Welcome to The Lens Flare

Welcome to The Lens Flare! We want to see the world from your perspective! Our goal is to offer a family friendly community for amateur and professional photographers to share their photos and art.

We've recently upgraded the site to make it easier to navigate and use.  All of the features have changed from the last version: some have been dropped, while others are new.

New and Updated Features

• Galleries - these are the same as Albums from the previous version.
• Themes - these are essentially galleries, but for all images on the site instead of just one members. It helps replace the old "categories" on the previous version of the site.
• Photographer Directory - this is ordered by the photographers overall score instead of the last time somebody logged in. 
• Perspective! Blog - this has replaced the old wiki and blog.
• Contests - these are now based on the rating system rather than selecting favorites.  The highest average rating determines the winner instead of the most votes.
• Score - the scoring system has been reworked. The score determines the order in which photos, galleries, and photographers are displayed.  More details about how the score is calculated can be viewed on the Getting Started page, which is viewable after you log in.
• Score, views, and other stats are updated once per day.  This is to help ensure the web pages load quickly.
• Related Photos - each photo now displays up to 3 related photos.  These are chosen randomly from the themes the photo belongs to.

Removed Features

• Message Board - The forum has been removed, at least temporarily. It was rarely used except as a means of tech support on the previous version. People have always used comments on photos as a better way to communicate on this site.
• Wiki - this system has been removed. It used to contain articles, but was difficult to maintain. The Perspective! blog will take its place.
• Camera Reviews - this was an early attempt at a review system, but didn't have the feature-set to really be beneficial. Like the message board and wiki, the blog will pick up the slack.
• Categories - As mentioned above, the themes are currently taking its place.  We may bring back tags, tag clouds, and the like at a later date.
• Recently Viewed Pictures - Since views are only updated once per day, this feature is no longer relevant.
• New Comments - We have some ideas to make this concept better, which will be rolled out at a later date.

Thank You

Thank you for using The Lens Flare. Our aim is to make this site the best resource for photographers worldwide. Feel free to contact us with suggestions, comments, or concerns.