Hello good people.

I thought I would give a bit of an update on what’s going on with me and my photography. Think the most blaring thing you might have noticed is that the website has totally changed from earlier. And maybe that I’ve also gone and got myself a new domain to reflect this change. For the last few years now I used a hodge podge setup. All in all was just a poor work around my Photoshelter site, with my blog almost just glued on with sticky tape. This needed to change. I will elaborate on it below. 

Beside the website, there is also the big mess that’s called my archive. I’ve been making some progress on it, but there are also miles to go before I can say I’m pleased. Trying to find, locate and cross my fingers that most of it is still on my old harddrives. On top of that there’s a big right mess that was my old metadata setup. 

Also a bunch of my gear have gotten some updates. Most notably my computer setup. Last summer I upgraded my old desktop to get a more creator focused desktop. The old desktop that was built to both be an all in one PC. More on this later.

And then there is maybe the biggest part in my life beside my photography, my RV “Knotten”. How it’s been a year with ups and downs. Things that need to be fixed and upgraded as well as getting used to mainly living a vanlife lifestyle. To put it short for now, it has been for the most part a positive experience.

The Website – toffaberg.com

When I first started up again with landscapes I knew I needed to tackle the mess it was. The website was mainly focused on what was Studio Toffa Photography. First of all, showing my concert photography work with bits and pieces of my old landscape work hidden behind a bunch of galleries. That’s not to speak of what the blog was. Through the years I’ve had a bunch of platforms that have housed it. Some of it started out on Blogger, then moved to Zenfolio.

After that it ended up on wordpress.com which I think many of you have seen. For most of the time during my time shooting concerts Facebook was the main channel. So in the fall of 2021 I was left with a hot mess of different outputs.

The changes

Right off the bat I knew I needed to do some cleaning up. My idea was to design my website around my Photoshelter archive. First tried to use a tumblr blog (click here if you want to check it) in a way to get a clean start. The idea was that since I could integrate that with my Photoshelter website I would try that. I quickly noticed that tumblr was not my platform. So I reverted back to using my wordpress.com blog. There were too many other things that needed to be upgraded and updated with my gear and Knotten. Doing a wordpress site was not in the cards at that time. Neither economical nor the time to take on the task. But I’ve seen that I can’t live just on Instagram since that would make a slave of the algorithm. So for 2023 I decided that needed to change.

So onward from now you will find all that is related to my photography located here. Here is where you can contact me if you like to buy a print or get an image licence. Where you will find answers to my FAQ, and most importantly curated galleries of my images.

Not all is in place of writing this post, but during the year more and more will come. 

The Archive

I have mentioned earlier about the archive and my old Lightroom catalogue. How the catalogue crashed in 2016, and my close call with an almost fatal loss of half of my archive images. Well, for that last year I’ve been working on getting the archive together and trying to find back-up solutions that will work for me. There has also been the work of getting my IPTC (meta data) up to speed. A tedious process that takes time. This work will continue this year as well. The more this becomes complete, the more I can show you images that have been hiding there. 

Digital Darkroom

As mentioned above, I’ve been updating my “digital darkroom” last year with almost changing out all of the components of the old. That be monitors, computer, wacom tablet and laptop. I’ve not changed any of the software that I employed in the years prior. My main software is still the superb Capture One for RAW conversion and editing, Photoshop and NIK software plug-ins for the heavy lifting, and Photo Mechanic for easy sorting and IPTC implementation. I mentioned that earlier I built my editing PC from a bunch of hodge podge elements without an overall thought about it, but now I’ve gone with a ASUS focused build. The monitors and the motherboard is ASUS ProArt, Laptop is ASUS Zenbook all with AMD processors. 

Also I’ve tried to strive for making both my setup at home and in Knotten remain mostly the same. The reason for this is to seamlessly work in both stations the same. For storage I rely on LaCie Rugged harddrives.

Vanlife

This part has been the biggest change in my life. It has had a tremendous effect on my mental health for the better. My struggles with depression have lessened, and it has also helped bigtime on my feeling of isolation. Never really thought that I would end up living mostly fulltime in my camper like I have for the last year. To have the ability to travel to a location on a whim is so liberating. Not to speak of the feeling of having your home with you on your back like a snail is just beyond what I imagined. There is still a need to plan where to travel to shoot like before, but in far more free form. Something I experienced when I went on my fall trip to Jotunheimen National Park and Rondane National Park last year. 

Setups and upgrades

Last year was also filled with setbacks that I didn’t see in the beginning, but they got sorted out. Details I’ve elaborated on in an earlier post you find here. Upgraded my leisure battery to a lithium battery which I must say was the biggest change. No more the need to dread if my power is gonna run out during the night. If I forget to turn off the bathroom light like earlier. Also not needing to drive to charge my battery that often is also a great bonus. Especially with the high diesel prices that we had last summer. 

Beside upgrading the leisure battery, I’ve also added a petrol generator which lets me charge my battery almost anywhere without the need to hook up to a landline. This has also let me park up anywhere and have power to work all day without thinking about if I have enough power for the night on my Ecoflow power station. And talking about the Ecoflow power station. This device has been the heart of my camper. So versatile and powerful that I can charge my laptop and drive my editing screen while on the road without having to install an extra converter in my camper.

The other part of the electrical setup that I’ve upgraded is to get a new battery charger for my leisure battery as the built-in charger was not doing a good job. I’m now able to fully charge my leisure battery and the Ecoflow power station in one hour. So all I need if I’m low on power, going to a park-up where I can’t run my generator, I just need to make a short stop along the way to top things up.  

What’s left

There are still some upgrades I’ve not got around to make, like getting a Maxx Airfan to help with circulation in the camper when I’m cooking or when the weather is hot. There’s also solar panels on the roof to aid the stock panels for the Ecoflow. Beside that I am also looking into getting Knotten more suited for winter travel next year by getting snow chains, a shovel and other equipment to help with snow and ice.

What now…

My plan forward now is to get out there again on the road as quick as the road clear up from snow and ice. First of all there are a bunch of locations in Setesdal that I want to explore more as well as more locations around Rjukan, Tessungdalen and Imingfjell. Have also been thinking of going twice to Jotunheimen this year. One trip in the spring and one in the fall. I will also work parallel with getting my print shop up and running. First off will most likely be my regular print editions as these will need less hands on. 

Along with this I’m also renovating my apartment so that will also take up some time during this year as well. 

If I have the energy and strength left after this I hope I can start working on my plans for my YouTube channel. More on that will come as it comes together.