By Mario Aguilar and Nick Stango
Gizmodo

A zillion new smartphones are going to be announced soon at Mobile World Congress, each promising camera advancements that may or may not live up to the hype. Before we get there, though, we wanted to take stock of how good the cameras are in the smartphones you can buy now. Here's how the flagships measure up.

Wouldn't it be cool to see photographs projected on the sides of iconic buildings and skyscrapers in downtown Boston?

That's the dream of some local photographers and visual artists who are working to put together a festival next fall that would use buildings and huge projectors to highlight some of the best local photography.

By Kate Passaro
Rockland

Teresa asked me to write about my experience at the Rebirth Workshop last spring in Mississippi. Now that it's been several months since I returned, I'm happy to look back and provide an overview of what we did that made it such an intense experience for me as a photographer.

As you know, many of you have had trouble getting the photos you submitted to the past few contests - June's 'My Backyard', July's 'Need for Speed', August's 'Center It', and October's 'The Color Green'. It's a problem that has plagued every department here that uses the photo submit tool, from News to Sports to A&E.

One of our newsroom developers has given us a snippet of code to add in front of the code for the form you fill out to attach and submit your photos. Early reports are that it works. So I've added it to our August and October contest forms; if you have tried to submit a photo, but didn't get a confirmation or see your photo in those galleries, please try again.

Here are the links to those pages:

June 'My Backyard' contest

July 'Need for Speed' contest

August 'Center It' contest

October 'The Color Green' contest

Sorry for the hassle you've had to endure ... meanwhile, we've signed a contract with a photo-upload company called Cell Journalist whose software we think you'll like. I'll let you know when we switch to that platform.

Because of what organizers describe as an overwhelming response, the Panopticon Gallery, inside the Hotel Commonwealth in Kenmore Square, has decided to extend its Harold Feinstein exhibit until Jan. 8.

"Harold Feinstein | A Retrospective" displays about 50 years' worth of some of Feinstein's best-known black-and-white images, from the boardwalk at Coney Island and the streets of New York, to his tour of duty as a grunt in Korea.

I have added it to the entry describing this month's contest, or you can just use this link:

Upload your photo entry here, and see others' entries.

By Consumer Reports magazine

Unless all you ever do with photographs is text them or upload them to Facebook, you need a real camera. Even models that are barely larger than a phone offer optical zoom (some as high as 10x), along with a wider variety of controls than a phone. Advanced models let you shoot more types of subjects under more varied conditions, including very low light.

October is our color theme month. I was tempted to use red or blue, since they are nice, strong colors. But this being an election year, choosing one of those colors is fraught with danger. So lest I be accused of favoring Democrats or Republicans, let's go with green.

Hello friends:

As you can see, it has been difficult for me to keep up with updating all of the various elements on the front page of RAW that we created to highlight all of our features. That page was created in our content management system and put in place of the traditional blog index page.

By Paul Marotta
Perfect Bokeh Photography

As an editor and curator, I look at a lot of images every day and, by necessity, have to look at them from the standpoint of their potential application. This particular contest, Famous Places, lends itself to that concept quite easily. So I thought it might help fellow shooters out there to look at their potential shots from that standpoint, and in particular for three specific applications: magazine, book, and CD covers.

Which means there are heavy technical considerations to take into account when shooting.

By Ben Rifkin
Sudbury

For years before I started college, I knew I wanted to spend a semester studying abroad, but I wasn't sure where. By my junior year at Brandeis, I made up my mind to travel somewhere off the beaten path, and, of course, Madagascar is pretty far off the beaten path for someone like me.

Everybody likes to take great photos at scenic locales, but sometimes it's hard to know exactly where to go to get that fantastic shot that's going to end up framed over your fireplace, given as a treasured gift, or - hopefully! - sold at a show.

He writes:

With all we have learned about the Rule of Thirds -- and seen how effective it is -- why would you ever center your main subject in a photo? Here's what some of the pros say:

Some local photo exhibits worth visiting:

Today's roundup of photo news, tips, etc.:

Photography Bay reports that the price of the Canon 5D Mark III body has dropped $150, from $3,499 to $3,349, and that the whole kit is available for $4,149, down from $4,299.

Photography Bay also discovered that the Nikon D800, which is scarce, appears to be in stock on Newegg.com. The price for the body only is $3,000. /1001/noisy/cameras/ has a list of more retailers that are carrying the camera, updated regularly.

"The Panasonic Lumix G5 is an accomplished mirrorless camera that upgrades its excellent predecessor in a number of significant ways in order to keep up with the fast-moving competition. A higher price tag means that it's not quite the bargain that the G3 was, but we can still highly recommend this realistic alternative to a bigger and bulkier DSLR."

Read the full review here

Back in February of 2011, I posted a note from Janet Claffey of Newburyport telling us of the passing of a dear friend of hers who was a RAW enthusiast - Barbara Bailey. Recently, Janet took Second Place in "The Color Yellow" contest, and sent me this note:

Canon's long-awaited entry to the mirrorless market has arrived, and DigitalCameraHQ isn't entirely sure it was worth the wait (if you were waiting at all).

Essentially a slimmed-down version of the new T4i, the M's claim to fame is the multi-touch screen from which most of the camera's settings are controlled. The camera is thus aimed squarely at the low end of the market, sure to please the audience with its slim size and impressive autofocus, but not bogged down with the external controls or viewfinder an enthusiast might crave.

The most interesting thing about the new system isn't the camera itself but the lens it comes packaged with, a 22mm f2 pancake lens.

Read more about the M on DigitalCameraHQ.

Even though we usually highlight amateur photographers in this feature, I thought it would be helpful to have Paul Marotta, who judges many of our RAW monthly contests, talk about how he moved into the professional ranks and give us all some photo tips. You can see a sample of his work in a gallery linked at the end of this entry. To see his work in person, visit the Artful Heart Gallery in Arlington or Workbar in Boston.

By Paul Marotta
Perfect Bokeh Photography, Arlington

Can anyone ever be thankful to have been let go from an executive position during the economic downturn? Would someone deliberately undertake building a photography career at this stage of life? These are questions I wouldn't begin to presume to answer for anyone else, and at times I'm not sure I even have my own answers!

Here's a pretty interesting video by the Associated Press in which photographers and editors show off some of the underwater and remote-controlled cameras and equipment they will use to cover the Olympics in London, starting this week.

Thinking of ditching your separate camera and moving to just using your phone for all your photos? What apps should you go for?

Instagram made headlines recently after being bought by Facebook for $1 billion. What does it include, and what else is out there?

Check out this gallery of photo apps.