More Details abut my New Membership Subscription on Patreon
It’s been over a week since I stared offering a membership option on Patreon, and I want to thank those who’ve already joined up. I also realised that I didn’t explain it very well the last time I posted about it, so allow me to elaborate a bit.
First of all, for those who haven’t been following me or this site for a while, let me explain a bit about my background. I originally started working in the field of visual arts as a motion graphics designer, visual effects artist and graphics professional, but I now work primarily as a photographer, artist and writer. I don’t shoot directly for clients, but sell my work through stock photography and license directly to clients who enquire about it.
My Images have seen by millions of people online, and my work has been used by clients including Marks & Spencer, Dublin City Council and Apple. I have also had my photography writing published including a highly regarded book on Apple’s Aperture (before its demise), and I have also self published several guides on post processing your photography, especially for Fuji X-Trans shooters.
I love what I do and I love sharing new ideas, tips and techniques with my readers, but keeping everything going costs money and that’s why I started offering a membership option. My chief goal is to be a premiere source of inspiration and knowledge for other photographers and people interested in Photography, and my speciality of raw processing and image editing. I already reach an audience of over 50,000 a month through my website, which provides both technical expertise in an easy and accessible way to other artists, as well as inspiration.
I want to be able to keep this going grow and develop the site even more. I want it to be a great place to go for fellow photographers, and I want to be able to spend more time on it. My guides, and presets etc are self published, and while they sell pretty well, running the site costs money, and if I want to keep it going and to spend even more time on it, I have to make it pay for itself (it currently barely covers the cost of running the store). I don’t want to cover the site with ads, or spam my readers with endless affiliate links and offers, and so I decided to offer a membership option.
With this membership option through Patreon, I hope to be able to help keep this site and writing projects funded, so that I can still offer content for free, still be able to offer guides for low prices, and also provide lots of extras, bonus content and exclusives for paid subscribers. It will be like DVD/Blu Ray extras for subscribers, with additional commentary, extras, behind the scenes and so on.
I plan to cover the following topics and more for subscribers:
- Behind the scenes extras on photography projects that I am working on.
- Extra tutorials, tips and more about raw processing and image editing.
- Working wth and processing images from Mirrorless Cameras including Fuji and Sony
- Working with Capture One and Lightroom
- Bonus presets for Capture One, Lightroom, and other software
- Tips for shooting video with DSLRs and Mirrorless Cameras
- Exclusive Video Tutorials
- Raw files for gold members
Over the short time it’s been running I’ve already posted a good bit of content. Here are some examples of some of the things that I’ve posted already:
Behind the Scenes: Shooting Maynooth University & Castle I was recently at a famous old university and castle in Kildare, here in Ireland. I used some of the images from this shoot in one of my recent videos, and in this pattern post, I also talk a little bit about the shoot itself, which I shot using my X-Pro 2.
Editorial: Getting caught in a rut when processing photos In this editorial post, I talk about finding your way out of the bad habits that one can get into when you get caught in a rut with photography. In particular I go into details of how I sometimes find myself overly pressing my images.
Lightroom Presets: Medium In this post, I gave away some Lightroom presets that I have been working on but didn’t want to put into a full package for sale, and so I gave them away to my subscribers.
Video: Editing Images in Capture One In this exclusive video tutorial for members on the top tier, I go through my editing process for two images. I also supply the raw files for users to try themselves.
Shooting the Summer Solstice Sunset: Behind the scenes In this members only post, I talk about how I shot the summer solstice sunset on the beautiful beach in Galway city with my X-Pro 2. I had posted images from the shoot on my Photo Journal, but on Patreon I talked a bit about how I shot the photos.
I have also created a new video introduction to the page, which outlines the points I’ve just made:
If any of this sounds interesting to you, please check it out and consider a subscription. I know people are suffering from subscription fatigue, but the membership options start at just $2 a month which is pretty reasonable, and every little helps keep this site going, and also helps me write more guides, and publish more membership content. For the who’ve already signed up, I want to tank you for taking the jump . It means a lot to me, as do all my readers and supporters.