Out with old in with the new. New site design…same me!

Announcements

So here we are. About 6 months later than I had hoped but better late than never. My site is reborn with I hope a cleaner, fresher design. Easier to find content and more pleasing to the eye.

What has changed?

Obviously cosmetically it is totally different. New background by my frequent shooting partner James Miller (maybe Percy is TOO big on my shoulder?). Cleaner less obtrusive ads (yes I know there are two on this post) but the top banner is now just one that rotates every new click instead of 6 rotating. Much nicer. Same with the side banners.

We now have top posts rather than most popular posts. Ones which I think would interest you the most. A nice simple twitter feed and a Facebook “fan page” link, this is where you go to see what I am doing every day if you have not already been there.

Very important to me is my work. So the films section is now organised by which camera they were shot on AND genres…although this is a work in progress. I need to add a Documentary section. Again, nice and organised.

There is a very cool events section on the main page and under the menu. Ever wondered where and when my next workshop/ meet up is? Now you know!

There is also now a better and clearer education area with nice clear sections. If you have any suggestions about organisation of this section or any other please let me know below. I am trying to make this easier for you! I know every single post that I have done but you do not, so if you can suggest even easier ways to find stuff do let me know!

In one week’s time I will launch my forum. Yep a forum. I have had a forum before…it was a bit shit to be honest. Then I used buddypress in wordpress. Even worse. So now we will have a proper professional forum integrated perfectly into the website. Comments will still be on the posts unlike say EOSHD where he has moved all comments to the forum. That is not what I want. I want a place where new and experienced can meet and help each other out.

I have had mixed experience with forums in the past. The one that stands head and shoulders over the rest is DVinfo. A place where you can ask questions without being attacked, hounded or banned! It will be a REAL NAME only forum and will have to be heavily moderated. The moderators will be selected amongst my readers. If you interested email me at work@philipbloom.net telling me about yourself and why you would be a good moderator.

It will be a place for you to ask questions about my work or ask in depth questions…this is the place to do it, rather than commenting on posts. I want to try and keep the right things in the right places. It may well be a total disaster…but that is down to you. Together we can make it work.

Ideally within it I will also have a database of shooters/ soundos etc in different areas. So if you are looking for help, it’s the place to go to.

There will be different sections for the different cameras. For different gear and to showcase your work. Again, it will be a work in progress but I hope you sign up!

I will try and keep the content up like I have been. I cannot do daily posts as my day job of shooting gets in the way, but I will post as often as I can and will continue to have guest posts like I have had in the past from Preston Kanak and Eve Hazelton. I will continue to be me. Helpful, funny (I hope), occasionally short and snappy (sorry but I am human and get stressed!) but what you see with me is what you get. I am honest, true to my word and don’t do BS! Remember my ethics statement when in doubt!

Oh, BTW we should have facebook/ twitter comment integration soon to make it easier to leave comments…but still not anonymous which I don’t do!

So bear with me. I doing my best to make the new site as seamless as possible. There WILL be glitches. A lot of them as the site only went live today so it’s the real test!

The site this morning!!

 

31 comments

  13. Great new layout! My only criticism would be the titles of the blog-items. I liked the bigger titles on the old layout, I think they were more easily readable. Maybe you could make them bold or something.. But it’s just an idea. Great work anyway!

    1. Oh I’m sorry btw, I see that it’s like that on the blog tab. I’m used to just browsing the home-screen, as I watch a lot of websites all over the web. Very nice site!

  14. Finally, I can leave a professional comment. As the webmaster for a large corporation, I would like to say I like this new design. The static image in the background is called a watermark in html markup. Philip, I am a big cat lover (I own 13), please do not reduce the size of your little buddy on your shoulders, it is just fine. Please consider changing your name from black font when not moused over. I like that it turns red when moused over. Please consider changing the static color to say, white when not moused over. Red when moused over is perfect. Black is hard to see when static. Cheers…..Robert

      1. Philip,
        just below the words, blog, films and DSLR in the top menus that drop down. Oh by the way, most people don’t understand cats. Of my 13, I only have 1 that feels a need to slap at me with the claws as a sign of affection. Apologies for turning this into a commentary on cats. I have 2 that are inside and the others are outside in the kennel. As I type NEMO, my Maincoon is laying on my arm. Take care.

  16. do what you would like because we will still continue to follow you mr. fantastic bloom. just for the record, i’ve officially created a user name and all that jazz because i believe i owe you a big grand thank you home town. thanks to you and all the free lovely info you post each and every day or two or three-i have been able to improve my career as a dp. i honestly want to thank you for what you do as i have followed your advice from lens adapters to dslr’s to f3’s/af100’s and so on and i have been able to switch things up with gear and trends to keep many a clients happy all awhile traveling to over 20+ countries this last couple of years for the sake of capturing good ol “life”-and while putting bread on the table for some fine little munchkins whom i call family. you are my source for the official word and you have made a big impact on many like myself as i’ve made numerous decisions based on your advice/opinions. As for your opinions? you’re a real guy with real down to earth objectives so muchas gracias amigo. I belive this is espanlol for YOU DA MAN.

  18. hej,

    i like you new layout—congratulations!

    just one thing about the type:
    you should definitely not use justified text, that’s newspaper style and doesn’t work for websites due to hyphenation is just available on some newest browsers.

    best,
    sthlm.

  23. A much cleaner look to the site Philip.
    But I’m not really digging such a large black top menu bar and especially the shadow.
    I feel like I’ve constantly got something covering the top of my eyelids…. or it could be just my eyesight getting dodgy.
    Great work web team!

  24. Hey Philip,

    Just received my C300 on Friday at the FedEx facility in Daytona Beach, Florida. Unboxed it and headed directly to the Rolex 24 at Daytona – all while trying to figure out what the little buttons do.

    The results here on my first internet upload of any kind: http://vimeo.com/36117607

    Thanks for all of your help and inspiration!

    Jeff

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