I’ve spent a lot of time recently contemplating the effectiveness of this site and its layout. Its something I personally investigate every year, and once again I feel like I am at the cross roads.

I get a wealth of requests from people who would like to see more content published on this blog/site and in general just more updates and photos from time to time. Considering that 99% of my photography business is referral based, I rarely found the need to update the blog with my random musings. Spotlight takes time, then there are various events, photography, friends….. well, life.
I’m too busy living.

This is a photography site right? No one wants to see me rant on about my various, and most often tangent sparking tirades. But yet people do. They want more pictures and more rants. So I’m starting to take the emails and comments seriously.

I polled a few to see what they thought about the current site’s layout and what they’d like to see.  Yes I still want to write and post my photos, but I want a layout and interface that’s a bit more organic. Easier to read, and inspiring for me to update.

So some changes are coming the next few months to update this site with all the web 3.0 and 4.0 and 10.whatever goodies. Yes the business side of things will come out, but I promise it will be transparent.

I’ll write as often as I can, and that’s about as much as I can promise.

If you really do want to subject yourself to my content, you know where to get the good stuff.

It has taken me a few days to able to digest the closing of 2007. Due largely to the fact that I was overseas — in a place where you can truly lose track of time and day – I abstained from thinking about the end of the year, and everything to do with Toronto. Perhaps it was because 2007 was the most emotionally charged and challenging year to date. We all need a break from time to time, well, I needed a break from 2007 and Toronto. The concept of vacation seems to be dwindling in the city’s fast paced corporate society.

The 2008 train is in full speed, time is flying by already, let’s reflect quickly. This post is guaranteed to be all over the place.

On a business note, this year started off on a stump but then grew in leaps and bounds. Spotlight lost a valuable staff member, and as a result the responsibilities piled up on my plate. If you got to do something right, well you got to teach yourself.

On a personal note, this year was mostly tumultuous. The ending of what could have been a lifelong relationship mixed with ostracizing of friends set a base for ups and downs. If there was a resolution to be made, it would be that in 2008 I need to focus more on real life social networking.

On Toronto, this year was interesting to say the least. We as foodies, dished out more money to eat at chic restaurants, but we ate less. Tapas went mainstream and as a result, every new restaurant took the advantage of serving smaller more ‘complex’ dishes at double the prices. People ate it up. I hope this trend doesn’t stick around, because there’s nothing appealing about this. It’s a fad and it must disappear. If it ain’t Spanish, don’t call it tapas.

In the online world, more local blogs launched, with more emphasis on restaurant reviews and food. Then something really sinister happened, maybe a page out of ‘lord of the flies’, we started to not only review (or try to in a lot of cases) restaurants, but we also became critics of other blogs and sites. Maybe we’re all starved for some web traffic, but lets try to focus on some meaningful content in 2008. Let’s not knock the fellow blogger, hack websites, spread rumours or post personal pics online. That’s very un-Toronto.

On Music, Nine Inch Nails (Year Zero), Radiohead (In Rainbows), Velvet Revolver (Libertad) did it for me.

On Food, I discovered that I have a sweet tooth, particularly for imported chocolates.

On Movies, I didn’t see as many. But I do recall Juno, Eastern Promises, American Gangster, Knocked up, Transformers,  No Country for old men, and some other mainstream crap.

On Visual Tirades, I had an incredible year. Shooting weddings, big events, fashion, portrait, food, you name it. Getting to do what I absolutely love, and getting paid for it.

On Spotlight, I think the site speaks for itself. Take a look and see for yourself. We’re kicking ass. We’ve raised the bar on many things. People don’t copy us for no reason.

2008, bring it on. 

So I have a new front page. Oh, you haven’t looked? Go, take a peak.

I toyed with the layout while lying on a beach some time ago. It was hardly any sort of epiphany as I was rather distracted by crystal blue waters and momentary sunshine during rainy season — when I thought that I needed better, more functional and creative intro page. Business Photography has grown via leaps and bounds this year for me, and more and more people were asking for me to re-launch a more marketable site.

I considered going flash but there were drawbacks. People tend to hate flash sites these days, and I wanted a base that would allow me to change the look on a monthly basis. This is the result, and I plan to change the page every month. Think of it as a magazine cover, something new to look at every month with access to all areas of the site.

The final ingredient of the new site is the portfolio, which is almost complete. I expect to finish that portion within a few days.