Hello everybody!

Last month I made a call to the membership for some feedback regarding these newsletters and there were some good points made by our members. This month there is a specific thread dedicated to providing feedback on this specific newsletter. You’ll find it here.

Nikongear.com is your online community and my job is to ensure that it not only functions smoothly, but that it also grows fruitfully and to the benefit of its members. The aim here is not so much to be the biggest, but to be the best and the most respected. If I’m doing something wrong please tell me, but also please bear in mind that it is impossible to please all people all the time.

I know that some of you like to receive the newsletters, but don’t like to receive the announcements of challenges, or vice-versa, so I am looking for mailing software that will let members opt in to those various communications. I tried PHPList, but found that it isn’t working the way I’d like it to, so if anyone has a suggestion in this regard please let me know.

Pic Of The Week

Our current POTW is another intriguing image by Tuna. This was nominated by Glenn (Bilbo999) and chosen by Erik Lund.

I personally love the graphical feel of this image and of course the grainy B&W is right up my alleyway. Good job, Tuna!

Every week we get some amazing photos nominated by our committee and Bill Symmes has very kindly taken on the job of cleaning up our nomination threads (because they can get a little messy) and moving them to the Highly Recommended board for everyone to see.

Interesting Threads

Commenting Photos 1.1 - by annedi

Andrea has put together a remarkable post here on why we need to comment on the photos we see posted on Nikongear. com. It’s also sparked an enjoyable exchange of ideas on photo commentary in general.

Playing With Flash - by Desmond

My erstwhile compatriot is no stranger to putting together interesting threads on matters relating to flash. In this thread Desmond shows us how making a few tweaks in exposure can make a somewhat dull scene look a bit more interesting with the use of a flash.

I think I’m done with Apple - by Dallas

Yep, this one is started by me and has attracted a lot of replies. It begins with my recent maladies relating to Apple hardware, ranging from “pregnant” laptop batteries to faulty LCD screens and an un-lockable iPhone following a recent firmware update by Apple. The conversation does raise the question of what we as consumers should be accepting as far as quality in hardware is concerned. I’d love to hear more feedback on this thread.

The IR Sticky Edition 2.0

The UV Sticky Edition 2.0

Our very active UV/IR community have built a fantastic resource in both Ultra-Violet and Infra-Red areas and all thanks to those who contributed to these resources. Special thanks to Andrea (annedi) and Shane who did the dirty work putting the whole lot together into two easy to read topics.

Community Growth

It’s coming along nicely! We recently surpassed 8,000 members and as I am writing this I see that we’re up to 8,241 now. Taken from the inception of the forum it works out to 6.67 new members every day, which means we ought to hit 10,000 members before the end of the year.

I’d like to thank those of you who took advantage of the special offer on Life Memberships. The next special will only be on when we reach that figure of 10,000 members, so if you can’t wait that long and don’t mind paying $25 extra, you can get all access and privileges right now by visiting this page.

A new board just introduced this month is one dedicated to VIDEO. It seems that whether we like it or not, DSLR’s are also becoming HD video cameras, so the purpose of this board is to get feedback on videos we’ve made using our cameras, as well as share technical information related to editing and production.

Discounts and Partners

There’s not only benefit in the form of enhanced privileges and forum access for our paying members, but I am also actively recruiting partners in the photography and related industries who are interested in offering discounts on their products and services to our premium members in exchange for advertising space for their products and services on our site. The first partner to agree to this novel idea is long time member and contributor David Birdsong.

David has begun offering workshops for photographers interested in the glamour and fashion genres. If you are a Nikongear.com Life / Supporter / Subscriber / Club member you will get a 10% discount on the workshops that David is offering. Click here for more information (note: this page links to images that are not safe for work - proceed with caution).

If you are interested in a similar arrangement for your own products and services, please drop me a PM or email. You will get exposure for your product legitimately on Nikongear.com and it won’t cost you anything more than the discounts you are prepared to offer our premium members.

Experiences Threads (that need your input)

These are some popular items that don’t really have a lot of comments from users yet. If you have used any of them, please let us know about your experience, but please stick to the guidelines.

Nikon AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED : this is a very popular lens yet we have only received two comments on it.

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II : despite the initial controversy we had with this one, we’d like more comments.

Nikon SB-900 Speedlight : Only 4 comments? I’m sure that more than 4 of you have one!

Nikon D5000 : Again, very few comments on this little camera. What do you think?

If you see anything else in the indexes that you have, this is a really good place to get your post count up on Nikongear.com.

Joe McBroom held a very successful Bird Shoot in Florida, USA earlier this year and several NG members attended. You can see some of the pics they took in this thread and if you’re interested in joining the shoot Joe has planned for 2011 then you really ought to take note of this one in our new Community Board.

Another trip being planned and organised by our own members is the 2010 Norwegian Scavenger Tour. Bjørn and his fellow Scandinavians are planning a trip around Norway this coming May, so if you’re interested to find out if there is such a thing as a Norwegian Summer, I’d suggest you take a look at the link above. BTW, the term “scavenger” is apparently one of endearment used to refer to those of Scandinavian origin. Well at least that’s what Bjørn and Erik told me when they were out here on safari in 2009.

I’m really pleased to say that we managed to convert our May group safari to Sabi Sabi into a private trip for those who were initially interested in that date. Paul and Christina from Hong Kong will meet up with Jean-Pierre and Marie from Belgium to experience 7 days of the magic of the Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve this May and in so doing become our first private Safarians here on NG.

Our October Safari is going ahead and we welcome Graham (USA), Andy (USA), Frederico & Filipa (Portugal) plus Jørn & his wife (Norway) to our family of Safarians, together with Ann (USA), who is returning for her second safari with us. Pepe and I are really thrilled to be offering this trip and are looking forward to meeting you all in October.

There is still space for one single or two people sharing on this trip, so if you aren’t doing anything this October, why not come and shoot a few leopard, lions, cheetahs, wild dogs, elephants, buffalo and rhinos with us? Photographically, that is… To reserve the suite for the 6 days will cost R42,995 (US$5,732) for a single person, or R29,745 (US$3,966) per person sharing. This covers everything except your flight to South Africa.

