The third annual Mobile Photography Awards (MPA) are open for entry to photographers and artists worldwide. The MPA is an international open call for photographs and images created on mobile devices (phones and tablets). The competition has twenty photo categories and an array of prizes valued at over $15,000. Entry fees remain the same as last year: $20 for 3 images, $30 for 5 images, $50 for 9 images and $100 for 20 images. The MPA/DIPTIC Photo Essay is a separate $25 entry with its own $500 prize and gallery exhibition. For more information and to enter, visit the website below.

Magix has released Photostory 2014 Deluxe with 4K Ultra HD support. Other features include a redesigned user interface, new templates, a HDR effect to optimise your footage, quick audio dubbing with over 400 songs and sounds, and more. Magix  Photostory 2014 Deluxe is available now for £69.99 from Amazon and magix.com.

Tony Cork has won $10,000 in a photography competition organised by Scoopshot – a service for buying and selling photos captured using the Scoopshot app for iOS, Android and Windows Mobile. Cork’s photo of his son and granddaughter playing in the ocean beat more than 18,000 other entries to bag the $10,000 prize in the competition, which asked photographers to share photos summing up their summer. The photograph was taken using the Scoopshot app on a Samsung Note 2 smartphone while enjoying a quiet day on the beach by the Atlantic Ocean with his wife, two sons, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters.

Epson has announced the newest addition to its portfolio of Signature Worthy media. The new Epson Exhibition Watercolor Paper Textured is designed to deliver a distinctive feel along with rich blacks, a wide colour gamut and smooth tonal gradations. In addition to the 22 Mil caliper and 310 gsm, Exhibition Watercolor Paper is 100 percent cotton fibre and acid, lignin and OBA-free. The paper will be available in November through Epson Authorised Resellers in roll widths of 17, 24 and 44-inches, and 8.5” x 11”, 13” x 19” and 17” x 22” cut sheets. Click through / scroll down for prices.

Daniel Blau gallery has just announced its two upcoming shows, happening simultaneously in Paris and London in November 2013. The gallery is collaborating with the estate of renowned LIFE photographer J.R. Eyerman to showcase images from his personal collection. These photographs of Hollywood stars from the 1940s, 50s and 60s are being shown to the public for the first time. The Paris show (6-23 November) will take place at Galerie Meyer Oceanic Art on the occasion of the Festival Photo Saint-Germain-des-Pres, in parallel to Paris Photo. The London show (9 November – 7 December) will be held at our London gallery on Hoxton Square. 

Wacom is sponsoring the Train to Create and Pratik Naik photo retouching series that consists of a seminar at and a one-day intensive workshop. Taking place from 15th-17th November in London, the world-renowned beauty retoucher will share his techniques including his use of Wacom tablets, as well as provide hands-on mentoring to attendees. The workshop is held over the weekend and attendees can choose which day to attend. Focus will be given to retouching beauty and fashion shots to make them look perfect, while not being digitally obvious. There are a limited number of tickets currently available for the workshop. For further information, visit the website below.

Zeiss has announced an Instant Savings Promotion for its Touit lenses.  The value of the instant saving for the Touit 2.8/12 lens (pictured) totals $251 and effectively reduces the list price on the lens to $999. On the Touit 1.8/32 lens, the instant saving totals $180, reducing the list price to $720. The Instant Savings Promotion is valid on all purchases from an authorised Zeiss dealer from 24th October 2013 through 31st January 2014. The third lens in the Touit family, the Touit 2.8/50 Macro, will begin shipping at the end of 2013.

PrimeCircle has designed a special Silver Series of its PrimeCircle XE cine-style lenses for Blackmagic Production Cinema Cameras. Incorporating world-class Zeiss optics, these lenses feature calibrated cine-style expanded focus scales for precise follow-focus work, electronic aperture control and standard cinema 95mm Front Mounts with an anti-reflective surface. Available focal lengths range from 15mm to 100mm.

Canon U.S.A. and two-time Academy Award winner Ron Howard  have officially launched the “Project Imaginat10n” Film Festival. Following yesterday's premiere of ten short films at Lincoln Center in New York City, screenings will be held in Los Angeles, CA hosted by Bryce Dallas Howard, the first graduating director of Canon’s Project Imagin8ion as well as in Brooklyn, NY hosted by James Murphy, a celebrity director for Project Imaginat10n. Yahoo Screen will continue celebrating the Film Festival from today through the end of the year where consumers can view each of the 10 films including "...And She Was My Eve” by Jamie Foxx, Celebrity Director,  “Out of the Blue” by Eva Longoria, Celebrity Director, “A Dream of Flying” by Georgina Chapman, Celebrity Director, “Little Duck” by James Murphy, Celebrity Director, “Evermore” by Biz Stone, Celebrity Director, “Dominus” by Arrius Sorbonne, Winning Director, “Chucked” by Jared Nelson, Winning Director,  “Here and Now” by Julian Higgins, Winning Director, “A Day in the Country” by Kálmán Apple, Winning Director and “Filter” by Ronnie Allman, Winning Director.

