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Photo.net Newsletter: August 2008


 

 

Hi %%First Name%%,

Summer, glorious summer! (Or, if you prefer, winter, freezing winter)

I hope all of our northern hemisphere members are out taking advantage of the nice weather making thousands of images to tide us all over through the cold season. And if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, I hope that you are using the cold dark days to discuss and learn more about photography so you can encourage the rest of us when the weather is reversed in December. And if you live in the tropics, foo on you. You enjoy beautiful sun and sand all year round. You should probably invite the rest of us for a visit and a tall mojito.

Lots of activity in the photo.net newsletter this month, we've been busy around here. Multiple new site features and upgrades, many new articles (some from first-time photo.net authors), two different "featured members" and of course another monthly project.

As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, please send them to me directly at contact@photo.net. Enjoy the newsletter!

Sincerely,

Josh Root

Photo.net Chief Admin & Director of Community

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New Photo.net Shopping Partner

We're excited to announce that you will now notice a new "store" tab up at the top of photo.net pages. We have implemented a new partnership with an ecommerce vendor named BoomJ. It's the same deal as with most partnerships, shopping at BoomJ supports photo.net. So take a look around and give them an opportunity to earn your business. Read the original announcement (including some common questions) by clicking here. Visit the store by clicking here.

To start things off, BoomJ has extended a special offer for Photo.net users. Visit today and take $10 off all orders of $75 or more. Simply enter coupon code PHOTO831E at checkout. Offer ends 8/30/08.

Please Create a Security Question for Your Account

Photo.net now has a security question you can use to reset your email in the event that you lose access to the email account that you registered with. PLEASE everyone go to your workspace, click on "update basic information" (or click that link) and set up a security question and an answer. It uses up a fantastic amount of my time, and creates a significant amount of annoyance for users when they cannot gain access to their accounts due to having not updated their email address.

Current Photo Of The Week

for the week of 08.18.08

This week's Photo of the Week is by photo.net member Tuan Trinh. It is an image of a young wide-eyed child being held in the lap of an adult.

This image combines a couple of very interesting elements. To begin with, it is hard to deny that the child is a very cute kid. But beyond that, we get into the "who/where/why" questions. The adult is hidden aside from hands, arms and knees. We do not know if it is a mother or father or even grandmother. The look of the hands seems to indicate an older adult, but that is the only clue we have. Is the child being held, or protected, or played with? What part of the world is this in? Just what is the rest of the story?

Have something to say about the Photo of the Week? Please post your thoughts and discuss the image with other photo.net users.

This Week's Winner

Week of 08.11.08

Week of 08.04.08

See All Past Winners »

Latest Articles

Plenty of new editorial content this month. We have articles for the expert and the beginner, the gear hound and the philosopher. With nine different articles here, you are bound to find something you are interested in.

I am happy to introduce a number of new photo.net authors. They will be contributing tutorials and articles to the site going forward.

  • Rick Sammon has published 28 books, including Face to Face—The Complete Guide to Photographing People and Idea to Image. Rick will be contributing articles to photo.net on the topics of travel photography and general photographic technique.
  • Bryan F Peterson is a contributing editor of Outdoor Photographer Magazine, Popular Photography, and Imaging Magazine, as well as author of four popular photography “How-to” books including Understanding Exposure and Understanding Shutter Speed. Bryan will be enriching photo.net with articles on basic photography tips.
  • Tony Luna is the president of Tony Luna Creative Services, a Creative Consultancy, offering workshops, private consultations, lectures and classes on building and developing your creative careers. Tony will be contributing articles to photo.net on the topic of photography business tips and advice.
  • Patrick Lavoie is a professional photo retoucher and digital technician as well as a specialist in color management and fine art printing. Patrick shares his photo retouching techniques and professional digital workflow to give us an insider’s edge on what it’s like in the fashion world of digital editing.

New Site Features

 

The ability to use stylized punctuation or accented characters on photo.net

After too many years of seeing question marks when you copy and past from word, or strange gibberish when you try to use a GPB symbol or an accent grave, photo.net will now display these characters the way they are supposed to be displayed.

Auction system removed from classifieds

The "auction" system in the photo.net classifieds has not worked for literally years, it just confused people with its pointless existence. So it has been removed. The photo.net classifieds are a great place to buy and sell gear. But if you REQUIRE an auction system, ebay is a far better place to go.

Link to sender's photo.net page when being contacted

When someone uses the "contact this member" function to send you an email, the email will automatically include a link to the sending member's PN page. That way you do not have to try and guess from a first name or email address who is talking to you.

Related Images Function

The goal of the "related images" feature is to use a set of criteria to show viewers images that they will probably like if they like the image they are currently viewing. However, the "related image" feature isn't going to show you 25 images of fishing if you click on it when viewing a fishing image. It uses a set of criteria based on views, number of times marked interesting, people having marked that image "interesting" that share a similar "interesting" list with you, ratings, and so on. At some point in the future, we will be able to integrate image tagging into the criteria as well. That will significantly help focus the results into a single subject genre if that is what people want.

Overall, the goal is to get more people looking at more images and digging deeper into the wealth of images and users we have at photo.net.

Upgraded Interesting People Info

The "People who find you interesting" page now has a couple more options and info on it. First off, the total number of people who find you interesting is displayed at the top of the page. Secondly, you can now sort the list by "date added as interesting" to more easily see who has added you most recently. And finally, we have set up an alert system so, if you wish, you can be notified when someone adds you as "interesting".

Featured Member Photographer: Kenvin Pinardy

Love it or hate it, Photoshop has changed photography forever. Far from just replicating traditional wet darkroom work, Photoshop gave photographers options that Ansel Adams could never have dreamed of (that may not be true, Ansel was a future-thinking kind of guy). Textures, cloning, layers, masks, all give photographers a whole new set of tools to create their photographic visions.

"It may seem like I use a lot of post-processing in my photos, but I very seldom change the actual situation, I just make it more dramatic. I use PS CS3 in editing my photos, I never use any plug-in to make the photos more dramatic. I often use a pattern for the background like wood, old wall, sand, old paper etc." -Kenvin Pinardy

Read More »

Samples from the member's portfolio:

 

View Kenvin's Entire Portfolio »

Project Of The Month: Hands At Work

Sometimes the best way to show something is to break it down into its most simple aspect. When showing someone at work, I find that a great way to do this is to tightly focus on what their hands are doing. Hands at work can be a fascinating way to create a portrait of a person.

No, there is nothing original about taking a photo of hands doing their work. But the originality is in the hands themselves, not in the image. Hands can be just as expressive as faces are. They can tell stories, evoke memories, and educate us all at the same time. This month, find yourself a set of interesting hands and photograph them doing the work that is important to them.

See all of the Monthly Projects (and submission instructions) on the Monthly Project Index page. Also, be sure to take a look at last month's "Macro & Tiny Things" project page and see all the wonderful images that were uploaded. Here are a few that caught my eye:

 

Editors' Picks

Street Photography Images

Samples:


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