I present, a new photographer's community!

[TommyA]

So I have been working on this for over a week and I am finally ready to have it up and running! I will paste what this is about, then explain what to do next!

Megapixelet’s Go is an idea that spawned from a friend telling me he would like to start a community for local photographers here in Nagoya. Then another friend wanted to get me involved with an online idea he had thought of, and told me to learn WordPress for the site. Well I learned it pretty quick and while thinking of things to do with my new found knowledge, I figured, I could build that community now!
My idea for this community is to be a place for amateur/professional photographers to come and post a picture or more a week that they feel is something that wows them, and share it with like minded people. We could critique each other’s photography and share advice and ideas on any new gear we buy or rent. I would also like to have weekly themes for photography, to get those of us with little motivation out to take at least a few shots a week. I just want people to have fun with photography and their cameras, and motivate each other to improve or just go out and shoot!
Of course I have some plans for the future, like voting on pictures that people submit, making themes for each camera that people can chose when viewing the page, and eventually getting our own domain and server to upload pics to. Right now, we will do it through flickr or our favorite picture hosting site. Any ideas and suggestions will be welcome. Please join if you have a passion for photography!

I really want to get all of us motivated to take MORE pictures. All or most of us have expensive DSLR cameras, and don’t use them for what we should! This site is to pretty much get us off of our asses and start taking pictures!

Please go to the page and register your user name. A password will be sent to you automatically and you can change it once you are set up and login. Once I see that you have registered (I get an e-mail notifying me of that), I will upgrade your account privileges so you can post your pictures! Please read the How To… at the top of the page to learn how to do that. May seem difficult, or a pain in the ass at first, but after 1 time, you will be doing this like pros!

Also when you get the time, email me a picture of yourself, and info on you, just like I have of myself in the “Members” link at the top. I will create your profile once I receive that info via email!
Lets make this site fun! Share it with any other photographers you know and let's build this community!

Megapixelet's Go! (http://t-atoms.com/Megapixeletsgo/)

[RoxFontaine]

Dope. I'll try to get some people to support you.

[TommyA]

Thanks for the support man! Not trying to make a dime off of this, just want to get inspiration and inspire other!

Good looking out Rox!

[akitaka]

"All or most of us have expensive DSLR cameras, and don’t use them for what we should!"

No shit. It's really all about taking pictures, and paying attention to other's techniques; you don't even need photo filters these days (maybe except for polarization/a few light filters), just a quick touch up in Photoshop.

Anyways, what photo-quality are you aiming for on this site? I'll join, but only if we keep it at enthusiast-level+.

The weekly/monthly theme project sounds very good, though; definitely a laze-breaker.

We'll see.

[TommyA]

Purely enthusiast! Some people on here may look a bit more professional because they have a lot of experience/studios or whatever, but they will be able to give us advice on our shots!

BTW you have been given author rights, so feel free to start posting!

As far as the themes, my friend and I thought of those just so we could get up and outside with our cameras and look for topics!

Let's see how it goes!

[akitaka]

It's not working, for me, even after I had followed the instructions word-for-word. Since you also used Flickr as your host, I know that it's not the issue at hand.

After I finish with the bit and testing the preview, I hit the post button and the only thing that appears is either the title or the text body that I've inserted in the 'visual' section. Tried it without the additional text, no go. Tried messing with the code (figuring that the width/height parameters were screwing up the preview), also a no-go.

I'm sure that I must be doing *something* wrong since you've used it, yourself, but I'm just not sure what.

(and enthusiast level usually means near-professional; people who are applying some pro-knowledge, even if their setup isn't the best.)

[TommyA]

Then maybe hobbyist/enthusiast by those definitions!

As far as posting problems, what browser are you using? I am using firefox. Let me try to post some more and see if there is some other issue.

I have been thinking of changing it to a more photoblog type of layout, but I need some time before I throw that kind of design out.

Problem FIXED. It was an account issue!

[Eddie Echoplex]

Sounds awesome. But I have a problem: Can I post my photos both there and in DeviantArt? That's because I moved my former photoblog to DA.

[akitaka]

Firefox, as well :-) but yes, if it was an account issue, no problems. I'll try it again.

Eddie: you can post images from DA granted that you link to the source-image. Just make sure it says ".jpg" or whatever image format you've save it in. Sites often use CSS/PHP to confuse links so that people cannot link (i.e. flickr spaceballs), but it's easily bypassed if you know what to look for in the source code.

Of course, you can always just pick your best photos, and put them in a simple photobucket account.

update// code issues when defining size parameters (can't leave em blank or it freaks out), and apostrophes (needs quotations to bracket titles, otherwise it gets confused, replaces the code, and screws up your post).

update2// comment numbers don't show up. comments themselves, however, are just fine.

[TommyA]

Aki are those issues when you post to the site?

I see your post, but no pop up comes up when I click your picture.

[akitaka]

Fixed. Apparently two apostrophes got added somehow in the "height" portion of the main image's parameters. I wonder what's up with me >.>

[Eddie Echoplex]

Huh, can't find the Write option in the site admin. (I'm DeerDancer, BTW).

[TommyA]

Had to change your status to editor! Now you can write posts!

[RoxFontaine]

Haven't forgotten about you, Tommy. Been busy in the studio. I'm going to try and send some people your way in the next few days.

[akitaka]

The members section is looking enticing.

I'll need a decent photo to upload, for that....and on another note, for those who are in the system, sign up for the forums :-)

btw, the thumbnails' frames seem to have been constrained to less than 500 px in width, making for some nasty distortion.

In other news, the first theme is going to be some fun :-)

[TommyA]

Good good! Thanks for the support Rox and Aki!

Just trying to make things fun for us to go out and shoot. I will be leaving in just over an hour for the day, and my camera will be with me. Going to the same place I took the pics of the cat, and my "All Natural" pic. Also going to a Turkish restaurant, so I am hoping to find some good BLUE subjects!

I am currently working on getting a rating system installed, and once that is up, I want a better photo management system up and running. Since this is on the backbone of my portfolio site (which I don't use) I don't think we have the size and bandwidth to start uploading pics. I will check into that, and we may just be able to upload all pics to this server or a server I may be able to rent. Definitely looking into the future while we fix some bugs!

[Sublime]

That's a great idea. I too have an expensive camera and the last good thing I used it for was filming myself spin a coin on the desk top and make it jump over pencils or from one book to another. I'm gonna go register right now lol.

OK I've registered for the site and the forums.

[TommyA]

Cool Sublime! I just gave you editor rights and check out the first theme challenge!

[akitaka]

whatever I upload on flickr will be on there. so no sweat, on hosting.

Has it been difficult to set up the site, though? I've been wondering of a different format other than freewebs or any other site to try posting stuff in an organized fashion, but my html/css knowledge is in the shitter, and it's quite tedious to even pick up a simple line of code (floating images, text parameters, for example). Last time I attempted a website ended up being ignored since last summer. Maybe I'll look into it, sometime.

[TommyA]

Wordpress is FREE! Search around for themes and use them if you dont care so much about layout. Once I have a ton of free time, I will create a theme for this that is more photography related, but it will take a bit of time (coding php, css, and html, plus some javascript...).

Go check out wordpress, upload and install on your server (you need a mysql database) and you will be set! Need any help, ask me!

BTW I found NOTHING blue in my travels yesterday! Of course...