Rocky Nook has just announced a new title, “Mastering Photographic Composition, Creativity, and Personal Style” by Alain Briot. Following his successful first book, Mastering Landscape Photography, Briot goes beyond the conventional rules of composition and takes on a fresh, new approach to teaching the art of photography. Based on his personal experiences as an artist, teacher, and photographer, he opens new doors to the reader—doors leading to new ways of seeing and composing images, the publisher says. Briot approaches fine art photography as being a combination of art and technique, and in this book he addresses both. On the artistic side, Briot introduces artistic concepts that have been rarely, if ever, associated with photography. On the technical side, he presents numerous tools that can help you learn to create better photographs and he provides technical solutions to common photographic problems. “Mastering Photographic Composition, Creativity, and Personal Style” is available from oreilly.com for $44.95 USD.

Rupert Nightingale’s Icelandic landscapes are featured in an upcoming exhibition, held from 8-28 October in London’s ‘theprintspace’ gallery. Whilst these images are stylistically a meditation on both texture and form, they also attempt to address the idea of the mythic and perceived permanence of the landscape. Rupert Nightingale believes the slower, more contemplative approach to shooting, combined with the detail and tonal richness of the large format negative, gives rise to a more satisfying and painterly final image. The gallery’s address is: theprintspace, 74 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DL.

Research released today shows that people are turning to online platforms and services to record and share their digital photographs and avoid them slipping into the digital abyss. The online survey, commissioned by Blurb and carried out by YouGov, found that 44 per cent of respondents share at least some of their digital photographs using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The emergence of social media has given rise to a generation of people who are sharing information about all aspects of their lives online, posting photographs of everything from the mundane through to nights out on the town, holidays, and significant life moments like weddings. This trend is particularly prominent amongst 18 to 24 year olds, where 83 per cent share their images on social media websites, while only 19 per cent of people aged over 55 do the same. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all online British adults (aged 18+).

iSyndica users can now access iSyndica through six popular platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, AOL and Flickr.  The new feature will let new and existing users register for iSyndica’s digital media distribution services specifying only a username. The company felt it was an easier approach for consumers looking to simply and quickly sell their photos, videos and illustrations online.

Sean Arbabi, a 20-year commercial photographer out of the San Francisco Bay Area, has announced a mix of workshops around the world. This Saturday, 29 August 2009, he’ll be at Book Passage in Corte Madera, California (just north of San Francisco) teaching a half day course on exposure, immediately followed by a book signing of his 225-page paperback The BetterPhoto Guide to Exposure. Sean workshops range from one-day classes through the Point Reyes Field Seminars (Pt Reyes, California), to four-day seminars at Art Wolfe’s Digital Photography Center (Seattle, Washington), week-long sessions at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops (Santa Fe, New Mexico), to month-long online courses with BetterPhoto.com (worldwide). With a BA in commercial photography from Brooks Institute, Arbabi specializes in adventure, conceptual, lifestyle, and travel photography for advertising, corporate and editorial clients. You may recall his piece on PhotographyBLOG called How to Survive the Credit Crunch.

Website: Sean Arbabi

Tiffen has announced Version 2.0 of its popular Tiffen Photo fx creative effects software, for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. The included set of digital optical filters features simulations of many of the popular award-winning Tiffen glass filters. Tiffen Photo fx 2.0 saves the new images for display later without overwriting the original image, to email friends, family and business associates. The software is available on the Apple iTunes app store for $2.99 and features 61 filters organised into 8 different filter groups and 615 presets.

During the upcoming IFA show in Berlin, JOBO AG will showcase several new stylish digital picture frames. These include the JOBO Crystal 15 with a 15-inch TFT LCD, the slick black JOBO Atrum 7 with an 8:5 aspect ratio, the JOBO Plano 8 (pictured) and the JOBO Plano 10 Media models. In addition to the new frames listed above, JOBO will also showcase at IFA Berlin (September 4-9, 2009; Hall 15.1, Stand 104) its NANO and Curve lines of digital picture frames as well as its award-winning photo storage devices – GIGA Vu SONIC and GIGA Vu extreme – and its award-winning Geotagging solution – photoGPS.

German photo gear rental company LensAvenue GmbH has decided to end its operation and focus on “other business activities”. LensAvenue, whose core business was the rental of photographic equipment by mail, stresses that it has not filed for insolvency, but wants to “better allocate its resources” (including time, finances and know-how). It is unclear what this means exactly, but their stock of photo equipment (including cameras, lenses, lighting kits and other accessories) is up for sale - click ‘Gelegenheiten’ on their home page.

Via photoscala

Designed to “make up for your iPhone’s lack of camera flash”, Flash for Free is an iPhone app that brightens up underexposed photos taken with the onboard camera of the Apple iPhone. The app is OS 3.0 compatible, and allows you to choose from nine different “fill flash levels”. Needless to say, you should expect an apparent increase in visible noise at the higher levels. Flash for Free is available as a free download from the iPhone App Store and the app’s official Web site.

