FotoDC has launched its fourth annual International Awards Competition. The competition will feature 11 different categories of entry. For single images, contestants can enter under Photojournalism/Social Documentary, Commercial, Fine Art, Contemporary Life, Travel, Portrait, and/or The Natural World. If submitting a series, contestants can enter under Photojournalism/Social Documentary, Fine Art, and/or The Natural World. There will also be a Student Portfolio category (eligible for those 18 or older and enrolled in an accredited academic programme), a Multimedia category, and a Mobile Phone category focussed on the Spirit of Washington. The competition is open to all photographers, both amateurs and professionals, and there is an early bird discount for work submitted by 24th July. The final deadline for submissions before entries go to the panel of judges for review is 12th September. In addition to a total of $20,000 in cash prizes, the top winners in each category will be well rewarded, with the opportunity for their work to be shown and/or projected during FotoWeek DC, 5-12 November 2011.

Photojojo has announced what must be the craziest iPhone accessory yet: an adapter and case that allow you to attach a Canon or Nikon lens to the device. Turning your valued SLR optics into an add-on accessory for a smartphone does not sound like the greatest of ideas, especially given that you obviously lose auto focus (and aperture control too, at least with Canon lenses and most modern Nikkors), not to mention that if you’re willing to lug around a bulky SLR lens you might as well use it on a real camera - but we’re sure it’s crazy enough to ignite the imagination of many iPhone aficionados looking for some telephoto reach and shallow depth of field. If you’re one of them, Photojojo will be happy to sell you the case-adapter combo at $190 (for the iPhone 3) or $249 (for the iPhone 4).

Website: Photojojo’s iPhone SLR Mount

Windows Phone UK is running a photography competition on Facebook. Entrants are asked to upload their best summer photos to the competition’s Facebook page for a chance win one of three Windows Phones. The photographers submitting three most popular snaps, as determined by popular vote, will win the prizes. The final date to enter a photo is 30th July 2011 but given that it’s also when the votes - or ‘likes’, to be more precise - are totalled up to determine the winners, it’s probably a good idea to submit your photograph as early as possible. As always, we suggest that you read the rules before entering your work. Also note that this competition is open to adult residents of the United Kingdom only.

Website: Facebook - Windows Phone

Developed for compact, mirrorless and rangefinder cameras, the mini L-Bracket from Arca-Swiss is the newest addition to the manufacturer’s monoball Fix system, and is also compatible with the monoball Classic range. Even smaller digital SLR cameras like the Olympus E-450, Pentax K-r or Canon EOS 1100D could be outfitted with the new Arca-Swiss mini L-Bracket, which matches their small dimensions better than larger brackets. Pricing to be confirmed.

Phase One has released Media Pro 1.0.1, a service release, and the first update since Media Pro was introduced less than two months ago. Once known as Microsoft Expression Media, Media Pro is a professional photo manager for finding, organising, and sharing images and videos. This service release fixes several bugs and issues with stability, TIFF and thumbnail rendering, catalogues, XMP sidecars, file sorting, readability, colour management, and more. Media Pro 1.0.1 is free to existing Phase One Media Pro customers.

Lomography has just introduced the Sprocket Rocket Superpop range. By including the sprocket holes found along the edges of every 35mm film roll, the Sprocket Rocket camera takes pictures with a unique look. Additionally, the Lomography Sprocket Rocket features a reverse gear which allows the photographer to move back and forth between the frames with two convenient scrolling knobs to enable taking multiple exposures on the same frame.  The new SuperPop versions come in flashy neon colours including yellow, green, orange and blue and are priced at £89 .

Western Digital (WD) has announced its newest generation of My Book Studio external hard drives designed for use with Mac computers and Apple Time Machine. Now available with a 3TB storage capacity, the new design features a brushed aluminium casing to match the appearance of a Mac computer, and also serves to keep the drive cool while in use. The drives also feature FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0 interfaces, user-controlled automatic backup software and drive management, password protection and hardware encryption. The 3TB version is available now for an MSRP of $249.99, with 2TB and 1TB variants also on sale for $199.99 and $149.99, respectively.

Briony Campbell and Sam Ledger have scooped the top prizes in the first annual Bar-Tur Award for new photography talent, taking home £2,000 each. Open to students and graduates of University of the Arts London, the Award challenged entrants to address one of four themes: the environment, identities, lifestyle and communication. The winning works were selected from over 2,000 images by a panel of judges including award-winning international portrait and documentary photographer Platon Antoniou, Tom Hunter, the first photographer to have a solo show at the National Gallery, Aidan Sullivan, Vice President of Photo Assignments at Getty Images, Caroline Metcalfe, Photography Director at Conde Nast Traveller and Shelley Page, Head of International Outreach at Dreamworks.

2011 marks the fourth year of Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed, The Photographers’ Gallery’s annual showcase of graduate and postgraduate photography. Twenty-one artists, who completed their studies in the past year, have been selected by a panel of photography experts. The featured artists have graduated from courses across the UK, including The Glasgow School of Art, University of Wales, Newport and University of the Arts London. Note that this year, Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed takes place online while The Photographers’ Gallery undergoes extensive redevelopment.

