Back in Business

It’s been a while, but I’m back in business! Over the last couple of months I’ve been working on this blog to give it a new look and a new purpose. I hope you like it.

The first thing you might notice is that the site’s appearance has had a makeover. I’ve enjoyed trying out different styles for the layout, but this is definitely my favourite. I think it’s a much stronger design than the previous one, and it has a few new features. Apart from changing the overall look of the site I’ve:

• upgraded the comments function so you can edit your comments after you’ve posted them
• added a photo gallery of my favourite pictures which you can access from the menu at the top of the page or the link in the sidebar
• added a new social icon for my flickr site so you can go there from this blog.

I’m happy with the new look, and especially the gallery. If you click on any of the thumbnails it opens up a slideshow and you can view full size photos and even comment on them!

Perhaps the most important change is what I’ll be using the blog for. You might remember that the strapline for the old style blog was ‘Making Stories with Words and Pictures’. The blog used to contain photo essays, stories, book reviews and the odd post about family history. Although I hope you liked the posts, it felt like a bit of a miscellaneous collection and I wanted to focus more on two projects that I’m working on. The first project is to research and write about my family’s history and the life and times they lived in: the second project is to create photo-essays of the world around me.

In a way I think there’s a strong link between the two projects. I wouldn’t have much of a family history if it wasn’t for the photographs and other memorabilia my ancestors left behind, so my photo essays are my way of adding to the story. 

You’ll notice that the site has a new strapline Spanning the Years with Words and Pictures, which hopefully describes what I’m trying to do.

My plan is to post something every week in one or more of the following categories:

• Picture of the Week – a single photograph and caption of something that has caught my interest
• News and Reviews – updates, editorials, news about future posts and reviews of anything interesting I’ve seen or read
• From the past – posts about the family history project
• In the present – photo essays of things I’ve seen around me
• Gallery – as well as the pictures on the gallery page, I’ll also be creating special one-off galleries on specific topics.

And finally for those masochists amongst you, you’ll be able to find all the stories I published on the old site under the Stories category.

So that’s it. I hope you like the new look of the site. Both of my projects will take some time to grow. The family history project in particular is a massive task, but you’ll be able to follow it here.

Why not try out the new comments function and let me know what you think? If you like the site, you can subscribe by email and please tell a friend.

I’ll be back on Friday with picture of the week.

Regards

Dave