Happy Holidays From The Luminous-Landscape Team

What a year it has been!  Luminous-Landscape has had a big year; many events and moments of note!  Mostly good memories, and yet, inevitably, a few were sad.

For two years now, we have embarked on an endeavor to update Luminous-Landscape to a new web delivery platform.  For a site that is nearly 17 years old, this was quite an undertaking.  Our site includes more than 5,450 articles, reviews, and tutorials, and dozens upon dozens of videos.  All of our content now resides on an integrated platform that includes articles, video, workshops, and the ever-popular forum.

Along the way, we have added new features to the site.  The home page pictures are changed weekly.  You can roll your mouse over them to uncover additional information about the photo, or click the upper right-hand corner to enlarge the image.

Both Michael and I have galleries of our images spanning the last three years.

Each article is tied to an “Author’s Page,” allowing our users to view additional articles written by that author, or visit that author’s website.

We also challenged our web developers to create a new search function and they were able to deliver a very clever solution.

Now just click on the magnifying glass on the top right of the page to open a search box.  Type a word or phrase that you are interested in and watch how quickly search results are delivered!  You can even play videos within the search results themselves!

We will soon be introducing “before and after” slide-overs within our articles. When directed, click on specified images to view those images at full resolution.  We hope to show some of these off before the end of the year.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ABOVE IMAGE AT FULL SIZE

We also offered a number of very successful workshops this year: Patagonia, Atacama, Palouse, Iceland, S. Georgia Island, and Antarctica.  These workshops provided our attendees with access to top notch instructors and breathtaking locations.  Not only are these workshops educational, they are a lot of fun!

We publish articles every three days and boast an even larger number of guest contributors.  I personally want to thank everyone who has contributed articles, particularly those of you who contributed more than one.  Your contribution is what makes Luminous-Landscape such a strong presence in the online landscape photography community.

Luminous-Landscape wouldn’t be what it is today without Chris Sanderson and the endless hours he has devoted to video production and customer service, to say nothing of the time he has spent on the Luminous-Endowment.  Thank you, Chris.  Your friendship, guidance, and support has always been there when I needed it.

We currently have numerous videos and articles that we are putting the finishing touches on.  We have a new Master Series video that is well under way.  In 2016, we concentrated on Getting Back To The Print.  In 2017, we will be focusing on Behind The Scenes.  We will be divulging more in early 2017, but I think you are really going to like our ideas.

Speaking of 2017, we already have a number of workshops on the books and have even announced our Antarctica: South Of The Circle trip for February 2018!  The Antarctica trips are very special, as anyone who has attended one would certainly attest.  We are also working on additional workshops for 2018, 2109, and 2020.  I hope that you will strongly consider joining us on one of our 2017 workshops.  The Greenland trip is a new workshop that I’m particularly excited about!  Chris and I did this trip last year and it was incredible.  We will be publishing some photos and a video on this trip very soon. And we are also offering two Iceland workshops.  Check out the Iceland Winter Workshop.  See Iceland like you never see it during a summer workshop.

Our web system has been re-designed so that contributors will soon be able to input their own stories and submit them for publishing.  If you are interested in contributing an article, click here to learn more and contact me.

We also expect to open an e-commerce segment of our site by the end of the second quarter.  As we get closer to this announcement and release, we will be sharing more information.

This is a big site to manage and between the Endowment and Rockhopper Workshops, Chris and I are juggling quite a bit.  In the coming months, we will be adding some new faces to our team to help lighten our load.  We will announce our new team members as they become official.  We hope this will enable us (Chris and I) to focus more on publishing content.

Finally, we will never forget the founder of this site, Michael Reichmann.  It was a truly sad day when Michael passed away this past May, after a valiant battle with cancer.  Michael, as many of you know, was a unique individual.  His passion for photography and his willingness to share openly will remain the mantra and backbone of this site.  I had the privilege of knowing Michael as both a friend and business partner.  Michael set examples that many of us will continue to follow for a long time to come.  He had one of the best senses of humor that I have ever known and a down-to-earth, no bullshit way of saying whatever was on his mind.  He played no favorites and always called it as he saw it.  That occasionally pissed some folks off, but more often that not, it reflected the strength and integrity that comprised his soul.  Michael will always be my friend and a friend to this community. To remember Michael we will be creating a Founder’s Page and we will introduce this in early 2017.

Whenever I need to smile and remember the good times, I play back the blooper reel that Michael and I did on the Sigma Quattro Pro.  This video never bores me and always reminds me of the kind of person Michael was.  Even those of you who aren’t part of the photography industry should have a good laugh watching this video linked below.  Enjoy and smile and laugh.

So, on behalf of Chris Sanderson, Debra Fadely-Raber, and myself (Kevin Raber), Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!  May you and your families have a wonderful and safe holiday season! We really look forward to 2017!

“We’ll See You On The Luminous-Landscape”

Kevin Raber
December 2016