Despite the fact that the Corner server has been a little grumpy over the past couple of days, the September newsletter was sent out late last night. I realize that it’s technically October now, but it’s only October 1st, so it’s not really that late, right? If it didn’t show up in your inbox, you can always read it online here in the Newsletter Archives.

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Usually the day before each Corner Newsletter goes out (if we can get the sever issues we’re dealing with right now figured out, the newsletter should go out sometime on Friday), we take a couple of minutes to recognize and award members of the Corner who have hit posting milestones over the past month. Commitment Awards are handed out to those who have shown great community dedication & commitment, and have reached a specific post-count milestone (1k, 2k, 5k and 10k). We have one member receiving an award this month: tealsky! Thanks for your dedication and commitment to making PhotographyCorner an awesome online destination for photographers!

We haven’t had voting this close for a long time! A full 2/3rds of the nominated photographs were within eight votes of each other, with the winning photograph “Faerie-Land Forest” by squirl033 winning by a mere ONE vote!! Check out the final voting results here. When you browse the September 2011 Photograph of the Month Photo Gallery you’ll understand why the voting was so close - it’s a fantastic group of photos!

The contest was sponsored by our friends at DayMen Photo Marketing (an innovative manufacturer and distributor of high quality imaging products and accessories) and Acme Made (best known for incorporating innovative textiles and materials with contemporary styling to produce attractive bags, cases and sleeves for laptops, eReaders, smart phones, and digital cameras). Since Rocky (aka squirl033) is a Premiere Member, he will receive an Acme Made Laptop Sleeve or an Acme Made Kindle Hardback Folio case.

If you haven’t already, make sure to drop by the award thread to congratulate Rocky on his second Photograph of the Month win!

Can you believe we’re coming up on the end of August already? There’s a psychological boundary, for me at least, that the close of August and the beginning of September signals. As a child it meant summer was over and it was time to go back to school. I guess that feeling still stuck with me decades later.

For us around the Corner, though, the last week of every month means it’s time to vote on the best photographs posted up in the Corner forums and galleries that have been posted up over the past month. One of the main benefits of Premiere Membership is the ability to nominate photographs for the Photograph of the Month contests - and this month they did a bang up job. Check out the 15 photographs that made the final cut this month in the September 2011 Photograph of the Month Photo Gallery. You have until the end of the month (around 5pm EST on August 31st) to cast your vote.

The contest is being sponsored by our friends at DayMen Photo Marketing (an innovative manufacturer and distributor of high quality imaging products and accessories) and Acme Made (best known for incorporating innovative textiles and materials with contemporary styling to produce attractive bags, cases and sleeves for laptops, eReaders, smart phones, and digital cameras). If the winner is a Premiere Member, they will receive an Acme Made Laptop Sleeve or an Acme Made Kindle Hardback Folio case. If the winner is not a Premiere Member, they will receive a Lifetime, Level I Premiere Membership.

So you’ve got just under a week to browse through the entries and cast your vote - before September is here! Get on it!

I know I seem to cut it close every month, but there’s nothing like the deadline of a month running out to encourage me to get the newsletter out, right? If you’re a member of PhotographyCorner, you should have the September 2010 Corner Newsletter waiting for you in your inbox. If you haven’t received the newsletter, make sure you’re settings are set up to receive emails from the site in your UserCP. If you’re not a member of the Corner, or if you’ve chosen not to receive email from the Corner, luckily we post a copy of the newsletter online in the Newsletter Archives. Read the newsletter in full here: PhotographyCorner.com Newsletter: Volume 7, Issue 8 - September 2010.

The newsletter was sponsored by Tamron and their new SP 70-300mm Di VC USD Best-in-Class Tele Zoom Lens. In the pursuit to achieve the most outstanding image resolution in the 70-300mm class, Tamron’s 60th Anniversary lens - the SP 70-300mm F4-5.6 Di VC USD (Model A005) - utilizes an advanced optical design that features an LD (Low Dispersion) and an XLD (Extra Low Dispersion) lens element made from specialized materials that prevent chromatic aberration. As a result, the SP 70-300mm Di VC USD boasts sharper contrast and greater descriptive performance than all others in its class. This is the first Tamron lens to sport USD (Ultrasonic Silent Drive), Tamron’s very own ultrasonic auto-focus drive mechanism. This USD mechanism delivers fast focusing, making it a perfect telephoto zoom choice for photographing sports, racing, or other fast-moving subjects. The lens also boasts Tamron’s proprietary VC (Vibration Compensation) image stabilization to assist in hand-held photography, not only at long focal length ranges where blurring is common, but also under low-lit conditions, dramatically enhancing photographic freedom. This combination of best in class image resolution, Ultrasonic Silent Drive and Vibration Compensation is a new achievement of Tamron technology, culminating in the production of a premium 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens. Winner of EISA Best Zoom Lens 2010-2011. Available for full-frame and APS-C sensor cameras in Canon, Nikon and Sony mounts (the latter without VC). $50 rebate thru 12/31/10. Pretty sweet, eh?