Via iPhonehírek | Thanks to our reader Tibor for tipping us on the news!

Wuala, a social online storage solution, today announced the addition of new key features: backup and file restoration. The new features come just in time to mark the first anniversary of Wuala, which now has users storing and sharing over 65 million files. The new backup feature allows Wuala users to specify a folder from a local hard drive to automatically be backed up to Wuala’s secure online storage. Backup is complemented by the file restore feature that allows users to access overwritten or deleted files from a previous date and restore them, protecting the user from accidental deletions. The file restore and backup features work together to allow a user to access a local folder as it was at any desired point in time. Users that want to take advantage of the new backup and restore features must become Pro users.

Casio has launched a limited-edition Hello Kitty version of their Casio Exilim EX-Z2 digital compact camera. Pink with Swarovski diamond dotted outer lens and body decorations, the Casio EX-Z2 Hello Kitty camera is available for pre-order from dreamkitty.com for $499.99.

Via DCVIEWS

Sony have revealed their highest-capacity Memory Stick PRO Duo card to date. The Memory Stick PRO Duo line now goes all the way up to 32GB thanks to the launch of a new high-capacity model.
Handycam owners shooting in FH mode (1920 x 1080 Full HD) can now record 225 minutes (3 hours 45 minutes) of HD video using a single card. And with the latest models of their Cyber-shot digital camera range, each video clip now can be recorded up to 29 minutes (using Fine mode: MP4 1280 x 720). The new card will be available from the end of September for about $200.

The School of Visual Arts (SVA) has announced a lecture series entitled “Art in the First Person”, and the first event in the series, a conversation with photographer Hellen van Meene, will take place on 14 September. Dutch photographer Hellen van Meene has exhibited her work in New York City, London, Holland and Germany. Her photographs have been collected in several books, including the recently published Hellen van Meene: New Photographs (Schirmer/Mosel, 2009). The conversation about her work, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street, New York.

InfoTrends has announced that Fujifilm will sponsor the 2009 Digital Imaging Forum and will participate in three educational panel discussions during the event. The forum features the 2nd annual Photo Publishing Summit taking place September 15-16, 2009 and the 8th annual Digital Imaging Conference which follows directly after on September 16-17. Both events will be hosted at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport in Burlingame, California. During the Photo Publishing Summit, Fujifilm will participate on a panel entitled Sales and Marketing Strategies for Growing Your Products Business. At the Digital Imaging Conference, Fujifilm will take part in two panel discussions: Making the Right Equipment Choices and Convergence of Online Photo Services and Social Networks.

Pandigital recently announced its PanTouch Clear range of digital photo frames, in Europe - and today marks the US launch of the eight-inch model. The PanTouch Clear 8” digital floating frame incorporates a true touch screen frame, made possible by the brand new PanTouch Clear ITO (Indium-Tin-Oxide) Technology. To create the floating effect, the new PanTouch Clear frame features an 800x600 high-resolution display that appears to be floating in the surrounding glass. You can view your photos and control the frame’s functions with easy-to-understand icons that can be touched directly across the entire glass surface of the frame. To accomplish this, the frames feature leading-edge touch technology, which “prints” invisible circuits on fingerprint-resistant, clear glass. The benefit is that you can now enjoy intuitive full touch-screen capabilities while still enjoying the premium home décor-style look of the glass on the Pandigital Digital Photo Frame. This is unlike frames using capacitive-touch technology that require the consumer to directly touch the LCD panel, which prevents the use of glass. The PanTouch Clear 8” has an MSRP of $129.99.

Sony has recently discovered that, with a limited number of its Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W170 digital compact cameras, the possibility exists that small particles of metal plating may peel off from the casing part surrounding the lens. Sony will offer a free of charge replacement of the casing containing the applicable part surrounding the lens. Click through / read on for the applicable serial numbers.

Microsoft Hardware has announced LifeCam Cinema, which is allegedly the first consumer webcam on the PC to offer widescreen video with a native 720p sensor. The sensor captures HD quality video at up to 30 fps, and the LifeCam Cinema webcam has auto-focus on board to keep the footage sharp even during close-ups. Maintaining a high frame rate even in the lowest lighting, LifeCam Cinema helps ensure that users look well lit and that video remains smooth. LifeCam Cinema will be available in September for the estimated retail price of $79.95.

Apple has issued an update to the Apple iPhoto application. Version 8.1 adds several new print product options to iPhoto ‘09. These include three new photo book themes with travel-oriented designs: Tropical, Asian and Old World; and a avariety of new holiday greeting cards themes. Additionally, hardcover books can be ordered in a new extra-large (13” x 10”) size. The update is recommended for all users of iPhoto ‘09.

Website: Apple iPhoto 8.1