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« October 2017 | Main | December 2017 »

November 30, 2017

Are you a beta user?

20160921_085824_1.stars_death_valley_jrp_110px.jpgIt is snowing this morning at my "southern" basecamp and I am looking forward to get out this afternoon hoping for some animals against the white backdrop.

The "motivation thread" from last week got some very good input. If you haven't read that yet, I suggest you do that. See the discussion on motivation

For me personally, motivation is not so much about using good gear as to really dig in and understand what went wrong, when it does; being failure-driven so to say. By trying to learn from my failures, I expect that my work can improve over time.

From failures to guarantees of continuous success; The development team at Nikonians is looking for dedicated volunteers that want to participate in our new "System Beta Group". The group will be limited to ten members, granted special access rights to testing grounds and it becomes an integral part of our future expansion.

For more information on this, please see my post in the About Nikonians forum

This might be a good time of the year to create your own custom signature that you can apply to your photographs. Team member Dave Summers walks you through how to achieve that. Read the article

20160921_085824_1.stars_death_valley_jrp_800px.jpg
Starry Sky in the Death Valley National Park by J. Ramon Palacios (jrp)

Another good (re)read might be Ramóns how-to on starry night photography with the "500 rule".

I am wishing you a good start on the upcoming weekend, where ever your photography and the light might take you
Bo

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Posted by bgs at 10:18 AM

November 23, 2017

How to stay motivated?

20171121_140626_1.bald_eagle_pixures_110px.jpgBack to my southern basecamp looking through members images in our "Master your vision" galleries, something I seriously enjoy doing since it gives me a lot of good inspiration. I encourage you to do the same :)

Our Master your vision galleries contain a total of 18 main categories with everything from Astro, Glamour and Landscape to Travel, Underwater and Wildlife photography.

Please do welcome our new writer Kim Brasel (kjbrasel). She has been writing up a short article on playing tourist in your local area and that you don't need to travel far to get good shooting opportunities.

I am wishing you a great rest of the week with plenty of usable light :)
Bo

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The other items for this week are:

Inspiration
Member Bill Naiman (pixures) was interviewed by Marsha for this week's I Am Nikonians article. Good photographs to get inspired by! To the article

20171121_140626_1.bald_eagle_pixures_600pxh-2.jpg
Bald Eagle
I loved the body position as the eagle began to swoop down for a snag.
Nikon D600, Nikon 80-400mm, @ 400mm, f/8, 1/1600s ISO 320

Motivation
What is keeping you motivated? Read what other members say about staying motivated. If you have any tips & tricks, do share them (login required).

Mastering the art
In the fourth part of mastering the art of photography series, we dig into the areas we have under control vs. the ones we don't. There are also a few action items mentioned worth trying out. Let us know your thoughts - and actions - in the Café.

Nikonians Community - It is all about you
Thanks to recent member feedback, we have improved the "Read new messages" page. It now shows small thumbnails in case a thread contains images and has the new page navigation arrows as well.

We have further improved the mobile display in forums and articles, making sure that the read new link and related ones are at the top of the screen.

Do you have anything you feel we should have and that you are missing, please do let us know in the About Nikonians forum.

Posted by bgs at 9:18 AM

November 16, 2017

We have improvements for you

_PJJ5256-110px.jpgThanks to additional traveling this week, I am keeping this one "short and sweet".

We have some new articles that are due out next week, including another Mastering the Art of Photography, please stay tuned. If you still have not read the first three you might want to do that.

Ramón has gotten some great input on his Premium article "Incorrect Focus" in his Seven Deadly Sins series. No matter what your thoughts on DOF are, his Kabul girl is a great idea to be inspired by.

Our ballet dancers keep on jumping high in the air thanks to all of you creative, inspiring photographers supporting us through your postings, feedback and also by your direct financial help in our fundraising and by your contributing memberships.

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A ballet dancer in the last evening light with the Danube river behind her, as seen by Pascal Baetens (pbaetens)

Not only have the community backend team been working on articles, but some improvements have been launched as well (see below). If you have feedback on these, please let us know in the About Nikonians forum. We are working hard to improve some major areas relating to give your work more exposure and I expect to have more information on this mid December.

I am wishing you many pleasurable photography moments for the rest of this week :-)
Bo (bgs)

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The other items for this week are:

The community - It is all about you
Posting messages improved
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Clicking on a word or selecting multiple words with the keyboard when posting/editing a message allows you to select bold, italics, unordered list, ordered list or linking. If linking selected, a separate window opens up where you can enter the URL (address)

We hope this makes it easier for you to format your messages.

New navigation buttons
We have improved the navigation (a) when looking at a forum and (b) when reading a message thread.

a) You will find new left/right arrow buttons at the top of the page, to the left of "Post new message" (or on top of it on smaller screens) and at the bottom of each page.
Screen Shot 2017-11-16 at 09.14.08.png
These should make it easier to navigate between forum pages. This navigation replaces the older version showing page numbers.

(b) In addition, and at the same location, we have introduced left/right arrows on message pages, for easy navigation between messages when reading.
Screen Shot 2017-11-16 at 09.14.27.png

Posted by bgs at 9:37 AM

November 8, 2017

Is incorrect focus a deadly sin?

20171103_092354_1.cattle_egret_topper1946_600pxh-110.jpgHope your photography is doing well, no matter outside temperatures and the weather conditions that you might experience at your location. I am packing up at my nordic getaway heading "down south" to continental Europe this week and expect some good shooting opportunities along the way. We have lovely foggy mornings with plenty of roe deer and the odd moose out browsing and I will for sure keep some of Ramón's (jrp) "photography sins" in mind while shooting.

He has extended on his "seven deadly sins of photography" series with a new article, covering the sin of using incorrect focus. This is a premium article available to all members on Silver membership and higher. Read more

I am wishing you enjoyable photography moments behind the lens or screen for the rest of this week :-)
Bo (bgs)

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The other items for this week are:

Inspiration

20171103_092354_1.cattle_egret_topper1946_600pxh.jpg
Cattle Egret by Judie Dunn
Nikon D7100, Tamron 150-600mm @ f/7.1, 1/800s, ISO 800

Member Judie Dunn (topper46) has been interviewed by Marsha (meadowlark2) for this weeks "I am Nikonians" series. She concludes that "Judie is an example of what can be achieved with careful observation of the work of others, study, making an effort to get out and find great subjects, and being alert to creative opportunities." Read more

There has been over 6,000 downloads of the community's eBook "Inspirational Photography #1" - download yours :-)

The community - It is all about you
Give us feedback, please
Ramón and I are using a serious amount of information provided to us by you, helping us prepare for our annual upcoming meeting. One important feedback channel is our survey and if you have not filled it out, please do that since it helps us improve the community further. Survey form

What makes the final image?
Member patinnv asks the good question what defines the line between enhancing an image and manipulation? See her discussion post (login required)

Thumbnails in discussion threads
Some members noticed a serious lag in showing forums heavy with images last week, such as in the contest forums. The lag has been taken care of and the pages are flying again, even when a lot of thumbnails are shown in the topic overviews.

Posted by bgs at 7:01 AM