Photo.net Newsletter: July 2, 2009

Hi %%First Name%%,

Summer is officially here in the Northern Hemisphere. Winter is officially here in the Southern Hemisphere. Those of you around the equator? Enjoy another cold drink with an umbrella I suppose and toast to those of us who have to deal with the various seasons.

In this newsletter, I’m happy to announce that ImagePRO 2.0 is up and running. I’m also happy to announce a new Photo.net “website creation” forum. I’m happy to have finished my LX3/G10/GX200 comparison article. However, I’m not particularly happy to announce the end of Kodachrome film. Life is filled with ups and downs, and with the sun shining it’s hard to be too bummed about anything.

Finally, the monthly project is a little different this month. We’re going to do another “global moment” theme where we pick one moment in time and all submit photos from that exact time (or as close to it as possible). Read further down for more details.

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

Sincerely,

Josh Root

Photo.net Director of Community

ImagePRO 2.0 is up and running!

We are pleased to announce that the new version of ImagePRO (2.0) has launched! ImagePRO is an easy to use system for setting up a photography website with galleries, slideshows, bio contact and sales info. ImagePRO is currently included free with your Photo.net subscription.

To log into your personal ImagePRO site, simply click this sign-in link and input your standard Photo.net username/password (note: the sign-in link also appears in the upper right corner of the ImagePRO directory page).

To help you get started, we’ve assembled a user guide with basic information about using the new ImagePRO system. We also setup an ImagePRO help forum on Photo.net for you to post questions and interact with other ImagePRO users.

To give you an idea of what others are doing with ImagePRO, here are two examples of ImagePRO sites created by PN photographers:

• Autumn Paciorek Photography

• Chris Palmer Photography

You can access the full directory of ImagePRO sites by clicking here.

New Photo.net Site Features

New Forum: “Website Creation”

Having a website is almost mandatory for professional photographers these days and for the rest of us, it’s a useful way to present and share our images. Website creation can be complicated and graphic design isn’t often a photographer’s strong suit. To that end we created this forum to share tips and tricks of creating websites with each other. Post your questions, thoughts, or opinions and help yourself and others with the tricky task of building a website.

PLEASE NOTE: This forum is for help with websites, and as such there will be some amount of linking and “please look at this website”. But just like the rest of the photo.net forums, the Website Creation forum is not a place for free advertising or self promotion. Please respect our community and its members by not blatantly posting link after link just to drive traffic to your site. Anyone doing so will have their ability to post in the Website Critique forum limited or removed.

Click here for the Photo.net Website Creation forum.

New Articles

The End of an Era: Kodak to Discontinue Kodachrome 64

Kodak has announced that after 74 years, they are discontinuing the last of their Kodachrome films, K64. You can see the full press release further down on the page. Now, before we get into a frenzy of wailing, teeth gnashing, and hotheaded accusations, I think everyone needs to admit something: We all knew this day was coming. Yes, everyone knows that the song says, “Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away”. But Paul Simon also says in that same song, “I can read the writing on the wall”...

Read the rest of Josh’s opinion about the Kodachrome announcement.

Comparison of Panasonic LX3, Canon G10, & Ricoh GX200

The three cameras in this article, Panasonic LX3, Canon G10, & Ricoh GX200, are all on the top of many people’s “current best prosumer camera” and “cameras I’m interested in” lists. They offer a lot of features and high image quality in a smaller package than any DSLR. Which one of the three is the right choice for the advanced photographer? Well that depends on what you are looking for…

Read the Comparison of Panasonic LX3, Canon G10, & Ricoh GX200.

Olympus E-P1 Hands-on Preview

Olympus recently announced their new micro four thirds super compact E-P1 DSLR. Hannah Thiem was able to test-drive the camera before it hits the market and share her thoughts with you. Ergonomically, this camera feels very good in my hands. It feels solid (partly due to the fact that the body is stainless steel), rugged, and able to withstand some heavy use.

Read on…Olympus E-P1 Hands-on Preview

Olympus E-420 Review

Not the newest camera in Olympus’ lineup, but a valuable entry-level or travel camera. One of our members, Steve Leeb, takes a look at the creative aspects of the E-420 and is impressed that this little camera inspires him to photograph more. Isn’t that the ultimate goal in the end?

Read the full Olympus E-420 Review

Featured Member Photographer: Daniel Bayer

Daniel was born in England, raised in Southern California. He has been shooting for 34 years, 18 professionally. He’s based in Aspen, Colorado, for the past 11 years. Daniel shoots advertising, stock, editorial and fine art. Not content to just document the outdoors, he makes the activities and environments he shoots part of his life. As such, he has climbed all 54 of the Colorado “Fourteeners” and Mt. Rainier.

“One of the main reasons I do outdoor photography is that it is a great excuse to be patient and listen to nature. I often hear people complain about good or bad weather for shooting outdoors, I just don’t agree with that—I get outside and let chance favor my prepared mind.” -Daniel Bayer

Read More »

Samples from Daniel’s portfolio:

View Daniel’s entire portfolio »

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What’s Happening In Our Forums

• Film and Processing (190 Responses) Kodachrome K64 has been discontinued...
• Digital Darkroom (91 Responses) Are 16 bit scans = 8 bit scans converted to 16 bit in CS2?
• Olympus and Four-Thirds (57 Responses) Olympus Micro-4/3 "Digital Pen": swing and a miss
• Beginner Photography Questions (25 Responses) Developing B&W Film

Go to Photo.net Forums »

Global Moment in Time: July 18 2009, 3:00 UTC

We’re going to do another “Global Moment in Time” project. July 18 2009, 3:00 UTC

The purpose of this project is to get a group of photographers from around the world at approximately the same moment. This project isn’t a stickler for shooting at the same exact second, and long exposures are supported (and encouraged). However, try to start your exposure as close to 3:00 UTC/GMT as possible. Last year, we went with 15:00 UTC as our time so I figure it’s only fair to switch it up by 12 hours and go with 3:00 UTC. I think the plan to do it on a weekend is also a good idea. So, the date is July 18, 2009, 3:00 UTC.

The Monthly Project submission system will be shut down until July 18th. This is to keep people from being confused and submitting shots that weren’t taken for the project. Once the system is reactivated, people will have until the end of the month to get their shots submitted. That should be plenty of time for our film based photographers to get things developed and scanned.

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 Love and Marriage project page and see all the wonderful images that were uploaded. Here are a few that caught my eye:

Editors’ Picks

We have a new Editors’ Picks for your enjoyment: HDR Photography.

Samples:

Also, take a look at some of the most popular Editors’ Picks from previous months:

• Summer Photography
• Abstract Linear Photos
• Night Photography