13-10-25 - Site Spotlight Weekly

This week hasn't been very good in terms of productivity. I am slowly getting back into work mode though. 

All changes and updates listed here are from Monday 13th October 2025 - Sunday 19th October 2025!

Monday 13th October

Slow Day and creating new Thumbnails:

1.) Today has been a slow day again. My package containing my mount adapter has still not been dispatched and so I am unable to scan or edit any of my photos. The package hasn’t even arrived at Royal Mail TO be dispatched. 

I am getting more and more frustrated with this, considering I paid for Express Delivery and I made my order on the 8th. If it does not turn up tomorrow then I will message the seller and demand an explanation. I cannot cancel my delivery until the 15th. 

2.) Considering that I cannot edit any images or scan anything I have created more thumbnails to replace my old ones in Photoshop. 

Tuesday 14th October

Slow Day and creating new Thumbnails:

1.) This is getting ridiculous now. My package has still not been dispatched and this is there last day that it is due to arrive. Even if it arrives at Royal Mail later on today, I doubt very much that it will be delivered at any time today. 

I have messaged the seller yet I have heard no reply from them. If I do not get a reply and if it does not arrive by the end of today (which it won’t) then I will contact eBay and demand to cancel my order. 

2.) I've started creating more thumbnails to replace the old ones on my site again. 

3.) My package has finally been dropped off at the Royal Mail Postal Office yet I am unsure of when it will be developed because there is no informationn available as of yet. This still does not change the fact that I paid for express delivery and so it should have been delivered today at the latest. Very bad service and I will be avoiding that seller in the future. 

4.) Although I have not finished, I  have uploaded the new thumbnails from Roll 57 - Roll 37. I still have more to do but I wanted to see the new layout. This may not be the final design but I like it at the moment. It’s not the best new design but I think it is at least better than the old one. 

below is the old design. As you can see it looks quite bland. I have a solid colour that resembles the colour on the film packaging with text to signify What film stock, what format and what camera I shot it on.

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When you hover over a specific gallery some more text comes up. The text would be the exact same except with some minor differences. The camera is scrapped to make way for what Roll it is. In this context AgfaPhoto Color 400 was my 57th Roll that I shot since starting film photography.

Depending on whether  I shot at a different ISO, I would also include that in the hover text. As you can see from the image to the right, Kodak Portra 800 has additional text stating what ISO I shot the film at. In this case it was ISO 640 and so I stated that there.

There are several problems with this design. The first is that the roll number is not shown baked into the solid text. You only see the additional text when hovering over the thumbnail. The problem with this is you cannot hover on a smartphone because there is no cursor to hover with so you do not see the additional text at all while on a mobile device.

Another problem is that there is too much unnecessary text to begin with. You find out the information from the normal title and the hover title when you click on the page anyway.

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The new design below, although not the greatest, is something I can get behind using for the moment. It is at least  better than the solid colour. Now I can showcase a photo before people click on the gallery. It also has the Roll Number baked in to the actual thumbnail itself instead of behind some hidden text. I am also scrapping the additional text stating the difference in ISO if I shot it differently.

The only problem is that even with the image faded, the black tex can still be hard to see on some of them but I am happy with how these look at the moment. I haven’t removed the hidden text as of yet but when I get all thumbnails created and uploaded then I shall do so then.

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I have also updated the pages in the “By Camera” section accordingly with the new thumbnails. This is obviously not finished until I get more thumbnails completed but it shouldn’t take too long. Maybe it will be done in a week, or in two weeks time. 

I would preferably like to get them all done by Thursday evening at the latest but i’m not sure if that will happen or not. 

Wednesday 15th October 2025

Contacting eBay and more creations of thumbnails:

1.) Although my package arrived at Royal Mail before 4pm yesterday, I haven’t been updated. I doubt every much that it will be here today but I hope it will because I really need to get back into my workflow again. 

I contacted eBay today and notified them that my package is not here. Hopefully I get my postage refunded to me because if I paid for express delivery then that is what I expect. 

2.) While waiting for my package I was going to read some comic books but I think I need to get started on some more thumbnails instead. 

Thursday 16th October 2025

Slow Day and creating new Thumbnails:

1.) I woke up this morning snd checked Royal Mail. My package is due to be delivered… tomorrow. I am very annoyed because of this. It isn’t even a guarantee that it will be delivered tomorrow. It says anytime between 12pm and 3pm. 

I fear that if it does arrive tomorrow, it will probably be late like most packages I order. Then by the time I put my monitor up and rearrange my office a bit, it will be too late to do my photos and so I won’t be able to do them until Saturday. If it doesn’t arrive until Saturday then it’s the same but I won’t be able to do my photos until Sunday.

