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PurplePort community, thank you for sticking with us through these tough times

Header photo: Image by photographer William Perugini

This past year or so has been a tough one. Since 19th March 2020, we have offered free VIP membership to all models, make-up artists, and studios. We felt they would directly suffer as a result of the Covid-19 situation, restrictions and government guidelines. This option to redeem free VIP membership has allowed these members to continue to grow and make the very most of PurplePort (without also being restricted by us).

As of April 2021, nearly 11,000 months of free VIP membership have been redeemed (that's nearly 900 years). We are incredibly grateful to all of our amazing and talented membership for their loyalty and for sticking with us during these awful times. Thank you so much to all of you hard-working creatives out there.

The success of remote shoots

Remote shoots played a significant role in arranging shoots for many PurplePorters during 2020 and continue to do so in 2021. Whilst restrictions begin to ease in our local areas, shooting remotely can still provide the flexibility to work with a wide range of people from around the world without the need to physically travel any significant distance.

In February 2021, we added Remote as a shoot style, enabling members to use the Search feature to find others who shoot remotely.

What is a remote shoot? A remote shoot means you are shooting with another person without being in the same room (or even country) as them. It can be done in different ways, but mostly it refers to tethered shooting (i.e. the photographer controls the camera via a computer). Anyone on the receiving end of the camera (e.g. a model) usually selects this shoot style if they have the appropriate setup and equipment to accommodate a tethered shoot.

Below is a taster of the stunning images added to our Front Page Image Collections (FPIs) that were created remotely.

https://purpleport.com/portfolio/ba1562/image/6130520/photographer/

Well done to all those industrious and diligent creatives involved in creating these fabulous images.

Interested in shoot remotely? Head over to the Remote Shoot group! This is a great place to share experiences with others, provide tips, and help each other (and generally discuss all things related to shooting remotely). You can check out more amazing images from remote shoots!

Thank you, PurplePort Community

PurplePorters, you have truly shown how resourceful, gifted and resilient you all are! To help you continue creating and sharing images and connecting with others, we've listed different ways that you can get VIP membership for free.

Sign up new members and get rewarded with free VIP

When you refer someone up to PurplePort, and they create a new account, we will give you a referral gift that can be redeemed when that new member has been active for at least 3 months.

The referral gift is a choice between either:

30 days of FREE PurplePort VIP membership
$5 referral fee (redeemed once you reach a total of $50)

To refer others to PurplePort, when you share links to PurplePort (e.g. an image, a portfolio, casting call, group post, etc.), always add the text ?referrer= (see how this is done via your Sharing Tools page). If anyone creates an account using this link (and their account is approved), you will be marked as referring them.

Even if you only share the URL to your portfolio without the text ?referrer=, you will still be marked as a referral as long as that person creates an account using the URL. For more information about this, check out How to get PurplePort VIP membership for free!.

New members receive a free trial of VIP

All new accounts get a trial of free VIP membership. This gives our new members a chance to experience the benefits of VIP membership without any commitment to purchasing it. So anyone you refer to PurplePort will immediately have full access to those juicy VIP benefits too.

These VIP membership benefits include:

Unlimited image uploads, messages to other members, casting calls, and image albums
Additional search features, such as advanced members searching and saved searches
Enhanced casting abilities, such as creating/applying to paid casting calls and adding multiple locations to casting calls
Invaluable insights and stats for your account activity, profile views, image views, and more
Organise your portfolio using bulk edit for images and image albums
And so much more

Don’t want to continue with VIP membership? You don’t need to do anything. Your account will be automatically downgraded to a free account when your free trial of VIP membership expires.

On the other hand, if you like what you experienced and want to continue benefitting from the perks of VIP membership, go to your VIP Subscription page and purchase a subscription for VIP membership (see How do I upgrade my account? for more about this).

Free VIP for PurplePort Competition winners

Our daily Competitions are a fun way to get your work noticed and discover other people’s work too. With hundreds of different competition themes, there's something there for everyone. A small selection of competitions are open for entries each day, and you can enter any of these you wish to. Every day a new competition closes for entries and opens for voting, and the winning entry is announced of the competition from the previous day.

But there's more than that.

When you enter or vote in the competitions, you also get the chance to win some free VIP membership:

The competition winner gets 1 month free VIP
Anyone who votes for the top 5 entries gets 14 days free VIP

Our Winners Gallery is truly inspirational and full of members who were rewarded with 1 month of free VIP membership for their success. Congratulations winners!

Below are just a handful of some of the winning entries so far in 2021.

Winner of the Dusty Competition

Winner of the Pizzazz Competition

https://purpleport.com/portfolio/artofericjames/image/3233297/photographer/

Winner of the Bronze Competition

Winner of the High fashion Competition

Winner of the Grey Competition

We love seeing your images. Keep up the great work, everyone!

