5 Years of 35mmc – Thanks, and a few little updates

As of the 19th of May this year, 35mmc turned 5 years old… 5! Actually, it snuck up on me a bit, hence the slightly delayed post on the subject.

In response to this anniversary I’ve decided update the website. Some of these updates have been happening slowly over the last six months, some have happened this last week. In case you haven’t noticed any/all of them I thought I’d run you through them.

Thank you!!

Before I get to that though, I just want to say thank you!

Thanks to everyone out there for supporting 35mmc. That goes out to new readers, and those of you who’ve been around since day one. Thanks to everyone who’s ever got in touch to tell me how much they like the website, to everyone who has contributed to the site, to all of you who just quietly keep coming back, to those who’ve got in touch with constructive comments and ideas, and even thanks to the trolls – you have all made it worth it!

Short of finding my wife and us having kids, this website is arguably the most successful thing I have achieved in my lifetime, and quite literally, I couldn’t have done it without you all!

Funding

Whilst I have a huge amount of appreciation for those who support 35mmc as readers and contributors, I want to give an extra thanks to those of you who put your hand in your pocket!

35mmc is now partly funded by a Patreon page. For a long time I self-funded it, when traffic became so high that I needed expensive hosting I funded this via advertising. At that point, for the first time I began to break even.

A few months later, with a bit of encouragement from a few people who had started to regularly chip me a few quid via PayPal donations, I began to come to the conclusion that I could run this website as part of my living… So I set up my Patreon page.

I’m a little way off yet, but with a bit more support I intend to reduce my hours at work and dedicate some of my actual working week to running this website. So, If you want to help me grow 35mmc even further, keep the standard of content high, or indeed improve upon it, then chipping me a small amount via Patreon will definitely help in that cause.

If you like, think of it as a voluntary magazine subscription. Or possibly justify it by telling yourself it’s the amount of cash you’d spend on buying me a coffee or whisky were we to meet up once a month, or just get involved for the joys of seeing my weekly video blog – either way check out my Patreon page here

Content

On the path to me running this website in a more professional capacity, I decided to ramp up the content. Some time at the end of last year myself and EM from EMULSIVE started a new series of posts called “5 frames with…”. The series has turned out to be rather more successful than I originally expected with 3 or 4 posts going out weekly. I’ve had great feedback too, with many people getting in touch to submit the posts, as well as to tell me just how much they enjoy these little informal insights into people’s shooting habits and photography.

I must admit, the weight of new content is a little bit difficult to manage in my spare time. I’m always behind, and the schedule is a bit wonky (to say the least) with some people’s content getting pushed out in the wrong order. As such, the amount in the backlog has meant that some people are having to wait a fair while before their submissions go live. Thankfully, everyone has been patient with me, but rather than keep going this way until someone does get annoyed, I’ve decided to change my approach to pushing out the content.

Rather than publish “5 frames with…” posts in the week and reviews and other more substantial content on the weekends as I have been, I’m going to try and post content a little more in the order that it’s submitted. There’s various reasons this might not always go to plan, but I’m going to give it a go.

Another quick note on the content: I’ve recently had a little support in the form of someone proofreading posts after they go live and regularly sending feedback, so you should see less mistakes moving forward too. Thanks David!

The menus and categories

The idea to mix up the content a bit also gave me the idea to have a play with the menu structure. As such, just this last few days I’ve rounded off some changes to the menu and simplified the website categories. I have now fully integrated what used to be called “guest content” into the website. I have now completely removed the separate “guest posts” menu and most of its categories and just left the content in the normal menu structure. I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s really no need to differentiate my content from the content of others who write for the site in this way. This should also make for a more easy to understand navigational structure for those less familiar with the site.

Branding

On the subject of familiarity, the beady-eyed might also notice the logo has changed. As has the heading font. This really has been a long time coming. For a while I struggled to even find a font I liked. That was until I started chatting to Andrew Bellamy. If you’ve come across this book, he’s the guy that wrote it. He also happens to make fonts. 57-nao was love at first sight for me – you can possibly see why?!

The about page

Finally, after much deliberation, I have just published my new about page. 35mmc has evolved a lot over the last 5 years. It’s moved away from being just about compact cameras, to featuring rangefinders, then a few digital cameras, and now through the “5 frames with…” series it also features medium and large format cameras, and even instant photography. Hopefully the description on the new about page encapsulates how the community sees this website, and not just how I’ve become to view it… if you think differently, please let me know, it’s always a work in progress.

Thanks again

So yeah, 5 years… I can’t quite get my head around what this website has become in that time. But it’s been great fun and as I say, I think it’s possibly the biggest and most successful thing I’ve so far set my mind to. Thanks to everyone who’s come along for the ride!

Don’t forget, I’m always looking for people to contribute, so if you’d like to, you can find more info here
And if you’d like to become a patron of 35mmc to support the growth its growth, guarantee an even brighter future and see my weekly video blog you can do here

Cheers

Hamish

An EMULSIVE Birthday

I mentioned EM and the “5 frames with…” collaboration earlier on in the post, well before I close, I would also like to highlight the fact that EMULSIVE has just turned 3. EM talks about this fact in a rather more eloquent (as he points out) way than I have talked about the 35mmc anniversary here. He also comes clean about his undying love for me – something he often expresses like a child with a schoolyard crush by calling me names on twitter. Such a bellend that guy!

(Well done EM, congrats on the 3 years – it’s been a lot of fun getting to know you! thanks for all your help and support!) 

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