I want to try putting together a project of my Texas swamp trip. Is there a place at NPN?
Hm. I haven’t thought about the right place to put something like this, but I would imagine discussions would work for now. If David wants to add a section for projects that would work, too, or maybe just a tag that way anyone could put one up and we could all find them based on that tag. I do projects all the time, but basically post on other sites, but this could be a nice addition to NPN.
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Thanks, Kristen
With Brooks Jensen doing a ask me anything ( on January 5, 2023) He is a big promoter of Projects. Could this be a catalyst for building an area for projects?
Thanks
Steve
Steve, we generally can post several pictures in a new post, provide commentary, documentation, etc…which could be considered a project. Check out this recent post of mine: https://community.naturephotographers.network/t/ghost-town-firetruck/32495/6
We could have @David_Kingham weight in on this, but I think we need to limit the number of images…that one above might be close to the limit. If you post in the appropriate category it should be fine.
Cheers,
David
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Thanks, David
I truly enjoyed your project. My thought: are projects or even ebooks popular enough to warrant their own area?
Can some other folks weigh in on this?
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I think it would be a great feature / section to see, especially as a way to help members get feedback on a project, what to include/exclude, etc.
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I would be in favour of this as well because I’m trying to do more project based work but on the other hand I don’t think a project specific category would get much traffic…
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I sort of agree with @David_Bostock that allowing a post to contain multiple images seems to support a project as well as a single image or a triptych. I guess it depends on the size of the project to include in a single download. I’m actually trying to envision how a project would be downloaded with multiple downloads. Perhaps a suggestion of the mechanics of creating and viewing a project would be helpful.
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I think encouraging projects is a fantastic idea as it’s something I’ve been working on a lot myself. I personally don’t love posting one hit wonders anymore. This would be fairly easy to implement, I just need to decide on a couple of things which have been discussed a little bit already:
- Should this be its own category? It would be nice to see them all together, but it would be disjointed from the regular categories and confuse things a bit, plus most people don’t think in projects yet so it would be a little slow to start. I like the idea of having them placed into their respective categories with a project tag. I can create a new submission form for projects that would allow multiple image uploads and automatically apply a project tag.
- How many images should be allowed? I would lean towards either 6 or 10, any thoughts?
I can also create a field to upload a PDF for those of us that are creating mini portfolio ebooks. Brooks Jensen has been encouraging this for years and regularly puts out his Kokoro PDF’s, Sarah Marino started releasing PDF portfolio ebooks, and I recently did this with my 100 of 2022 release and everyone really seems to enjoy this format. Now that we have more accessible tools like Affinity Publisher to easily create these PDF’s I have a feeling this is going to start taking off.
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David, personally I really like the idea of keeping projects in their respective (regular) category and just adding a project tag. In terms of how many images should be allowed, I would say up 12 would be a good number. That’s kind of the number I’m aim for with the projects I have on the go.
Also, having the ability to upload a PDF is a great idea. I like that a lot! 
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This is great when I did not see any movement for several days I thought the idea had passed.
My 2 cents, 12 sounds good as an image count. Keeping them in the regular categories would be my thinking. Thanks @David_Kingham for being open to this.
Steve
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I also like this idea, but wonder about the image limit - do you mean per post? I belong to another online photography community that has something similar and there is no image limit and some of the “threads” have gone on for a long time as people add to them. For some of us a project is the story of a place and can have more than a dozen images. As an example, I have a thread going featuring wildlife that I’ve photographed in my yard. It’s a lot of photos over the years. Not that I’m going to duplicate that here.
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I think the Projects concept is a gread idea! The concept is certainly a great way to improve/expands ones photography and I think something most have comtemplated over the years.
So the challenge is in the implementaiton as David and others have noted. I think putting them in the respective categories would be the “easiest” way to implement, with #tags, etc. I see a couple challenges with this and so will toss out some thoughts. There are a limited number of “categories” - what if your Project is not based on one? What if it’s “Diagonals in Nature.” or “High Key” or “Images of contrast…” (just pulling these ideas out of hat…) Where would Projects go that aren’t “landscape” or “macro?”
I see this more closely related to the Weekly Challenge. All categories are potentially represented. (The color blue, for example). A “Projects” category might even support an idea that Kris brought up - an open thread that a poster could add to over time; it won’t add unecessarily to the post count, but instead would allow individual threads to literally be used as a “project.” Members would be free to comment if they wish.
