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By now, Subscriber First Name, you’ve probably noticed this isn’t the same “newsletter” you’ve been receiving so far. It has a title. It’s a tad prettier (eye of the beholder but really…it kind of is) and it’s also more than just a glorified alert to the latest blog post. That’s because until now, this was essentially an afterthought. I’d never envisioned a newsletter that could go beyond the content I was already publishing, mostly because the tool I was using (I won’t name names but it rhymes with trail limp) didn’t really allow for much else. Heck, even THAT felt like editing a website in 1998. Awful and absolutely not inspiring. So first of all I really want to thank you for subscribing and for keeping your subscription active during this initial attempt, despite the content’s…let’s face it…mediocrity. I truly appreciate it. Now however, I’m looking to go further and I hope you’ll be interested in staying onboard. If not, just hit the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email—I promise we’ll still be friends ;) Basically, I want this newsletter to be a new extension. Another channel. I want it to have its own personality, some of it based on exclusive content. I’ll be posting about this on the website in the days/weeks to come of course (working on the details), but I felt you deserved an early heads up. I also want you to know that whatever shape this takes, you’ll be “grandfathered” for as long as you wish to be.
The biggest change in terms of scheduling, is that it won’t be an automated send anymore, tied to a dumb RSS trigger. I’ll be writing and sending the newsletter “manually”, about 2-3 times a month. As you’ll see below, I’ll be posting highlights from the blog (in case you missed anything) but I’ll also include curated links and writings that may broach topics beyond photography—although photography will obviously remain the central focus. Another major change will be the Dissections switch, from blog posts to this newsletter. Dissections has been an experiment of sorts but I’ve struggled to find its proper place in the way I tend to publish. So instead of tacking it onto an essay—where it might take away from the reflective intention of a story—I will now instead be featuring this here. The upside is that it’ll give me an incentive to do it (not negligible), but also provide a context that will make more sense. From now on, there will be one Dissection every month, on the dot, as part of These Traces. Which Brings Us to that Title I could’ve just named this The Newsletter. But really, where’s the fun in that? These Traces refers to our inherent quest as photographers, to our place in the universe as documentarians and storytellers—whether we’re aware of it or not. No matter what our approach is, no matter how serious our pursuit, we are leaving traces behind that will define our lives for others. So it feels kinda right. About those Alerts If you’ve been subscribing in order to get alerts to new posts as they are published, I’m aware this change might bother you. So here’s a tip: the previous newsletter was simply an RSS campaign. RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication and although it’s been somewhat deprecated in terms of popularity, it still powers most of the reader apps and platforms we all use. It’s just not visible anymore. If you enter my blog’s URL in a free app like Flipboard or Feedly, it’ll see the RSS feed and you’ll be able to subscribe. Anytime new content comes up, it’ll appear as part of your content stream. I’d love to say you can use Apple News for this as well, but they apparently decided to remove that functionality at some point. Why give people a choice when you can force feed “real” publications instead. But I digress. If you ever need it, the official RSS feed for my blog is: http://www.laroquephoto.com/blog?format=rss Last Word If you have any thoughts about these changes please reach out and let me know. Between you and me, I’ve embarked on a year of transformation. I need to go deeper than I have before and this is a first step towards that goal. Please keep this to yourself for now—I’ve removed the old newsletter so this is currently exclusive to you and current subscribers. Very much hoping you’ll be along for the future ride. Until next time
Patrick
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