Shutterfly’s Picture Perfect Summer microsite provides suggestions for vacationers on everything from the best light for the best pictures to how to complete fun, vacation-themed “picture projects.  In addition, site visitors can earn free prints for taking advantage of Shutterfly’s summer deals, including registering for the Shutterfly Dream Vacation Sweepstakes. The grand prize is airfare and seven nights in the Caribbean at Moon Palace Casino, Golf & Spa Resort, provided by Orbitz.com.

Website: Picture Perfect Summer

The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust is calling all budding photographers to get snapping at their local WWT Wetland Centre before the end of August for the chance to win Nikon equipment worth over £,1000 in the WWT Nikon Photography competition 2009. The competition aims to capture the variety of WWT’s nine centres across three categories: ‘WWT Nikon Photo of the Year’, ‘WWT Nikon Junior Photo of the Year’ and ‘WWT Nikon Digiscoping Photo of the Year’. The main rule of the competition is that all photos submitted must have been taken at one of the nine WWT centres in the UK. WWT is hoping that the competition will encourage people to visit a WWT centre and even help support the charity by joining as a member. Closing date for entries is Monday 7 September 2009.

Photographers have until 1st September 2009 to submit their entries to the 2009 Fujifilm Distinctions Awards. This year, the Awards are open to photographers right across the world. As in previous years the Awards has an open brief and is open to any photographer - professional, enthusiast or student. The only stipulation is that submissions must have been originated on film from Fujifilm’s range of professional or consumer films.

Website: 2009 Distinctions Awards

Twicli - a Twitter-based platform created by Sam Street and Sean Miller, London based co-founders of Picli - has been expanded to include a number of additional service elements. These include support for audio uploaded via the web and via email, tagging of your Twitter friends into your photos, Friend Activity monitoring, a Multimedia tweet box with full control over how your tweet will appear, mixed content sets, optional geotagging, larger file sizes and higher quality video.

Calumet Photographic have released a series of dates across the UK with multi-award winning photographer Uzair Kharawala.  ‘Business & Beyond’ is a full-day seminar and will be held at Calumet stores in Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh, London, Belfast & Birmingham. Uzair will be presenting on how to run your business through these tough times.  A variety of interesting and exciting subjects & topics will be covered to help you grow your business. The price is £45.00 including refreshments & lunch.

AKVIS Software has released version 9.0 of AKVIS Sketch, its application that converts photos to colour and B&W pencil drawings and watercolour paintings, for Windows and Macintosh. Version 9.0 of AKVIS Sketch has a new improved algorithm for photo-to-sketch conversion (the option to use the old algorithm remains). The program has a new parameter field for edge definition. Now it is possible to manipulate the thickness and sharpness of the outlines. The new version also adds the possibility to change the saturation of colour strokes when using colour pencil drawing mode. AKVIS Sketch is available as a stand-alone application, as well as a plugin to a photo editor. AKVIS Sketch Home License (plug-in or standalone) sells for $72 USD or 55 Euro,  downloadable from www.akvis.com. Registered users of the previous versions can ugrade to version 9.0 for $39.

Phottix, a global manufacturer of photo accessories, announced the official opening of its Distributor for UK and Ireland today, Phottix UK Ltd. Phottix professional photo accessories have long been popular in the UK and Ireland, but prior to the establishment of the UK distribution partnership customers had to make their purchases from unofficial overseas websites. The new company, Phottix UK Ltd, will provide an official channel for Phottix quality photo accessories, and will greatly enhance customer service experience and product support, the company says. The Phottix product range includes unique units like the Phottix Hero wireless camera remote control (pictured),which operates over a video link, the Phottix GeoOne GPS camera geotagging unit, the Phottix O-Flash affordable ring light, the Phottix Nikos digital timer remote release and the Phottix Cleon II wireless/wired remote shutter release, as well as comprehensive replacement accessories ranging from camera grips to batteries, flash accessories, filters and complete studio lighting systems.