Marketing Fine Art Photography by Alain Briot is now available in the United Kingdom. The author is a leading contemporary landscape photographer and teacher, who offers practical, up-to-date, tried and tested marketing techniques to fine art photographers eager to learn how to sell their work to make a profit. “Briot’s approach is based on offering quality not quantity; and offering something unique, rather than something that is mass-produced,” the publisher says. “Though directed toward selling fine art, this method can be applied to other products.” The 320-page book, which debuted in the US last month, sells for £27.50 in the UK.

The Fat Gecko Quick Release Kit is the newest accessory to Delkin’s Fat Gecko Camera Mount product line, which allows users to swap cameras and camcorders on and off any mount in seconds.  The two-part anodized aluminum Quick Release features two built in liquid levels to ensure precise vertical and horizontal angle set-up as well as flanged edges and a push button key to prevent slippage once a camera is locked into place. A universal ¼-20 female adapter on the base plate enables secure attachment to any of Delkin’s Fat Gecko Camera Mounts as well as any standard tripod or monopod with a ¼-20 or 3/8-20 mounting head- The Quick Release is rated to reliably hold devices weighing up to 6.6 pounds. The kit, which includes a base plate, top plate and user guide, begins shipping to photography and videography stores worldwide on 11th July at a price of $39.99.

X-Rite has announced a number of free webinars for the month of July. There are four topics including “Raw Colour Power with Adobe Lightroom and the ColorChecker Passport”, “David Saffir’s End-to-End Workflow for Creative Photographers”, “Creative Fusion: Stylistic Photographic Images with Brian Matiash” and “Beyond Monitor Calibration - Get Prints That Match Your Display!” Click through / read on for webinar dates and times.

Seconic has announced limited edition L-308S Flashmate meters in three different metallic colours, including red (pictured), green and blue. Sekonic celebrates its sixtieth anniversary this year, and as the company’s product marketing manager Phil Braden notes, “It has been a tradition of the company to release a limited edition light meter in honor of an important anniversary and in the past those limited editions have become collector’s items.” The pocket-sized Sekonic L-308S Flashmate is designed to read ambient or flash exposures in either reflected or incident modes, and displays accurate exposure readings in full, half, or third-stop increments. Seconic also announced a 60th Anniversary Contest, inviting photographers to write a story about when they “fell in love with light”. To enter, contestants need to write a story between 250 and 500 words telling Sekonic about the moment they fell in love with light. Submissions will be accepted until the end of this month, and a Limited Colour Edition Sekonic L-308S Flashmate will be awarded for each of the top three stories.

Jessops has launched its first “Image” magazine, a dedicated catalogue and magazine in one for its customers. In addition to listing all new products stocked by Jessops, “Image” also gives readers helpful advice to “aid them in making the right decision in buying the right products for their needs”, the company says. In future, Jessops will produce a magazine for every season.

Four months after the launch of the Vitruvian range, Giotto’s introduced two new larger Vitruvian tripods with an increased weight capacity of 9kg. Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, the new Giotto’s Vitruvian VGR tripods are designed to offer photographers not only a truly lightweight and compact tripod, but a fully functioning monopod and ball head too. The Vitruvian tripods have been designed with “reverse technology” legs so that when collapsed they fold through 180 degrees to “surround” the tripod centre column and head. The newest additions have an operating height of 147cm, and with the centre column extended reach a maximum 171cm while still folding down to a remarkably compact 40cm for transport and storage.

Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) judges Nick Meers and Chris Coe are leading a luxury Photo Iconic photography holiday in Costa Rica from April 4th – 13 th, 2012. The tour will be guided by an experienced Costa Rican naturalist, with photographic tuition provided by Chris and Nick. Highlights of the trip, which is run in conjunction with Strabo Photo Tours, include a spectacular cone-shaped volcano, rising out of the flat San Carlos Plains, La Fortuna Waterfall, Ecocentro Danaus Biological Reserve, Monteverde Cloud Forest, Monteverde Hummingbird Garden and Butterfly Farm and Manuel Antonio National Park. The trip costs $4,295 (approx. £2,650) to include all accommodation, meals, photo tuition and park entrances, but excluding international flights. For further information or to book a place, visit the website below.

Cooliris has just announced a major update to LiveShare, a cross-platform media sharing application that allows mobile and Web users to seamlessly share photos in real-time with whomever they want. In addition to a completely new user interface, this mobile and web app update has three new significant features including 1) more flexible sign-up options and invitations, 2) user profiles and 3) the ability to create public streams in addition to private ones. This new version of LiveShare is available on iPhone, Android and the LiveShare website.

Website: LiveShare

According to two recent reports by Reuters, both Canon and Fujifilm are considering to enter the highly competitive but potentially lucrative compact system camera (CSC) market. Fujifilm - for whom a move like this would also mean a re-entry into the interchangeable-lens camera market at large, which it practically left more than two years ago with the discontinuance of the Fujifilm S5 Pro DSLR - also said it planned to attain the third position in the digital camera market by 2014. Canon’s Masaya Maeda has been quoted as saying that they are “considering the technical aspects” of launching a mirrorless system. He also added that Canon’s camera production has now returned to the level where it had been before the March earthquake forced it to halt manufacturing at its Kyushu plants.

Source: Reuters
Canon considering compact mirrorless camera
Fujifilm aims to be world No. 3 in cameras