Setting up a print shop and buying a new camera

So I finally managed to set up a print shop on my website. For years, I sold prints through Society6 and RedBubble, but I stopped about six months ago when Society6 began charging fees to publish prints and shifting other costs to the sellers. Since then, I’ve wanted to create my own shop but simply lacked the time.

My site is hosted by Wordpress.com, so I had to figure out how to set up a shop there, but my paying plan didn’t include any Ecommerce capabilities, so I had to upgrade to another paying plan which costs twice as much. After a little effort, I finally listed my first print for sale. But that’s where the troubles start.

Society6 may have been a shitty site, but it did offer some advantages:

- On Society6, people visited with the intention of buying prints.

- The search function on the site ensured that my work was shown to potential buyers who were interested in similar items.

- This resulted in me selling a few prints or other merch each month, which was enough to cover the cost of my gear. That was not bad at all.

Now, things are very different and I might have underestimated selling my own work.

- First of all my website obviously gets far less traffic than Society6, and those who do visit my site are usually not there to buy prints.

- this means I now have to actively drive traffic to my site and convince visitors to make a purchase. This is much more difficult and requires a completely different approach.

So before you think about setting up a print shop, you might want to consider how you’ll actually sell your prints.

I also had to buy a new camera after my X-T2 malfunctioned during the last flight of the Sun ‘n Fun project. While it’s not completely broken, I just can’t trust it for photoflying sessions anymore. After nine years with the XT series, I decided to switch to the XH series.

I bought my first X-T1 in 2015, and it completely changed my approach to photography. Initially, I used my cameras exclusively for aviation photography, but the compact X-T1, with its top dials and small lenses, felt so good that I began using it for travel as well. In 2018, I upgraded to an X-T2, which became my main body, and in 2022, I added an X-T3. While buying an X-T5 would have been the logical next step, I started researching the XH2 and became convinced it would be better for aviation photography.

- The XH2 is a bit larger, feels sturdier

- has a slot for a CFExpress card

- and boasts a bigger buffer.

- Plus, the new film simulations are absolutely gorgeous.

After testing it for a while, I think it might also become my new main travel camera. It’s truly a joy to use.

✈️ Aviation

- Full behind the scenes of the Blue Angels documentary could be better than the actual documentary.

- Murica

- Fire fighters in action as seen from the cockpit.

📷 Photography

- One day I’ll clean up the mess that is my photography gear and do this.

🎬 Movies

- I enjoyed watching the Blue Angels documentary. Other than that I didn’t get to watch a lot of movies lately except for the Fall Guy which wasn’t bad at all.

PR on the mile and how to make a training schedule

About a month and a half ago, I completed my training schedule for the mile and achieved a personal record (PR) of 5:14. While it wasn't the sub-5-minute mile I had hoped for, it was still a significant improvement over my previous record.

Afterward, I took a few weeks off, running just three times a week at an easy pace instead of my usual four. Now, I've started a new training schedule aimed at improving my 5k and 10k times. As I developed this new plan, I focused on the following principles:

- I aim to complete 80% of my weekly mileage at a slow pace.

- I limit higher tempo running to no more than 20% of each run.

- I divide my weekly mileage more or less evenly across four runs, ensuring that no single run exceeds 25-30% of the total weekly mileage.

- I gradually increase my total mileage, adding extra distance approximatly every four weeks. Starting with a higher mileage makes this easy. I only add about 5km at once.

- Easy runs should really be easy, so I let my heart rate guide me, not a particular pace.

- I do some 15 second strides during every easy run just to get the motion in and get the heart rate up.

- Depending on the training phase of the schedule I try to have 2 easy runs, a run with more high intensity repetitions and intervals and a run at marathon pace or a similar effort.

- High intensity repetitions are kept to 5-10% of total weekly mileage. Preferably to the 5% side to prevent injuries.

- The slower, but stil fast paced intervals are closer to the 10%. But again I’m really counting those km’s to be sure I don’t overdo it.

- In this specific schedule, I limit my peak weekly mileage to about 45km because I find this to be the mileage that tires me to the point my progress is stopping. I hope I feel better this time around as I’m thinking about doing a half marathon early next year and I would like to do that with some extra mileage in that training schedule.

These ‘rules’ are based of what I read in several books about running. To decide the pace I focus on the paces that are given in ‘Daniel’s Running Formula’. I also use the training schedules that are given in this book, but I have to remake them for my lower weekly mileage as he is starting at roughly 60km a week…

Now it’s time to get into the second phase of training and get some speed work done.