If you can’t make October have you seen this page? Talk to us… We can make it happen.

Well that’s all I am going to include in the newsletter this month. I am going to try and get a mid-month one in too, so look out for that.

Take care!

Dallas

Hello everyone!

It’s official… the Southern hemisphere summer is getting its licks in before we head toward autumn (or a meager approximation thereof anyway). Since Saturday our temperatures in Durban have been up around the 36C (97F) mark with a humidity discomfort level that makes it feel about 10 degrees warmer.

It’s not pleasant for humans here at the moment, but more importantly it’s not pleasant for camera lenses. In recent years I have had fungus casualties nearly every summer, but since moving house two years ago I have been taking advantage of the fact that the front room of our house catches the early morning sun and stays pretty bright the entire day.

I bought a long, see-through plastic box that has compartments in it and I put dozens of little silica gel sachets into it. So far so good. If you also live in a humid climate what precautions do you take to prevent your glass from getting infected with fungus?

Safaris

Our proposed May group safari unfortunately didn’t get filled, but we are very pleased that we have been able to convert the trip into a private safari for the two couples who were coming out anyway. The costs didn’t go up that much and we were still able to secure an exclusive use jeep, driver and Shangaan tracker from Sabi Sabi for our newest Safarians.

If you were unable to make either of our group safaris, but would still like to perhaps enjoy a private trip to the same locations (or anywhere in Southern Africa) please send me an email and we’ll put something together for you.

The October group safari did fill, but unfortunately one person had to pull out, so we have a vacant suite for either a single person or a couple. If you’d like to join our very international group (made up of people from Portugal, Norway and the USA) please get in touch with me soon. We are fortunate in that the trip is now confirmed, so even if we don’t get that extra room filled, we are going ahead anyway.

New Equipment

Earlier today Nikon announced two new lenses; a 16-35mm f/4 AF-S VR and a 24mm f/1.4 AF-S. Jan Anne has started a discussion thread on these two here.

I am intrigued by the 16-35mm lens, but I see that it’s $1,260 price tag is going to put it out of reach for many. I don’t know how useful VR is going to be on an extreme wide-angle lens anyway, but then what do I know…

Website News

In recent months I have come in for a fair amount of criticism over my decision to restrict member arranged get-togethers to the regional boards (the Scavenger trip to Norway and JoeMc’s Florida bird shoot being examples). Ann Shelbourne has however made a very strong case for allowing details of these kinds of get togethers to be published to a broader membership, so after a fair amount of thought I have decided to allow them in the Community board, which is visible to all members who have supported the site through paid memberships in one form or another.

Just over a week ago we reached a new milestone in the form of 8,000 members! As a result Life memberships are currently on special for $50. This special will run until 14 February and will only be offered again when we reach 10,000 members.

Click here to buy one now.

I’d like to thank Sten Rassmussen for his contribution in giving our logo the “right” number of aperture blades and of course curving them to improve the “bokeh”. If you haven’t already heard, I am looking for pre-orders for putting this new logo on a black T-shirt. There are three different options for the shirts:

1. small 8cm logo on the right sleeve ($20 plus postage)

2. large 18cm logo on the chest ($22.50 plus postage)

3. large 18cm logo on the back with small 8cm logo on the left breast ($25 plus postage)

So far we have pre-orders for 21 shirts and I’d like to get at least 50 pre-orders before going ahead with the production. If you want one (or more) just mail me your sizes and I will add you to the list.

Highly Recommended

This week I’m recommending the Scott Kelby DVD and book combination Photo Recipes Live: Behind the Scenes: Your Guide to Today’s Most Popular Lighting Techniques. Scott Kelby hardly needs much recommendation but this is what the editors at Amazon.com had to say about this product:

Scott Kelby, author of the best-selling The Digital Photography Book, brings to life his “Photo Recipes” chapter—not just from this book, but from his smash best-selling follow-ups, volumes 2 and 3. In this two-hour video and companion booklet, Scott shows you exactly how it’s all done, from scratch, without holding anything back. If you’ve ever wondered how the pros use natural light, studio light, and even direct daylight to get those amazing shots, you’ll see it all here, live, as it happens. Most of the shoot takes place in an amazing New York City loft photo studio as Scott re-creates the looks he describes in the book, along with some bonus lighting set-ups that aren’t in the book, to create a very special learning experience you won’t find anywhere else. Everything is put together from scratch (from studio shots to location shots to product photography), all while the cameras are rolling—you see it all from the very beginning so you’ll be able to re-create those same looks without spending thousands on expensive high-end equipment. Best of all, Scott explains everything in simple, plain English, just like he’d tell a friend, using the same casual, conversational style that made his series of books a worldwide sensation. If you’ve ever wondered “how they do it,” you’re about to find out in this amazing DVD/book combo that shows how easy this all can be—once you know the secrets.

If you are buying from the UK you can click here to order from Amazon.co.uk.

And with that I am going to unstick my forearms from my desk and contemplate the swimming pool!

Have a great week everyone!

Dallas

Greetings Nikongear.com family!

I hope that you have all found your way safely into 2010 and that the holidays were everything you’d hoped they would be. Things have certainly been hectic on my side, so this newsletter is about a week late. Sorry for the delay!

There are quite a few things I need to talk about in this edition of the newsletter, so I’ll just get right into each of them…

Our Safaris
Putting together these things is a very difficult task, which I have unfortunately complicated by giving members the option of going either in May or in October this year, the net result of which is split interest!

I only have until 15 February to finalise bookings for the May trip and 28 February to finalise the October one, so time is really short. I’m hoping that this newsletter serves as a reminder and that we’ll see renewed interest once you’ve all read it. If you’ve forgotten all about them please click here to read what I’m on about. These trips are ideal for couples who want to experience the best of Africa at a very reasonable price, but if you’re on your own you’re just as welcome to join us, or bring a friend and enjoy the experience at a reduced price.

