Is anyone else a member of 1x.com ?

[Wolf]

Is anyone else a member of http://1x.com ? since joining back in January I have found the site to be unfriendly and unless your photos are as good as the pro's they never get published.
After complaining to the two guys who own the site that I am not happy about the way I have been treated, and I am probably not the only one, nothing has been done about my complaint...seems like I have thrown money down the drain for the years membership !

[MiniChris]

It looks to be geared more toward advertising and trickery shots than straight shooting, so I am sure that would confuse the heck out of them. Another site, though free, is www.apertureacademy.com but even though I've had a daily winner, I've discovered if you don't either shoot like the author of the site, or shoot a lot of HDR, your opportunities for being a winner are very limited.

Not to bust your chops, but I'd never pay to belong to any online forum, including this one and I love this place. This place is the real deal and it is because it is free, everyone has a good chance at being a mini or monthly comp winner and for the most part, the work is superior to anything I've seen posted elsewhere. Chalk it up to a bad experience; it's not worth an ulcer.

[Wolf]

Hi Chris...

I am one of those people that won't let the matter drop, and because of the way they falsely draw you into the site with claims that are clearly not true, if they don't refund my £50 I will seek legal advice, it's not about the money here it's the principal of the thing
I have never paid for a membership to a site in the past and clearly won't again

[MiniChris]

That's a chunk of change and in this case, I don't blame you...burn their fannies for me, while you're at it.

[rpcrowe]

I don't agree with paying a chunk of money for displaying your images on a site; although I do subscribe to SMUGMUG to display and store my images, ( http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/ ). However I consider the cost of smugmug to be well worth it.

Regarding http://1x.com/about/ - I have visited this site and consider the images posted exceptionally good! The site does explain that they will only post the very highest (in their opinion) quality images. Their disclaimer states:

"Our screeners do not take it upon themselves to decide what is good or bad photography or what is art. However, we publish only a small fraction of the submissions. Many of the excellent images that don't get published simply do not fit our vision for 1x in terms of style or subject matter."

That seems to provide them total control over the photos that they display. And, it seems from the images posted that (at least IMO) these images are all of the highest quality. This seems to explain your comment, "unless your photos are as good as the pro's they never get published'.

There is a difference between a great site like Cambridge in Colour and a for-profit site. Those folks are in business to make money. CIC is in business to help us all and to give us an outlet on which to display our images. CIC does an excellent job at doing that and I, for one, am very appreciative to the moderators who make this wonderful AND FREE site possible.

[bambleweeney]

Never heard of this site but out of curiosity I had a peek. I'd agree that there are some really good images in there but paying that much to join ... I don't think so. Actually I kind of like their philosophy there are a lot of sites out there that promise the world and are full of shots of out of focus babies/dogs - so sort of refreshing to see some quality. Their free membership implies that you can upload one photo per week - honestly if I get one good shot every couple of months I'm pretty happy !!!
Anyhow it's bookmarked so I can browse during those times when the light's bad or inspiration is lacking I'll keep my 50 quid in my though.

[PicsbyChance]

Another site, though free, is www.apertureacademy.com but even though I've had a daily winner, I've discovered if you don't either shoot like the author of the site, or shoot a lot of HDR, your opportunities for being a winner are very limited.

Not to bust your chops, but I'd never pay to belong to any online forum, including this one and I love this place. This place is the real deal and it is because it is free, everyone has a good chance at being a mini or monthly comp winner and for the most part, the work is superior to anything I've seen posted elsewhere. Chalk it up to a bad experience; it's not worth an ulcer.

Chris,
Aperture Academy is located not far from me in the Bay Area and I have been lucky enough to take a class from the founder, Stephen Oachs. During the class I met his wife and a partner of his. I have also attended a gallery opening. They are really nice people and he does some beautiful work. I guess my point is, his site is definitely worth a look and if you get a chance to take one of his classes I would go for it!
Mike

[Geoff F]

I do pay a small annual fee to display photos on P base which I think is good value. I believe they do also have some forum options there; but so far, I haven't been tempted into an adulterous relationship with them.

[mythlady]

I'm a member of the Nature Photographers Network, but only because they gave me a free one-year membership (long story), which is $49. They have pretty good stuff, people critique each other, and they offer other benefits like promoting your stuff. I haven't posted there much since discovering CiC . It's much more congenial here.

[ucci]

If I could stick my one cent in, some are in the 'business' of photography, others are just' happy snappers for fun ( hope I haven't alienated too many out there by this.) Being one of the latter, paying good money to have one's efforts rejected, even should they deserve it, is not my idea of the way to go. Hey, it is easy enough for me to be rejected for free without having to pay for the privilege! This site is brilliant for old duffers like me who want to learn and improve out of personal ambition and not for 'professional' needs. And as a bonus, here no one puts you down but there is helpful and friendly encouragement from experts who are willing to share 'trade secrets;' which is very refreshing given that many are people in a highly competitive industry. Apart from that, my approach to paying for these things is maybe illustrated by the old joke. " How was copper wire invented? Two Scotsmen found a penny." Having proven I am mightily miserly and having mortally offended my good Scots bretheren I guess I had better hop on my bike and cycle off into the night.

[delboy]

Never heard of this site but out of curiosity I had a peek. I'd agree that there are some really good images in there.

I also had a peek at this site, Agree some very good images,but nothing superior to some of the images posted on this site.

Delboy.

[tbob]

I was a member on this site until November. I dropped out because I wasn't posting often enough to earn critique (there is a rule that requires you to post three critiques to earn one). The level of critique was extremely good and constructive. As an example; critique of the week is given for an especially insightful analysis of where the image fails and pointers for future improvement. Posting for critique means you will be told where the image fails in no uncertain terms although not rudely and is not intended to polish your ego. I was too uncertain of my expertise to provide analysis at the level of most others so I refrained. That plus the fact I am one of six people using one computer at home for internet access, games, business and information. And our internet access is unstable so it frequently goes down, often in the middle of a upload or download. My home is very rural, we are lucky to have any internet at all. But is is frustrating to spend ten minutes composing your thoughts only to lose the entire thing; do it all over and lose that!

I will join this site again when my level of expertise is better and my internet is more stable. I have nothing bad to say about 1X.

[Wolf]

I have plenty to say about 1x.com and mostly all bad, the website homepage they give you is totally basic in appearance which they advertise as very good, as a website designer myself I would give it 3 out of 10.
The comunication from the site is very slow, it took one of the owners of the site 6 days to answer my email complaint with a mega one line of text, and have still not replied to my latest email of 8 days and the list goes on.

[Donald]

... having mortally offended my good Scots bretheren ....

Strike 1