I have been an ardent reader of Lula since around 2004 and have found it to be an absolutely comprehensive resource for my purposes. I have been photographing since childhood and it has always been a serious hobby. I am now retired. (same age as Michael would have been) and photograph semi professionally and do my own printing - HPZ3100 and Epson. Lula has been an indispensable resource and support for my journey from film to digital. I have purchased many of the Videos and tutorials which were all excellently done and useful. This is my first post to the forum and probably will be my last also. I am posting because the turmoil of the past few weeks is of concern.
When Lula became a subscription site I immediately became a subscriber and continue to be one. When Kevin joined Michael made a full introduction and it was clear who he was and what his role was. Chris was always there and provided much appreciated support at all times. I thought Kevin has done an excellent job in following in some very large feet and whilst obviously a different person to Michael certainly carried Lula forward in a very nice, very enthusiastic and interesting way and has incredible experience and knowledge, which he willingly shared, and a solid track record.
At the very least, as a subscriber and customer I consider myself somewhat of a stakeholder, I felt that I was always well informed as to the direction and future of Lula. Not that we have any say in the matter but nevertheless the customer is the reason for Lula's existence as I presume it is a for profit business. (please correct me if I am wrong).
The sudden, completely out of the blue, quite vague announcement of a coup d'état at the top was startling in its unexpectedness and obfuscation. In fact the web site still shows, on some pages, Kevin as the CEO.
I have been in corporate circles all of my working life and have never seen such a botch up of regime change as this one, except perhaps in some third world backwater, and then it is usually an assassination. Regime change at the top happens and sometimes it is quite extreme, as in this case. "The king is dead, long live the king!" comes to mind. But such an amateurish transition takes the prize.
As a customer I buy your product. If I don't like it I simply buy a different one. As we know the world is full of similar web sites. Most free and many have excellent content, so the choices are abundant.
Regardless of what has transpired and is ongoing to provoke these changes both Kevin and Chris deserved much larger recognition for their work than has happened here. Also Josh and partner have never been introduced and, as already mentioned, one has no idea that Michael even had a son, let alone that he does photography. One has to dig around on the web to find out a little more.
One does probably not have to be a photographer to run such a site as Lula, but one then needs to be an excellent editor and publisher.
Lula is a very large site with much excellent content. It would be a great shame to see it fold and the content lost. Today anyone selling something needs to be in tune with ones customers, especially ethically and morally as users identify with and are identified and judged by the products they use and where they shop. This changeover has left a very bad taste in my mouth and the owners of Lula have lost a great deal of my respect. I do however find the new articles quite interesting, some somewhat long winded and esoteric though. Lets see how it goes.
Thanks Kevin and Chris for all the work you have done and I wish you both much success and the very best.