If you want to come on these trips please send me an email so that we can get the bookings done ASAP.

We’ve been talking for a long time about doing a landscapes workshop in Namibia with Carolyn Guild. Fanie’s recent post showing photos of his holiday in the region has sparked renewed interest in making this happen for our members. It’s going to take a bit of planning but if there is enough interest among members we can still do this in 2010, preferably after the FIFA world Cup in July when accommodation and transport prices return to something resembling normality for the region. We’re talking about possibly starting in Cape Town and driving up through to Namibia. Along the way we will have opportunities to photograph the wild flowers in Namaqualand as well as the dunes in Sossussvlei and the ghost towns of the Skeleton Coast. Please also send me an email if this trip appeals to you.

POTW
Every week our Pic Of The Week Committee goes through as many of the photos posted to the image discussion boards as possible, nominating images that they feel are deserving of a POTW recognition. Each committee member takes a turn at selecting one of the nominated images each week. These are then posted to our blog on the front page of Nikongear and added to our POTW Gallery. This week we have a very interesting image posted by Ron Scubadiver (not his real name, I’m quite certain!), which was nominated by Carolyn and chosen by esym (Bill Symmes). Well done, Ron!

Are you interested in joining the committee? We do have a few openings for members who are interested in joining. The only pre-requisites for being on the committee are that you need to spend some time looking at the images posted each week and seek out nominations. The more diverse your interests, the better. Send me a mail if this sounds like something you’d like to do.

New Equipment
The new 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II has certainly been a lively discussion topic on Nikongear.com over the holidays! The overall consensus though is that this is something quite special from Nikon, with exceptional sharpness and with VR II giving users the ability to handhold and get sharp images at unthinkably slow shutter speeds. Bjørn compared the image quality with that of the legendary 200mm f/2 and his findings were very interesting, to say the least.

If you’re one of the lucky folks who have been able to get your own copy of this lens we’d really love it if you could share your experience with us in the official Nikongear.com Experiences thread here.

Those of you still contemplating getting the lens can help us out by using this link to buy your lens from our only trusted affiliate, Amazon.com.

Have you got a D3s? Give us your thoughts in this Experiences thread.

What are our Experiences threads? We have a section on the forum that is dediated to collecting user opinions and ratings of as many Nikon cameras and lenses as possible. Below are links to the various indexes we’ve made of those threads. Bookmark them and wherever possible add your own “experience” to each thread.

Nikon [D]SLR | Nikkor Lenses | Other Lenses | Reseller Ratings

Recommended Book
Carolyn has recommended the following book by Helmut Newton, “Sumo” which has now become available at a much lower price than the original book that weighed in at a whopping 30 kilos and sold for several thousand Dollars.

You can pick up this masterpiece from Amazon.com for $94.50. Obviously not for everyone, but if you’re a connoisseur of fine imagery this is something you can’t really pass up the opportunity to own.

Helmut Newton was one of the most controversial, but successful fashion photographers of the 20th century. His life story is as epic as any quintessential TV mini-series: forced to flee from Nazi Germany at the age of 18 he found himself first living as a gigolo in Singapore and then later as a soldier in the Australian Army, before ultimately becoming the producer of some of Vogues most memorable photographs, often taking days to produce a single image. He died in an automobile accident in 2004 at the age of 84.

Website Stuff
I am very pleased to announce that Subscribers, Life members and members with more than 100 posts to their credit are now able to enjoy the forum at the full width of the browser screen. There are still some refinements that need to be made to it, but the 2010 theme will prevent those of you using small screens from having to scroll across larger images. If you’d like to try it out click on Change Theme in the sidebar and select 2010.

There has been a call for a lighter colour scheme too, so that is also on my “to-do list”.

Notifications
I am presently evaluating various options to replace the rather archaic SMF newsletter system. Once I have done the testing and am happy that the product will serve our needs, members will be able to “opt in” to our newsletters and various other notifications individually.

At the moment if you unsubscribe from the mailing list you won’t receive any notifications from us at all, which is not ideal if you don’t want to read newsletters, but do want to be notified when challenges begin and end, or vice versa. It will also allow members to unsubscribe a lot more easily than is currently the case (I am now having to do this manually to comply with generally acceptable anti-spam practices).

Subscriptions
Since the introduction of paid subscriptions was introduced over 18 months ago one thing has become apparent: more than 70% of the subscriptions fail to renew due to various factors, mostly card numbers expiring.

This simply doesn’t work for Nikongear.com as it results in a tremendous amount of unnecessary admin and also makes us look pretty bad with our service provider. Therefore from 1 February 2010 the only paid subscription available to new members will be the once off Life Membership. Any existing subscriptions will continue to run until such time as they don’t renew anymore. If you renew when the time comes then there is no problem - your subscription will continue to be valid for as long as you want it to be.

We will still have the $50 specials for Life memberships with every member count milestone that we reach, so if you are thinking of converting to one to avoid the hassle of updating your card details with 2CO every time they change, you are more than welcome to wait for the next special to come around. This is due to happen in about two to three weeks time when we reach 8,000 members. However, if instant gratification is your thing and you can afford an extra $25 your Lifer status can be activated right now. Just click here.

On The Move
My friend Lew Lorton (a.k.a. the_traveler) is currently on one of his journeys to South East Asia and will be away for the better part of a month. Lew has a cracking sense of humour and I am looking forward to seeing his pictures and reading about his escapades on his Nikongear.com blog. Happy travels, Lew and make sure you come back safely.

In his absence Glenn Hewitt (Bilbo999) will be running the Chairman’s Challenges. At the moment we are in a voting phase for the “In The Spotlight” challenge. Have you cast your vote?

On a sad note I awoke this morning to the news that fellow SA photographer, Nikongear.com member and mentor to many others, Mark Thomas passed away after losing his fight with cancer. I know that beyond the darkness of loss is the light of discovery that teaches us to cherish every moment that we have with those who are important to us. Mark lived for his family and for the betterment of photography as a profession in South Africa. He taught many of us more than just how to take a photograph, he taught us how to approach the craft as a business. He was an important man to me and I will miss him dearly. Mark was 45. He leaves a wife and two sons.

