For several years my battery-powered off-camera flash ‘system’ has been a mishmash of equipment. I had a matched pair of optically-triggered speedlights with TTL, a fully manual radio-triggered strobe (discontinued), and a fully manual radio-triggered speedlight (discontinued). My light modifiers were another collection of umbrellas and softboxes from various manufacturers assembled with little rhyme or reason. Clearly, I didn’t have much of a ‘system’ and it certainly wasn’t very modern. It was time for something better.

My experiments in web development have led me all over the field of Content Management Systems (CMSs) from WordPress to Squarespace with stops at Kirby, concrete5, SilverStripe, Perch, Statamic, and Grav. Some of those have changed names and/or underpinnings, but clearly, I’ve tried too many.

Consistent with my shifting attention in web development, I’ve had my photo galleries in all sorts of Content Management Systems (CMSs) over the years. One feature most of those systems shared was the complexity of uploading new images or replacing old ones. My desire to simplify both my web development platform and keeping my images current has led me to Squarespace.

The makers of 1911s all fall into three general categories – production , semi-custom , and custom. What is it that differentiates these groups and why should you care? The most significant and obvious difference is the cost.