For the last 3 years, The Wkender has evolved into this wonderful platform for celebrating the millennial experience. We have hosted events, consistently posted features, and shown you the world through our lens. What you may not have had as much insight into is how it was all getting done. The time, effort, sweat, late-night convos, and financial contributions made to produce high-quality output.
The truth is this. None of this is possible without a team. The man behind the camera and co-conspirator behind every outfit for me and the features is Donald Gibson (IG: @_donhansen).
For context, he and I were connected through a mutual friend. At the outset, there was a cautious skepticism between the two of us. I had very little context of his photography capability and he was not completely bought into the value proposition of coming on board as a co-collaborator. What we did know was this… the idea of starting a blog as good and he saw an opportunity to build a portfolio. So we scheduled the first shoot. For those of you who are familiar with ATL, we went to Ponce City Market and were unceremoniously banned from our first location. (For more details hit my Inbox on IG we can chat lol). Needless to say, it was a blast and we learned a lot about each other that day. From that point on I sang his praises and pushed his brand as THE PHOTOGRAPHER for THE WKENDER.
When we started, we planned to shoot every other weekend to make sure that the content was fresh. This was a bust lol. It was tiring and a strain on our personal and professional lives. We very quickly adjusted to backlogging content. Over the years we got
better at strategizing the backlogging and understanding the time, seasonal, and other constraints to account for as we selected outfits and locations. There is a science to this for sure. Things to consider, foliage, seasonality of a fit, places where there are no distinct seasons when to use a studio to get your fits off.
Aside from Don and I, the other core pillar of the team are the editors. The process for constricting a post is comprised of the following steps:
1 – Select and Outfit
2 – Send to Don for insights (generally go/no go, possible tweaks, etc)
3 – Bounce around ideas for a shoot location
4 – Schedule shoot
5 – Complete shoot (Don usually telling me to go research poses lol)
6 – Batch edits surface a week or two before we are ready to post
7 – Review/discuss edits
8 – Draft Post
9 – Send Post to Editor(s) for review and feedback
10 – White glove post (this is the process of re-review to ensure that through the cleaning of all of my grammatical errors – Sorry, Love Yall – the spirit of the text did not change)
11 – Transfer Post into WordPress format for circulation
12 – Publish
13 – Post to Socials
These are just the steps necessary for a post with me. Insert 3-4 additional steps for coordinating features.
Big picture this is a production and it has been a wonderful ride but I kill guess it’s true what they say… All good things must come to an end.
No No No not in that way, The Wkender will survive, but as fate and the normal cycle of life would have it Don needs to take a step away from the Blog. He will be missed for sure!
That said, here’s what you can expect:
-I’ll still be delivering content
-Photo volume and quality will be Impacted (I’m learning a new skill, photo editing lol)
-We will likely not have features for a while
-Not sure if cadence will be impacted, more to come as I’m expecting a new addition to my family
“It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin
-The Wkender
I’m inspired to say the least. Keep going broski! You’re a beast!
Preciate you Brother, time to reinvent!