I’d like to end this newsletter by thanking everyone who has helped me make this site the growing success that it is. 2009 was a difficult year for me personally but with the team and goodwill I have behind me I am certain that things will continue to evolve positively. I’m optomistic for the future and I am committed to taking very good care of the sophisticated community we have all worked hard to foster here on Nikongear.com.

Take care of yourselves.

Dallas

Happy holidays everyone!

We’re rolling at high speed to the end of the year and before you know it we’ll be staring down the barrel of the second decade of this millenium.

Ten years ago people were planning Millenium parties, throwing millions at Y2K compliance, preparing for the end of the world or in some cases hoping for the end of the world. Back then the internet was still blowing bubbles, Nikon had only one DSLR that cost more than a decent small car (where I live anyway) and the most advanced cellphones still only had monochrome screens.

Bluetooth was something you got when you sucked on the back of a ballpoint pen. Television was still being delivered to CRT screens in most homes and the state of the art Toshiba laptop I had boasted a massive 6Gig hard drive and a whopping 256MB of RAM. The office I worked in spent a small fortune on a Sony Mavica digital camera that stored images onto… yes, a stiffy disk… I remember backing up my data onto those little DAT cassettes too. Googling was something you did at the beach.

In December 1999 I was planning to buy my first ever 35mm SLR camera. My first choice had been the Minolta 404Si, but the retailer I went to had a special on the Nikon F60, so I got that instead and it changed the course of my life completely. You’re reading this email as a direct consequence of that bit of serendipity.

Our current Pic Of The Week

This very amusing and well seen image was posted by Tuna, nominated by Carolyn and chosen by Kyle.

If you were wondering how we go about chosing a POTW, here’s a quick explanation for you:

We have a committee of members who are regular watchers of images being posted in our Image Discussion boards. Each week the committee members get to nominate images that they feel are deserving of a POTW acknowledgement.

One of the committee members then chooses an image from the nominations and this gets posted to our Hall Of Fame and also appears on the front page of our site.

Recently I have begun making a blog post for each POTW that gets chosen, so if you are using an RSS reader, or you use iGoogle, you can subscribe to our feed and keep updated on all the new POTW awards that are made.

If you’d like to get involved in the committee, please send me a PM on the boards.

Nikongear.com loves books! Wherever possible we will keep you updated on titles that we think are worth getting.

This particular book, Visionmongers: Making a Life and a Living in Photography by David DuChemin has been highly recommended by several high profile web personalities, including Zack Arias, who’s blog I follow. It’s not a “how-to” book, but rather a book about transforming yourself into a vocational photographer - i.e. one who has progressed from having photography as a hobby to one who makes a living out of it.

I have this in my amazon.com wishlist and when I get a copy for myself I will be sure to give it a thorough review on the Nikongear.com blog.

If you have a book suggestion please let me know and I’ll put it on my list too.

The ULTIMATE Safari

Some of you have written to me asking “What’s happening with the safaris for next year?” Well, our originally planned “self-drive” safari didn’t attract any interest at all, so it prompted a serious re-think on my part, which resulted in a complete change in approach and logistics.

Based on feedback received from the 2009 Safarians as well as some other very well respected names in the safari organising business, I decided to seek out something a lot more appealing than what we had previously planned. Something that would get us right up close with the big 5 & other wildlife, plus fit the pocketbook and schedule of potential 2010 Safarians. The answer came in the form of Sabi Sabi, a private game reserve adjacent to the Kruger Park, with 5 Star world class accommodation. In short, The ULTIMATE Safari.

I won’t go into great detail about the trips we have planned in this newsletter (just follow the link for all the info), but I will say this: what we are offering you for 2010 is the very best that Africa can offer its visitors, be they photographers or not. This is a chance in a lifetime to experience not only a safari that you can talk about with your friends for years to come, but also a chance to get in touch with nature and refresh your mind completely. I know that sounds corny, but please take a look at the Sabi Sabi video and you’ll begin to understand what I’m talking about.

We have booked out Sabi Sabi’s Little Bush Camp exclusively for Nikongear.com members for 6 nights each in both May and October 2010. This camp has only 6 luxury suites, so there is space for either 6 singles, or 6 couples, or a mixture of both, but we must use all 6 suites.

We have designed it so that if you share with somebody you will save a lot compared to if you come on your own. If you’re a guy it is the ideal opportunity to bring your wife on one of your photo trips because if they get bored with the game drives and photography they can spend the day at the amazing Amani health spa at Sabi Sabi’s Earth Lodge. If you’re one of our special lady photographers, hey… you can get it all!

So far I have one person interested in sharing with somebody for the May excursion and 2 suites tentatively reserved for October. Both trips have to sell by February next year, otherwise we may lose the exclusivity bookings, so if you’re thinking about it, don’t wait too long. Keep an eye on the countdown timer to booking deadlines in the sidebar on the website.

Our travel partner Nature Uncut Tours will be handling all the details for us once again and the owner Pepe has crafted some amazing extensions to this safari. You can make the trip 7, 13 or 19 nights long by opting to go on the leading or trailing extensions to the main safari. These extensions will take in Swaziland, Blyde River Canyon (including a hot air balloon flight), the Garden Route along the Western Cape, as well as the beautiful city of Cape Town (where you may even get to meet Elsa!).

The pricing and all the other information for both trips can be found here.

Member Spotlight

Nikongear.com would like to congratulate two of its members on their recent gallery showings, namely Chris Fabbri and Carolyn Guild. Carolyn is no stranger to showings and she has a few more coming up in 2010. Well done guys!

I’d personally like to thank all those of you who have opted to take up Lifer memberships here at the ‘gear too. It really helps to keep me going and also allows me to devote much more time to managing and developing the site and its content. When we hit 7,500 members I brought down the price of the Lifer to $50 and I’ll keep it there for a few more days, so there is still time to take advantage of the special by clicking here.