Enjoy the rest of the newsletter.

This may seem like déjà vu, but like last month, Parabol has won the Photograph of the Month contest with a beautiful Australian seascape. The September 2010 Photograph of the Month, as voted on by you - the community - is “On a Lone Winter Morning…” capturing over 31% of the votes. If you haven’t already, take a browse through the 15 photographs that were up for the title of September 2010 Photograph of the Month in the contest gallery. You can see the final voting results here in the voting thread.

Since Parabol won a Premiere Membership last month, he will receive an M-Rock Yellowstone 651 Holster Camera Bag (read our review of it here) courtesy of M-Rock - a leading manufacturer of high quality camera, camcorder, lens bags, sling-backpacks and travel cases for professional photographers and enthusiasts.

Make sure to drop by the award thread to congratulate Kieran on his second straight Photograph of the Month win!

August is coming to a close (I can’t believe it’s almost September already), and that means it’s time for us to cast our votes for the upcoming Photograph of the Month. Every month, during the last week of each month, the PhotographyCorner community gets together and the Premiere Members nominate photographs posted to the Corner from the past month (in the forums or galleries). I have the arduous job of narrowing down those nominations to 15 or so photographs. Then the community has 7 days to cast their vote. Around the first of each month, the winner is announced and is featured on the homepage of PhotographyCorner for the entire month.

You can check out the 15 photographs up for the honors here in the September 2010 Photograph of the Month Photo Gallery, then head on over to the voting thread to make your decision. The contest is sponsored by M-Rock, a leading manufacturer of high quality camera, camcorder, lens bags, sling-backpacks and travel cases for professional photographers and enthusiasts. If the winner is a Premiere Member, they will receive a M-Rock Yellowstone 651 Holster Camera Bag (read the newly posted review of it here). If the winner is not a Premiere Member, they will receive a M-Rock Mesa Verde 644 Compact Camera Bag (read the newly posted review of it here).

There are some fantastic photographs up for the September 2010 Photograph of the Month, including two by Scott111184, Eric Diller and cup4tml. So make sure to swing by the award thread before the end of the month to cast your vote. On September 1st, we’ll announce the winner and award them with a new M-Rock camera bag and Photograph of the Month honors!

September is usually a busy month for most people, and it’s no different here around the Corner. The September 2009 Corner Newsletter that was sent out last night is jam-packed full of all the stuff that has been going on around the Corner in the past month. From contests, to SmugMug Corner interviews, to Video Corner videos to two dozen new resources that have been added to the Corner Resource Center in the past month. It’ll take you a while to read through, even if you only check out half of the links in there. If you didn’t receive the newsletter in your inbox, you can read it online in the Corner Newsletter Archives (direct link to the September 2009 newsletter here). If you want to receive the newsletter via email, make sure you’ve registered at the Corner forums, and set your email preferences in your UserCP to receive email from administrators. Also make sure your email white list is set to accept email from adm…@photographycorner.com.

Oh, and don’t forget to check out the links by our newsletter sponsor: B&H Photo. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve written a review of the Lowepro Nova 180 AW camera bag and the Lensbaby Composer. Thank B&H Photo for sponsoring the Corner by buying those items from B&H photo: Lowepro Nova 180 AW camera bag - Lensbaby Composer.

Read the full newsletter online here.

The September 2009 edition of the Corner Newsletter is set to go out in the next day or so and, as always, that means it’s time to hand out Commitment Awards to those that have reached milestones with regards to their post-count in the past month. Commitment Awards are handed out to those who have shown great community dedication & commitment, and have reached a specific post-count milestone (1k, 2k, 5k and 10k). We have three members receiving awards this month: Scott111184, JonMack and no16caddis. Thanks for your dedication and commitment to making PhotographyCorner an awesome online destination for photographers!

Since late 2008, the winner of each Premiere Project has been automatically entered into each Photograph of the Month contest (see this blog post for all the details). None of the Premiere Project winning photographs, however, have ever beat out all the other fantastic photographs posted on the forum in any given month. None until this month, that is. Uncommon View by tamara - the winning photograph from Premiere Project #59 -, by one vote, has been awarded the September 2009 Photograph of the Month.

