[Paul]

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"Hands" Challenge Winner - Mausue

Hello [firstname]
If you regularly visit PhotoTopix you'll know there is always something great happening on the site these days and to add to everything we are now introducing monthly community bulletins to keep our less frequent visitors up to date with what is going on in our community. There will always be information for our regulars too!

What's happened in the past month?
We've had a bit of a change to the homepage and introduced some nice flash animations of images from members that are looking for some feedback, recently completed projects, the hottest images that members are chatting about and for the first time we're showing the winners of previous challenges on the homepage too.

And talking about challenges, the new Photo Challenge feature is fully alive and kicking and getting a great response and already the challenges are filling up with entries. There will be lots of challenges to choose from all the time to help and encourage you to get out there and practice, practice, practice and get some fantastic shots! It's great fun too!

If you've already missed the announcement, you can read all about it here: http://www.phototopix.co.uk/site-news-updates/11548-photo-challenges-here.html

It's our 1st Anniversary.
That's right, we're now one year young and going strong. Last October we had about 2000 visitors a month and now we have nearly 30,000 visitors to the site each month. It's great to see so many members have made great new friends who have been available to offer help and guidance when needed. That's the true spirit of our community!

The new Photo Challenge feature is a little treat to celebrate our anniversary and I also want to share a couple of things that we have planned for the next year. It's all exciting stuff!

Member Spotlight
This was suggested by member paulcookphotography and will you the chance to take a virtual interview to really give as an insight into who you are and what makes you tick, select some of the favorite images you have on PhotoTopix and tell us more about them and you have the chance to opt into our Photographer of the Week (POW). If you do opt in, our system might randomly choose you and you will then feature on the homepage for the week and have your very own POW thread in the forums where members can talk about your interview and get to know about you a lot better.

Member Reviews
You'll soon have the chance to tell the rest of the community what you really think about the cameras, lenses and accessories you been buying and give your honest opinion of them. The review feature will be opened up to all members so you can add your own products if it's not already listed.

Official Screen Savers
We'll soon be running regular challenges where the winners will have their work added to a new series of screen savers that will be created on a regular basis. This will give you the chance to have your work seen in a lot more places and also give the site additional exposrue too. All images used will have full credit to the photographer including links to your own websites or galleries which I know your sure to have.

If you miss the chance of being added to the first screen saver, don't worry this will be a regular challenge and there will be lots and lots of opportunities.


Some of the great images our members have posted recently

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f18	eos1nrs	karfeef	will oakley	cannockwolf	lynsop	whatt

Our new community Newsletter
We really hope you like our new newsletter and we'll be bring you the latest news each month. Andy (eos1nrs) has jumped at the chance of putting our monthly updates together and is now our official newsletter editor, donkey boy and Brad Pitt ! If there is anything you would like to be included in our monthly newsletters simply drop Andy a PM and we'll try to accomodate you.

Final Note
We have a feeling our my bones that the coming year will be a very BIG year for us. Ideas are flowing in the community on how we can grow the site and some amazing suggestions have been put forward in the past couple of days. Keep your eyes out in the forums or the newsletters for all the latest news.

The support and loyalty we have from our members just goes to show we have a solid, helpful and cheerful photographers playground for any new visitor and everyone is always made to feel welcome regardless if your a pro or just starting out.

Thank you to everyone for the continued support that is shown and we're looking forward to catching up with everyone in the forums soon.

Kindest Regards,
PhotoTopix Team

P.S. Don't forget to tell everyone about us, your family, friends, colleages and internet buddies to help us get to an exiting new level with lots more new members to talk with.