Where can I find info on the mining soft fork?

https://steemit.com/@steemitblog is the account on which announcements are made, so far very few info has slipped.

Steempress looks great! As to the upvote/commenting, I started looking at SMTs.

Smts are very promising ! But since nothing is out yet. I'd rather code on stuff that exists and is testable.

I'm working on an app that I want to allow users to post pictures and have upvotes/comments integrated into the Steem environment to be able to earn for their engagement.

Kinda like https://steepshot.io/ ? aka Instagram for steem ?

Am I looking in the right place?

I don't really get what you mean by that.