My second thought regarding the use of the existing categories, would be critiques. And as a moderator, question: would these “Projects” be considered for weekly picks. I think somewhat problematic if a Project has 12 images, then the process of not only commenting/critiquing individual images as well as weekly picks - would be a challenge, IMHO. If using categores, my vote would be to exlude “projects” posts ineligable for weekly picks. (I’m biased there of course.)
Would these Projects be geared towards Critiques or Showcase? That’s a primary question too.
Would it be an NPN “feature” available only to paying members? Would it be something for members to submit for critique and help? Or merely for sharing one’s work? ie. Showcase?
But just to be clear, I really like the idea of encouraging Projects. More thoughts on this?
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Great points, Lon! I’ve been meaning to come back to this, but haven’t. Shoehorning a project into a category sounds problematic and I wouldn’t want to have them included in category Editors Picks unless it is for a separate track of pick, but then again, who am I to judge a whole project? I see them more akin to showcase in the sense that a person is putting it out there for viewing, but not necessarily critique although that can certainly be a part of it.
In terms of NPN paying v. non-paying, I think this might be worth paying for if we can keep the scope flexible enough for people to participate, but tight enough that it has distinction. I see this as being useful for folks who don’t use or maintain a separate website or other platform for this. There could also be open and closed projects in terms of who can add photos to it. I am involved in another site that has lists of things and when a person sets up a list s/he can have it be an open or closed list. The open lists with lots of participants are kind of fun, but not necessarily something everyone wants.
Having a separate category or area might work better than tags just so that it doesn’t have to go into an existing category. But that brings me to moderation - will it fall to all of us to moderate or will we need a separate person? Not that it’s a lot of work, lol.
I see this as a very inspiring area and one that can help give us insight into our fellow community members’ artistic and photographic leanings over and above single category submissions.
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I really like this idea! I’ve thought about projects many times.
Lon made some great points. My personal opinion is this would be best as a separate category or area. I like Kris’s idea of locked/unlocked - this could work similar to Critique/Showcase but have all in a single place in the interface. I would like to have the ability to receive feedback, but others may want it locked. This would likely be the first experience with projects for many of us, and receiving feedback on continuity of the images would be very helpful, among other types of feedback one could provide.
I don’t expect there to be much traffic here in the beginning, and I don’t think having a weekly editor’s pick would be needed either, at least in the beginning. I also don’t think there would be a need for a specific moderator unless/until the traffic became significant and consistent.
This could be an incentive to join NPN so I would vote to only have it available to paid members. Although it might be good to have it viewable by visitors.
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I think having it as its own category is good. That way we can post whatever subject area we like, including non-nature. 
I’ve been thinking about several projects along the lines of Brooks and Lenswork so this would be quite fun.
I think it should be open to only members but viewable to all. Posting as a PDF or as a thread should be fine.
We would need a moderator and I am sure any of us would be happy to do that…I know I would.
Adding it as a new category shouldn’t make it much more work on the site or the moderators, but would generate a lot of interest, I think.
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I really like the idea of a project category and am still waiting for it to show up! After looking at all the comments and suggestions in this discussion, my preferences would be as follows:
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A separate, non-critique category for projects that would operate similar to any one of the previous showcase categories.
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No limit on the number of images in a project
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Open comments & suggestions regarding a project rather than individual photo critiques.
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Posting ability for members but viewable by everyone.
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Subject matter for projects should be predominantly about nature.
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The ability to have open projects that are added to over time.
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The ability to flag a project for notifications when an image or comment is added to an open project so that a person can follow the progress of a project they like.
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I think a moderator would be appropriate
Examples of projects that I would be interested in posting would be:
- Multiple photo sequences of wildlife that display the progression of a behavior.
- An open project involving the development of a wildlife family or the life of a single animal.
- An open project displaying the changing appearance of a single landscape during different seasons or weather conditions.
Looking forward to the possibilities! Thank you everyone for the thoughtful discussion about the concept.
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Oh and if you can…please make video part of it. Right now it’s harder to do. I’m not saying we have to overload your Vimeo account, I can upload elsewhere and link.
Turning my focus towards creating series of photos, looking more at the the greater picture and larger story of my images, I could’ve sworn that an appropriate projects section last night. Was it simply the product of the late hour and wishful thinking…?
As I see this as the next phase in my photographic journey, I would really love to have something like this available.