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What is PhotoJoseph.com?

PhotoJoseph.com is me, Joseph Linaschke, aka PhotoJoseph — a photographer, filmmaker, YouTuber, content producer, educator, and a laundry list of other names to go by. PhotoJoseph.com used to be my portfolio site (if you're looking for that, it now lives at PhotoJosephStudios.com), but now it's here. So what is “here”? 

(Here's a video tour of the site… scroll down to read the history)

A site of many names

This website was born in 2010 as ApertureExpert.com, with a primary mission to support Apple's Aperture. I worked at Apple from 2001 to 2009 in Pro Apps, during which time Aperture was created (released in 2005) and grew to be an amazing piece of software for the professional photographer. I was extremely close to the app while at Apple, and after I left in 2009, I launched ApertureExpert.

Unfortunately in 2014, Apple killed Aperture and announced that Apple Photos would be its successor. I immediately pivoted ApertureExpert to ThePhotosExpert, however that was short lived. Photos, it became quickly apparent, was not going to be an Aperture replacement any time soon. So I decided to evolve the site yet again. 

Then five years after its initial launch, the site began the transition to PhotoApps.Expert. The mission was the same as before — to provide both free and paid education and support for the software photographers needed most. At this stage, that software was no longer Aperture, but instead, a slew of apps on computers, phones and tablets. 

PhotoApps.Expert became an educational website for any and all photo apps, on any platform. That included Lightroom, Capture One, Photoshop, Photos, Aperture and any other photography app of note on the desktop. On iOS and Android, that meant any tiny little app designed to make photography better or more fun. And as mobile apps like Adobe Lightroom, Affinity Photo, Snapseed and more emerged as legitimate desktop competitors, the lines blurred between desktop and mobile. It was an exciting time to be involved in the education of Photo Apps!

Fast forward a few more years. The focus on just Photo Apps was becoming stale. I personally wanted to expand my reach in education, and so as not to confuse the charter of PhotoApps.Expert, I started a new channel on YouTube, under the PhotoJoseph name, with a live show called “PhotoJoseph's Photo Moment”. Here I could talk about hardware, technique, theory, or anything else photography related. And not just photo, but video too. Which also opened the world of live streaming (since I was streaming the show live, there was a lot of experience there to share as well). Pretty quickly, my Photo Moment show became everything photo and video related — except software.

It became apparent in early 2018 that the two brands were somewhat at odds with each-other, fighting for my attention and neither getting their due. The two were pulling me in opposite directions, which was frustrating and distracting. Once I finally turned my focus on how to solve the problem, the solution became apparent quite quickly — to merge the brands.

PhotoApps.Expert never enjoyed the brand recognition that ApertureExpert did. ApertureExpert rightfully claimed the #1 spot in the world for Aperture education. Seriously! It was a glorious thing. But PhotoApps.Expert just never got there, and understandably so. The focus was widespread instead of singular; it was too much for one person to handle, and honestly while I tried to bring in additional authors, and had some wonderful experiences in doing that, I just couldn't contribute enough myself, and manage the outside authoring process, to maintain the level which my audience expected and deserved. I ended up focusing almost entirely on my Live Training (the one jewel the site truly had left in her crown), and that became the entirety of the site. But it wasn't enough. 

Meanwhile, my YouTube channel was growing nicely, and PhotoJoseph's Photo Moment was becoming more and more popular. I started posting my Photo Moments shows on PhotoApps.Expert, but that felt more like a way to fill the site with content instead of actually providing something unique to the PhotoApps.Expert name. I knew something had to change. 

Back to the early 2018 realization that the way forward to was to combine the brands. Or more specifically, to own the fact that this site had become about not only software, but software, hardware, and technique. And to accept that the name PhotoJoseph was far stronger than PhotoApps.Expert, and that using PhotoJoseph.com as a portfolio site was wasting value. I realized that visitors were returning not just for the content, but for the delivery, and I needed to own that. While my studio business is doing just fine, the Youtube channel is where I'm having the most fun and seeing the most growth. But a YouTube channel on its own is a hard way to make a living, so combing it with what PhotoApps.Expert was already doing very clearly made the most sense.

That brings us to today

So now, dear reader, this brings is to today. Mid 2018, and the joining of forces is complete (it took several months of back-end prep to prepare for the merger). This site is now PhotoJoseph.com, and can equally share photo software and hardware and technique. Live Training will continue as it has; free-while-live and then paid-member-viewable long-form training on complex photo apps. But not just photo; video apps too. PhotoJoseph's Photo Moment will continue as it is; a YouTube live show talking about hardware, technique, and yes even software. If there's an update on an app I want to make a video of that doesn't merit a full Live Training, then a Photo Moment it shall be. The site is a potpourri of photo and video goodness that will hopefully entertain and educate you enough to come back regularly for more.

Paid membership and Live Training

For now, nothing is changing here. Currently, paid membership allows members unlimited access to past Live Training archives (of which there are many). I want to improve upon the benefits of Membership, but I'm not quite sure what that means yet. Live Training now occurs on a (mostly) regular schedule, at 1pm Pacific every Thursday (full calendar here). As before, these are free to view live, and available to members only afterwards. 

Thank you

I hope you enjoy what I have created, and continue to evolve here. I'm excited about the possibilities of the site and what we can do together. Your support as a Member is invaluable. This is the primary driver of the site, and now can also be a driver of the Photo Moments shows. Feel free to let me know what you think of the evolution, and if you spot any glitches (heck, sometimes I still find old ApertureExpert references in the code!), do let me know. The best way to provide feedback on the site is right here in this forum.

Thank you so very much,
-PhotoJoseph

And this is part two of the test, which you can safely ignore just like the stuff above it. Thanks though for reading this far!