PhotoWalkPro

I really wanted to make some changes to my gallery site so I fired up the Dreamweaver and proceeded to stare at the user interface without much of a clue of what to do next.  I have had Dreamweaver for sometime but have never really had any resource for learning how to use it.  Thanks to the new Kelby Online Training, that’s no longer the case.

When I was looking through the roster of online classes the other day, I noticed that Rafael “RC” Concepcion has posted 2 classes, Dreamweaver Level 1 and Photoshop and Dreamweaver Integration.  Since I didn’t really know too much about Dreamweaver to begin with, I thought maybe I should start with the Level 1 class.

The lessons were extremely well laid out starting with the user interface, then moving on to creating new documents, and on and on from there.  To help with the learning process, there were downloadable files that went along with each lesson so I could follow along.  The only problem I had was trying to overcome the desire to buy dual screen monitors so I could watch on one and follow along on the other.  It can be a little hard to watch the lessons while trying to follow in the program but I managed to hop back and forth by pausing the lessons and then hopping over to the program to apply what I just saw.  As I got more accustomed to the program it was easier to let the lessons run and then go back and try on my own.

After some trial and error with the lesson files, I felt confident to apply what I had learned to my gallery site.  While it isn’t the most professionally laid out site, it isn’t half-bad if I do say so myself.  So my hats off to RC for his fine instruction.  I can’t wait for his next installments so I can really get this thing cranked up.  To see what I did using my new mad skillz, click here.

I received an email from one of my readers who had been looking at my online galleries. All of my galleries are created in Lightroom and he wanted to know how I put the Back to Gallery link on my pages instead of the standard email address. So here is exactly how you can accomplish this.

To create the link-back, you need to go to the Site Info panel of the Web development module in Lightroom and look for the Contact Info section. Once you are there, click inside the Contact Info section to rename it. Whatever you type will appear as the link name on your page. I labeled mine “Back to Gallery Page”. Then go down to the next section called Web or Mail Link and type in the address of the page that you would like to link back to. Don’t forget to include the “http://”. Now when you generate your page it will have that handy link-back instead of the email address.

Here is an example of one of my gallery pages with the link-back section.

After you have made this change, you can save your new design as a pre-set by going over to the Template Browser on the left-hand panel and click Add to save your changes as a pre-set. The next time you want to create a gallery, just select your pre-set and your link section will automatically be inserted along with any other changes you have made. The nice thing about saving your pre-set is that you aren’t locked into those changes, they just act as a starting point so you can still go back and change any element within the page.

The other question I was asked was how to move the link section to the left side of the finished page. I really didn’t have an answer for this because I believe it would involve editing the actual flash or html template which is beyond my abilities. If you have any suggestions for doing this, please feel free to share it in the comment section.

Where is Jeff’s Photo Gallery?  Jeff’s Photo Gallery started life as a way of sharing some of my images with my family and friends.  It was much better than a mass email that usually would end up getting dumped in the trash.  The blog allowed me to post images that could be reviewed at the reader’s leisure.  So much less spammy than an email.  Anyway, from there I started adding more and more content about photography.  My posts were also becoming more frequent to the point that I post almost every day of the work week.  Throw in a couple of mentions on Photoshop Insider, a profile on Jason Moore’s blog, and making the top 87 over at Epic Edits and, well, Jeff’s Photo Gallery is certainly now more than just a little picture gallery.

So what’s with the name?  Good question!  I’m glad you asked.  I have been searching for a name for quite some time but got serious about it a couple of weeks ago.  My first criteria was that I wanted to be able to buy the domain name or web address for whichever name I chose.  Let me tell you, that is no easy task.  Just about anything and everything with the word photo or imaging has been spoken for.  But having the domain name was very important because I want people to be able to associate the name with the web address.  Now if I had Scott Kelby’s name recognition, it wouldn’t be a big deal but I am about 45 best selling computer books behind him so using jeffrevell.com wasn’t really an option.  So one evening I was sitting with some friends and we were looking at different word combos that had domains that were available and my buddy’s wife threw out photowalk.  I liked it right off the bat.  But we took it one step further, let’s go PRO!  Lo and behold, the domain was available and there for the taking/buying.  So now you can access my site using the old address or you can use www.photowalkpro.com to get here.

So what exactly is a photowalk?  Wikipedia defines it as: “the act of walking with a camera for the main purpose of taking pictures of things you may find interesting.  It is also often done as a method to practice and improve one’s own photography skills rather than with specific focus on documentary photography.  Photowalking is also often associated with on-line photo sharing.”  Those definitions are also extremely descriptive of what my blog has become, a walk through the world where I shoot what interests me and then share it amongst my friends.  But also a way of improving my skills, and possibly helping you do the same.

So there you have it, my big blog change.  Ok, it’s not really a big change but one that has been long overdue.  So tell your friends, tell your family, shout it from the rooftops!  Or not.  But I do hope that you come back and get a little something from my blog that will inspire or instruct or even amuse you.  That would make my day!

And now for something from the Left Coast.  I got about one hour of daylight to go out and shoot around Livermore, Ca. yesterday.  I have since taken the red-eye back to DC and am now in a coffee induced state of artificial consciousness.  See you next week.

Well, that is more of a question than a statement.  I am getting ready to redesign the opening page of my photo gallery page and have been looking around the web for some inspiration.  Currently I have an opening splash screen with my signature logo.  When I first designed it, I was happy with the look but now I’m not so sure.  I have already gone through the process of reducing the number of images in the galleries themselves.  Some of the individual galleries had over a hundred images in them.  The biggest problem with that is that most folks have a pretty short attention span when it comes to looking at photographs, myself included.  How many Cambodian temples can you look at before they all start to look the same.  So I turned a critical eye on my galleries and whittled them down to the best in each gallery.  That was step one.  I then reorganized the selection page where you would navigate to the individual galleries.  At one point I had thumbnails for every gallery but it soon got crowded and wasn’t very effective.

I have since moved on to simple labeled buttons that let you navigate to the individual galleries.  I’m not completely displeased with this layout but it’s not quite as slick as I would like it to be.  My only answer to this would be to learn a new program such as Dreamweaver or pay someone to design my page.  Since I have no time and even less money, both of these are not really options.  So I think I will turn my attentions to that opening splash page. Maybe I’ll get rid of the black look and start off with an image to peak the viewer’s interest and motivate them to move on to the galleries.

While trying to decide just how I would like to proceed, I have been checking out the many excellent photographer galleries on the web.  Perhaps something like Paul Elson, or Tonya Schabacker (both profiles in this month’s Shutterbug).

Here are a few more that I like:

http://www.briandilg.com/main.htm

http://www.treyratcliff.com/

http://www.terrybutton.com/index.html

http://www.eoloperfido.com/

http://www.gnewman.co.uk/

Of course there are thousands more out there and I am still searching for that one spark of inspiration.  If you have a site that you think is well designed akin to the ones that I have listed, drop me a comment and share a link.  I would love to see it (that goes for your own sites as well).

By the way, if you would like to see what my gallery looks like at full-res, just click here.