Whatever you’re doing this holiday season I hope that you all have a great one and if you’re traveling to be with family please take care on the roads. Come back to us safely next year!

Arrivederci!

It was a very busy month on Nikongear last month and there were some changes to personnel that I would like to share with you:

Glenn Hewitt (Bilbo999) who has been our Community Steward over the past few months, has agreed to help Lew (the_traveler) with the running of the challenges and as such has been appointed as the moderator for that board. Those of you who are new to Nikongear will no doubt already be familiar with Glenn’s warm and friendly personality as he would have welcomed you personally to the site.

We have also appointed a new Community Steward in the form of Jeffrey Markus (a.k.a. Jeff the Chicagoan). Jeff has been around the neighbourhood for quite a while now and has already taken to his new task with verve! You can reach Jeff via email.

Chris Lilley has been appointed as the moderator and enforcer of policy in the Experiences board. The idea with that part of the site is to keep the posts there non-conversational in nature. We want to hear about your experiences with whatever item it is and as such it’s not the place to ask questions or delve into non-relative commentary on any particular item. Chris and I have embarked on a project to clear out the postings that don’t meet the guidelines of the section. We’d also like to expand it as we can to include more items, so if there is something missing from the various indexes (found under the “Equipment” menu), please pop a PM to either Chris or I. We’ll see to adding it to the index.

I’m sure you’ll join me in congratulating these gentlemen on their positions and thanking them for the excellent work they do in keeping our virtual community alive and well.

Speaking of community, I’d really like to say thank you very much to all the members who give up their time and expertise so freely on our boards. Our site is all about sharing experience and helping to make one another better photographers by being constructive in our crit and advice. I have learned so much from the members we have here and I encourage all members to make their voices heard in the community. We want to hear from you no matter what stage you are at in your photographic development.

There’s Life in them trees!

The recent flurry of Life Membership purchases has given me hope that there is much goodness in the woods around here. We thrive on growth, which can only come with increased participation, so whilst it is good to receive the cash injection from members who sign up for Lifer access, our real success will come in the form of more participation from all members. The reward for members who participate in making posts comes with full access to all features of the site when you rack up 100 posts (no payment necessary). That’s not a lot of posts. Hell, I probably make about that many in a week or two!

Even if you only post to say hello, we’d really like to hear from you. Invite your friends too. In fact, in the next few days I will be adding a new feature specifically to allow members to invite others to join us by clicking a menu option. They will be able to earn credits for the number of people they invite to the site and who knows… maybe you’ll receive a nice surprise from nikongear.com if you top the charts in any month on that score? To that end, expect a few hours of downtime for the forum while I go about installing the feature. I will probably do that tomorrow (Friday) or early next week.

Advice for people photographers: exude confidence!

I’ve been a full time professional photographer for close on 2 years now and if I look back at the difference in my attitude between when I started, to where I am now, the thing I notice most is that I am a lot more confident in my dealings with people.

If you are selling something, confidence is key to your success. People don’t want to deal with “iffy” salesmen, or people who are not entirely certain of what they’re doing. If you’re selling professional photography you need to convey to your customer that you know exactly what you’re doing by not only acting the part, but by being assertive in your photographic direction. Tell the subject what to do. You are in charge of the moment.

Let’s take a corporate portrait shoot as an example. Unless you’re dealing with people who are used to having their picture taken (i.e. models or celebrities), you’re likely to encounter some form of resistance from those who are not usually found in front of a lens. They’re probably nervous and tense and this will be the biggest obstacle you’ll face in trying to get a decent photograph of them. It’s up to you to convince them that they make a great subject and that there is just no way you will allow them to be portrayed badly with a photograph that you make of them.

It’s not always easy when you’re faced with the office Creepzilla, who is having a bad hair life, has bad skin and is so cross-eyed that when they cry the tears roll down their back, so you’re going to have to find something to put them at ease. Unfortunately I’m not so good with remembering jokes so my approach in a situation like this is to compliment them on something they are wearing. Don’t ever under-estimate the power of paying somebody a compliment. No matter how cynical they may be, people love it when you tell them they look good or have great taste.

Recommended Book
One of our members recently recommended Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision by David DuChemin.
I haven’t personally read it yet, but it is on my wish list at Amazon.com where it has received 58 customer reviews and has a 5 star rating. They are currently offering this book at a special price, so if you are looking for something more than the typically mundane run of the mill photography book, this appears to be a good choice.

I recently reviewed the second Joe McNally book, The Hot Shoe Diaries which you can read on the Nikongear blog here. Unfortunately I was not impressed with the book. It just didn’t come across as an easy book to process if you’re looking to learn something, which I put down to poor editing.

If you’ve read a book on photography recently and would like to recommend it to others please drop me a line and I will add it to my list. I’m hoping to put out a list of recommendations at least a couple of times a month.

The second trip is a landscapes workshop in Namibia that we will be running in conjunction with Carolyn Guild, who has been winning awards and getting herself published all over the place for her really amazing B&W fine art landscapes. At this stage we don’t have any firm dates for the Namibia trip, but we are hoping to run it sometime between July and September 2010. Pricing of the trip will be entirely dependent on how many people we can get to come out, so if you are interested in learning something about landscape photography from one of the best in the business, in one of the most amazing locations for landscapes in the world, please email me now. Remember, the FIFA World Cup is on in South Africa during June and July, so if we can tie this up with that, you’ll be able to kill two birds with one flight. Err… stone?

I have just returned from a meeting with the area manager for Sabi-Sabi Private Game Reserve. Oh boy, are we going to put on a safari for you in the fourth quarter of 2010! Sabi-Sabi is widely acknowledged as being the premier private game reserve in all of sub-saharan Africa and we will be spending 5 nights at their exclusive 5 star Little Bush Lodge camp. In 2007 and 2008 Sabi-Sabi was ranked in the top 10 of the World’s Best Hotels and their accolades continue to pour in. Trust me, these guys know about safaris!

