All in Editorial

Affinity Goes Free, but “Free” Comes at a Price

Affinity Goes Free, but “Free” Comes at a Price

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial

Unless you’ve been living under the proverbial rock, you have undoubtedly seen the news about the Affinity suite of applications. Having being bought by Canva, the applications were just relaunched as a single super app featuring all three of the previous programmes: Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer and Affinity publisher. Not only that, but Canva has decided to give this suite away for free. Needless to say, this has sparked a lot of … let’s call it “conversation” online, with some people welcoming the move and others suspicious about it. as there is a lot of commentary out there, much of it overly hyperbolic, I wanted to address two main areas of the discussions. The first that this is going to “Kill” Adobe, and the second, what it means that Affinity is now “Free”.

Another Very Bloggy Update

Another Very Bloggy Update

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial, Ireland, News

I’ve been very busy this past week, and so once again I’ve been somewhat bad about posting on the blog. I have been buried in design work with a tight deadline and so unfortunately the tutorials and so on have had to take a back seat. I have so much photography stuff to share too, and it’s just been building up in my to-do list, so I hope you can forgive the short absence. Google’s algorithm, however, will not.

An Interesting Week for Cinema Cameras. Thoughts on the Canon C50, Nikon ZR and Fujifilm GFX Eterna (and iPhone 17Pro)

An Interesting Week for Cinema Cameras. Thoughts on the Canon C50, Nikon ZR and Fujifilm GFX Eterna (and iPhone 17Pro)

Thomas Fitzgerald
Canon, Editorial, Fuji X-Series, Gear, Nikon

Last week was a very interesting week for those who want to shoot video professionally. We saw the launch of 3 cinema cameras. Well, four if you count the new iPhones. At IBC in the Netherlands, Canon, Nikon and Fujifilm announced their new cinema cameras. For Canon, it was a new form factor and price point for their cinema lineup, and for Nikon and Fujifilm it was their first entry into this space.

Thoughts on Liquid Glass from a creative's perspective. MacOS 26 and iPad0S 26 interface design review

Thoughts on Liquid Glass from a creative's perspective. MacOS 26 and iPad0S 26 interface design review

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial, Apple

With Apple’s latest round of operating systems having now been released, I thought I would take a little time to share my thoughts on the big redesign that Apple announced back at WWDC. I know this isn’t technically about photography, and I’m posting it on my photography blog, but as enough of my readers use Macs I figured you wouldn’t mind!

There are no good eCommerce options for photographers

There are no good eCommerce options for photographers

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial

I’ve been doing some research lately on an idea I had to start selling some images directly to potential customers and clients. I used to do this before with Photoshelter, but I stopped using that platform. The more I’ve been researching the topic, the more I’ve come to realise that there really aren’t any good platforms out there for photographers. It’s actually pretty frustrating, but also an opportunity for any enterprising developers.

AI is killing the Photography Internet (and the rest of the open internet too)

AI is killing the Photography Internet (and the rest of the open internet too)

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial

I know this may seem like a link bait headline, but in my opinion it’s actually true, but it’s not in the way you might think. I’m not talking about generative AI taking photographer’s jobs or anything like that. It’s the “AI everywhere no matter what” that’s making it harder and harder to get traffic to your website or portfolio. It’s also making content on tips and techniques obsolete. Ever since google started doing its (frequently wrong) AI summaries for search results, traffic to almost all sites has seen a steady decline. It’s not just something I noticed, it was actually on the news the other day.

A very “Bloggy” Update

A very “Bloggy” Update

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial

I’ve been busy with travel and some other things, so I don’t really have any good tips or tutorials, so I thought I would do a good old-fashioned blog update. Remember when those were a thing? Anyway, here is a random collection of things I’ve been up to (photographically speaking) and ongoing projects and thoughts.

Instagram for photographers is dead. Here are some alternatives

Instagram for photographers is dead. Here are some alternatives

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial

I was scrolling through instagram the other day - as one does - when I realised, after scrolling for several minutes, that I hadn’t seen a single photograph from an actual photographer. Sure, there were a few still images, but they were either from celebrities, or part of news stories. The majority of what I was seeing was reels and ads. It seems Meta really, really wants to turn Instagram into TikTok. Unfortunately, it’s becoming the worst of both worlds.

How a Strange Mac Bug Took Up a Ridiculous Amount of My Time

How a Strange Mac Bug Took Up a Ridiculous Amount of My Time

Thomas Fitzgerald
Apple, Editorial

I had all these plans for a series of posts on the blog last week, and even a video I wanted to shoot, but instead I ended up spending an inordinate amount of time chasing down a bizarre Mac bug. It seems to have resolved, but the cause still eludes me. It started with a Lightroom crash, and ended up leading to a complete puzzle that plagued both my Mac Studio and my MacBook Pro. It involved several calls to Apple and even baffled them. This might not sound like a riveting read, but it’s actually a curious tale and I learned a few things along the way.

