Hey everyone,
We just started a new Instagram account for NPN and we want to use it to help promote our members photography!
If you would like to be featured please reply to this message with the image, description, and your IG username.
Give NPN a follow: https://www.instagram.com/naturephotonet/
Have any other ideas for our instagram? Happy to entertain any thoughts.
Iād be interested.
This is an image of Crater Lake during prime Milky Way season. Itās a 5 image focus stack taken during dusk, then the Milky Way taken a couple hours after, camera never moved.
This image is a great memory too. I spent a 5 day solo trip across the PNW and some of my best images came from that trip.
@smi77y is my Instagram.
Dave, I only joined NPN to get away from Instagram | FB and the crap that SM entails. Please donāt go down that ad-infested rat holeā¦ even if a member decides to OpINā¦
Hey Ed, I agree completely and am so sick of social media. But, I figured we could use it to our advantage to help promote some of our members photos, thatās all. This will always remain the core of NPN and we will only use social media to help promote our members and to entice more members to sign up to get away from social mediaā¦
David, I personally will have nothing at all to do with ANY social media, and hope to heaven that NPN doesnāt go down that road.
Iām really confused, because you recently told me that you wanted NPN to remain only a group of friends sharing their photos, not any kind of big competition with recognition (I had asked about the yearly picks) .
You said , above, āwe will use social media to bring more members in, to get away from social mediaā ?
Please explain furtherā¦ I really do want to understand your vision here.
Sandy
NPN needs more users. Itās still an exclusive forum. I donāt understand the negativity towards trying to expand it. Itās separate, and full of users who want the same thing - to discuss and get better. It costs money to be part of the āclub.ā But without a user base that cant exist.
Why not just ignore these types of things? We donāt have to join in the ācompetitionsā and social media. But imo they are necessary.
I could write a book about SMED, this proposition is naive and not how the medium works. They want your content (member content) for free to sell more eyeballs unsolicited promo ads. They are going to take the members wonder full images and stuff them on stamp side thumbnails. The content is now part of the FB empire collective with all of its negative ramifications.
If you are looking to grow your web presence then maybe ask members for ideas, suggestions and support. I have a few peculating that I like to put out thereā¦
(Welcome, Jessie!)
We definitely want and need more members - lots of new ones since David took over - great!
To me, the friendly weekly EPās and the yearly picks are an important part of that. EVERY site Iām aware of or active in recognizes memberās work with WPās.
In the past, the WPās and yearly picks on NPN were a pretty prestigious thing, discussed on many other forums with links to the the NPN Gallery of Picks, and this brought in a lot of new members. Who wouldnāt want the products of their photography passion recognized? - if not, Iām sure we can state in our post āNot to be considered for a WPā and simply post to share or get suggestions.
I do hope we donāt sink into the cesspool of social media.
Iām not sure anyone would drop out of Facebook, Instagram, etc - where they have 1000 friends and ālikesā - to join NPN and just post here.
Hi Sandy, thanks for your feedback. Iām not David, but I am his business partner so I will chime in. First, there is already an existing Facebook and Twitter account for NPN. This was created way before David and I joined on. We were just floating an idea out there for members to provide feedback. We were just thinking it would be nice to display memberās photos on there to introduce NPN. NANPA and other photography forums have a presence on Instagram, so it was just a thought. It wouldnāt turn into a competition, just a way to show people was NPN is about. As Jesse stated, itās still a pretty elusive forum. We donāt want to attract the crowd that is just in it for likes. It would be based on showing a memberās photo that they had previously agreed to. It would not be a hash-tagged mess trying to win popularity. A lot of photographers have left facebook, and they have turned to Instagram. It was just an idea to reach another group of people. While NPN will not turn into a āsocial media extravaganzaā, we also want to show others what it is. There are plenty of nature photographers on Instagram that would love to involved in NPN.
I think Jordan nicely summed up how the NPN instagram account could be used to help promote it and the members. This will in no way affect what we do here on NPN, if you donāt like social media then just stay off it, we wonāt share members photos without their consent, so this really has no affect on those that donāt like it. Iām quite confused by the bitterness toward this.
So you are a new member and just joined. why? you want info on how your printer works and why your images come out looking poorley and how to improve. You want to ask the pros ? We know a lot about this stuff. Some are working in Fine Art printing. Some have work for years with Nikon Ambassadors who know printing backwards and forward.
You put some money in the game to play and ask Qās on this site. You put your image up asking for advice. You content is here, it was not free for you to make that content. You want quality work, you donāt want to waste paper, ink, etcā¦
So say I give you the secret formula to print, then some Joe Q. publick stumbles in, becuase we have removed the barriers for entry, to see what crits/info is avail on how to print. Worse yet, that person screenshots the info and puts it up on his SMED account to let his friends how smart he is.