We will have exclusive use of the camp which comprises 6 luxury suites, 2 open game vehicles, our own trackers and drivers who will be able to take us off-road and right up close to all of the big 5 for photographic purposes. We will go on two game drives every day, one just before sunrise and one in the late afternoon. There will also be guided walks daily through the reserve with the shangaan trackers, so there is a strong possibility that you will come face to face with lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, wild dogs and much more on foot.

Excited? Well you should be! I will publish full details of this trip and the pricing (which is a lot less than you think) at the beginning of January 2010. You can read more about Sabi-Sabi here. Pay specific attention to the ranger stories. They are amazing!

© Nikongear 2009

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Nikon announces new D3s

The early birds already posted their intro threads, but in case you don’t already know, there’s a new Nikon D3s in town and apparently it goes to ISO 102,400! Supposedly the 12,800 level is now as good as ISO 800 was about 5 years ago, so I guess this is very good news for photographers who shoot in barely any light at all.

As is tradition on Nikongear we have dedicated a forum board to the new model here (merged with the D3X board), so this is a great place to discuss the new machine. Our technical guru Bjørn Rørslett will hopefully be picking up a sample soon, but I must ask members to please be patient as Bjørn has been unwell of late - so try to keep the requests for info down to a dull roar.

I expect that with this announcement there will be the usual influx of new members and guests looking for information on the camera, so I will be monitoring the load on the server closely. If things get out of hand the D3s board will be only be made visible to Subscribers. For now though it is open to all.

Whilst we are on the subject of subscriptions, there are many of you who signed up for the original $10 subscription who have not updated your card details with 2Checkout. This is resulting in the renewal being declined. If you wish to re-subscribe you will have to do so at the new price of $25 a year. To avoid this please update your card details with 2Checkout when you receive the notice from them to do so.

Travel Africa with Nikongear

We have re-priced our budget safari for Kruger Park and will only keep this one open for bookings until the end of January 2010. This trip is suitable for photographers who would like to get to see and photograph wildlife in one of Africa’s legendary game parks without all the luxury and at an affordable price. For all the details and pricing take a look here.

We are still planning a safari to Namibia to do landscapes with Carolyn Guild as our instructor for next year too, so if you are interested in that please get in touch with me ASAP so that we can formulate some dates and do a bit more planning of the logistics. This trip won’t be about wildlife, but rather about landscapes and culture. Our intrepid guide Pepe Jones leaves for a two week trip to Namibia today and will be scouting various locations for us while she is there.

Also there will be an upmarket safari in September or October 2010 to one of the top private game reserves within the Kruger Park, namely Sabi-Sabi. This one will be for serious wildlife photographers who want to get off road and really close to the game, both on foot and in a vehicle. How close? Just take a look here! Ann Shelbourne did an optional extension to our last safari and went to stay in a couple of the private reserves in KNP. In her own words:

“For photographers, I think that these private reserves are something that they really should not miss. You don’t take your own vehicles off-road, you go in theirs. The Rangers and their Trackers know both their territory and the animals who live there intimately; and have a pretty clear idea of where any group of animals can be found at any given time so you often get up-close views of all of the “Big Five” in a single drive. If you are choosing Private Reserves, go for the smaller ones which take no more than 20 guests at a time — but you need to get your reservations in very early because those places fill up very fast.”

I’m pulling out all the stops for that trip and will hopefully have a full itinerary and pricing available for Nikongear members closer to December. The place we will be staying at only allows for 12 people and we will be booking out the entire camp for 4 nights! If you are interested in this trip and September or October 2010 agrees with your travel schedule, you need to get in touch with me pretty quickly because this is one trip that you will not want to miss. As mentioned there will only be 12 shared seats available or 6 single seats and I expect that these will go fast. Drop me a line if you want to pre-book this one.

If the Kruger Park and South Africa doesn’t appeal to you I can put you in touch with another professional photographer who does safaris to Tanzania and has a few places to fill on those. Full details on request.

Take it easy!

The Publisher’s Ramblings

They say it never rains, it pours. Couldn’t agree more with that sentiment and the words to Green Day’s “Wake Me Up When September Ends” suddenly have much more significant meaning to me. I think this past month may just have been one of the most trying and difficult periods of my life. Annus Horribilus all condensed into one month.

It all began when I received a notification from the hosting company that Nikongear.com was using too many system resources and I had 10 days to either upgrade to a dedicated server or find an alternative hosting company. When you’ve put as much work and effort into a project as I have with Nikongear.com there’s this feeling of accomplishment that the site has become successful when you are told things like that, but at the same time you can’t help but be concerned about the financial aspects either. Suddenly having to fork out 10x more for hosting is a pretty big deal when you have no sponsors.

Anyway, those of you who follow the forum will know that the move to dedicated hardware is now complete and despite a few minor hiccups we seem to be sailing along smoothly again. I’d like to thank those members who very generously made donations to the site over and above their annual subscriptions last month and I have made a page called Benefactors which I will keep updated with the names of our donors each month.

Then the big bomb exploded my world on the 20th when my Dad passed away. Nothing can really prepare you for the sudden and unexpected death of a parent - not even if you have already gone through the process. Aside from the emotional aspects of grief there’s also a motivational impact. The things that once seemed so important to do suddenly become insignificant and for me finding the will to do arbitrary tasks (like scouting for work) is something I have struggled with in the past two weeks. Just one week away from the economic grindstone for any freelancer can be disastrous. If you don’t have some kind of contingency to deal with things like this the effect is severe and I’m sure there are many full time photographers reading this who know exactly what I am talking about. If you have any tips for professionals on how to manage this sort of thing I’d love to get a dialog going on one of the forum boards.

In the midst of all this doom and gloom another problem arose… Infighting amongst members on the forum.

