The mist is clearing and I’m beginning to see the future of this blog. It will continue but in a slightly different form. I will be using to share thoughts, finding, news and ramblings about all things photographic, together with photos. I will also continue with the Friday Image posts, hopefully weekly. What you won’t see in future are the tutorial postings. If you want those, you will need to head over to the “Articles & Tutorials” page on my Lenscraft site.
I’m also not going to restrict myself to talking about lightweight photography. It means too many things to different people. Yes I shoot using mirror-less cameras in the main. But at the end of the day, it’s photography that I love and not the equipment.
I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who posted messages of support on my earlier post. Also, the many people who emailed me. I’m currently trying to work through replying to any questions that have been raised.
Thank you again for your support and wonderful ideas.
The Lightweight Photographer 
Thanks, Robin, for all you’ve done for the art and craft of photography—and all you will continue to do. Things often change much for the better and I know you’ve given your decision a great deal of thought. I look forward to reading your blog in the future and riding along with you on your photographic adventures. All best to you.
Thank you very much for your words of encouragement.
Well done! I am glad the blog will continue. Have you seen the MacFilos blog? Might give you some ideas for a skinnier version of the current one Best wishes John
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Thank you and thanks for the blog lead. I wasn’t aware but it looks very interesting.
Robin, I follow your blog and have your books. I have benefited hugely from your enthusiasm and expertise.
Many, many thanks.
Mike Mackay
Thanks Mike
Robin, thanks for the books, videos, insight and sharing of skills. I create better images as a result! All the best.
Steve
Thank you Steve
Robin,
I’m glad you are branching to all things photographic. I think you have a lot share and much that others can learn from you. Oddly enough it is only with your most recent post that I understand what ‘Lightweight’. Never realized it was about mirror less cameras, and if I thought about it at all was to wonder why you called it that when it was obvious you were no ‘lightweight’ when dealing with all things photographic! Maybe it’s a ‘separated by a common language’ thing. Looking forward to your new endeavors.
Best Regards,
Duncan
Thanks for your feedback Duncan. You’ve just confirmed to me that I need an About page on the blog. I also just changed the tag line under the site title.
Hello Robin: I was so taken aback by the thought of not receiving your lovely images each week that I had to stop and think before I responded. In the meantime, you have had a lot of feedback and clearly I am not the only person on the planet who really enjoyed your weekly image. Not only did it remind me that it was Friday (already!!) but there was a beautiful image to look at and words of wisdom to peruse. Sounds like you have found a way to move forward but I have so enjoyed your photography and your books and tutorials, I thought I’d throw in my 2 cents worth. I think I found your Lightweight Photographer site a couple of years ago when I was thinking about switching to Fuji. (I did buy the X-T1 even though the XT-2 was on the horizon – had to jump!). The weekly email from you eventually led me to your ebooks (I think I have bought most of them – all good) and finally I stumbled upon Lenscraft. I never did ‘get’ the connection between the two sites. Took me ages to figure out that you ran both of them. Why two sites, I wondered but didn’t think any further because I was benefitting from both. I couldn’t understand why you had two sites and not one site with the blog embedded in it. I would like this. I’d also like a weekly email (with image) and links to what is new on your site (now to be one site). There wouldn’t need to be much text in the email – the text you would usually put (on your blog) could be on your site and in a spot that seemed appropriate depending on whether you are explaining gear or a process etc. I think that keeping the ‘Lightweight’ moniker somewhere in your new/integrated site (maybe sprinkled in your keywords so Google can find) is a good idea because switching is a big deal and it helps to hear about the experience of others. Your issue really resonated with me as I have spent the holidays revamping my website. (Currently, I have three – rental business in Yukon, professional website and travel blog). I have a website (www.lakelaberge.ca ) for my B&B and cabin rental (in the Yukon) but I have stopped the B&B (too busy with other things especially photography, writing and jewellery) but still offer the cabin for rent. I needed to remove the B&B from the website. What I decided to do was revamp the site completely (using the new Divi theme in WordPress) and also include photography, writing and jewellery – all in one place. (I got the idea of combining things on one website from a photographer (definitely not landscape!) who turns her photography into items of clothing – http://www.kathybeal.com ) I’ve just finished the cabin rental section of the website, which was a fair amount of work as I also included information and photos on attractions nearby. (New website not online yet as it is a work in progress). Am now moving on to the photography section of the site (I want to offer prints for sale and, maybe, next summer, workshops of Lightroom for people who live around here). As for the jewellery, I want to include photos of some of the pieces I have made as well as advertise my little (occasional) workshops and again, just for the folk who live around here. In the writing section, I will be including the books I have written for teachers (previously on my professional website, which I am in the process of taking down as I have retired) and also books for children (which came to me ‘out-of-the-blue’). (I have just started the process of getting my books onto Amazon). I will end up with one website (keeping lakelaberge.ca domain name but which displays everything I do. Except for my travel photography and travel writing, which is currently on a separate website (silvernomad.ca ). Once I have Divi sorted out, I plan to revamp my silvernomad site. By that time, I should have my life sorted out – remain in Canada (been here for 50 years!!) or return to England and join my sister in Dorset. This has turned into a bit of a ramble but I thought I’d share how I’m dealing with my multiple website issues as a way to say thank you for all the work you put into sharing your photography expertise. My parting shot is to say – just get everything on one website, send an email with a lovely image each week with links to the latest addition on your site. All the very best in the coming year. Cheers, Janet
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Thanks Janet. I really appreciate the feedback and thought you have put into this. I feel I should explain why I have a blog and separate website. In the beginning (around 2005) the blog was on Lenscraft. This continued until my hosting company blocked my website and said I needed to pay them several hundred pounds a month because the traffic was too high, and it was a business. I did move the site but because of the restrictions I lost my blog history. That’s when I decided to try out a new blog which was the Lightweight Photographer.
My intention with LWP was always to migrate it back to Lenscraft as I have to pay for the domain and to have advertising removed. Lenscraft is self-hosted and has much more flexibility (I also built this with Divi). The problems I had with Lenscraft related to the next hosting company I moved to. Initially the support was great but then it went downhill. The final straw came when one of their “support staff” deleted my website and told me I had to go back to a backup. When I tried, I found the backups I had been paying them for didn’t exist.
My latest host is great although the servers aren’t the fastest. Despite this I have been targeted on several occasions with Denial of Service Attacks trying to have me a pay a “ransom”. When this happens, I like to be able to post comments onto the Blog to let people know. It’s feels like an insurance policy. Having said all this, I will be redeveloping the website later this year and I suspect will migrate LWP across at that time.
Thank you for sharing your experience, I really enjoyed reading it. Good luck with your endeavours, but I would hardly call it retirement
I bought my first camera, the LX5, years ago because I was convinced by your thoughts about that gem. And I never regretted buying one. Years forward, I still have my LX5. Although I am not using anymore, I just can’t let it go because I had so much memories with it. My point is, you have helped/inspired a lot of people around the globe.
Thank you very much for your thoughts. I’m so pleased you liked the LX5. It was such a well-designed camera. To hear also that you think I inspire and help others makes it worthwhile. It’s the reason why I started my website, YouTube channel and this blog.