Once again I’m in the process of rebuilding websites, or at least trying out an alternative to my current Squarespace website. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my Squarespace site except that it costs me more to maintain it than the value I receive from it and there are now alternatives that do 80% – 90% of what my current site does for free or at no additional cost.

All I’m really looking for in a website is a place to post my favorite images that looks “professional” – although I’m not a professional – that I can point friends and family to when they ask to see more of my photography. I’m not selling images and don’t need e-commerce capabilities nor do I need to accommodate huge web traffic, so $200 per year seems like a bit much to spend on something I can get for free.

When I recently got around to reviewing Adobe Creative Cloud’s Portfolio service I realized that it would satisfy my online presence requirements and its cost was already included in my $10 per month Lightroom/Photoshop subscription costs. The portfolio site together with this blog site replicate most of my Squarespace site’s functionality with the exception of an online slide show function. Integration with my Lightroom library is a plus and I suspect that Adobe will improve functionality in the future making this an even better value. Although Adobe doesn’t include a blogging platform with their portfolio, this free WordPress site will probably serve my limited needs (alas, poor reader, at the cost of you having to see some adverts).

At the moment I’m in the process of transitioning to the new setup and my existing site is paid for through June so I have time to evaluate if this will work for me. In the meantime, my aeolist.net domain is still pointed to the existing site while charlesbrown.photography points to the new site. At some point in the next five months I’ll flip it over if I decide to head in this new direction.