After endless months of waiting, the FPZ PhotoLink is just about ready to launch. But first, we need to fill it with useful stuff! And that's why we need everyone's help.

For now, only one section of the PhotoLink is available: People & Communities.

The goal of this section is to list the following things:

Member portfolios
If you have an online portfolio showing off your photography, this is the place to add it!

Photography-related blogs or news/reviews sites
Web sites by individuals or groups who write about photography in general.

Photography club websites
Know of any local photography clubs? Do they have a web site or Facebook page or other web presence so other photographers can learn about them?

Other online communities
Obviously we're not the only online photography community around. There are many far bigger and older ones than FPZ. There's no discrimination here, we're trying to make the PhotoLink as useful as possible for everyone, so please be sure to add entries for any online communities you're familiar with. Yes, this even includes Pentax Forums

You can add entries by going here and clicking the Add Entry button (make sure you're logged in to see that button)

A few notes:

• any FPZ member can add an entry to the PhotoLink. However, any entry you add won't show up on the site until it's been approved by a moderator. This is to ensure that duplicate entries are avoided, especially at this early stage when many of us might be adding entries at the same time. Consequently, to avoid duplicated effort, please check if an entry already exists before adding it.
• each entry can belong to as many of the above categories as necessary. For example, DPR is both a news/reviews site and a community, so be sure to select all the appropriate categories when adding a new entry.
• if you're not sure what to write for an entry's description, a simple trick is to use that site's welcome message or "About Us" page. Remember that descriptions must be 400 characters or less. You can also omit the description altogether if you prefer.
• most entries can receive reviews and ratings. However, ANY entry that's in the Member Portfolios category will not have reviews/ratings turned on. So you can feel safe adding an entry for your own portfolio without worrying that someone will give it a negative review or rating.
• the documentation and support pages are still being put together, so if you come across a page that looks like a dead end, don't worry: we're still working on it

We're already putting the finishing touches on the next PhotoLink section: Resellers & Services. This section will include entries for all resellers of photography equipment and services (Adorama, B&H, etc) as well as equipment manufacturers (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax, etc).

Other upcoming sections include:
- Gear (a comprehensive directory that lists all photography equipment, sorted by type and manufacturer, and includes specs and reviews)
- Learning & Inspiration (a list of books, eBooks, photo collections and other material used to learn or get inspiration from)
- Photogs 4 Hire (a place for photographers to advertise their services... this section will also be published elsewhere on the web and shared with other communities)

If you have any questions or come across any problems, please use this forum topic to let us know. We'll try to take care of any issues as quickly as possible.

is this function going to be able to link to something like my Flickr account? so members here can see what i've uploaded there??

I added a link.
More to come!

Thanks FP! I know this has been a lot of work and appreciate your efforts to make this site amazing.

Mongooz wrote:


Sadly no, this feature is meant solely as a directory. Kinda like a Yellow Pages for photographers. However the feature you're describing is something I've been planning for a long time, and I'm hoping the eventual income from the PhotoLink will help fund the development of that feature in the near future.

I added a portfolio link. Thanks for making this such a fun place to visit, even though I've been away much. I certainly get better feedback from this smaller community than I do at that other place...

Thanks for the entries so far! The sooner it fills up, the sooner we can make it public and start bragging about it. Should be a great way to start off the new year.

I should probably make it clear that the PhotoLink isn't exactly "live" yet. I've only opened it up for you guys so you can start adding stuff to it while I put the finishing touches on all the other documents and sections. So don't worry about the lack of fanfare on the rest of the site

as far as other online photo communities - the first one I found when I first "went digital" was Photography Voice. The moderator picked daily winners in several categories, no prizes just a fun thing, but he keeps pretty detailed stats as to camera/lenses used, and it's fun to see a fresh batch of great images to give you inspiration.

The "daily winners" thing is currently down while he does updates to the site, but he hopes to have it back soon.

Here is the site: www.photographyvoice.com