The Nissin Di600 is a successor to the well-established Nissin Di622 Mark II flash gun. The new model has a similar feature set to its predecessor, but at a better price point. Powered by four AA batteries, the flash has a zooming tilt-swivel head, and the guide number is 44 in metres (at ISO100/21°) at the 105mm setting. A 16mm wide-angle diffuser is built in together with a fill-in reflector. The new gun is available now in Canon and Nikon fit, with Sony fit available in November. The suggested retail price is £145.50.

Brian Griffith has released Iridient Developer 2.3.1, an update to his photo editing software for Mac OS X. This upgrade adds raw file support for ten new cameras, improved handling of decimal number entry in text fields (commas, periods and native localised decimal separators are all now accepted for decimal separators regardless of your system locale or system preference settings) and a bug fix for a couple of the Fujifilm X20 auto dynamic range modes.  Iridient Developer 2.3.1 can now be downloaded from the website below.

MindShift Gear has announced that in January 2014 it will release the world’s first rotating day hiker backpack, the rotation180° Panorama. Designed for hikers who carry cameras, binoculars, GPS devices, nature identification books, GoPRos, maps, iPads, and more, the rotation180° Panorama’s beltpack rotates to the front for quick gear access and without first having to take off the backpack or even stop hiking. Available for sale separately will be accessories that enhance the backpack’s functionality. These include the Lens Switch Case that attaches to the beltpack, the Tripod Suspension Kit, the Panorama Photo Insert for extra carrying capacity for photo gear, and the Panorama Raincover specifically tailored to function with the rotation 180 technology. 

Nikon has launched a teaser campaign for a new camera, entitled "Nikon - Pure Photography." The first element of the campaign is a 34-second movie featuring a photographer who says, "It's in my hands again," which - together with the "Pure Photography" tagline - might allude to a retro-styled, fully manual digital camera. There is no close-up of the camera itself but one of the sound effects you can hear is reminiscent of a - rather quiet - shutter going off. You can view the video after the jump.

Sigma USA has announced the pricing and availability of its new 24-105mm f4 DG OS HSM Art lens. Featuring an optical construction that comprises 19 elements in 14 groups, the Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art is a full-frame standard zoom with optical image stabilisation and a quiet "hypersonic" focus motor. The lens will be on shelves next month, starting with Canon mounts, for the street price of £849.99 / $899.

Stipple, a platform for image-based advertising, e-commerce, and photo attribution, has just announced two new products, Stipple Mobile and Stipple Search. The Stipple app for iOS (and soon, Android) lets people easily add content and context to their photos, and instantly post them to Facebook and Twitter. Upon touching the photos, followers can explore relevant interactive content directly from the photos themselves. Stipple Search is a reverse image search engine that helps people learn more about images they find online. It also addresses the problem of “orphan works,” which occurs when the rights owner of a creative work cannot be identified or located. For more information on Stipple Mobile and Stipple Search visit the website below.

Viewbug are giving away $3000 of prizes in their latest photo contest. You can win either a Canon 5D MK III or a Nikon D800 by sharing your best photos showing human and animal bonding. Photos must show both humans and animals and entries are limited to three per person.

Viewbug - I Heart Animals

Apple has announced that OS X Mavericks is available for free from the Mac App Store. From a photographer's/videographer's point of view, the most important feature of OS X Mavericks is the enhanced multi-display support, which makes using multiple displays easier, with no configuration required. Mavericks also delivers significant performance enhancements for systems with integrated graphics through optimised OpenCL support and dynamic video memory allocation. According to the company, any Mac capable of running OS X Mountain Lion can also run Mavericks.

EIZO and Magnum Photos have announced a global collaboration to establish a programme in which 14 ambassadors from Magnum will integrate EIZO’s ColorEdge monitors into their colour management workflow and provide EIZO with objective feedback on their experiences. The line-up of ambassadors includes Carl De Keyzer, Elliot Erwitt, Jim Goldberg, Paul Hayward, Alex Majoli, Enrico Mochi, Matt Murphy, Trent Parke, Martin Parr, Paulo Pellegrin, Gilles Peress, Jonathan Roquemore, Alec Soth and Donovan Wylie.