2017 – A Year In Review
/in Blog/by Jay PatelWe want to take some time to wish you happy holidays and say thank you for another great year.
What began as just another year at Visual Wilderness produced some significant changes in how we do business. Here are some highlights from 2017:
VW Membership
The biggest change at Visual Wilderness came this past Fall when we launched our membership service. We were unsure how this would go, but it proved to be highly effective. Starting at ONLY $19.95/month, Visual Wilderness Members get unlimited access to ALL current and future video courses.
Expanded Product Offerings
The second biggest change this year was that we transformed Visual Wilderness into a multi-vendor site; we now offer landscape educational material from our highly-talented contributing photographers. Here are some of the most popular offerings from our contributing photographers in 2017.
Varina and I added more video courses to Visual Wilderness this year then any previous year. Wide Angle Lenses, Creating Impact Vol-2, and Getting it Right in Camera Vol-2 were brand new video courses in our 2017 collection. We also updated our two most popular video courses: In Sharp Focus and Hyperfocal Distance Course.
Landscape Photography Blog
Contributors’ articles were more popular then ever. Be end of 2017, we had over 660 articles with various contributing authors. We also had the opportunity to share stories and technical articles from a number of talented guest authors. Here are a some of the articles from our Visual Wilderness blog in 2017.
The Rollercoaster Ride of a Social Media Photographer
Jay Patel embarks on a whimsical journey of the aspiring social media photographer’s quest for social media stardom and self-discovery.
About Author Jay Patel
I could startoff like this – “Seeds of Jay Patel’s appreciation for beautiful places were planted early in his childhood….” but it would get boring really fast. I will just sum it up and say that I am a Landscape and Wilderness Photographer who loves to capture dramatic light. My photographs have been published in various magazines, calendars and advertising materials throughout the world.
Patience is a virtue...unless you are chasing your dreams
Finding Your Creative Spark for Nature Photography
Whether you’re an experienced photographer or just starting out, here are some ideas to find inspiration for nature photography.
About Author Jay Patel
I could startoff like this – “Seeds of Jay Patel’s appreciation for beautiful places were planted early in his childhood….” but it would get boring really fast. I will just sum it up and say that I am a Landscape and Wilderness Photographer who loves to capture dramatic light. My photographs have been published in various magazines, calendars and advertising materials throughout the world.
Patience is a virtue...unless you are chasing your dreams
Exploring Artistic Nature Photography with Camera Lenses
Pro photographer Jay Patel shows you how to unlock the artistic potential of nature photography using camera lenses.
About Author Jay Patel
I could startoff like this – “Seeds of Jay Patel’s appreciation for beautiful places were planted early in his childhood….” but it would get boring really fast. I will just sum it up and say that I am a Landscape and Wilderness Photographer who loves to capture dramatic light. My photographs have been published in various magazines, calendars and advertising materials throughout the world.
Patience is a virtue...unless you are chasing your dreams
The Rollercoaster Ride of a Social Media Photographer
Jay Patel embarks on a whimsical journey of the aspiring social media photographer’s quest for social media stardom and self-discovery.
About Author Jay Patel
I could startoff like this – “Seeds of Jay Patel’s appreciation for beautiful places were planted early in his childhood….” but it would get boring really fast. I will just sum it up and say that I am a Landscape and Wilderness Photographer who loves to capture dramatic light. My photographs have been published in various magazines, calendars and advertising materials throughout the world.
Patience is a virtue...unless you are chasing your dreams
Sean Bagshaw’s Photoshop Workflow for Landscape Photography
Sean Bagshaw shares his Photoshop workflow to create stunning natural looking landscape photos with Visual Wilderness Readers.
About Author Jay Patel
I could startoff like this – “Seeds of Jay Patel’s appreciation for beautiful places were planted early in his childhood….” but it would get boring really fast. I will just sum it up and say that I am a Landscape and Wilderness Photographer who loves to capture dramatic light. My photographs have been published in various magazines, calendars and advertising materials throughout the world.
Patience is a virtue...unless you are chasing your dreams
What’s in Peter Coskun’s camera bag?
Professional landscape photographer Peter Coskun explains the essential camera gear and other items he has in his camera bag.
