This month I start a series of month-end summary posts about the goings-on around my site and my photography work. I stole this idea (with permission) from Alexander Kunz who has for a long time published a series of monthly “End Notes” in a similar fashion. It is kind of a random collection of things that you want to summarize for the month. They may be little blurbs that don’t warrant a post of their own or any other significant or insignificant thing. I liked the idea, and I do want to be posting more frequently, and it is good practice to collect your thoughts – even if I am the only one that ever reads it. It may be a bit too far into the weeds for some, but maybe it is a way to force me to commit to something other than my NDVO Newsletter.

Why Leaf Pile?

Well some German guy already uses the name “End Notes” – ha! I told Alex I wanted to copy the idea – but I think the name is pushing it. 🙂

Yes, I did go to a Thesaurus looking for something catchy or creative to call a summary – because “April Summary” is just well – blah. Let me tell ya, the Thesaurus on “summary” is quite the boring list. Digest, recap, and ick …. epitome. “My Monthly Epitome” – how pretentious does that sound! This is a nature photography site, after all, I need something more organic and grounded. So what could be a random collection of things that you …. “rake up” …. in order to do something with? Hmmm.

Coincidentally – I love leaf piles!! Not only are they fun to photograph to make some sense of all the chaos, but they are fun to throw up in the air, roll-around in, run and jump in. They are also ephemeral, which probably is a good thing for the information that may be found in these posts. It may be fun or useful for a while, and then better left to decay. 🙂 I’m ok with that as long as it doesn’t smell, which is certainly a risk with this post.

Oh, and I am also reminded of this video – which is one of my all-time favorites. It also gives you a hint at how organized this endeavor may be, although I simply cannot promise as much pure joy. (And of course, the dog reminds me of our little ball of energy)

So here it goes … let the raking begin…

Website Pile

My website is always a work in progress. I have an insatiable desire to tinker and tweak. I am also my own worst enemy at times as a result, breaking things that used to work. Some notable changes I have made over the last month are;

Divi Theme Builder

I redesigned my entire website using WordPress and Divi years ago, but the header and footers were a bit of custom CSS. With Divi’s Theme Builder tools, I purged a lot of the custom CSS code that would occasionally give me hard-to-fix issues. I have to say, the more I use Divi and it’s relatively new (as of version 4 release) theme builder – the more I love this theme builder for WordPress.

Right now my header and footer are global elements, allowing me to make changes across my entire site quite easily, and adding customization elements when I need them, such as the COVID-19 news link. This simple thing was harder to do with my old header. I also have custom footers depending on where you are on the site, which can be changed with ease visually, not having to get into too much coding.

If you have visited my site and experienced “strange” layouts – I apologize. Sometimes my tweaking goes faster than my site caches can keep up with and things get jumbled.

NextGen Gallery

I changed the layout for my NextGen Galleries. I previously had a “masonry” type layout for my photographs, which looks very clean and modern. But when it comes to large galleries, NGG does not offer pagination for this style. I noted this when I first started using NGG. It is offered on some other layouts, but I didn’t like them as much. So you end up with a very, very long scrolling page for a big gallery. As much as I liked the form and visual impact of masonry, function left much to be desired.

Now, NGG has a “Pro Film” layout that I think is functionally better and allows me to have more text on the page instead of relying on hovers. With a little custom CSS, I was able to tweak it to my liking. It also didn’t involve a lot of “redesign” work.

I now have over 2 years under my belt working with NGG. Picking an online photo gallery is a big commitment. It hasn’t always been smooth, but I am constantly learning its strengths and weaknesses. Overall, I think it is still among the best out there and remain happy with my choice.

Paypal vs. Stripe

I am now back with PayPal for my payment processor. I did a change to Stripe for close to a year. Stripe allows easy integration with Apple Pay, and I was able to overcome some order fulfillment issues I had between NGG and the Paypal Standard API. However, I learned Stripe sucks for keeping track of sales tax collected (at least with the NGG integration). I also had to go through copy/paste and additional email notifications to send customers shipping tracking information.

Recently, NGG improved integration with Paypal by now using “Paypal Checkout” vs. “Paypal Standard” which I was using previously. “Paypal Checkout” is the latest API from Paypal going forward. So now I am back to Paypal. I appreciate the VERY streamlined shipping (and shipping discounts – which I pass on to customers) and the better business reporting tools. No Apple Pay or other such methods, but I can live with that for now.

Photography Pile

My photography in the past month involves more developing of photos in my archives than being out in the field. I have plenty of work to do on that front. The spring weather in Michigan being fairly cold so far, and the ongoing concerns with the pandemic have kept me inside more than usual. The month started with the publication of my piece in Michigan BLUE, which was a treat to finally see in print with the final layout. The online version doesn’t do it much justice IMHO.

Better late than never

I bookmarked a post from friend Howard Grill on some interesting techniques using custom Photoshop brushes. After watching the video tutorial he references, it reminded me of something on my to-do list. Upgrade Photoshop. For the longest time, I have been using Photoshop CC 2015.5 which is Photoshop version 17.something. Everything works – and I didn’t want to mess with it. Especially because many of the plugins I still use are no longer available, or come attached with another software subscription fee if I were to update them. I have software subscription fatigue, likely you do too.

Photoshop 2020 is now version 21.something – I was quite behind. Would it work on my 12-year-old Mac Pro? It turns out, it wasn’t painful at all. As expected, many of my old plugins did not transfer over. Adobe’s site specifically states “Do not just copy from the old plugin folder to the new plugin folder.” Yeah – didn’t listen to that one and did it anyway. The old plugins still work as far as I can tell. Fingers crossed it continues that way.

Jigsaw Puzzle Shortages

Did you know there is a nationwide shortage of jigsaw puzzles? Turns out they have been a favored activity during the pandemic with stay-at-home orders, leading to many retailers selling out of them. I started selling jigsaw puzzles last year, and it’s been a mixed experience. But in the last month or so, I have sold more than I have in the past year! The feedback I’ve received has been great, even though one friend accused me of sending them a “torture device.” I agree with them, they are difficult – but also fun and incredibly relaxing time away from the news and screens. I will have to evaluate continuing to offer them when my initial stock is out.

Earth Day 2020

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
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To take my mind off the more depressing news all around us, I spent part of my Earth Day pulling invasive garlic mustard in my yard, and doing roadside cleanups in my neighborhood. It was therapeutic – mostly. Immediate feel-good, before-after results. But then, I became irritated about all the stuff careless people throw out their car windows! 🙂 No escape it seems, just reinforcement of my misanthropic disposition.

Good Reads/Watch Pile

Here are some interesting articles I’ve come across in the past month that you may also enjoy:

Final Cleanup

I think I will finish raking here. I realized this post could end up much longer than it already is. Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments below – too long, too short, just right, too smelly? I’ll keep them in mind for the leaves of May.