I donāt know what the user base here, Iām new also, 30 days in, it is heavy west coast and Utah, but that core group is wicked active and make some great stuff. Being an amerture means āto loveā which from what I have seen is a core value of the website.
There are plenty of other pro websites that you can goto. Iām in a few myself, a well as musuems and camera clubs. It is refeshing to see all this content on NPN from all these phtographers, full size images, of landscpae, birds, wildlife, we have stumbled into a gold mine.
The crap is out there on IG,FB,TWTR. As an indiviual you can decide what bucket of crap you want to play in. And we do have to play, but this a safe harbor that Iād prefer not get polluted by SMED.
What you bring up is open to the public currently Ed, and this is a completely different discussion.
We are talking about sharing members photos (who consent) on instagram and allowing others to mention the NPN account to help others find us and join. I get it that you hate social media, Iām not a huge fan either but we can leverage it gain more members which is ultimately what will allow NPN to thrive in the future so please keep this on topic and step down from your anti-social media soapbox, your comments will be deleted if you take this any farther as itās bordering on insulting to those that use social media.
NPN will not be āpolluted by social mediaā, the instagram account is completely separate and will affect you in no way.
Hi there! I just want to point out that there are many nature photographers on IG that I follow, that would not be included in a ābucket of crap.ā I feature some photographers on Fridays that I like to introduce to others because their work is very inspiring and creative, much like what is featured on NPN here.I donāt think itās fair to generalize that some photographers on social media are in that ācrapā category, and many of them would love to know about NPN. I understand that social media can be a world of egos, but not everyone fits into that category.
Yes, Iām a new member. I joined because like I already said, I enjoy more in depth discussions that I canāt get anywhere else. That question I asked isnāt something Iād get value from somewhere else. Iām always a very active community member.
But yes, I also run a photography business and want exposure so thatās why I use social media as well. Two separate places for two separate uses.
@Ed_Fritz - it almost feels to me like you donāt like me already, and that you think Iām going to āpoachā info from this site and share it. Huh? Nice to meet you too. Iāve ran into less vitriol elsewhere than I already have from you. The negative attitude isnāt appreciated, I apologize I have a different opinion than you. I enjoy the idea of this place and want it to thrive. Iām simply stating my opinion that I think itās worth networking to get more users. And social media is a place to find more users.
And the things you point out, the fact there are pros in the industry that can help answer my questions is the exact reason Iām here. I donāt understand what youāre getting atā¦
I donāt just take, as you can tell Iāve also responded to help people where I have knowledge as well. Not sure whatās up with the subtle judgment. But I digress.
I simply donāt understand why the responses has been negative towards NPN trying to network for more users. After all itās a business for them and it needs to be profitable as well.
Anyways, I donāt want to get off on the wrong foot with anyone. Appreciate the site and people already, including you. But itās ok for some simple discussion without the negativity, and itās ok to have different opinions.
No worries! 
I completely get where youāre coming from with social media. I still have a love/hate relationship with it, as I think a lot of people do. It has introduced me to so many creative photographers that are just in it to share and meet other like-minded artists!
My point is that I appreciate that you joined and reached out for help. You did so as a member. I donāt believe critiques sb are open to public.
Not sure where you think I was throwing you a negative attitude. If It came across that way, I do apologize.
I totally misread your comment then. My apologies as well. Really mustāve misread that, now I feel stupid haha.
My bad as well brother.
Regards,
I agree with Jessie, Jennifer, and David on this. NPN is not going to social media. Itās using social media as a tool to introduce people to NPN. There seems to be confusion with this. As I understand it Instagram will be used like a news outlet to bring attention to NPN. I see nothing but good in this endeavor.
Personally, I donāt use SM much. Iām only on FB to keep up with family and friends and most importantly to watch my Grandson grow up!
But I donāt have an issue using these SM tools to recruit new members. As I believe that is really the only goal. I see many posting on FB, and Iāll assume on other platforms as well, that they are using SM for exactly that purpose: Exposure, recruitment, āfriendsā, subscribers to blogs, selling e-books, getting more and more people exposed to your work. This increases your odds of selling more of your work. I get that. Probably a big reason why I gave up promoting and trying to sell me work. I suck at SM.
Relating to the comment I just posted in the other thread about public vs. private and the galleries,
You canāt grow a business remaining static. The challenge will be growing the business (more members) while keeping valuable customers.
To expand that notion, one should consider what kind of customers are you growing? Just a hunch, but I suspect the majority of new members from SM become lurkers and not contributors (from a numbers perspective) As it is. just a guess, less than 10% of the membership regularly contributes either by posting an image, or writing a comment, or both of course.
So the discussion comes full circle. The $64k question for years has been, And itās a separate question attracting new members. But the question is, How do you increase the participation of existing members?
