I thought I was done with website woes when I recently upgraded to the latest version of Squarespace, but alas, the AI-dominated world we live in now has other plans. I could go into the ramifications of Google switching to its AI summaries as its primary search result and the result that is having, but I’m saving that for a bigger post. The TL;DR version is I’m becoming increasingly reluctant to write articles here, when they’re only going to be stolen and repurposed by Google, while it simultaneously kills any search traffic to the site. But there’s another problem that I’m sure most other photographers and other website owners have had to contend with, and that’s the problem of bots.

I’ve finally upgraded the site to Squarespace 7.1 and used the opportunity to redesign the layout and try out a few new features. It’s not perfect yet, but it already feels cleaner and more modern, with changes like removing the old sidebar and adding a new “Featured Posts” section on the home page. There are still some quirks to fix, like featured images no longer appearing automatically, plus a few spacing and menu tweaks still on the list. Read on for more details.

I’ve been publishing this website in one form or another since back in 2011. That’s fourteen years ago! Over that time, I have changed a lot, the world has changed a lot, and this website has…well, changed a bit, but frankly not enough. The amount of time I’ve spent posting here has consistently dropped off recently, and I realise that at least part of the reason is that I kind of hate this website now. I know that’s quite a strong response, but it’s true. Well, mostly.

I’ve been a bit remiss in posting over the past two weeks, and that’s because I’ve been preoccupied with a little side project. For the longest time now, I have not been happy with my website(s). My photography web presence is basically split into two parts. There’s this one, which is my “gear and news” blog and then my portfolio site, which also has my (mostly) gear free “ pure photography” blog. Ive hosted these on Squarespace for years now, but I’ve been increasingly frustrated by the way the sites work, and by Squarespace in general. Unfortunately moving platforms isn’t really a viable option as the sites, particularly this one, are too big to easily move. With that in mind, I’ve set about trying to update them within the confines of the current host.

As Christmas is almost here, and the year comes to an end, I just wanted to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who’s been following along, reading my posts this year. Whether you’ve been a loyal reader for years or just recently discovered this blog, your support means the world to me.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, there’s been a bit of a sea change in the world of social media platforms recently. Now, at first, you may think, what has this to do with photography? Well, as many artists and photographers use social media to promote their content, I wanted to take a quick look at the changing order of things, and keep you up to date on where I’m posting.

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.

There’s an old axiom about never telling people your plans publicly until they’re set in stone, and I recently made that mistake when I shared a blog post a little while ago about what I had planned for this website. I had mentioned that I wasn’t happy with Squarespace, and that I was planning to move back to WordPress. Well, you may have noticed that nothing has actually happened….

I wrote a little while ago about plans to update my Fuji guides at some point, and I’ve had a few people asking me about it. The situation is a little more complicated, so read on for details on what’s happening, or why there has been a delay.

Just a quick update. As I covered previously, I had closed my old store, but I had kept the website active for a few months so people could download their purchases. This site is now closed.

As it’s getting pretty close to Christmas now, I’m signing off for the rest of the year to take a much-needed break. I have a few unfinished articles that I had hoped to get out before Christmas, but they’ll be out in the new year now. I’ll get to those in a minute, but for now, I wanted to wish everyone out there who celebrates it, a happy Christmas, and for everyone, a happy new year. Let’s hope 2020 doesn’t have any more nasty surprises up its sleeve for is. I’ve gone and jinxed it, haven’t I?

Just a quick update on the state of my Gumroad store. After closing my own digital download store, I’ve slowly been working to make some of my previously available products available for sale again via Gumroad. I’ve just added another few and now most of my eBooks are available again.

A little over a year ago, I started an experiment to see if I could partially fund this website and my YouTube channel through Patreon. When I first started it, I’ll admit that I didn’t really know what I was doing, and so for the first few months I floundered. Now that I’ve been doing it for a while, it’s time to re-launch it, with more benefits, more tiers and a better experience.

I’ve released a minor update to two of my Capture One style packs in order to simplify the installation process. Previously they needed to be manually installed which was a bit of a chore, but now they can be installed simply by double clicking on a file.

I’m happy to announce that my latest Style Pack for Capture One is now available to buy from my digital download store. T-Pan for Capture One is a set of Black and White styles inspired by black and white film. The look is aiming to re-create the experience of shooting with a professional grade black and white film stock, and creates a rich film like monochrome image.