BTW

For some reason, posts made from this computer are a little wonky. That all looked fine in the composition tab. Anyway, I'll try to fix it later, but I'll not worry about it now, since it's a minor annoyance. Just wanted to let y'all know I'm not a complete design boob.

Web designing woes

Spent an hour or two trying to add the Wordpress thingermajinger to a site ... gonna be a little more difficult than initially thought, so I'm going to bed, think on it tomorrow.

Other than that ... I drove to Tuscaloosa, spent the day, drove back, and they used three photos. Thus is the job. Lovin' it ... some days more than others.

Tired, bed, gone, zzzzz ...

Damn "Snap Happy"

I'm hating on Snap Happy at the moment. Crappy galleries (apparently, any and all photos uploaded have to be smaller than 120 kb, though it screws up if it's anything over 80 ... and yes, kilobytes ...) that don't work worth a damn (screwing up photos, inserting seemingly random photos, not showing photos) ... just ... why? Why?! I thought I took some nice photos, and they've pretty much gone to waste, it seems. I'm willing to believe that it works for some people, just not me, but I still have to use it because the Calhoun Times insists upon it.

Things learnt

[I'm going to make a concerted effort to post more often in here. I've been slack about it for the past couple of months because, all at once, I've been busy and uninterested in the rest of the world. Shame on me, true, true, and this is part of my effort to remedy that.]

Over the weekend of the Southern Short Course in Charlotte, I learned quite a bit from listening to people and looking over their work. Unfortunately, I only got a little bit written down, which is what I'm going to share here. So, here we go ...

From Jeff Widener:

• Build a photo library. Have a collection of inspiration on your bookshelf. Anytime you feel you're lacking in ideas, go look through a couple books of someone else's work. It's all been done already anyway.
• Get inspiration from old magazines. Find old stories that need to be updated.
• Be persistent with other people, but don't piss people off.
• Have fun with your art -- it's not just a career, it's a good time.
• If there are personal things that get in the way of making good photos and taking the pictures you want to take, deal with it. It's a major block.
• "Make love to your craft."
• Find humor in the situation. It'll make things fun, and enjoyment increases productivity.

From Shawn Rocco, regarding portfolios:

• Every photo in your portfolio should be a visual surprise, moving the viewer the want to see the next photo.
• A photo story should have something between 6 and 12 photos -- succinctness is key.
• Leave out photos that detract from the portfolio as a whole. There shouldn't be any photo in the set that just leaves a viewer with an "Eh, okay, whatever ..." feeling.
• Wide-angle vertical shots are not very attractive. Maybe kinda avoid them.

From Ross Taylor:

• Why the hell are you there? Know why you're shooting, and let your subjects know why. If they ask, have a good answer ready for them.
• Avoid acid-washed jeans. Way uncool, dude.
• Draw out a storyline, under which should be two things: Themes and Visual Icons. Themes are the parts of the story that should be told, like love, hate, fatigue, worry and other such mostly abstract ideas. Visual Icons are the way you tell an audience about those emotions and thoughts through your photography. List both.

From various people who slip my mind ...:

• Project boxes: cardboard boxes with a certain title, into which materials for long stories or projects are placed. Probably more useful for long-term projects.
• When getting a Web site, make the interface intuitive, make sure it loads quick, always include your phone number instead of just an email, and respect the photography more than the Web design. Also, avoid designed named after platypuses.
• Don't blow stuff off -- go anyway. No matter how stupid it may seem.
• Get the important stuff: tight, medium, overall, opener, closer, emotional, et al. No matter what you're shooting.
• Have a large visual vocabulary.
• It's not just skill, it's passion.
• Keep your photos clean.
• Chaos is opportunity. Get in the midst of it.

Sure, that's just a little sample of what was digested, but hey, time is money, and I'm broke. ... which means I need to do other things. Ciao.

Mwuhahahaha

I feel ... successful. I was trying to figure out how to make GoLive update my site despite the fact that it was made with Dreamweaver. Also, I was unsure as to whether or not the server would connect from here. But it did. Eeeexcellent. Now I can sleep in a little tomorrow morning. Very nice.

By the way, if I haven't dropped a line to my site, here you go: Jake Ford Daniels.

Currently under construction.

Flash stuff

This is coool.

A click-less interface, isn't that nifty? They've got some good ideas, and reasonable ways to carry them out. My admiration.