It’s our Birthday!
12 months ago I thought I’d take my digital photography passion to a new level and start researching and writing up digital photography tips.
The last year here at DPS has been a blur and has exceeded all of my expectations. Here’s some of where we’ve come to so far:
- Here on the blog we’ve uploaded 257 tutorials, tips and articles in 13 categories
- We currently have a monthly readership of around 230,000 people
- DPS has an email newsletter subscription list of over 18000 subscribers
- The DPS forum has a membership of around 2500
- We have an RSS feed subscriber count of just under 15,000
Ok - enough self congratulation - the main reason I started DPS was that I wanted to improve my digital photography and wanted to create an online community where together we could learn more about our hobby.
Highlights from the Past Year
So on celebratory days like today I like to look back and reminisce a little so for today’s post I’m going to post a list of some of the most popular tutorials and tips that we’ve featured here at DPS over the last year (based upon traffic). Here’s the Top 20:
- The Rule of Thirds - an early post on a basic compositional ‘Rule’
- Working the Lines in your Photography - a mini series on different ways of seeing and using lines in your photography
- 11 Tips for Better Candid Photography - tips on one of my favorite styles of photography
- How to Photograph Pets - cute animal photography!
- How to Photograph People When Traveling - 7 tips for getting great people shots on your next trip
- 10 Beach Photography Tips - one of the most popular tutorials we’ve had
- How to Photograph Sunrises and Sunsets - sunsets and sunrises are a bit of a cliche shot - but it’s still fun to learn how to photograph them
- How to Make Digital Photos Look Like Lomo Photography - the first photoshop tutorial on DPS and one that got ALOT of traffic
- How to Take Great Group Photos - another common shot and how to take them
- 10 Questions to Ask When Taking a Digital Photo - a mental check list
- Introduction to White Balance - learn to play with this basic camera setting
- Learning about Exposure - The Exposure Triangle - the start to a series designed to help you get out of ‘Auto Mode’
- 10 Tips for Photographing Babies - did I mention that I became a Dad this year? Here’s what I’ve learned about photographing our baby
- 7 Digital Camera Predators and How to Keep them at Bay - keep your camera safe from these predators
- How to Take Sharp Digital Images - some basic tips on getting clear images
- How to Choose a DSLR Camera - DSLRs are getting cheaper and I was getting more and more questions about how to choose one (also see how to buy a digital camera - a 9 step guide)
- How to Be a Curious Photographer - one out of left field that seemed to connect with people
- 13 Tips for Improving Camera Phone Photos - one of my old articles from another blog updated
- Slow Sync Flash - a fun and effective technique
- 5 Black and White Photography Tips - from our Black and White Photography Series
Lastly - let me say thank you to DPS readers. Every day I get emails from readers asking questions, giving feedback and suggestions and encouraging me with stories of how their photography has been improving. I’m learning a lot from you and appreciate you being a part of the DPS community.
Thanks also to those of you actively promoting Digital Photography School. The word of mouth growth that we’ve experienced this year has been quite massive - so thanks for writing about us on your blogs, emailing your friends and promoting us in your photography clubs, to local magazines and all of the other things you’re doing.
So here’s to our first year. I’m looking forward to many more!
Read more posts like 'It’s our Birthday!'
April 23rd, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Happy Birthday!
April 23rd, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Happy Birthday! I’m really glad I found the site, it’s been very helpful!
April 23rd, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Nice job. With the professionalism that this blog handles itself with, I never would have guessed that it’s only a year old.
Also, thanks for that list of posts. Being someone who found the site relativly recently, seeing that list is a lot easier than looking through everything. And don’t think I haven’t done that with some categories.
April 23rd, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Happy Birthday!!! Hope we have many more! all the best Darren! :)
April 23rd, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Congratulations! So far this site (well, the founders and all the contributors that is) helped me to improve by giving honest criticism (did I spell that correct?). I hope I can give that back and help to get this forum to the next anniversary!
April 23rd, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Happy Birthday! Thanks for all the good tips (and comments too :))
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Congratulations from a daily reader!
April 23rd, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Happy Birthday indeed, it’s been amongst my fav. blogs during the year !
April 23rd, 2007 at 7:50 pm
thanks all - I appreciate your kind words and love that you’re enjoying what we’re doing here!
April 23rd, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Congratulations!
April 23rd, 2007 at 11:06 pm
congrats and happy Birthday!
as others have mentioned, i stumbled upon this site probably 9 months ago and am glad i had.
April 23rd, 2007 at 11:19 pm
I love DPS! Such a great place to learn and grow in our skills. Darren-superb!
April 24th, 2007 at 12:03 am
It’s a happy birthday indeed, there are so many good reason to celebrate! I can’t even count all the good things I have learned here. Thanks Darren and the team for keeping it running.
April 24th, 2007 at 12:13 am
DPS is Great, useful and straight to the point! Keep up the good work and wishing you all the success for the next years to come.
April 24th, 2007 at 12:15 am
Happy Birthday! Thanks for all your hard work, Darren. This site has been tremendously helpful to a lot of us that are trying to improve our skills.
April 24th, 2007 at 3:06 am
Congratulations on making a year. This blog is responsible for my now fully fledged love of photography. It’s taken me from enjoying the ocassional candid-shot to really wanting to learn and trying things out.
Thank you very much for all the hardwork that goes into the blog, and the wonderful friendly community it supports.
April 24th, 2007 at 4:48 am
Happy Birthday! And congratulations. Your site is a joy to read. I can see how much hard work goes into all the articles to help us understand such a fantastic interest.
Thanks again!
April 24th, 2007 at 8:35 am
Happy Birthday! This is one of the best photography websites I´ve seen. I really enjoy all the articles and learn every day here.
Thank you for the excellent job!
April 24th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Heartiest Wishes to all making the DPS successful ! And Happy birthday to the team. I am very carefully reading the news letter and the tips and even try out some.
Its grear to be a member.
Keep it up !
April 25th, 2007 at 5:58 am
Happy Birthday!!! You’re doing a great job here, definetly deserve a great great sweet sweet big cake. :)
April 25th, 2007 at 7:57 am
Happy birthday and keep up the good work
April 25th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Happy Birthday!! Keep up the great work, Darren. This is an awesome site.
April 26th, 2007 at 4:03 am
Well I found you on Monday, which I now know was your bday, and I must say I am glad to have discovered you! Happy Birthday, only a year old and already so well put together -
congrats on a great site.
April 26th, 2007 at 8:06 am
can’t stop reading dps from day one i discovered it. useful, great content for photographers, even casual ones. happy birthday dps and keep up the great shots err i mean work!
April 27th, 2007 at 1:18 am
Bappy Hirthday! ;]
April 27th, 2007 at 7:57 am
Happy birthday!!
And Big Thanks for all those posts…
April 27th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
I wish you a happy birthday and a succesfully new years..
April 30th, 2007 at 12:04 am
Happy Birthday and thank you so much for the great tips
May 1st, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Happy Birthday & Congratulations!
This is one of the best photography websites I´ve seen. I really enjoy all the articles and learn every day here.Thanx alot
Keep it up !!!
July 31st, 2007 at 2:08 am
thank you and happy birthday and many many more !!