I might be out on Saturday as well and so I will be very behind on what I need to do. If I do go out on Saturday then it will be quite quick because all I need to do is pick up some film from the lab. 

2.) I have been creating some more thumbnails. Now I don’t have many left now to create which is good. I was hoping to get them all done by today. I’m not sure if that is possible but I will try. I at least want to get the all done by the end of the week. My original time frame was either the end of today or in 1 to 2 weeks time however I think I will be able to get them done by the end of this week. At least that’s what I am hoping anyway. 

3.) I had some more thoughts on developing my film and starting my business. I have started writing a plan with what I hope to achieve, what equipment I need, how much it costs and a time line of what I will work on first and then what comes after that, then after that etc. I am writing how the equipment will benefit me and what experience it will give me. I am splitting up the one time payments and the recurring payments. I will share below a brief summary of what I have written so far; 

What I will offer

Physical Items:

1.) Postcards with my work on. (This will be images from the surrounding areas)

2.) Prints of my work

3.) Custom instax square photo prints (potentially. I think this could be a cool idea potentially) 

4.) Film such as Polaroid and Instax,  35mm and 120 Medium Format film of various different stocks such as Kodak, Ilford, Lomography etc 

5.) Reusable disposable cameras with film inside

 Services:

1.) Photo printing service (This could be after development and scanning I could offer some prints for people

2.) Black and white, colour and slide film developing service

3.) Scanning service

What I will need

Equipment along with prices. (One time purchases. Once I have this I do not need to purchase it again.):

1.)   Photo printer (Cannon PIXMA Pro 200 is the one I have landed on. Although there are printers such as the Image PROGRAF 1000, I cannot justify the cost as of right now. The ink is also incredibly expensive because it uses Pigment ink unlike the PIXMA Pro 200 that use dye ink. Pigment ink is very good though, it looks better than dye ink and it lasts longer however for now, I can use Dye ink.) - £460

2.)   Fujifilm instax square smartphone photo printer (Only if I want to sell custom instax photos) - £125 

3.)   Valoi easy 35 scanning kit (A step up from my Epson Scanner in both quality and speed) - £199 

4.)   60mm f/2.8 Macro II Digital macro lens by 7Artisans (This is a good lens of the price it is listed. This will give me the quality I need) - £209 

5.)   Bulk loader (for loading my own black and white film. It makes film both cheaper and gives me leeway for practicing development) - £90

6.)   Sou vide (for managing temperature of chemicals. It is necessary for colour film development and some B&W films) - £50 - £150  

7.)   Ago film processor (Will work hand in hand with the bulk loader. This will save time, money and chemicals. Will allow me to develop more film faster and more often if paired with a bulk loader. Also limits mistakes made through manual development) - £369 

8.)   Darkroom changing bag (a necessary purchase for developing film without a physical darkroom. Also needed for bulk loading) - £25 

9.)   Measuring jugs and mixing equipment, thermometer etc (this is obviously needed for developemnt – around £20 or more 

Recurring payments:

1.)   A second domain name (Not a purchase for my website however I will need a newer shorter domain name when I have my email. @charlesdaviesphotography is too long of a domain) – Around £25 a per year 

2.)   A domain email address (works hand in hand with the domain name. This will make me more professional having a custom @ name as an email. Instead off @gmail.com I could have something like @charlesdavies or @daviesphoto or something similar) - £5.90 - £18.40 per month 

3.)   Business cards (although you can find cheaper ones and more expensive ones, you pay more for quality. I will want my own business cards for obvious reasons. I cannot create business cards until I have the custom email address) – Roughly £30 for a pack of 100 business cards 

4.)   Black and white, colour and slide film developing chemicals to develop - the prices vary depending on quality of chemicals, type of chemicals weather powder of liquid and will change depending on whether its B&W, C-41 or E-6 processing. 

5.)   Instax square film (For if I do the custom instax square prints and sell instax film in my shop) - £15 for pack of 20 

6.)   Photo printing paper for the printer (as I said, price will vary depending on type of paper, quality of paper, thickness etc) - the price depends which paper you get

7.)   Ink for the printer (Dye Ink. I mentioned above that dye ink is cheaper and this is a good price I think for learning how to print) - £18.49 per cartridge or £118 for full set of ink.

