After years of looking for an alternative website platform, and months of working on a new site over the winter period, it's now live. And I think it's pretty nice.
If you're not viewing this post on my website now, you can find it here.
It's a much smarter, more modern website than the previous one, and I think it does a much better job at representing me and my photography. It's also clearer and easier to use, with a high-resolution desktop version, and a fully-featured mobile experience.
I started work on it in December, and finally went live with a “soft-launch” last month. I think we’re now ready to go public!
That's the headline. And I guess the point of this post is to ask you to take a look, have a nose around, and let me know what you think.
WALL ART
The new website comes with some rendered images of the photos as printed wall art. To see these, just select a photo from one of the galleries. On that photo page you can click on the image thumbnails to browse through them. I've tried to represent both fine art prints, and canvas prints in these product photos, to reflect the different options available from the site, as well as a variation of sizes and decors to complement the photos. Here's a selection of those rendered images...
A BETTER BLOG
The blog is now much easier to navigate and find posts that interest you. I've been blogging for almost 10 years now, including monthly for the past 5 years, so there are loads of photo stories, trip-reports, and discussions of photography up here. I really hope this new site will make them easier to find and more accessible to everyone.
I think working on the new website has got me thinking about how I use the blog, and made me realise how central it is to the way I want to present my photography. A lot of the posts are small galleries, with descriptions and explanations of the photos, and my thinking behind them. They‘re actually much richer than the standard galleries, which are really only intended to organise and present the photos.
You can find posts using the search icon at the top-right corner of the site menu, or by using the menu on the blog page...
The screen-shot above shows the large search bar to search for subjects or topics, and a list of common blog post categories, which you can click on to filter the posts, and find something that interests you.
There's also a Log In link. Creating an account will allow you to comment in your own name, and get notifications when I publish a new blog post, or if someone replies to a comment you leave on a post. Alternatively, you can leave comments without logging in, if you prefer (though this may get revoked if I get a bunch of spam).
I'd really like to encourage people to leave comments on posts, as it's a great way to ask follow-up questions, and I can reply right there on the page, for the benefit of readers in the future.
As time goes on, I plan to continue focussing on the blog as the best way of sharing my photos, prioritising it over social media. It's also the best way for you to see my photos, hear a little more of the story behind them, and see them large. I already have enough blog post ideas for the next 18 months, and I'm sure I'll have even more new photos that jump the queue during that time.
By far the best way to follow my photography is to subscribe to the blog. You can do that via the Mailing List or via good old RSS. And don't be afraid to recommend it to a friend.
A FOLLOW-UP POST
For those interested, I'll write a follow-up post over the summer, explaining why I left Zenfolio, and why I chose to switch to Wix as a website host. That will be a post that only interests other photographers and web developers, so I've decided to split it from this post and give it it's own space.
THANKS
As always, thanks for your interest in my photography. I hope it adds a little slice of nature to your day. Next month normal service will be resumed and I’ll have another photo post to share. Until then, have a look around the new site and let me know what you think.
Cheers,
George
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