For three years we’ve managed to keep the peace on Nikongear without having to resort to heavy-handed moderation, but unfortunately recent events on the site have forced us to re-look at the Code Of Conduct (which some people seem to think excludes them) and we’ve come up with a new code that we will be implementing on the site with immediate effect. Please read the following which is now our new CoC:

All members of the NikonGear website are expected to be courteous in their exchanges here. Disagreement and debate are natural and expected in an active online environment, but rudeness and contention will not be tolerated in public posting, or unsolicited messages. Our tradition allows freedom of expression, while expecting restraint that preserves the peace. Nikongear is a place for discussion - not argument.

Members come here from many cultures and speak many languages. Although the website is conducted primarily in English, realize that all members are not fluent in English, as it is not their native or customary language. This may cause difficulty in communications between members with differing native languages.  A good rule of thumb is to assume that any post is made with the best possible intent. If there is any doubt as to a post’s meaning, ask the poster explicitly before reacting.

In order to enforce the required restraint and courtesy of our policy, the following rules apply:

• Topics which tend to become contentious, particularly political, religious, or other personal discussions, will be moderated to prevent argument. Do not use the NikonGear website to advance an agenda or dispute about topics other than photography. Do not argue your points or bait others into argument.

• The Off Topic, Jokes and Regional areas can be used for non-photographic discussions. However, discussions which become contentious, will be moderated regardless of where they are posted on the site.

• Moderation may consist of public or private messages, edits or removal of posts, time-outs, or banishment, depending on the severity of the infraction. These steps may be taken without notice.

The only remedy for perceived behavioral problems in any discussion is to report the issue to a moderator with the ‘Report to moderator’ facility. Reports will be handled only through private communications with the interested parties. Abuse of the Report function will result in the loss of posting privileges. The need for moderation is at the sole discretion of the management of the NikonGear website.

It is our hope that instituting these rules will result in an environment where discussion of photography is maximized and off-topic, divisive discussions will diminish. Our policy regarding photography remains unchanged.

There you have it. I think that we have been fair in our dealings with the members who over-stepped the line in various threads and hopefully this new code will leave no doubt as to what exactly this site is to be used for. There will be members who do not like our new policy, but I am pretty sure that for every one of them there will be 10 other members who will welcome the change in approach to dealing with things that really have no place on our forum.

An addition to the site last month has been the introduction of regional boards that are specific to certain countries. At present we have regional boards for Germany, Brazil, The Netherlands, combined Nordic Countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland), Australia, Canada, South Africa, UK & Ireland plus the USA.

These boards are meant to be used by members of those regions to discuss things that are of no concern to the greater international membership, as well as foster a closer knit regional community without disturbing the rest of the site. It is perfectly acceptable to speak your native language in the regional boards.

In a nutshell this is a growth strategy I have adopted to avoid over-crowding on the main site and to encourage members who might ordinarily not want their posts seen by a global audience initially to test out the Nikongear waters. If you would like to belong to a regional board you will have to ask me via PM or email to add you to it. I normally process these requests immediately but please allow at least 24 hours for this to happen.

Pepe and I have been discussing the safaris we have planned for 2010 and we’ve decided to make some changes. We will still be offering our 12 day safari to Kruger Park and the Blyde River Canyon area in April of next year, BUT we will be reducing the price of this trip quite dramatically.

A single person will now only pay R42,000 (about US$5500 as of today) to secure a single room and an entire row of seats in one of our Landcruisers. If you are happy to share your room and your row of seats you will only pay R31,500 each (about US$4150). The full details of this trip and what is included are posted here.

This is our budget trip where we will be doing the driving ourselves and we’ll be staying in the National Camps within the Kruger Park. It’s affordable and you’ll still be getting terrific photo opportunities to shoot the wildlife from within a properly customised game viewing vehicle with a pop up roof and very big windows.

The other wildlife safari we are planning to do next year will be a more exclusive affair where we will be staying at one of the private reserves within the greater KNP, namely Sabi Sabi, which is a 5 Star establishment. During the Sabi Sabi trip we will have the exclusive use of two open top 4×4 game viewing vehicles, together with rangers and trackers who will be able to take us off-road to get as close to the animals as possible - something that we can’t do on the budget tour. Those members who have been watching the posts in our safari journal that Ann made when she went on an extension to our recent safari will be able to see just how close she got to the big 5 with the help of these experienced rangers.

This trip will be considerably more expensive (close to double the budget trip) and it will only happen if we can sell at least 6 single supplement seats as we have to book out the entire camp. I still have to finalise itinerary and exact prices but it will happen in the second half of the year, probably after the FIFA 2010 World Cup Soccer.

Then the third trip we would like to do is the one we couldn’t get right last year, namely Namibia. That trip will be an amazing journey and opportunity for serious landscape photographers as we will be visiting the famous dunes at Sossusvlei, the ghost towns and of course the Skeleton coast, which is littered with shipwrecks and other exciting photo opportunities. This one we are probably also going to do in the second half of the year, most likely around September / October.

I am mentioning these proposed trips now to gauge interest from members who would like to be involved in doing a trip next year. It would be great if we can manage all three of them, but that is entirely dependent on the numbers. If you are keen on doing any of the trips please get in touch with me via email or PM and we can take things from there.

If you are submitting a submission to the Challenge “Eyes” make certain the image is within the suggested max size of 800 x 600 and 300 kb. Please ’save for web’ to remove all identifying data in EXIF. Put your username and a title for the picture in the message. Title the image so it it related to the title of your post (eg ‘Standing on the corner watching all the girls go bye’, standingcorner.jpg)

Take care everybody!

Dallas

The Publisher’s Ramblings

I think my mind and I parted ways somewhere towards the end of July, because since the beginning of August it feels like I am floating well above myself, looking down at the organised, insignificant chaos that is my ordinary day.

Our recent safari was the first time in my entire life that I have left behind everything and simply had a break for two weeks. Not once did I let the pressures of being a self-employed photographer enter my worried mind during the trip. I didn’t once think about unpaid bills or upcoming projects or anything related to work. I just let myself go. Blue sky like. And it was magnificent.