Apple really puts the "Pro" in the iPhone Pro (With the iPhone 16 Pro)

Apple really puts the "Pro" in the iPhone Pro (With the iPhone 16 Pro)

Thomas Fitzgerald
Apple, iPhone, Editorial

A few days ago Apple held its annual iPhone event where they launched the iPhone 16 and 16 pro line, and after trying not to fall asleep after they rehashed the Apple Intelligence stuff from WWDC, I was pleasantly surprised by the new iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. Strangely though, after the event people on social media were complaining that there wasn’t a real difference between the pro and the normal models. To which I thought: “Were they even watching the same keynote I was?” Because when I watched that segment I thought to myself, this is the most “pro” pro phone Apple has ever released. In fact, I’d go so far as to say, it’s only really now the Pro iPhone has fully earned the “Pro” name.

Thoughts on the Fujifilm X100VI. The last of the Fuji Rangefinders

Thoughts on the Fujifilm X100VI. The last of the Fuji Rangefinders

Thomas Fitzgerald
Fuji X-Series, Editorial

I’ve been a Fujifilm shooter for quite some time now. The original X100 still sits on a shelf in my office, and I’ve had a total of 5 different Fujifilm cameras over the years. While the original X100 wasn’t my first Fuji camera, it was probably the one I used for the longest. Since then, there have been numerous iterations of this camera, each better than the previous one. I never really bothered upgrading the X100 because my other Fuji cameras pretty much did the same thing, but with the additional option of changing lenses. Now with its latest iteration, is it time to finally upgrade? And what does the X100VI release say about the rest of the Fuji Lineup?

Happy New Year, Plus Two Weeks!

Happy New Year, Plus Two Weeks!

Thomas Fitzgerald
Behind the Scenes, Editorial

I had this great plan to start the new year with a fresh blogging schedule, and a renewed energy. Of course that didn’t happen. It’s two weeks later and I’m only getting around to writing my “new year” post now. Like many a New Year’s resolutions, they crashed and burned on day two! But now that I have a moment, let me update you on a few things that have been happening, and some plans for the next little while.

Capture One vs Lightroom from someone who uses both – Update for 2023

Capture One vs Lightroom from someone who uses both – Update for 2023

Thomas Fitzgerald
Capture One, Editorial

A while ago, I wrote an article on this blog my perspective on Capture One vs Lightroom, as I regularly use both applications. I tried to present a balanced opinion on the advantages and disadvantages of both. I’ve updated that article since the first version of it came out, and since I last updated it, there have been some significant changes in both Capture One and Lightroom. I feel that these changes require a whole new discussion, and therefore a whole new blog post.

I asked Chat GPT to write me a blog post on the ethics of Street Photography. Here’s what it came up with.

I asked Chat GPT to write me a blog post on the ethics of Street Photography. Here’s what it came up with.

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial, AI

As an experiment, I asked Chat GPT to write a complete blog post. I asked for ideas on street photography and it suggested street photography ethics, which I then asked it to write a full blog post on. I'm sharing the unedited post as it was written by Chat GPT, along with some thoughts on the result. It's fascinating to see what an AI language model can create, and I invite you to read the post and discover what Chat GPT came up with!

The longest I’ve ever gone without taking a photo. Or, Update on the Update on The Update.

The longest I’ve ever gone without taking a photo. Or, Update on the Update on The Update.

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial, Site News

I feel like this blog has turned into a long series of me apologising for not updating the blog. In some sense it’s almost become comedic, and if it wasn’t such a pain from my point of view I’d be laughing more (although I’m doing my best to try and see the funny side). I’ve had a crazy couple of months. So much so that even though it’s nearly March as I write this, it still feels like early January. I keep thinking Christmas was last week, not two months ago. So what’s been happening? Well, a bit of a rollercoaster to be honest.

Thoughts on Capture One’s Licensing Plans

Thoughts on Capture One’s Licensing Plans

Thomas Fitzgerald
Capture One, Editorial, Software

In this post, I express my frustration with Capture One (the company, not the software), regarding recently announced changes to their licensing model for perpetual licences that will take effect in 2023. I express disappointment with this change, as I feel that it makes perpetual licences unattractive and forces customers to switch to a subscription, which I previously criticised for being overpriced. I also feel that the company's timing of the announcement, after the upgrade cycle for Capture One 23 had ended, left some customers feeling duped.

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