Third version of this site (Republished from 2015)

Usually when you ask a photographer about their website, they will provide you with a link and say that it is a work in progress and that they are working on a new version already. Sometimes this means a new content management system serving what you see; other times, a new visual design; and every time, new photos. How could it be otherwise? When we are actively photographing and want to share the results of our work with the world, we are constantly preparing new content for the website.

It soon became clear that this website needed a different concept after I switched to the penultimate version. I simply misjudged the situation. The original solution was not designed for hundreds of galleries. It was barely even designed for dozens. It took me quite a long time to understand what was really wrong. It took even longer to figure out what to do about it.

In the end, I realised no one is going to browse through two hundred albums just to look at them. People will either search for a specific place or event they or their friends attended, or stumble on the website by chance. In that moment, they will need a selection (which we are still working on and will discuss another time) to catch their interest—and maybe even get them to start reading.

This time, I spent half a year converting content between two content management systems and, in general, searching for and editing a new look and feel. However, when it came to the photos, I faced a significant decision: should I keep photos that are eight or more years old on the new website, or should I reprocess them? Although I left the photos as they were—since my frequent travels continuously provide new material—I now realise that I would make different selections today, approach post-production differently, and add watermarks to photos taken before 2013.

In the end, I decided not to update the old photos. This is a blog, so it’s only right to show how I photographed ten years ago and how far I’ve come since then. If I am ever stuck on a desert island with nothing else to do, maybe I’ll reprocess all the photos.

Along with the decision to leave all the photos in their original state, another problem arose. I decided to cancel the gallery catalogue and keep everything in blog format, which means I have to write new text for many of the old galleries. None of them has any text. The texts won’t be comprehensive, more like annotations and maybe a few things I remember about the event or place. I will use this as a filler when I don’t have time or anything new ready to publish.

There are two more problems with the texts: many articles have not been translated into English. I somehow neglected this. So, in addition to adding texts to old photos, I still have a lot of translating to do (the articles will be published retroactively on the dates when I published the Czech texts – for consistency).

I no longer combine several reports into one. For clarity, I’ve split events like LARP festivals into multiple articles, even if some are short. This should improve accessibility.

Finally, to conclude this litany, I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the new and old websites. The order is purely alphabetical. Many people who helped me in the past are no longer helping, and others are helping instead, but that is no reason to forget them.

• Silvia Čillíková – proofreading from the very beginning.
• Lukáš Dušek – proofreading in recent times.
• Tereza Malkusová – all those things I don’t understand and are hidden under marketing.
• Jan Maška – previous design, logo, and help with editorial systems.
• Jiří Matyskiewicz – second proofreader.
• Tomáš Steiner – technical support, with whom I maintain the server that hosts everything.
• Iva Vávrová – most of the proofreading overall.

I hope I have acknowledged everyone who has contributed.