Other projects
Photography is my profession. But anyone who knows me a little knows I find it hard to sit still. Before I became a photographer I was COO, senior SEO consultant and co-owner of Yoast, the company behind the well-known SEO plugin for WordPress. There I learned everything about websites, being found online and building products people actually get something out of. Alongside that I help entrepreneurs with websites and internet advice as a freelancer through Studio Foppe.
Those two worlds, photography and the internet, come together more and more often. Certainly now that AI makes so much possible. Where building a tool used to take me weeks, something that simply works can now be online in a few days. That opens doors. For photographers too. Ideas that sat on the shelf for years because building them took too much time, I can now actually make. And so I do.
On this page you will find the projects that came out of that. Three very different sites with one thing in common: I built them because I missed them myself.
Fotoapps.nl
As a photographer you do more arithmetic than you would think. What is my depth of field at this aperture? What shutter speed do I need with an ND filter? What should I actually charge for a shoot? There were separate apps and complicated websites for all those questions, but never one place where it all came together.
So I built Fotoapps.nl. A collection of dozens of tools for photographers: calculators for exposure and depth of field, planners for the golden hour, checklists for shoots and business tools such as a price calculator and a model release generator. It all works in your browser. Nothing to download, nothing to install. Most of the tools are free; for the more extensive ones there is a small subscription.
I use the tools myself during shoots and workshops. That is the best quality control there is: if something does not work well in practice, I change it.
Fotografie Presets
Editing is a stumbling block for many photographers. You have made beautiful photos, but in Lightroom you do not know where to start. Sound familiar? That is what I made Fotografie Presets for: ready-made editing styles for Lightroom and Capture One.
There are hundreds by now, divided into packs each with their own feel. From cinematic colour to documentary black and white, from street photography to portraits. The idea behind it is simple: you choose a feel, not a slider. I made and tested every preset on real shoots, not on perfect stock photos. So you know it works on your photos too, with your light and your conditions.
Want to try first? There is a free pack on the site, so you can find out without any risk whether my style suits your work.
In Wijchen
The third project is closer to home. Literally. I live in Wijchen and noticed there was no good place where everything about our municipality came together. What is on this weekend? Which businesses are in the town? What is happening in the seven villages?
In Wijchen is the answer to those questions. A business directory, events calendar and news overview for the municipality of Wijchen, made by people from Wijchen. Businesses can list themselves for free, residents can submit events, stories and photos. That way the site grows a little every week, along with the town.
For me everything comes together here: my affection for Wijchen, my background in building websites and my photography. Because yes, there are photos on it too.
Why I do this
These projects are not a distraction from my photography, they are part of it. Everything I learned at Yoast and with Studio Foppe about websites and being found online now goes into tools that photographers (and people in Wijchen) get something out of. And thanks to AI I can build those ideas faster than ever. I see it as an extension of what I do with my workshops and with PAUSE: sharing knowledge and helping people further.
It is also my way of treating AI as something to embrace rather than something to fear, and seeing what it can bring me.
Curious about one of these projects, or do you have a question or a good idea? Email me at mail@michielheijmans.com. I am happy to think along.