Website: Phottix UK

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Young Photographer Awards is stuill open for entries, but the final submission deadline is getting closer and closer. The overall winner of this year’s competition will win £1,000 worth of Olympus vouchers. This is in addition to the range of Olympus cameras on offer to the winners of categories including under 12 years, 12 to 18 years, pet personalities and the Olympus portfolio prize. The overall winner, picked from those who scoop the category titles, will also be given the chance to join the RSPCA’s award-winning chief photographer Andrew Forsyth on an exclusive photoshoot. Previous winners have been able to capture the magic of a seal release with their new cameras, while last year’s overall winner 12-year-old Molly Armiger enjoyed a day out helping release rehabilitated ducks and hedgehogs at the RSPCA’s East Winch Wildlife Centre. The deadline for entries is midnight on 7 September, 2009, for those submitted via www.rspca.org.uk/ypa or 5pm on 24 August, 2009, for postal entries.

Businessman Simon Brown is urging keen photographers to take a different view of London, by joining one of the new CameraTrails tours, starting at the end of this month. Suitable for either beginners or intermediate photographers, Simon says that both tourists and Londoners alike will be both startled and inspired by gaining a different perspective of the city. Three main tours will shortly be available, focusing not only on the main tourist hotspots of London but also on the lesser-travelled routes, exploring aspects of urban decay and regeneration, culture and diversity. The first tour takes place on Sunday 23 August at 12pm, and focuses on the South Bank region, whilst the second is on Friday 28 August at 9.30am, concentrating on a different perspective of London’s greatest monuments.  Prices are £70 per person.

Website: Camera Trails

iPhone app publisher, Unique Apps, has recently released a new iPhone application called PhotoScatter; which allows users to submit photos to most of the top photo sharing sites on the Internet. Version 1 of PhotoScatter supports the following sites: Facebook, Flickr, Shutterfly, PhotoBucket, Picasa, and Twitter (TwitPic). More photo sharing sites will be added to future versions, the company says. Currently retailing at $0.99, PhotoScatter can be purchased in the iTunes App Store.

Home Is Where You Make It, a Walker Arts Center residency project by artists Lauri Lyons and Tish Jones is raising public awareness about the homeless youth population in the Twin Cities. The interactive installations provide an opportunity for homeless youth to develop and display their artwork to a broad audience, and are paired with a three-week long series of artist led workshops where homeless youth will write personal narratives and shoot black and white portraits. The portraits will then be digitally enlarged and mounted onto cardboard and assembled by the teens into 5’ x 7’ ‘houses’ on the street. The resulting structures will challenge common perceptions of the homeless population and literally bring a face to the issues they encounter daily. Home Is Where You Make It runs until 21 August 2009.

JP Distribution has just announced the Ilford Galerie Back to School offer for 2009. Available as of 1 September, they will be offering three packs of A4 sized Ilford Galerie inkjet photo paper for £25. The offer includes 50 sheets of Smooth Heavyweight Matt paper, plus 25 sheets of Smooth Gloss and 25 sheets of Smooth Pearl. Furthermore, customers will also receive an extra 10 sheets free of each of the Smooth Pearl and Smooth Gloss inkjet papers, making a total of 120 sheets.

The DigiDude is a community designed, funky, portable camera tripod and keychain. Simply screw off your dude’s head and pull out his retractable legs for an on-the-go camera mount. DigiDudes are easily attached to your keychain or camera bag and will mount most point and shoot cameras. All DigiDudes come fully equipped with retractable and bendable legs for adjustable camera height & grip as well as a key ring for easy portability. The Quirky Community added some personality to the Dudes. Choose from one of the five: Pinky Scorsese, Snot Buster, iChomp, G-bling-Money-Son, and BoltBot, each with their own style and attitude. DigiDude is the eighth product designed and developed by the quirky community since quirky’s launch on June 2nd. quirky gives everyone the chance to get product ideas out of their heads and onto shelves. Each week quirky’s community collaborates to select and produce one new product idea. This week ends the development of the DigiDude and it is now available for sale at quirky’s online store for $19.99.

