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A ton of great content is created by the DPReview community in our forums: lively discussions, posts about gear and photography that we highlight in front page articles, collaborative photo sharing events and more. In this “What you missed” roundup for July, we highlight community activity from the past month, including some of the photography that didn’t make it into articles.

What’s in this article:

• Article of the month: Making DPReview notifications work for you
• ‘What’s in your bag?’ community member spotlights
• This question of the week is debated
• A community photo thread spotlight
• Community discussion: What is your present desktop wallpaper?

Article of the month: Making DPReview notifications work for you

DPReview

Want to be alerted when someone replies to your article comments? Or are you perhaps receiving too many notifications and just want them turned off? There are several options you can use to customize how often you receive these notifications, but it can take a moment to figure out where to go to adjust them and which changes are right for a particular use case.

We wrote up a notifications how-to guide that walks you through all of the options. If you have any questions after reading through them, please let me know. We’re very passionate about getting notifications right for everyone (they help us, too, so we want them to work as expected).

What’s in your bag? A community member spotlight

Every week, we dive into the history of a community member’s unique photographs and gear in our ‘What’s in your bag?’ series. The series walks through a reader’s favorite camera gear and how they use it, what photographs they’ve taken and plenty of helpful tips and tricks for your photography journey.

Max Lowe

Max Lowe shared his portrait photography, featuring a wide variety of shots from the Arctic to his hometown in Montana. Max is an award-winning photographer who’s worked with organizations like National Geographic. He provided us with a ton of extra photos to consider for his article. The one above particularly moved me with its simple beauty, so I chose it for this update. Max had a ton of advice for budding photographers, so if you want those tips and tricks, be sure to check out his complete article linked above.

“Understanding the context of the scene is a major necessity for an artist. Ask yourself: why are you taking that photo? Is it for the benefit of those people? If you’re a photojournalist capturing the story of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine so that the world can understand that pain, does your work have the power to change things for the better?”

Check out this month’s other reader spotlights:

• Andrew Kornylak: He dangles off cliffs for National Geographic – here’s what’s in his camera bag
• John Freeman: Gigapixel photography is the way to go for this DPReview reader
• Kathie Thomas: Meet the bird photographer whose go-to camera is the Nikon P950

Question of the week: we ask, you tell

Every other week, we ask the community a question about their photography, usually on a specific topic they’ve discussed elsewhere in the forums, with the results spotlighted on DPReview’s front page and in the forums the following week. There are often many spectacular photos submitted that we don’t get a chance to spotlight in a single article, so you’ll want to regularly check back on what was added to the discussions.

What image made you realize your new gear was worth it?

Leopardfoto

Have you ever met a tiger before? Here is a newly revealed reader’s photo and an excerpt from their story in the latest question.

Featured quote: “Late last year, with an upcoming trip to India to photograph tigers and leopards, I hesitantly decided to purchase a 400 TC to bring along. The trip was costing me a king’s ransom, and adding another $14k for the lens seemed completely financially irresponsible. I didn’t think I could justify it since I might not use it that much.”

“During that trip, it became my favorite lens. I still can’t believe how much I enjoy using it, and it has surpassed my expected ROI by a huge margin. Of all the lenses and cameras I’ve ever owned, for whatever reason, this one stands out as the best purchase I’ve made.” – Leopardfoto

Participate in community-led photo initiatives

19andrew47

The community has a lot of fun with their weekly photo activities and challenges. I was perusing the camera brand forums a few days ago while putting together the latest challenge list, and up popped this rather creatively titled challenge:

Micro Fortnight Thirds General Image Thread

From opsreymike: “Welcome to the Micro Four Thirds general image thread for July 26 – August 8, 2026! Please post your photos that you’ve made recently – or even old faves revisited – with any MFT gear. Besides posting photos, image-related commentary is welcome and encouraged!”

Submissions are open until August 8, so if you’re a M43 fan and have a compatible camera, dust it off and let’s see those photos!

If you intend to participate in any of these photo initiatives, please adhere to their spirit (i.e., don’t post Canon photos in a Nikon-only forum discussion).

Discussion of the month: What is your desktop wallpaper?

ronphoto

Community member, BernardoSC , asked a fun question in the forums that has gained quite a bit of traction. He asked everyone, “What is your present desktop wallpaper?” I was pleasantly surprised by the wide array of images, from racecar action scenes to the more expected calm, tranquil hillside with a single lonely tree on top (my personal favorite).

Here is a peek at what some had to say about their wallpapers:

FrancoD: “At the moment, I have a male Flame Robin. We get them here for 2-3 months, then they disappear again. Right now, we only have one male (not this one) and one female, but they are not a pair. A pair last year did have three chicks, so we had the family of 5 flying about. We get about 170 species of birds here. I have fun walking about, taking some snapshots of them.”

ajscullard: “I use two monitors, so I have a pano I took of the Forth Rail Bridge just after it was fully painted, split into two images so they display side-by-side across both monitors.”

skysurfer5: “My desktop wallpaper is actually a random slideshow of ~300 photos, of which ~75% are mine, and ~25% are Apollo and Artemis mission images. My photos are a mix of landscapes, macros (mostly flowers), astro (mostly star trails), abstracts, birds and animals, architecture, and family. I also like quirky, such as this cloud bull chasing a cloud cowboy on his cloud horse passing through The Gunsight in Yosemite National Park.”

What community content did you enjoy reading, and what more would you like to see in these updates? Let us know in the comments below.

For even more content directly from our readers, join the discussion forums and share your camera gear and photography curiosities!

Editor’s note: Future editions of this article may include camera use and photo-taking tips and tricks, additional quotes from community members in various discussions and more. If you are interested in seeing community content presented this way, please let me know.

Want to stay up to date on the latest product news and releases? Add DPReview as a preferred source to ensure our independent journalism makes it to the top of your Google search results.

There’s little I love more than when I creator I like steps outside of their wheelhouse to cover something I’m passionate about in a new way. Still, I never expected to see a video about photography from Alex Hall, who goes by Alexander the ok on YouTube, as the ex-engineer turned data scientist usually covers things like complex mechanical computers, obscure and interesting air and spacecraft, and the designs of various missiles.

You can imagine my delight, then when I saw a video from him pop up about Polaroid film. And in his typical fashion, he dives deep into the topic, covering the fundamentals on how traditional film photography works, and then going into the clever chemistry that allows instant film to develop in a self-contained packet without a darkroom. It also covers various tangents; nearly 20 minutes is dedicated to his journey of making peel-apart instant film at home, and there’s a section on the interesting modifications and improvements he’s made to his personal Polaroid SX-70.

In other words, it’s a video for real photography nerds, which is why I thought it’d make sense to share it here. I’m sure not every DPReview reader will be interested in watching something over an hour long about film (our bread and butter is digital photography, after all), but I’m also convinced that those who are interested will get a lot out of it. I certainly did, and while I don’t think I’ll be making any instant film anytime soon, I know I’ll have a greater appreciation for the science and art of instant photography the next time I pick up my Instax or Polaroid Time Zero OneStep.

Want to stay up to date on the latest product news and releases? Add DPReview as a preferred source to ensure our independent journalism makes it to the top of your Google search results.