THIS BLOG HAS MOVED

To keep things as simple as possible I've relocated my blog to my web site. You should be redirected momentarily. If not...

CLICK HERE

Web Site Redo: SquareSpace

Not being a web designer, and not being able to pay for a good web designer, I'm forced to take things into my own hands. As I've mentioned before, the old web site was pretty boring and I needed to create something where I didn't need to write a lot of code.

SquareSpace was the answer. They have several templates to choose from and you can alter them in a number of ways. You can create pages, links, picture galleries, etc and you don't have to write a bit of code. This made it almost too easy.

And NO FLASH! Flash may have been cool a few years ago, but now it just gets on my nerves. Many, many photographers use flash on their web sites, but personally I think all that pizazz is unnecessary. If your content is good, then it's good. I just want a simple, easy to navigate site....see my work and how to contact me. I'm surprised so many people still use flash in the age of mobile media. For now, you can't view flash on an iPhone.

You also won't find any music playing. Again, maybe it was a cool feature several years ago, but nothing irritates me more than being forced to listen to music someone else has deemed "appropriate" for the content. If I can't find the "off" button in 3 seconds or less, I'm outta there.

The other cool thing about the new web site is I'll be able to move this blog over there. It will be great to have everything in one place. But for now, I'm not 100% happy with how the "new" blog is looking so I'll temporarily be blogging in both locations.

Admittedly, my updated site could use a little more something, but I'm no designer and will most likely be tweaking things as I learn how. But for now, it's done and it's definitely an improvement over what I had before.

here it is

Mudfest

As I said previously, we had just finished 10 straight days of rain, so the trails at In Sync Exotics were pretty muddy. It was hard to avoid at times, and I felt really bad for the girl wearing her pretty new sneakers who was trying so hard not to get mud on them.



Everyone headed back to the visitor center at the end of the tour.

Girl Scout Outing

More from the outing with my daughter's Junior Girl Scout troop. These were both taken near the end of the tour. The girls were tired, hot, and somewhat muddy (we had just finished 10 straight days of rain).

There were some very shady areas and it probably would have helped to use a flash when taking pics of the girls, but I didn't want to take it out in the mud and I was afraid that a flash that big might spook some of the cats. One tiger named Apollo gave me a big roar when I approached his cage holding the camera.

The pic below is my daughter, the same person on the right in the pic above. It seemed like when one kid crossed their arms, they all did.

In-Sync Exotics

Recently I got to accompany my daughters Girl Scout troop to In-Sync Exotics, an exotic wildlife rehabilitation facility. Mostly big cats, the animals are kept in cages until rehabilitated and adopted by qualified owners (zoo's, etc. ) Many of the animals came from private owners and were abused, so the facility has some very strict policies regarding how the animals are viewed and treated.

Our tour guide took one look at my camera and requested that I sign a waiver stating I wouldn't try to sell any pictures I took of the animals. I hadn't planned on it, but most of the animals were behind two chain link fences which made getting a good shot next to impossible. I had to do a lot of manual focusing to get anything.

Kayla Sets Sail

Kayla has been modeling for me since she was 15. Whenever I needed to practice or needed to update my portfolio, she always volunteered to help me out. She also helped me out on jobs when I needed an extra person. AND she was my kids babysitter.

Well, Kayla is all grown up now and leaves for her new life with the Navy starting today. She signed up for 5 years which is why I took her out on a marathon photo shoot a few weeks ago. I told her I needed at least 5 years worth of pictures. I think I got it, too.

We all wish her luck!

Web Site Redo: PhotoFrame

I am fully aware that my web site ain't so hot.

It looks the way it does because at the time I couldn't afford to hire someone to build it for me, so I built it myself. The only program I'm familiar with for web site building is Microsoft FrontPage. I built it completely using that program and used the Lightroom web function for the picture galleries.

It was boring and dated when I first put it up 2 years ago, but now it REALLY looks boring and dated. This week I've implemented a plan to redo, refurbish and rebuild.

Step one is choosing the appropriate pictures. I'll use several that I already have up plus a whole bunch of new ones. One thing I've been experimenting with is software called PhotoFrame that adds artistic frames to your images. Above is one example.

Still learning the software...the frame in the above pic was from a PhotoFrame preset.