Honestly, we really do love seeing your fabulous images, as well as hearing about your shoots and all of your successes. And we love sharing some of your amazing work in our blog posts.

Are you wondering why your images are never featured in any of our blog posts? It could be because of the following two reasons.

Keyword tags are missing from your images

The majority of beautiful images that we post on The Purple Blog are found using the Image Search feature. This feature is dependent on relevant and appropriate keyword tags being added to images. Make sure you add keyword tags to your images. These should ideally be one word (occasionally two words) maximum, and they need to be relevant to your image.

Members-only and 'opted out of social media post' cannot be featured

If your images or portfolio are set to be visible to logged-in PurplePort members only, or you've set your account to be opted out of social media posts, then we cannot feature your images in The Purple Blog.

So, make sure your images are not marked as Visible to members-only.

And make sure that the following settings are both turned off (you can disable these via your General Site Settings page):

Opt-out of social media posts
Hide your profile from non-members

What is PurplePort

PurplePort is a modelling website that brings models, photographers and other creatives together with one fantastic service. We provide the tools and help you need to get together and create amazing photos.

Established in 2010, PurplePort has grown from strength to strength and now has 40,000+ active members worldwide. With features such as integrated messaging, calendar, shoot plans, image albums, references, credited photos, busy member forums, hundreds of articles, and dedicated full-time staff to help you, it's easy finding the perfect creatives you need for your next photography project. It's a fresh, fast, and feature-rich alternative to ModelMayhem.

Join the fastest growing, most feature-rich service of its kind and start making magical photos a reality!

Follow us on social media

We regularly post beautiful, dynamic and inspiring images from our talented community on social media.

Check out our blog on PurplePort and our social channels below so you can stay inspired anytime:

Join now and start networking

Join the community and start your modelling or photography career now.

Tags - #blog, #modelling, #remote shoots, #vip, #free vip, #covid-19, #purpleport updates

Retro Rob

Thank you so much for being there from what has been an extremely challenging time not only financially but mentally too. Thank you all on Purpleport who with their own personal journeys still managed to keep the communication alive . I am extremely grateful and look forward with your help to continue to create the magic . Rob

NEO-NOIR IMAGES

It's so sad that some studios wont make it, in addition many people connected with this site have suffered loss and problems with their mental health. It's been truly awful. As I type this at a time of reflection given the passing of HRH The Prince Philip, I am reminded what my late best friend said, "Apples with grow again".

Big Shot Studio

It certainly has been a tough time especially for studios. There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel now so hopefully we are through the worst and we can start seeing some semblance of normality return. Thank you for your support Purple Port.

Mirror Image'S'

I've been pretty active on the remote shoots and a huge embassador of them. Thoroughly enjoyed every minute and massive thanks to all those that put in the time and effort to allow us to continue doing what we love 💘

Ivory Flame

That is really nice to have remote shooting acknowledged in such a positive light. Thank you PP. Massive well done to all models and studios who've tried it and offered it - they know it is seriously hard work, physically and mentally demanding, but a fab challenge and a lifeline to keep an income and stay connected creatively. Thank you HUGELY to all the photographers who have been able to give it a chance and embrace the innovation!!! The enthusiasm and support has been fantastic. It's awesome that it seems an extra way of working here to stay in many cases, alongside regular in-person shooting. Also massive respect to all the photographers, models and other creatives who have not had remote shooting as an option but have held out through this stressful and uncertain time, in order to help keep people as safe as possible ♥ I look forward to taking more in-person shoots in studios and on location this summer, as well as booking some models myself to work with for my own photography!!

(Edited)

Artism

Well done purpleport for supporting so many through this tough time. Great to be a part of a creative world. Any way of having different competitions for less talented photographers. As fpi is great to have if you have the ability to achieve the highest quality. But be nice to see a prize for some who try hard but done have the money or tools to get something too.

DKNG

Woohoo - I have an image featured in a PP blog! :D That aside, I just want to say what a genuinely nice touch it was to give free VIP membership to models, MUAs, and studios during the past year - that's what caring about your community looks like! (And I don't mind in the slightest that I, as a photographer, didn't get a similar benefit!)

Di0nne

It’s been a difficult year for everyone, but the way models have adapted their businesses and embraced remote shooting is noteworthy! I have enjoyed a series of remote shoots with models I may have missed on yours due to timings and work. I’m sure those that had been offered it, and accepted it, appreciated the free membership gesture x Art will never be beaten

Apex Photography Telford

Its been a testing time for everyone & it's also been good to see people & businesses supporting each other to continue with their creativity. Thank you Purpleport for the support you have shown members during these difficult times, which in turn has helped models, photographers & other creatives continue to shoot remotely with members far & wide. Thanks also for featuring one of my images shot remotely & to all the members who showed it some lov. Well done everyone