Just under a month ago 9 of us embarked on an epic +3,000 kilometer overland journey (or “safari” as they say it in Swahili). We travelled to many different places in those two weeks and we saw many different things, including elephants, buffalo, hyenas, giraffes, hippos, crocs, leapards, lions, wildebeest, zebras, cheetahs, eagles, a dead snake, babboons, antelope, vultures, humans, fires, stars, an upside-down moon (according to the 7 non-South Africans), ancient baobab trees and some spectacular scenery.

If you haven’t seen any of the pics yet you can take a look at the “official” Safari gallery here. These are mostly my own pictures, but other Safarians have uploaded a few there too. Stories and other pictures are being displayed here.

Jakov enjoying a quiet moment at Letaba Camp Restaurant

I began a blog of the adventure but four days into the trip saw my internet connection fly South, putting paid to any further updates. So hectic was the pace of the trip that writing could only begin at around 11pm each night, which in my world is long past bedtime, thus if you were following my ramblings on the blog and journal, consider yourselves spared literary agony! When my mind and I finally re-connect I will complete the story of the safari from my perspective and post it for all to read on the blog. I’m also adding new pictures all the time so keep your eyes peeled for those.

Right now I have to tell you about the next trip we have planned.

We learned a lot about life in transit on Safari #1 and as a result Nature Uncut and Nikongear have designed a new safari that we feel will be a lot more relaxed than the first one. We have decided to spend maximum time in the Kruger National Park, which is where we had our finest game sightings and (I believe) we took our best wildlife photos.

The KNP is an amazing place. The sheer scale of it leaves you feeling quite insignificant and therefore to truly appreciate all that it has to offer, you have to maximise your time there. We have set aside 8 days and 7 nights in the park for this next trip, as well as 3 nights at our island hideaway (Otter’s Den) on the Blyde River, making this a trip that is 12 days long.

Our primary objective during this trip will be to maximise photographic opportunities for shooting the big 5 plus other mammals and birds. Each day we will look for new shooting opportunities and we’ll give ourselves plenty of time to do them in. Instead of the Kalahari Ferrari Land Rover, which proved to be somewhat unreliable on Safari #1, we will be travelling in two Land Cruisers that have been specifically modified for safaris and these will provide each traveler with their own row of 3 seats, plus a big window on either side of the vehicle to shoot out of.

Driving on this trip will be mostly minimised to within the park because you will fly directly from Johannesburg airport to the Kruger Park / Nelspruit airport. From there it’s a short road hop to our opening night at the Blue Jay Lodge in Hazy View, where we will become acquainted with one another and enjoy a traditional braai (BBQ). The next day we will be inside the KNP already, beginning in the Lower Sabie section and ending in the upper parts a week later. From there we will head off to Blyde River for hot air ballooning and three days of meandering sight-seeing along The Panorama route, before flying you back to Johannesburg from Hoedspruit airport. Full details of the itinerary are here.

Pricing & Availability
Originally we were going to limit the number of seats on this trip to 6 Nikongear members at R49,000 per person. However, what we have decided to do is give our members the option of buying a second seat for a spouse or significant other at 50% of the price of a full seat. Therefore you can purchase a double ticket at R73,500 (roughly €6600 / US$9,500) and bring along a camera sherpa (or spouse, if you prefer that term). The conditions attached to this are that you obviously have to share your room and give up one of your window seats in the Land Cruiser to your travel companion. We will also only sell the double ticket to one person, so if Nikongear members who are not related want to “buddy up” and come out together only one of you will be able to purchase the double ticket. The other member will have to settle their part of the bill directly with the person tasked with buying the double ticket from Nature Uncut.

Optional Trip Extensions
Travelling to South Africa for only 12 days may seem like a bit of a waste to some, so what we will be doing on this trip is arranging optional extensions for any of the people who wish to go on them. These can be either guided by ourselves if there are sufficient numbers, or customised to your own taste using provided transfers and alternative guides. We can include extensions to Swaziland, the Kwa-Zulu Natal Battlefields, Drakensberg Mountains, Cape Town or just about anywhere you can think of to go in Southern Africa. Obviously any extension will be entirely dependent on availability of accommodation and transport at the time.

Lens Rentals
I am in negotiations with a couple of parties regarding the renting of, or direct supply in South Africa of telephoto lenses for the duration of this trip. The ideal lens for a trip like this is the Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR with a 1.4 or 1.7 teleconverter. Most of the Safarians on the first trip brought these with them and their photos speak for themselves. Obviously a zoom lens is not for everyone, so if you are considering coming out but would prefer a 400mm 2.8 or 500mm f/4 we can look into that on your behalf too. The costs of these lenses will be for your own account.

I think that this is a pretty good deal. If you want to secure your place on the trip all you need to do is send me an email (dallas@nikongear.com) letting me know how many tickets you want to buy. I will send you back some forms to complete and once I have those back from you Nature Uncut will be in touch with details on how to pay your 30% deposit. As soon as that is received you will be booked onto Safari #2 and will become part of our extended Safarians family!

“Come hang out with us for a while!”

During Safari #1 I opened my ears to some suggestions from the Safarians regarding the layout and general functionality of the Nikongear site. One of the biggest issues members have is the loss of space to the sidebar on the left side of the screen when it comes to looking at pictures on the forum. Point taken.

I will be working on some modifications to the forum in the weeks ahead and one of these will be a new forum theme without a sidebar. This theme will be available to Subscribers and Life Members only.

I will also be re-working the menu in the sidebar based on feedback received from members earlier this year. Hopefully no one will be too confused about the way the site works in the future!

The recent Editor’s Challenge “Movie Poster” was not very well supported in terms of entries or votes. What I have decided to do is re-open the voting on this challenge for a further 10 days because it seems that many members didn’t even realise that voting was happening. This was entirely my fault but the safari kind of got in the way of sending out notices for it.

So, if you wouldn’t mind, please can you head over here to have a look at our 4 entries and then over here to cast your vote. If you have already voted, your vote still counts, so no need to vote again (unless you changed your mind).

For now, keep your feet on the ground and reach for the stars!

Take care, everybody. See you on the forum (or on safari).