Many thanks for the ideas. One last question, is it hard to find your way back through those 2 miles in the dark? Should I plan on using gps?
Hey Stan, as a very long time NPNer I had to take a minute to say hello. I saw your name and recalled it from the earlier years on the original NPN site. I think in those days you were living in the state of Washington. Seeing your bio had a surprise as you mentioned growing up on LI in New York. That’s where I started life in the Huntington Station, Northport & East Northport areas…although spent most of my entire life in So Cal to this day…small world. Hope you’re doing well…Paul !
Hi Paul, thanks for stopping in! Yeah it is a small world, I grew up in the Stony Brook area but I was born in So Cal (LA) and I went to school out in WA but joined NPN when I moved to CO in 2005. Hope you are doing well also!
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Hey Stan!
Mostly stopping by to say hi and welcome you back to NPN - Or at least to participate in the AMA! Glad to see you join here!
My question relates directly to NPN. Now that you are deriving your income from photography, I’m sure many including myself will be interested in your opinion and advice here. Backdrop: Those who make their living from photography (whether selling prints, books, stock, etc. and/or deriving income from writing, speaking or workshops) are less inclined to give away their services for free. In other words, you’re not going to actively spend time in the Critique Galleries and provide advice for free, when you have clients paying you money for workshops and/or buying books etc.
To my question… What advice or suggestions to you have for NPN to attract or bring back the “professional” and support a growing user community while balancing your source of income (and time!)? Hope this question makes sense!
Welcome back!
Hey Lon, It’s been a while but very happy to hear from you! I hope you have been doing well. I haven’t really dropped off, I’ve been around, just haven’t posted much. I made a conscious choice when I quit my day job 6 yrs ago to go the gallery route because doing workshops has never been my forte, and with the gallery I pretty much had to devote 100% of my time and effort working on it and developing a good relationship with my customers. So forums and even social media kind of took a back seat. But for personal reasons I recently moved back to Colorado and my Arizona gallery is still open but not sure how long that will last, so I am thinking of ways to branch out with other services as well as looking at possibilities here in CO. So if I ever do make $ teaching I’ll be sure to answer your question 
But I think in general most professionals including myself will gladly give away free time and advice when it increases our visibility to a wider audience that includes potential clients for workshops, books etc. I mean, I sold a few ebooks today that I would have not otherwise sold cause I don’t bother promoting them usually LOL . So I think the pros will find NPN so long as it is an active growing community of people that come here interested in learning more and becoming better at their craft. Hopefully I’ll have the time to be more active–events like this one are certainly an incentive! Thanks! -Stan
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Hi Rebecca–regarding your followup, yes it can be tricky navigating back in the dark, the dunes are very disorienting in the dark. It’s hard to totally get lost cause if you keep walking in one direction eventually you will get out, but yeah GPS would be helpful! I never used GPS in the dunes but I’m ok with getting lost now and then, I kind of like getting lost 
Hi Stan,
Love your work! I am a long time amateur, started with B&W film and color slide film. Went to digital but I am thinking of setting up a dark room again and getting back in to B&W. I love the process of creating images with this media.
My question to you, have your ever created images with B&W film and if so is there somewhere I can see your work?
Thanks you,
Jim
Hi Jim, thanks and welcome to NPN! Wow, the last time I worked in the dark room with B&W film was high school photography class–so can’t say I have! I never cared for the chemicals of the dark room so it wasn’t until I bought my first DSLR that I really got into photography, and I even resisted all the advice then to get into medium or large format film cause I realized that digital would keep getting better. But I love B&W and even have a whole gallery specifically of B&W conversions on my website. I start with color and then convert (rather than shoot B&W) because then you can make better decisions on tonal mapping based on the colors. Best of luck with your endeavors! Cheers-Stan. B&W gallery here
Thanks to NPN for giving me the opportunity, and thanks for all your great questions! If you have more, you can always reach me here or through the contact on my site. Since a few people asked about my weather forecasting ebook, you can find it here: Ebook
If you’re in Colorado for Fall colors, I may run into you soon–the weather is changing and storms + fall colors is always a good combo! I wish you all great light-Stan
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