Not a lot going on here? Let's see, we publish a new article on the average of one every three days. We have added book reviews, articles on landscape photography and how to see differently, product reviews, new camera announcements, rantatorials as well as new workshops. That is a lot more than you will get from almost any other site as well as from any one magazine and it is all free. There are three of us at Luminous-Landscape. There is Michael who lately writes articles and does the Endowment. There is Chris who handles productions of videos and then there is me who does it all. I lay out articles, work on improvements to the site infrastructure, write articles, do videos and work with our contributors not to mention negotiate and handle workshops and what is needed to make sure they are the best available in content and instruction.
Yes, things are changing and different. Not just at Luminous-Landscape but in the industry as a whole. We have an upcoming video with Michael, Brooks Jensen and myself as we discuss what we have noticed and heard. While i won't give it all away we are seeing a maturity in the industry as well as the audience of photographers. A few weeks ago I was at a workshop in Buffalo and a close friend of mine was attending. This person and let's call him "P" for now is one of the finest photographers I have met and he is what most of us at Luminous-Landscape are an enthusiast. Notice I don't like the word amateur. I was setting up my tripod and Sony A7II with the Tamron 150-600mm zoom to shoot some details of the location we were at. Well, P comes walking down the sidewalk and I ask where he set up and he says he is set up and shows me his two iPhone 6 pluses. Now, this is a person who owned and bought as well as could afford any camera system there was. He has owned Phase One systems, Leica and just about anything you could imagine. He tells me the iPhone is all he uses as of late and shares with me some stunning images. He's not the only one doing this. While many people have not gone just to iPhones, many photographers have moved to lighter mirrorless systems. You know who you are and there area lot of you. The whole camera segment of what we do is changing very rapidly.
We also notice that most people have mastered the digital aspects of their cameras and are looking to explore how to be better photographers. I have watched a number of photographers grow and develop an image that is distinctly theirs over the years. I also hear that this is what more photographers want as far as content and what we have been delivering more of thankfully to a great number of contributors. Some of the articles you won't agree with and some you will. However, all the articles will invoke thought and sometimes heated and interesting discussions on the forum.
We spent a lot of effort redesigning the site. It had to be done. We needed an infrastructure that the new site gives us to add new features and grow the way we want. We do have a plan. It allowed us to introduce a whole new video streaming delivery system (with optional download too). It will give us a base to have contributors in the near future to directly edit their articles in the site itself. Also, it will allow us to expand in the future with the ability to sell books, e-books and specialty products.
We have a new page header where we try to change out images every week (unless we are traveling as we were last week). We offer 2 images by myself and 2 from Michael. Unlike the old site you can now see these images larger by clicking on the enlarge button and you can pan around to look at details. Plus, we have a gallery of the images published by both Michael and me. We have added a proof reader recently and this person reads and makes corrections on articles (most of them) prior to publication. We listened to our readers on this one.
We also have some great video content coming soon. We have a major multi hour video coming on Landscape Photography. We just finished shooting the C1 and LR update tutorials. These are not ten minute You Tube videos but in depth tutorials of what is new with these two image processor programs. We have some interviews as well as reviews and a new edition of Kevin and Michael's Toy Shop coming. We start production soon on two new camera operational tutorials.
Luminous-Landscape is indicative of where we are in photography as an industry these days. We are changing and adapting to the changing marketplace, the maturity of digital imaging as whole. Change is hard for all of us but it is also exciting. We could have stayed the same and eventually we would have faded away. I don't have to mention the names of big photographic companies that didn't change and are now just memories. Other sites are having the same challenges. There is no real competition in this market. We all talk and compare notes. Luminous-Landscape is not a product review site. There are too may of those. We will use gear and equipment and report our finding but more from a hands on approach. We are not a news aggregator. We won't print press releases. There are plenty of those sites too. If we are invited to a camera manufacturers release announcement we will go and report back whet we learn. Last week it was Phase One's new XF Camera, this week there will be another camera maker's news. We are also not a rumor site. You know where you can go to find out the rumors and leaks of new products coming our way. we have tried hard to retain the essence of what Michael started this site and that is to provide original content and be an educational resource.
The Luminous-Landscape forums is one of the most active forums for photography on the internet. There is a lot of information and opinions and a lot of knowledgeable people contributing. The forum can sometimes be dramatic but is always informative. If you have ideas for new topics we will give them consideration, but we are careful not to over do it.
We will continue to publish good and original content. We will be doing some new things in the future like looking at post processing software options. While we really love doing workshops and we have a number of them available (see our workshop section and Rockhopper Workshop site) we will begin to do somethings differently in 2017. There are a lot of workshops being offered these days by a ton of different photographers. I can count at least a dozen photographers who have been on my previous workshops that are now offering their own workshops to locations we have visited. We consider our workshops different as they are all inclusive, top notch locations, hotels and meals as well as really good instructors. They are at some amazing locations too. If you haven't done a workshop you should consider one. It's just not the instructors and location that makes a workshop but the attendees too. It's always a learning experience but it is also a fun time. Like I said we have some new ideas for 2017 so keep annoy out as we develop these ideas further and make announcements for 2017.
Remember we are not some big company with an office and a staff of people. We are Michael, Chris and me and a good team of contributors. We share one thing in common a passion for photography and sharing that with you. We would not be here if it was not for our advertisers, sales of videos and workshops. We don't charge a penny for the content we deliver as far as articles and we have over 5000 articles in our archives easily accessible. We now have a new search engine to help you find the content you want and we will improve on that like we will the rest of the site everyday.
We are always looking for new articles and content. If you are interested please get in touch with me through the links provided on this site. Also, if you have ideas or suggestions use those links too. Doing a private email is always best as we have a system for logging in things as well as responding. We do our best to reply to any email sent to us.
Thank you for your thoughts and comments. I'll leave you with this. I had a boss once that said bring me issues only if you have solutions. I love hearing about what our readers think, but I like hearing more about what they want. We appreciate the loyal readers and followers of Luminous-Landscape and want to work at making the site the best there is. Not everything will be the way you may want it. Times are changing and we will change and evolve.
I think I'll also post this as a Rantatorial so our readers that are not on the forum or this topic can read it.
Kevin Raber