mikemorrell

Just my 2 cts. - as @argh says, the current site is 'broken', probably technically outdated, hasn't been functionally or technically kept up to date for many years and is basically now unmaintainble. - it's quite common for older websites to be moved on to a more modern 'platform' and upgraded - @mjensen has provided us with more information and sought more feedback from members than I can ever remember from previous 'owners' - I'm delighted that the move will be from 3 october. Yes, there will undoubtedly be teething troubles but I'm confident that these will be resolved quickly - my thanks too to the mods who have somehow kept the current site up and running for so long with so little 'technical backup support" Mike

Thanks Tom!

I viewed the photo on a mobile phone which allowed me to zoom in on the full photo. I agree entirely with @je ne regrette rien's comment. I would, however avoid the adjective 'cute' IMHO, this is an excellent nature photo perfectly executed. Both the foreground and background are deliberately out of focus. What is sharply in focus are the deer's eyes (including pin-point catchlights) and the deer's face and ears. IMHO this is a masterful wildlife photo and also a masterful demonstration of how DOF can be applied. Congrats (and respect!) for the photgrapher!

Organisations liks GoDaddy allow you to register (multiple) multiple domain names and 'host' (multiple) websites and e-mail addresses. IMHO, it's not 'improper access' by your website provider you need to worry about. Providers like GoDaddy host many millions of websites and e-mail accounts.Yes, some employees can access your account and the back-end of your website. They need this access to respond to any 'support requests' you may submit. But they have no other reason to do so. The 'security' provided by hosting companies against unauthorized access by others (hackers) is more important. As is the level of security provided by the 'web platform' you choose. These days, so-called (all-in-one) 'website builders' are popular and easy to use. GoDaddy has one too. Other examples are Wix, Wordpress.com, Squarespace, Weebly, etc. To build your website you simply choose a theme and the.optioms they provide. GoDaddy also provides tradional 'hosting' services whereby they (for example) set up an initial but 'empty' Wordpress website for you that you can then build on using the Wordpress website configuration options. That often requires you to keep your Wordpress website up to date. On some professional photographers' websites they only provide smallish versions of their portfolio.

Levels, PS neural filter '(painting) style transfer', mostly removed in sky, 35% multiply layer with gradient mask to darken the foreground.

One more testing problem: my inbox us full so I can't test sending messages. It looks like some capacity limits on the test site are tighter than on the PN. Usually not a problem on a test site. But (in my case) a lot of PN content has already been uploaded to the test site. So with tighter limits, I'm maxed out.

Windows is a microsoft product and they require a ms account to activate (=confirm that it's a genuine license key). You can use any e-mail adress to set up an account. W11 will work without activation but with reduced functionality (personalizing) and I suspect non-security updates. Apple has a similar procedure for its products. What makes you uncomfortable about registering (activating) your copy of Windows?

I've had no problems logging in with my login credentials in July. I could't access (or see) the feedback forum via the 2nd link. I have put some feedback on the test forum. In general, I like the new site though realize that it's an initial test site (for admins and mods too!). The 'welcome' post in the Test forum is from april. I've browsed through the Invision info and the site looks easy to configure and manage for admins and mods. It offers a lot of flexibility for them too. It's also possible for PN to differentiate (in features, storage space) between paid members and other members. The 'forums' (categories/topics) are pretty much the same as here. The test site still has a 'basic' set up (with just 1 member gallery). In the Invision info I read that it's possible to allow members to create and manage their own Albums. One thing I like is the drag and drop image upload. The platform also has much better integration with social media. One problem I ran into in testing is that my 'attachment quota' (500 MB) was already exceeded by preloaded attachments (embedded images) from this PN site. There's obviously quite some work still to do in configuring the new site and porting content from the current site. But so far it looks to be a vast improvement on the current site. Just out of interest, I've joined the 'Invision community' to learn more about the Invision platform and options.

I shoot excusively digital so I would have no choice. If someone wanted a 'film look' (whatever he/she might mean by this), I'd do some PP to get as close to the 'look' as I could. Yes, they'd be a relatively poor imitation of film but hopefully good enough. As an amateur, I enjoy photographing bands. Usually with a 24mm-70mm lense (the whole band, audience) and a 70mm -200mm lense for close-ups. One of the advantages of digital for me is (sometimes) 'burst mode'. Getting 4-5 shots when I suspect that something interesting (action, expression) is about to happen.

In this case, I agree. You embedded links (rather than uploading images) and you also made it very clear who the photographer is. Embedded links to photos/videos should not IHHO be considered as (own work) uploads.

Uploading from mobile phone. For intro see recent challenges.

(Ex-)LA and other nostalic US (and other) citizens, enjoy! As a European, this photo is neither famous nor photographically so special. I do like it though!

I'm currently limited to cellphone access to PN forums (including this thread). So I decided not to comment on this trilogy because the 3 images were hard to see (together) on a cellphone

Thanks for sharing! The article and especially the comments underneath - including those by Clancy Debbler Davies - are illuminating. To what extent William Corbett really made 'creative decisions' as opposed to competently operating a camera based on feedback from Clancy Debbler Davies, who knows? From her comments she has on-set witnessses in her favor. On the other hand - despite the fact that the photographer was recommended by friends - she should have tied up the 'image ownership and copyright' issues in the contract with William Corbett. This would have avoided the discussion. A hard lesson to learn. It's possible the BJP withdrew the award so as not to become involved in legal twists. FWIW, I can't imagine still and especially film/video camera operators in many similar situations claiming 'ownership rights' when they worked under various layers of 'directors'. The concept of 'who pressed the button is the author' is outdated but stiĺl the default. A good example of the need to nail down the ownership and copyright issues via contracts.

