8×10Gallery.com

Archive for December, 2007

Here’s to good health and prosperity in 2008!! And for the opportunity of exciting photo adventures in the year to come!

As we bring 2007 to a close we also come upon the year anniversary of the site itself. And it’s been quite a year in that regard. Lots of things worked out better than I expected, while quite a few things didn’t come out as planned.

Things started off a little rocky with the IIS and PHP mixture. Although setting up Wordpress and other PHP apps is no big deal anymore, things didn’t go so well on my first attempts. And then once I did get things sorted out, the drive in the server failed and needed to be replaced. Not to mention all the frustration with FrontPage, Expression Web and just the act of making a gallery was harder than it should be. It was touch and go there for a little bit, but once you work through those torments it becomes pretty easy to do it again. And you begin to learn all the correct terms and making connections between software programs. We might get some fancier software as we move forward but at least it’s up and running…

Wordpress has released several new versions and each one is better than the last. It’s such a great platform for publishing and I think the use of blogs has truly exploded. Information is becoming easier to find, there is so much more help available and so many different ways to share experiences. The site has been somewhat lacking in the blog department for 2007, so I plan to make amends for 2008.

It was also my plan this year to make it out to Arizona (to visit Randy and get some pictures of the amazing landscapes of the Southwest), but work didn’t cooperate and I am more determined than ever to make it out there next year. I’m really hoping a trip comes together next year so let’s keep our fingers crossed.

And speaking of trips, a big want of mine for this year was to get out to the lighthouses. Well that didn’t work out according to plan either. Something always seemed to come up and there was never enough time to make it out there. Since it’s only a day’s drive to get to the beach I really need to make this happen next year. Even if I only get to see one, I’ll be happy.

Even though I didn’t get the lighthouses, I managed to get hundreds of other great photos. Starting with my trips in March to the track with the Porsche Club I managed to grab dozens of new photos which I think are excellent. I posted hundreds of them to the Driver’s Ed gallery and going to the track as well as to the auto shows was extremely exciting. I’ve had the opportunity to see cars I’ve never seen before. Standing next to some of those priceless exotics is staggering. And hearing the full power of “Detroit Muscle” is heart pounding! While I didn’t get my lighthouses I did make up for it in some spectacular racing with plenty of thrills and spills.

And let’s not forget all my floral photography. It was a banner year for using my macro lens at the botanical gardens. So many flowers, so many colors, such a great display. I have printed several of those shots for my house and plan to print several more when we make room for them. There are a couple hundred on display in the gallery and I plan to offer many of them in the Photo Store for next year. There is so much they can be used for and they make great desktop wallpaper for your computer and art for the wall! I had a great time out there this year and plan to spend just as much time out there next year.

My two big fun events for the year were Halloween and my night shots of downtown Charlotte. Getting three-foot flames to shoot out the head of a pumpkin is just plain fun! It was so entertaining photographing those pumpkins and the big finale with six of them lighting up the night was just amazing. I’m not sure what the neighbors thought of the whole thing but they better get prepared because I’m doing it again next year.

The Westin Hotel was another great night. Sure there are taller, sexier buildings, but standing on the roof of a hotel at sunset and taking shots of downtown is just plain cool no matter what. That was such a fun night and such a learning experience. They practically had to drag me off of there I was having so much fun. It’s a vantage point you don’t often get and I just wanted to keep messing around.

The big highlight for the year is the magazine cover for the January issue of the Porsche Magazine “Panorama”. As we speak that issue should be coming out within the next week or so. I’m very excited and quite proud of the work that went into making that cover. It was a lot of fun and I’m hoping to do a lot more work with the Carolina PCA throughout 2008 including the upcoming Porsche Parade.

So what’s on the agenda for 2008? Well, a trip to Arizona and a trip to the beach to see the lighthouses are at the top of the list. Hopefully I can make it happen. I’m not sure what other travel there might be, but I do know there is the Porsche Parade in July and plenty of track pictures coming starting in March of next year. I’m sure there will be plenty of floral shots and I also hope to get to some of the more historic sites around here and photograph some of the plantation homes of the area. Charleston and Savannah are definitely on the wish list of places I would like to visit. Again, hopefully I can make it happen.

The site itself will continue to evolve and expand. We are laying the groundwork for that right now. There will be a heavy emphasis on the galleries and our new Photo Store as well as renewed attention to the blog. Mind you, I have plenty to say, I just need to make sure I write it down. And with Randy now on board there should be some diverse content coming. There is a slim chance we will upgrade to Windows Server 2008 when it comes out, that is more dependent on the available hardware than anything else. Our Server 2003 Web Edition is working great and going with 2008 may just be overkill. I’m definitely going to be testing it when I can and if it lives up to the hype we may switch. The server I have has been pretty reliable so as the saying goes “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

This year has basically been a testing ground, to try new things and see how they work. Lots of things didn’t work in regard to the site (there have been plenty of HTML goofs and indexing screw-up’s), but with each slight step backward I have been able to take a huge step forward after correcting the mistake. Finding the right software, editing the pages correctly, having the right plug-ins all takes time. It takes a week or two to see what effect your changes had, then another week or two to correct it. But my mistakes are fewer and less drastic now so soon the site will be almost maintenance free and we can just concentrate on photography. Of course as soon as we get to that point we’ll decide it’s time for a makeover and change the whole site again!

So expect some changes with the look and feel of the site, lots of new photos and galleries, plenty of images for sale as well as some free desktop wallpapers, news and information and lots of information about the thrill and excitement of running and website about photography!

Here is to what was an excellent 2007 and to what I hope will be an even better 2008!

Happy New Year to one and all!

I just thought this was a great photo:

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2007/12/merissa_ferguson_gazettewind_w.html