Building My Photography Website — Behind the Scenes

My Go To Film FP4

Building this website has been a much bigger journey than I first expected. What I thought would be a simple refresh quickly turned into a full redesign - one that made me ret

hink how I present my work, how visitors move through the site, and what I want people to understand about my photography.

I’ve spent more than forty years behind the lens, beginning with film, darkrooms, and the discipline of making every frame count. But building a modern photography website requires a very different kind of patience. It’s not just uploading images and choosing a template. It’s design, structure, storytelling, layout, licensing, printing information, user experience, accessibility, and consistency across every page.

Rebuilding, Rethinking, Refining

Across this process, I revisited almost every part of my photographic journey:

– How I introduce myself– How my work should be organised– What belongs in each gallery– How to clearly present my printing and licensing options– How to make the site clean, simple, and enjoyable to explore

Some parts took hours. Others took days.

From experimenting with layouts and colour schemes, to refining fonts and margins, to writing new descriptions and building a licensing page from scratch - every detail needed attention. Photography is a craft, and I wanted the site to reflect that same level of care.

Blending the Old and the New

In many ways, the website mirrors my own journey through photography.

I began with Ilford FP4 and HP5, developing prints in trays under red light, learning contrast the slow and deliberate way. Now I use high-resolution mirrorless systems, digital workflows, and occasionally AI-assisted editing - tools that would have been unimaginable when I first stepped into a darkroom.

This site brings those worlds together:

My Current Camera

– The discipline of film – The precision of digital – The creative possibilities of modern editing – The craft of fine-art printing – The structure and clarity required for a professional online presence

It’s a continuation of everything I’ve learned, just expressed in a different medium.

Why the Website Matters

A website has become more than a portfolio. It’s an extension of the creative process.It’s where I can show the full breadth of my work: wildlife, birds, macro subjects, landscapes, travel, and creative portraiture.

It’s where I can explain how I shoot, how I edit, how I print, and why I approach photography the way I do.

It’s also a space for people to explore, discover new images, and - if they wish - collect prints that are made with the same care I bring to each photograph.

What I Learned Along the Way

This project has taught me:

– How design and photography influence each other– How important clarity and simplicity are– How time-consuming true consistency can be– How helpful it is to stop, stand back, and refine– And above all, how much I enjoy the process of building something that feels personal and meaningful

What you see now is the result of countless decisions - big and small - all made to create a website that feels like my work: clean, intentional, and crafted with care.

What Comes Next

Now that the foundation is built, I’ll be:

– Updating the blog with behind-the-scenes stories – Sharing field notes and new projects– Expanding galleries as I continue shooting

– Adding more creative portraits and experimental work

I hope this site becomes a place you enjoy returning to -

whether you're discovering new images, learning about my workflow, or simply exploring photography from a different perspective.

Thank you for being part of the journey.

If you’d like to see the equipment I use in my photography - from cameras and lenses to accessories, printing tools and workflow setups - visit my Gear & Tech page. It provides a detailed overview of the tools behind my images and the reasoning behind the choices I make.

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View Gear and Tech Page