Joining NoBs has been a wonderful boost to our business.
It really helped us straighten out our direction and caused us to focus on our core values.

Running a successful photography business is not just about being able to snap pretty pictures.
Just about anybody with a point and shoot can do that.
It is about running a successful business venture.

While NoBs does provides great assistance and guidance on making images, setting up lighting, and running images through photoshop to produce stunning pieces of art.
Or even just using your equipment if you are new to the field.

It also provides a wealth of information on the successful running of "the business of photography".
There is great material on advertising, marketing and marketing campaigns all the way to building a website that sells.
Also way down to guidance on the inevitable what to do if you get sued and how to prepare for the eventuality, a very real possibility doing Wedding Photography in the US.

The business knowledge available here is worth many times more than the membership fee alone.

But the NoBs community is amazing in itself!
The membership is composed of people with skills ranging from the complete newbie to those who have been running studios successfully for decades. And unlike most other forums, everyone is willing to share knowledge.
It is a gold mine, there just for the asking!
Wondering about a piece of equipment or a new strategy, just ask there is a good chance someone here has already tried it and can tell you if it was a good or bad idea.

The membership is also global, so it is nice to be able to see what is going on it this field elsewhere in the world.

I must say once you begin to actively participate, NoBs can become a very addictive activity.

Very happy I joined right at the start!

I am a new-be here and to photography on the level shown here on this site. It is a gold mine of info even when I posted my attempts at portraiture the people who commented on them did so in a manner that was encouraging to me and had even taken the time to read the story behind them. I'm sure that with the help from all of you there will come a day when I will go from snapshots to true Photographs that will speak for themselves. The one thing that has become clear to me is just how much I have to learn, I have looked at photos posted here and thought they excellent only to have others point out things I missed simply because I didn't know to look for those things, it is educational just reading the comments. But while I'm on a rant here I'll ask a question. I know that CS 4 is the way to go when processing photos It cost more than I'm willing to spend for now But I did buy Elements 6 for my Mac does anyone know what plug in's I should get to make it even better I'll add I'm signed up for a course on it at the local college here in town.