We’re very happy to have Photoshelter on board as our latest corporate sponsor. Photoshelter provides an online digital workflow and archiving solution to photographers, and their services are a constant topic of conversation at Lightstalkers.

Photoshelter’s donation to Lightstalkers demonstrates a real interest in reaching out to the photo community, and it helps us in direct ways. Please help us acknowledge their gift, and if you run into these guys, tell them Lightstalkers sent you.

November Eleven uses donations from corporate sponsors to help pay for our bandwidth and server costs; a dynamic, resource-intensive site like Lightstalkers requires a lot of TLC to keep running, not to mention bandwidth and equipment rental.

Thanks again to Photoshelter, and you can see all our current sponsors here:

http://www.lightstalkers.org/sponsorships

Or you can click here to find out more about Photoshelter: http://photoshelter.com

If you have questions about sponsorship, you can email us directly at support@novembereleven.org.

Today we’re performing an automatic upgrade for those of you who haven’t updated your galleries in several months. We’re going through and adding your old images to our latest database, and you don’t have to do anything on your end.

What’s new:

• You now get 50 images, free of charge. (We continue to gradually increase your allotment, and plan to continue increasing this limit as our budget allows.)
• You can now organize your images into multiple “galleries”—you can use this to sort them into various slideshows and stories.
• You can add an audio soundtrack to any gallery, in MP3 format, and even set custom timing on your images.
• The Flash slideshow’s better than ever, with multiple gallery navigation and fullscreen mode built-in.

If you’ve been updating your Lightstalkers galleries lately, you’ve already got access to all of this—today’s update only affects those who haven’t already upgraded themselves.

All this is possible due to financial support from our members and our sponsors. We’re continuing to add features and storage capacity, and you can help by making a donation today.

If you’re not on our mailing list, you didn’t receive our 2007 Member Letter last week—here it is in its entirety.

At November Eleven, we get a fair amount of email that reads like this:

Dear Lightstalkers, I would like to talk to [your name] about using their photos in our [magazine, web site, et al]. Can you send me information on rates and availability?

We’re not an agency, of course, and we don’t have the resources to provide this kind of service; our standard response is:

Thanks for your note. Please consult [photographer]’s Lightstalkers profile; you can submit your request using the contact information listed there.

If you’re a freelance photographer, this is a good reason to include lots of contact information in your profile. You can do so here.

Now, if you work from home, you probably don’t want to publish your personal contact information, for privacy and security reasons. There are still ways to get contacted without losing your privacy.

GrandCentral http://www.grandcentral.com/ This service will give you a free US phone number to use as your “work” number. You can have it forward calls to you in real time, or you can simply use it as a voice mail system.

Gmail http://mail.google.com Consider setting up a separate email account for work inquiries (requests@yourdomain.com, for example); you can then make that address public, and include it in your Lightstalkers bio. We recommend Gmail for its spam filter, and, if you’re clever, you can set it up for your domain.

The UPS Store http://www.theupsstore.com/ For a couple hundred dollars a year, you can have a public mailing address; they typically offer 24-hour access to your mailbox and will receive and hold packages for you. It’s not a “PO Box”; you get a professional-looking address. (Tip: Get the smallest size of mailbox they offer. If it fills up with mail, they’ll just keep it in a pile for you behind the counter… nice for when you go out of the country.)

You don’t have to do any of this; you can list your personal contact information in your profile, or none at all. This is just a tip for those of you who want to be as accessible as possible to potential clients.

Our 501©3 status is official

As you know, November Eleven is a nonprofit organization. We’re pleased to announce now that the IRS has recognized our charitable mission, and given us 501©3 status. Your donations to November Eleven are fully tax-deductible, and we hope that this will help you to continue supporting us in the future. (This also applies to the donations you’ve already sent.) Your donations also allow us to continue offering services like Lightstalkers free of charge, and accessible to all. Thank you for your support, and please continue. The more you give, the more we can accomplish. You can make your tax-deductible contributions 24 hours a day, via novembereleven.org/support.

You can obtain more information about the November Eleven organization at our Web site; if you have specific questions, or would like to talk to us directly, just send email to support@novembereleven.org.

Ajmal Fund & Operation Azra

In 2007, we’ve been able to expand our scope. In May, we launched the Ajmal Fund, which supports and benefits the families of the Afghan fixers. In July, we launched Operation Azra, to benefit victims of acid burning in Pakistan. Both programs have successfully raised thousands of dollars, thanks to you.

We operate these projects because we’re committed not only to creating better, more independent reportage, but because we recognize a humanitarian responsibility to help those who make it possible—either as fixers or as subjects.

More information about the Ajmal Fund and Operation Azra is available at http://www.novembereleven.org/projects. If you’re a donor, or would like to become one, please feel free to contact us with your questions.

Lightstalkers continues to grow

Finally, and as always, we continue to operate Lightstalkers.org. Each month, over 70,000 visitors browse among our 19,000 member profiles and 97,000 images, and it continues to expand. Although it’s a lot of work to keep the lights on, we’re still able to launch new features and improvements on an ongoing basis.

Again, we’re able to do this because of your financial support. We expect Lightstalkers to continue to grow, and hope that it continues to be relevant to you and your work.

By popular request, you can now customize your Lightstalkers profile address (URL). By default, it’s based on the name you provided when you signed up—now you can tweak it to be whatever you want.

To do it now, use this page: http://www.lightstalkers.org/clients/update_prefs

Enjoy—your feedback is always welcome at support@lightstalkers.org.

With thanks to all the people who have made donations so far, we’ve randomly selected another subscribers to receive a gift. Srinivas Kuruganti will receive an autographed copy of Kingdom Coming, donated by author/member Michelle Goldberg.

Thanks again to Srinivas, Michelle, and all our other supporters. Lightstalkers remains dependent on member support for its survival and improvement, and we’ll continue our non-corporate policy of random acts of kindness and generosity with unscheduled thank you gifts to our supporters.

Click here for more information about how you can support Lightstalkers and November Eleven →

La lucha continua, N11

As part of our ongoing mission to make the work of independent photographers, artists, and journalists more visible, we’re performing an upgrade to the Lightstalkers photo galleries.

What’s new:

• You now get 40 images (previously 30).
• Slideshow now available in both HTML and Flash format.
• Flash optimized for better dissolves and more efficient preloading.
• You can now add an audio soundtrack in MP3 format.
• You can set your own slideshow timing.
• You can now set keywords on your gallery and images.

Because these are significant changes, we’re not migrating your existing photos automatically; you can replace your photos on your own schedule. Until then, your profile gallery will work the old way.

If you see a problem, or want to submit feedback, send it directly to support@lightstalkers.org. Bugs are natural, and we’ll get them sorted expeditiously.

And as always, if you appreciate this totally free service from November Eleven, please consider sending financial support: http://www.novembereleven.org/support