. You only need to mark areas on the photo you would like to preserve, and run Instagram resizing. iResizer is available for Windows and Mac OS, priced at $19.99.

DxO Labs have just launched version 4.5 of their photographic film emulation software, DxO FilmPack. This update adds Agfa Scala 200X and Kodak Ektar 100 film renderings, provides new creative looks, and improves its palette of special effects. "Thanks to DxO Labs’ exclusive calibration technologies, the two new film renderings achieve an unrivaled level of quality and fidelity," the company claims. "DxO Labs perfectly reproduced the grain, quality, and style of these two films by following a rigorous scientific process: taking carefully-controlled photos with the analog films; developing the photos using two renowned professional photo development laboratories; and carefully scanning, digitizing, and analyzing the developed shots." This upgrade is free for all owners of DxO FilmPack 4, as well as for photographers who acquired a DxO FilmPack 3 licence on or after 1 March 2013.

DxO Labs have released version 9.1 of its image processing software, DxO Optics Pro. This update enhances the application's PRIME denoising technology that restores the finest details in images even at the very highest sensitivities; provides support for eight new cameras; integrates the features of new DxO FilmPack v4.5 in plugin mode; and includes a new Export to Facebook option. This upgrade is free for all owners of DxO Optics Pro 9, as well as for photographers who acquired a DxO Optics Pro license on or after 1 September 2013.

The MAC Group has announced a Winter Holiday instant rebate of $25 for US customers that purchase one or more PocketWizard MiniTT1 and/or FlexTT5 radios. Likewise, purchasers of PocketWizard PlusX and/or Plus III radios are eligible for a $15 mail-in rebate for each radio they buy. The instant rebate is available only for new inventory purchased from authorized PocketWizard Dealers in the US. The promotion will run throughout this month.

The Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP) have announced the winners of their ‘Love’ photographic competition. Gilchrist Yeo from Johor, Malaysia was chosen as the overall winner from over 240 images entered, for his photo reproduced above. Phil Jones The Societies CEO says “The image portrays a beautiful feeling off togetherness and harmony between two people who are very much in love." The runners-up are Elizabeth Ann Roberts from Inverness, and Leighton Bainbridge from County Durham.

The Kolor Panobook 2013 is a new book containing the best entries from this year's Kolor panoramic photography contest. This 240-page hardback offers breathtaking landscapes, cityscapes, beaches, buildings, people, and street scenery, taken by day and by night. The book is available for €34,90 at the website below.

Tenba has reintroduced three vintage bag designs for a new generation of photographers. The Tenba Classic collection includes three models: the P211 courier bag, the P415 briefcase camera bag, and the Tenba 2 camera bag. These bags feature the same fine tailoring and uncompromising materials and hardware as when they were first launched up to thirty-four years ago. "These benchmark Tenba bag designs have been highly sought after for their legendary quality, great looks and high performance," said Peter Waisnor, Marketing Manager of Tenba. "After fielding thousands of requests for these bags from around the world, we decided it was time to bring them to a current generation of photographers." Tenba Classic bags began shipping on December 1st at a suggested retail price of $59.95 for the Tenba 2, $89.95 for the P211, and $169.95 for the P415.

Fujifilm has announced the discontinuation of its black and white instant film, FP-3000B. While the company admits that they have recently witnessed a "dramatic rise" in the popoularity of "many instant film products," the demand for this particular film has declined. Fujifilm says that it "will continue to market the colour instant film, FP-100C plus the full range of Instax cameras and associated films."

Canon Japan has just announced the Canon EOS M2 compact system camera. Promising "greatly improved" auto focus performance courtesy of a new Hybrid AF II system, the Canon EOS M2 also boasts on-board Wi-Fi and an 8% smaller body by volume. Other highlights include an 18-megapixel APS-C sized CMOS sensor, DIGIC 5 processing engine and a continuous shooting speed of 4.6 frames per second. Availability is slated for Mid-December, with pricing to be communicated. Canon Europe have confirmed that the EOS M2 will not be available in Europe.

Source: Canon Japan