Website: The Quirky Store

Jessops have introduced their range of quality photo inkjet paper, which comes in matt, satin or gloss, and offers vivid colours, high whiteness and a smudge-resistant instant-dry finish. The range of Jessops photo quality gloss and satin inkjet papers have been developed to provide the combined benefits of a high white base colour with extended light stability. These new grades provide up to a 30% improvement in base paper light stability when compared to Jessops previous grades. Jessops quality gloss and satin inkjet papers start from £6.50 for a pack of 50 sheets.

The Lightbank 350 is a powerful mains operated continuous lighting kit with 7 x 50w compact fluorescent bulbs in each head. The bulbs are 5400k balanced daylight compact fluorescent bulbs so are perfect for both photography and videography. There are three switches on the back of the unit that allow bulbs to be turned off. You can turn off one, two or four bulbs or any combination giving complete flexibility on the amount of light output. Included in the kit are two Lightbank 350 heads with fourteen 50w compact fluorescent lightbulbs, two diffusers and two light stands. The Lightbank 350 studio lighting kit has an introductory price of £289.99.

Website: Lightbank 350

S-t-r-e-t-c-h your talent and take your photographic abilities to new heights with Photo Iconic’s Mountains & Panoramas photography course in the Tatra Mountains in October. Focusing on horizontal and vertical panoramic photography, and on landscape and black and white images, this tour will venture into the Tatra Mountains National Park with hand-picked locations specifically chosen for panoramic photography. This stunning region of Central Europe offers amazing opportunities for photography, with emerald lakes and valleys, waterfalls and the high Tatra and low Tatra peaks. The course is open to just seven guests, and will cater for all levels of photographic skill. It is suitable for digital and film photographers and for 35mm, medium or large format users. The week-long holiday costs £985, with everything included. And for every booking made, Photo Iconic and Mountain Paradise will donate £100.00 to the Tatra Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation set up in conjunction with the Animals on the Edge program of Living Earth to provide funding for conservation initiatives throughout Tatra Mountains National Park.

VICE Magazine have teamed up with Olympus to stage a special photography project that aims to showcase the hidden creative talents of four cultural icons. This project celebrates the 50th birthday of the design of the classic Olympus Pen and marks the release of its digital successor, the new Olympus E?P1. For Stories of the Eye, Daisy Lowe, Alice Dellal, Miquita Oliver and Lovefoxxx will document their lives through the “eye” of the E?P1, according to their chosen themes. Over the course of six?weeks the girls will upload their photos to the campaign’s home, where users can browse the photos. The project is accompanied by a photographic competition, in which entrants upload their own photographs and each of the girls will be judging the submissions to find a winner for their theme. Each winner will be awarded a brand new Olympus E-P1 worth £699, and the opportunity to exhibit their photos next to Daisy, Alice, Miquita or Lovefoxxx’s photos at the Stories of the Eye exhibition.

Website: Stories of the Eye
Review: Read our in-depth review of the Olympus E-P1

Samsung has unveiled the 12.2-megapixel Samsung ST1000 camera with built-in geo-tagging, Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi connectivity. Offering consumers an ‘always on’ experience, users can now send and post pictures almost as quickly as they take them, whilst the GPS capabilities will keep track of exactly where each picture was shot. Using Bluetooth 2.0 technology, users can wirelessly beam their favourite images to other compatible mobile phone devices. With the Wi-Fi technology, users can email photos direct from their camera and upload their photos or videos to selected popular social networking websites including Facebook, Picasa, YouTube, without needing to connect to a PC. Smart Touch AF is on board to let you quickly change the position of the active AF point. Equipped with a 5x zoom lens and available in silver/red, black/black, red/black, black/gold and blue/grey colours, the Samsung ST1000 allows users to capture twelve-megapixel stills and 720p high-definition video clips. UK availability is slated for late August. The US version of the ST1000 is called the Samsung CL65, and can be yours for $399.99 from September onwards.