8.)   Reusable disposable cameras to sell (I think these are really cool and better for the environment. I could sell these and people could come to me for development - £25 

9.)   Film to sell – (depends on what film I sell) 

10.)   100ft reel of film to bulk load (I need this for the bulk loader. I could sell bulk loaded rolls for a cheaper price and I could shoot it myself. This would not only make film cheaper for me but it would also allow me to develop more granting me more experience) - £44 - £199 

11.)    Empty 35mm cannisters (I will need these for bulk loading. I can re-use old canisters, ask the local lab to give me some used ones or purchase some new ones online- £0 – £10 

The plan

January – April

I will use the bulk loader. This allows me to load my own film into empty 35mm film canisters. A standard 30.5m (100ft) roll of film can cost around £44.00 - £199.00. This gives me 18-20 rolls of film with 36 images on each roll. It saves me money in the long run.  

I can the bulk loader from January – April to load my own film but only loading 12 images onto each cartridge. Then with those 12 images I can learn to load it into the ago film processor and develop it without fear of wasting loads of money on a standard roll of 24 or 36 images. I can use the sou vide and the thermometers to get the chemicals up to temperature and then pour the chemicals into the ago processor. 

The ago processor will allow for automatic developing. It has a sensor inside that constantly monitors temperature. If you are a few degrees off then it will adjust it’s process accordingly by adding an extra minute or adjusting it for less time, different mixing etc. 

The processor has custom profiles for different films and I can also create your own. The automation is very good. It will save time and limit mistakes. It also allows for less chemicals used and multiple rolls developing at one time. Which saves money on chemicals making the chemicals that are already inexpensive even less expensive. The free time and money can be used for other purposes.

I will aim to develop B&W every day or every couple of days until April. By that time I should be comfortable with black and white developing enough to where I don’t make any mistakes. 

May – August

Then I will do the same but for colour film. You cannot bulk load colour film but I can get the cheapest colour film to try developing with. Colour film uses bleach and so the ago processor will also help to prevent harmful and dangerous mistakes. Colour film is different to develop than B&W and Silde Film and so the processor will help a lot. 

September – December

This is when I will learn slide film developing which is the hardest of the three. If I have experience with developing this then great but if not then I can still advertise my services for colour and black and white

December

This is when I will do the Colyton christmas market. By this point I should be comfortable with developing and scanning. For scanning I can offer my services after developing because I will have experience with the valoi easy 35 scanning kit along with printing because I will have experience in printing.

The scanning kit is just something you put your digital camera through with a macro lens attached and you can camera scan your film. It is better than the scanner I have at the moment and it is almost as good as the professional drum scanners that labs will use. Other labs in the area may give you quick scans although they never made me happy with the results. Drum scanners are also expensive around  so camera scanning would be a good option. It will look professional and of high quality. It will be faster as well. The time it takes to scan a roll of film now takes me about an hour or two, this will take about 10 minutes. 

So for the Christmas market I will offer developing and scanning. I will also sell reusable disposable camera. You can find them for about £25 and they come loaded with film. For the Christmas market, your first roll of film is developed for free. I will also sell film but individually because I want to own a film shop. I can sell my photos as postcards and I can sell my photos as normal prints. If I can get the equipment even before January then I will have even more experience.

For now, I can stick to the Epson scanner and not worry about the processor. I can save up while I manually develop and scan with the epson but the sooner I get the equipment the better. For now I can get behind just using a bulk loader. Hopefully I get to start this plan soon

4.) I’ve updated some pages with the new thumbnails. Although not completed, I should be able to finish by the end of this week. I have around 10 left to create, upload and change. 

I missed the time frame of completing that task today but that was to be expected to be honest because there were quite a few to go through and do. 

Friday 17th October

Finally able to get back into work mode:

1.) i’ve been creating new thumbnails for my website again and I am getting closer to completion. 

2.) My package containing the vesa adapter finally came! The person who created it definitely didn’t make things easy and so it took me a while to set it up. My monitor is now finally attached and it’s floating in the air. This will save a lot of space on my desk. I’ve also attached a laptop stand and so now I have my MacBook in the air. 

Because this is all up now I have finally started scanning my films in. This will probably take a while and I have more to pick up tomorrow. 

3.) I have finally created all of the thumbnails (kind of). I have updated the necessary pages with the new thumbnails. This is pretty much completed. The only ones left to update and create is the thumbnail in the “Film Swaps” page and the thumbnails in the Polaroid specific pages. I am unsure on if I will update the Polaroid thumbnails or if I should leave it the way it is. 

Saturday 18th October

Out all day and scanning films:

1.) I was out today. I was only meant to be out a little while however because I was catching the bus, my day out was longer than I expected. I collected a roll of film (Ilford HP5 Plus 400) from the lab. 

2.) Once I got home, I started scanning my films in again. 

Sunday 19th October 2025

Busy day at home:

1.) Today i’ve been scanning in my films again and also editing some images. I should hopefully get this done by next week as there are no more films left to scan. All I need to do is edit them and then upload them. I will work more on them tomorrow.