AYP Is Growing: New Community, Sharing and Member Features
What began as a photography portfolio has gradually grown into something rather broader.
Alan Young Photography is still, first and foremost, about British wildlife photography. The photographs, field experiences and wildlife behaviour remain at the heart of the site. But over the past year I have also been developing a growing collection of practical photography resources, particularly around wildlife photography and the Nikon Z8.
More recently, I have been working on the next stage: making AYP a more useful place for photographers to learn, share photographs, ask questions and talk to one another.
Several new features are now available to AYP members, all included within the existing free membership.
A New AYP Community
The biggest addition is the AYP Community.
Rather than relying entirely on Facebook or email, members now have a dedicated place within the website to start discussions, ask questions, share experiences and talk about photography.
I hope it develops naturally rather than becoming another noisy social media feed. The idea is quite simple: a friendly photography community where people can discuss equipment, wildlife photography, fieldcraft, processing and anything else relevant to making photographs.
Members Image Share & File Sharing
Photography is rather pointless if nobody gets to see the photographs.
The new Members Image Share gives members a dedicated place to share their own work, exchange useful files and discuss photographs with the AYP community.
It is not intended to be a competition or somewhere every image has to be technically perfect. It is simply a place to show what you have been photographing, ask questions, exchange ideas and learn from one another.
As the community develops, the same area can also be used to share useful photography-related files and resources without relying on email or social media.
Events Calendar
There is now an Events Calendar within the members area too.
This gives me somewhere to highlight relevant AYP events, activities and other dates that may be useful to members as the site develops.
It is still early days, but having the calendar infrastructure in place gives us plenty of scope for the future.
The Download Centre Has Changed Too
The AYP Download Centre has had a substantial overhaul.
Instead of simply downloading a PDF and disappearing into the depths of your Downloads folder, the photography guides can now be opened and read directly through the website.
The new viewer works on desktop, tablet and mobile and also allows the guides to be downloaded or printed when required.
The current collection includes practical guides covering:
Nikon Z8 autofocus
Nikon Z8 field settings
bird photography field techniques
wildlife photography workflow
video equipment
the Nikon Z8 e-Guide
A new Nikon Z8 Video Guide is also in development and will join the collection shortly.
All of the guides remain free for AYP members.
One Membership, Everything Included
There is no additional membership level for any of these features.
AYP membership remains completely free and gives access to the guides, Download Centre, Community, Members Image Share and the growing members section.
If you are already a member, simply sign in and explore the new areas.
If you have been following my photography but have never joined, you can create a free account and access everything from the Members Area.
Where AYP Goes From Here
I never originally set out to build a photography community.
The website began as somewhere to present my wildlife photography properly, away from the limitations of social media. The guides followed because people started asking questions. Membership developed because I needed a sensible way of making those resources available.
The Community, Image Share, File Share and Events areas feel like the natural next step.
I have no intention of filling the site with features simply because I can. What stays will be determined by what people actually find useful.
So if you are already an AYP member, have a look around and let me know what you think.
And perhaps more importantly, what would you like to see added next?
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