About Author Jay Patel
I could startoff like this – “Seeds of Jay Patel’s appreciation for beautiful places were planted early in his childhood….” but it would get boring really fast. I will just sum it up and say that I am a Landscape and Wilderness Photographer who loves to capture dramatic light. My photographs have been published in various magazines, calendars and advertising materials throughout the world.
Patience is a virtue...unless you are chasing your dreams
Essential Spring Photography Tips to Capture The Magic
How to effectively immerse yourself in spring photography to capture the beauty of emerging life by pro photographer Jay Patel.
About Author Jay Patel
I could startoff like this – “Seeds of Jay Patel’s appreciation for beautiful places were planted early in his childhood….” but it would get boring really fast. I will just sum it up and say that I am a Landscape and Wilderness Photographer who loves to capture dramatic light. My photographs have been published in various magazines, calendars and advertising materials throughout the world.
Patience is a virtue...unless you are chasing your dreams
Free InFocus Newsletter
Our InFocus Newsletter continues its incredible growth. With over 38,000 subscribers, we received some incredible feedback from our readers. Here is what people are saying.
What People Are Saying
Easy to follow and replicate for your students
Once again, a wonderful course (Getting it Right in Camera) that you have created here, in stunning locations, and by means of your intuitive style of teaching all the concepts and techniques can be properly digested. The case studies provide invaluable insights in how you work your cameras and the thought processes behind creating those wonderful images – easy to follow and replicate for your students.
It was excellent!
In camera exposure principles very simply explained in today’s Mastering Exposure Webinar . It was excellent!
I have benefited immensely from your instruction
I have benefited immensely from your instruction on hyper-focal distance, and on stacking, photos to attain sharp focus throughout the scene. Your enthusiasm for your work is contagious. I appreciate the influence of your vitality in my photography.
Mastering Exposure Webinar did an excellent job of explaining
The Mastering Exposure Webinar did an excellent job of explaining the importance of the different types of histograms, and when different types of bracketing/blending would be beneficial.
You guys do a fabulous job teaching
You guys do a fabulous job teaching the Essential Filters Course in a fairly easy and straightforward manner that we can comprehend quickly. I have already learned a lot about different tips and tricks just by watching some of your video courses. Kudos to both of you and I deeply appreciate it.
This is a really well structured and explained course
I thank you for your knowledge and practical walk through of the location and thought process with the final shots. This is a really well structured and explained course (Behind the Lens). It has given me the confidence to go out and explore and push myself further than I have ever expected to achieve.
I thoroughly enjoyed the video courses
I thoroughly enjoyed the video courses by Varina and Jay Patel. Their clear presentation style and real life examples of their teaching enabled me to rapidly understand and put into practice what they were teaching. Their style is quite personal as if you were on site with them. Excellent photography in the examples supports the learning experience. Histograms were always a bit of a mystery. Seeing how to use them to improve my “in-camera” results will enable me to get the results I see in the field.
Terrific clear, simple, engaging style
Jay and Varina Patel’s Ultimate Landscape Photography Course has been a great resource to help me in my journey towards taking great photos. Their presentations are in the terrific clear, simple, engaging style that they use in their workshops. Their content is comprehensive and includes handy tips and information that I haven’t seen elsewhere on the net.
It’s worth every cent!
There’s so many free videos out there it’s easy to be overwhelmed. The Ultimate Landscape Photography Course breaks down the fundamental knowledge you need for landscape photography and shows you how to use that knowledge in an actual photo shoot. That makes it a lot easier to figure out where you’re going wrong when you’re not getting the result you’re after. It’s worth every cent!
Best photography webinar I’ve every taken
Mastering Exposure Webinar was the best photography webinar I’ve every taken. I’ve taken lots of seminars where they talked about their pictures but in this one, they showed a video of how they determined their settings while in the field. Very helpful.
Contributing Authors
Finally, we want to say "thank you" to all of our talented contributing photographers on Visual Wilderness. Here are a few examples of some of their inspiring articles and stories.
Once again, we want to take this time to thank you and wish you all a Creative and Inspiring 2018!
About Author Jay Patel
I could startoff like this – “Seeds of Jay Patel’s appreciation for beautiful places were planted early in his childhood….” but it would get boring really fast. I will just sum it up and say that I am a Landscape and Wilderness Photographer who loves to capture dramatic light. My photographs have been published in various magazines, calendars and advertising materials throughout the world.
Patience is a virtue...unless you are chasing your dreams