I can only view this photo on a mobile phone but I've seen many similar photos in the past. So although it might be a great photo, the format is not original. What IMHO disguishes other similar photos from this one is color. B/W is useful for many scenes but IMHO not for this one

FWIW, I'm an active member of a local and voluntary 'sustainability' group. Three of our key aims - working closely together with local government - are to: - transition from energy sources based on fossil fuels to those based on renewable sources (wind, water, ...) - reduce waste by consumers - especially plastics - through changing the behaviour of both consumers and supply chains - generally increasing the awareness of both consumers and businesses w.r.t. how their behavior helps or hinders progress to a more sustainable society.

I wasn't but I am now. Thanks for sharing!

On countries and politics, I live in Europe and - though I have my personal opinions on the US and other countries - I deliberately refrain from expressing them publicly. I strongly believe that political views are best left to the citizens of any country. But I am glad that I live in a country (NL) which - along with Germany, other Benelux and Nordic countries - traditionally has multi-party coalition governments rather than a binary '2-party system' such as in the UK or US. NL (amongst other countries) has long been known as governing by concensus. At National, Provincial and City levels. Yes, there are policy 'trends' depending on whether a left or right leaning coalition is formed. But for the most part, different parties have to 'get along' to be able to govern. All parties (depending on their share of the vote) have to make some concessions to their 'partners' in government. IMHO, a government by concensus goes a long way in avoiding political polarization. One criticism of coalition governments is that are weak. FWIW I think that few people would criticize Angela Merkel's coalition governments as being 'weak'.

Great poll! It doesn't surprise me that the majority (62%) of active forum members live in the US. What does (pleasantly!) surprise me is that 38% don't. I hadn't expected that PN's (active forum) membership would be so geographically diverse. I'm an active member of a UK-based sax forum and I've helped the owner/mods out from time to time with 'Google Analytics'. These show a lot of (completely anonymous) stats about website visitors including geographical location, new vs returning visitors, most and least visited pages, time spent on pages, etc. Google Analytics can be (or has been) added to 'Forums' too. The 'owner' publishes stats from time to time that are relevant to members (geographical distribution). He and the mods also host regular member polls to collect member opinions on various site-related topics. For example: how often do you use this feature (and can it be retired?), this new feature has become available in Xenforo (PN forums) - how do you rate its value to you? So 2 points: - polls (and Google Analytics) are a great way of informing members about the PN membership - polls are also a great way of involving members in decision-making going forward I should add that the sax forum is a 'not for profit' organisation. Any profits (above operating costs) are donated to charities. Neither the owner nor mods derive any personal income from the site. They are all basically volunteers.

OT w.r.t. 'banal photography' but perhaps relevant to nostalgia, romanticism and disappointment. One of the (many) exhibitions at an upcoming local photo festival is "Hellish Eden" by Hungarian photography student Franciska Legát. Based on talks with her family, she exhibits 'staged photos' of life under the communist regime of Hungary in the 1970s and 80s. Fictional situations that could have happened but didn't. What I find interesting is her (and her parents' ?) mixed feelings about that period. Franciska Legát - BredaPhoto

Mods: No joy as yet via W10 despite clearing everything including DNS, using a VPN, disabling firewalls, etc. I have a request outstanding to my provider. One suggestion I saw on internet was to check that my IP address wasn't blocked by the part of PN that services the forums. It's only this part of PN that causes a 'server error'. If - following this error - I click on any other menu item (Explore, Learn, ...) then I'm automatically signed in again as usual. PN (forums) is the only site that I have problems with. Although my phone has the same IPv4 address it also has an IPv6 address which my W10 laptop doesn't.

PS Express (phone):

Thanks! That's what I initially thought too. Until I continually got the 'unexpected server error' message whenever I tried to create a new account using new user names and 3 different e-mail addresses. That led me to wonder whether there really was a problem with PN's servers. So I was pleasantly stunned today when I discoverered that: - the PN forums were alive and well, - I could access the forums via Android Access via Android is something I perhaps should have tried earlier. But because the 'server error' problem coincided with my e-mail update, I naturally (but wrongly) that the 2 were connected. At the moment, I'm up to neck in W10 'tech' so it's good to read about what's going on at PN via my phone!

Thanks for the tip! I reinstalled and tried Firefox but unfortunately no joy. Whatever the problem is, it's independent of browsers. There just seems to be some recent problem in communication between my W10 Laptop and PN forums. Very frustrating! I'm an oldie but I like to think that I'm still pretty tech-savvy. At least in being able to follow up on relevant internet tips. For the moment, this problem has me stumped. Sooner or later I'm sure I'll figure out what caused the problem and how to fix it. I'm due for a new Laptop anyway :]

Quick update: the "forums" section is indeed causing the problems. Even after a 'server error' when signing in or clicking on 'forums', if I click on one of the other tabs (Explore, Learn, My Photo - account, profile, etc.) I'm instantly 'signed in' again. So the problems seem to be with 'forums'.