Newsletter March 2008

News, Reviews, Articles and More from ATP

Did you notice?

I finally got round to changing over 95% of the website (some parts are still a work in progress until I decide what to do with them).

The makeover literally took me, myself and I around 15-17 hours a day for more than 10 days, I am very pale and overweight these days and my office chair has a very life-like imprint of my “behind” on it! Big thanks to AJ and Annie who helped with the template and design.

All Things Photography is now much more manageable from an admin point of view and “site-wide” changes can be made in an instant. Hopefully you will now find navigation a lot easier with the drop down bars and I have already noticed a leap in page views per visitor.

I now need your input please as I would love for the website to become more interactive with its readers in order to build our own little community, so here are a couple of surveys that I would like your help with:

1. Forum

I now get many emails and questions from readers which for the last three years I have been more than happy to answer. I still enjoy the interactivity and will continue to answer all questions put to me however, it is putting a small strain on the time left over to grow the website so;

Would you like to see a forum for both beginners and professionals at ATP? What would you like on it? Please complete the short questionnaire below. I need to know that the forums would be used by enough people to justify adding one so your input is invaluable.

UPDATE: No Need! The questionnaire was a success and the forum is now active! Just register below and join in…

New Photographers Forum (forum now finished…sorry)

1. Readers Gallery

Would you like to see a readers’ image gallery on All Things Photography where you can critique others images and have yours critiqued in return? Each entry would have its own webpage for you to send family and friends to who could also add their comments.

I was thinking of hosting the best image of the week (or month), with credit to the photographer, on the top logo on every page of the website, that’s 10,000 views a day – great exposure!

Readers Gallery

1. Your feedback

I have now added the facility to a few pages where you can add your own comments and feedback which would be massively appreciated. You can even add your own images and videos or slideshows (such as on the destination weddings page) to compliment your writings.

If this goes well over the next few weeks I hope to add new sections where readers can have their own webpage within the site. For now, if you can, please get active and help out by commenting or offering advice and feedback on the following, I need to see if this works.

Note: In return and as thanks for your support, you can add a link back to your website if you have one (No spamming please).

• The Future of Photography. Where do you think we are headed? Do you care?

Have your say

• Destination Wedding Photography. Have you done one? Would you like to?

Have your say

• Canon EOS 5D. I personally think this is one of the best cameras I have ever used! Do you own one? What do you think? Is a 5D Mark II around the corner?

Have your say

• Canon EOS 40D. A stunning prosumer DSLR. Have you got one in your kit bag? Care to share your thoughts and any sample images?

Have your say

• Wedding Photography Tips. Hopefully you have read our section and now are a busy wedding photographer. Do you have any tips for the readers? Images to share? Funny stories? Horror stories? Come on, don’t be shy!

Have your say

Ok, on with the show – what’s new?

Well, obviously with the upgrade and all, I have been fairly busy, plus I am in the middle of moving house. Still, one product released last week has me buzzing and my copy is winging its way to me as we speak.

I talk about Kubota Image Tools quite a bit throughout the site and that is because their products play a huge part in my photography life.

Their Photoshop Actions for one are outstanding and are a constant part of my daily workflow. To make things even better, they have just released a V4 of their Photoshop Action Sets which now includes the brilliant “Action Dashboard” as part of the package.

In fact this tool now comes with all volumes of the action sets.

It is basically, hey why tell you? I have added their promo video on ATP which you can see using the link below. Not only does it show you how great and incredibly helpful this tool is but the short clip also gives you an idea of what to expect in the Volume 4 of the Kubota Artistic Tools.

Photoshop Action Dashboard

Of course, action sets aren’t all that Kubota Image Tools produce, you can see the full range of their products here:

Photoshop Actions and More

I hope to be reviewing most of these over the coming months as well as a bunch of other great products!

Lastly this month and seeing as we are in “feedback mode”, what else would you like to see at All Things Photography – (Keep it clean)? How can we improve the website further and please let us know of any bugs, annoyances or mistakes that you find anywhere on the site.

Thanks to all for reading, I hope you had a great Easter holiday (if you were lucky enough to get one) and I hope you like the new look, more to come ; )

Take care,

Nick

All Things Photography

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