You can browse through the photographs that were in the running in the September 2009 Photograph of the Month Photo Gallery, and check out the final voting results in the voting thread. The contest was sponsored by one of our favorite sponsors from Lensbaby.com. Since tamara is a Premiere Member, she will receive a Lensbaby Composer (a a $270 value!).

Check out tamara’s winning photograph and make sure to congratulate her on her first Photograph of the Month win in the award thread!

Want an automatic entry in the Photograph of the Month contests? You have to become a Premiere Member and participate in the Premiere Projects. Get all the details on how to become a Premiere Member here: www.photographycorner.com/premiere-membership.

It’s the last week of the month (I can’t believe it’s almost September!) which means it’s time to vote for the best photograph from the past month and decide which photograph will be displayed on the homepage of PhotographyCorner.com as the September 2009 Photograph of the Month.

As always, the nominations were put forth by Premiere Members, and after being whittled down, we are left with 14 photographs to vote on. You can browse through the nominated photographs in the September 2009 Photograph of the Month Photo Gallery, and you have until 4pm EST on August 31st, 2009 (that’s 8pm GMT) to cast your vote (you can also see each photograph, in addition to the poll in the voting thread).

The contest is sponsored by our favorite selective focus lens manufacturer Lensbaby.com. Lensbaby will award the winner a Lensbaby Composer (a $270 value!!!) if the winner is a Premiere Member, or a Lensbaby Muse (a $150 value!) if they are not a Premiere Member.

Congrats to all the photographs who have their photographs up for the September 2009 Photograph of the Month (including two by tamara and jaharris1001). Make sure to check out the fantastic photographs and cast your vote before the end of the month!

For those that missed it, on Wednesday, September 24th we had a Corner Community Chat. The topic? Photography Business Basics. We had 40+ people show up throughout the 2-hour-long chat which featured a lot of random chat and banter, but we also worked through some great questions and answers about the business of photography. There were well over 1,500 messages over the course of the chat (that's about a new post every 5 seconds!), and a fair portion of the chat was not necessarily on topic (though I must say, it's a lot of fun just chating with a bunch of other people who love photography about photography), so I'm not going to post the entire chat. Instead, I've printed out the transcript (29 pages, 12pt font, single-spaced), and gone through and created a summary for you. Now you won't feel so left out if you missed the chat. Oh, and don't forget to continue the discussion in the comments - especially if you have further "questions" or "answers" you'd like to add.

Just a quick post to let you know that the September 2008 Issue of the Corner Newsletter has been sent out, and you should have it in your inbox waiting for you. If for some reason you didn’t receive it, you can read it online here. Make sure to check out the sponsor for this newsletter as well, to save yourself $25 on a canvas gallery wrap from Canvas On Demand.

We always hand out the bling in the middle of the month before the Corner Newsletter goes out, and this month is no different. Again we have only 1 member hitting a major commitment milestone (celebrated at 1,000 posts, 2,000 posts, 5,000 posts and 10,000 posts): digital2006. Thanks for all your hard work and contributions to the Corner, Marty!!

A couple of days after each Corner Community Chat, I’m going to post a recap here on the blog for those of you that were unable to attend. Our chat on September 10th, 2008 was more of just a meet and greet chat, though, so there’s not really much to recap (unless you count such important topics like: alcoholic drink recipes, baseball, the SmugMug Scavenger Hunt #1, where we live, Ramadan, Halloween, vacations, pets, coffee, and a bunch of other random stuff). We did hit on a couple of “photography-related” topics, however; but nothing you couldn’t already find in the forums.

After a week of voting, Jim Neiger’s photograph “Birth of a Sandhill Crane,” has won the September 2008 Photograph of the Month.

Late last night, voting began for the September 2008 Photograph of the Month contest. Here on PhotographyCorner.com, every month, the Premiere Members go through all the photographs posted up in the forums and the galleries and nominate the best ones. With one week left in the month, the entries are narrowed down, and posted up for the community to vote on. Check your calendar - it’s the last week of August (YIKES!), so you know what that means…

I can't believe it's Friday already. Where did the week go? But what a way to end the week. This Friday in SmugMug Corner, we chat with Jim Pickrell, 63-year-young photographer from Indiana (as well as getting to look through more than 20 of his photographs!).

In case, for whatever reason, you didn’t receive the Corner Newsletter (it should be sitting in your inbox right now), it has now been posted online here.

Most of us tend to take most of our photographs during the day, because at night, we sleep, right? For the next couple of weeks, things are going to change.