> Last updated February 2nd, 2023
If you have been here before, you already know this: the website is updated! New design, new content, new products (and more to come!). The previous design was 2 years old and needed fresh paint. This new layout is also faster to load and easier to read. I spent quite some time polishing everything, but if you do encounter a bug please let me know.
There are a couple things going on with workshops but I’m currently putting on hold any other public engagement: no speaking at events or attending them, only a few meetups. Trying to reorganise things as I resume my travelling schedule.
It’s not all good news: I got Covid. Unfortunately, it happened. I managed to avoid it since the beginning of the pandemic, but it caught up with me. I haven’t been in hospital, but it was still a bit nasty anyway: spent almost 3 weeks in bed, unable to do any work and with a painfully burning throat. I’m much better now, don’t you worry.
I was also hospitalised for a head injury. Nothing too serious, but it has kept me away from posting on my social media channels for some time. And of course from my work.
Need to make up for the lost time ASAP.
[YouTube] This new experience takes all my time, but I’m enjoying it a lot. Come to visit my channel at youtube.com/fabienbutazzi and don’t forget to subscribe!
Currently, I finally started the new Photographing The World series, kicking this off with Istanbul. The video series comes with its companion photo zine, which is a first for me. Plenty of hi-res images, stories and locations from all the spots in the videos… After the horrible earthquake that hit Istanbul and Syria, I have decided to donate 50% of all profits from any product in store to all the victims. And this will go on for the whole of February, maybe longer.
[Tuition] The 2 workshops in Florence went very well and I’m looking at travel options to bring my workshops wherever you live. Be sure to monitor my Instagram Stories for news and hopefully I’ll see you soon. New workshops will be announced soon, as well as International photo tours.
1-1 workshops are back and I’m preparing a new format for a half-day workshop in London that will be a real treat! I might do a trial in January at a discounted price, keep your eyes peeled.
I’m also helping other photographers with my 1-1 online sessions but this will become less frequent. The option is still available of course, and it can help with many aspects that are not strictly related to photography: improving editing, learning about creating a website and strategising your brand, etc. Glad I can help with all of that, thanks to my 25+ years of experience as Creative Director.
For those back in the office in London, you can also book my “mini” workshops for those with little time to enjoy photography: you can book me for a session during your lunch break or right after work!
[Exhibitions] Even though I’m not travelling much, I’m stoked that my photos are! They appeared in a few exhibitions around the world in these past years, and new ones have already been confirmed for the next; I was just featured in India for the first time, and I am once again selected to appear at the Photographer Of The Year exhibition in Chicago (second year in a row) and a few other prestigious appearances…. 🙂
[Publishing] Other than the photo zine I mentioned above, the one that pairs with the Istanbul video series… I’m still working on a series of photo magazines to document my lengthy trip around Georgia (the country) and a companion zine to pair with my new presets. It’s been a very slow project but with what I learned from the Istanbul zine, I can maybe speed this up now.
[Store] I have a few changes planned for the store so things may be a bit glitchy at times, apologies for that. The Limited 10 series is on hold for the moment and I’m looking at options to publish a collection or two as NFT. In the meantime, I have released a useful presets pack for Lightroom and ACR to help with sharpening Fujifilm photos (a must for print) and a new Black and White presets pack. Check them out.
Also, following the new feature at the Street Photographer of the Year exhibition, I have created a new series of prints called Collection. All award-winning and prestigious photos, in limited editions, that you will be proud to hang on your walls!
[Web] last year I worked to reach a good optimisation of fabienb.blog for ideal performance, to give you the best user experience while navigating my content. I went from ranking E (54%) on Pagespeed for a 13s page load to A (97%) for 0.96s page load, and still working on improving. But I have added tons of features so it went a bit slower, hence why I made the big change with this new layout. I’m sure more improvements will come soon.
I move to a new host, Hostinger, that is optimised for WordPress. So things should improve on the server front as well.
[In Progress] The secret project (codename PTOD – it’s really just the acronym) is still in progress. Needs content more than anything, but I’m on it.
[Reading] Actually, I’m listening… The Sandman by Neil Gaiman on Audible. And it is as good as the original comic books I read a long time ago. The TV series on Netflix was long awaited, but I have mixed feelings about it…
[Watching] I’m catching up with a lot of stuff from all streaming services. The list is way too long, lol; Arcane is magnificent, the work behind is just splendid. I know I said it already, but there’s no other animation series like it… And if you haven’t already watched Wednesday Addams, you are missing out. The Devil’s Hour on Amazon Prime Video is also worth watching as well as the strange Hot Skull on Netflix.
[Playing] Not much. Some random casual games while waiting for Diablo 4. I play the beta and it’s quite nice but very much incomplete. I abandoned Diablo Immortal as it lost appeal.