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I’ve finally installed my photography gallery.

This has been a long standing project that seems like it will never be finished. As a photographer, I love the idea of having images on the internet for people to view. It has been years since my last photo exhibition and online seems to be the only avenue I’ve concentrated on.

I looked at Flickr.com but didn’t like putting all of the work into building a database of images and then leave them on someone else’s server. Further, I wanted to work on something that could be translated into a usable format for museums and other artists. Flickr and other community portfolios are simply not acceptable for museum collections.

I’ve looked into various database driven galleries. While they are the best alternative, my brain starts spinning everytime I open SQL or some other database. Little voices begin telling me… I don’t like math… I don’t like databases… This is scary… It makes me feel like a Barbie doll yanked pre-maturely off the shelves for being too stupid.

Todd Dominey put together an xml-driven flash movie for photo slide shows at least a year ago. I can’t remember how long I’ve been using this simple set-up. Recently, he released Slideshow Pro, which is what I’m using now. Although the controls are a bit mysterious, the slide show allows the visitor to wander through various galleries, preview images, and control music when available.

Open Issues

1. The movie is too large for small screens running 800X600 resolution. For those with the smaller resolutions, I apologize. I have made the decision to support larger screens. I want the content to be king on this site and that includes larger images. There just isn’t enough room on the 800X600 monitor for everything. I realize this will cause some layout issues for about 10% of viewers, but I think it is better for the majority of viewers. Those with smaller screens will still see everything, they will just have to deal with some overlapping. This isn’t perfect and a bit obnoxious, but a decision I’m going to stick with for a bit.
2. Music is inconsistent. I have to save some of my MP3 files again at a different bit-rate to make them play with this movie. I will add more later
3. Gallery thumbnails missing
4. Independent galleries. I need to create individual pages for each gallery. This will give me the opportunity to tell you more about the images.
5. Make the galleries XHTML compliant. I’m having problems with the Wordpress admin user interface. I can’t insert the javascript that would allow me to insert the movie dynamically to make the site compliant. The interface adds extra html to the script. This should be fairly easy to fix. I just need to hit the tutorial files.

So… enjoy the images. Please note the link at the top left of the page that will take you directly to the gallery page instead of this post.

For the first time, my beginning black and white photography class has put together an exhibition for their final assignment. It will be on view until July 2 at the Bean Bar in San Diego.

The exhibition, Ferlinghetti, is based on a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. I have to say, the photographers have done a great job.

Seascape With Sun and Eagle

Freer
than most birds
an eagle flies up
over San Francisco

freer than most places
soars high up
floats and glides high up
in the still
open spaces

flown from the mountains
floated down
far over ocean
where the sunset has begun
a mirror of itself

He sails high over
turning and turning
where seaplanes might turn
where warplanes might burn

He wheels about burning

in the red sun
climbs and glides
and doubles back upon himself
now over ocean
now over land
high over pinwheels suck in sand

where a rollercoaster used to stand
soaring eagle setting sun
All that is left of our wilderness

I recently received an email from an Australian organization, The Word, asking if they could use an image of mine on their web site. I’ve always believed the internet was a communal resource and never say no to a request for using a photograph. I assumed the request was from an account I have on stockxchange , a royalty-free image bank.

I was surprised to find the image requested was one a lithograph about Ken, a friend who committed suicide over 10 years ago. I met Ken through an AIDS organization. He’s life revolved around taking care of his partner, who suffered every imaginable condition associated with the disease. When Ken’s partner passed away, Ken felt empty and lost. What was he to do now? Everything he had known seemed to be gone.

Ken and I went to the gay-pride parade that year and marched with the AIDS Foundation float. We had a great time and spent the day at the festival and that evening at a restaurant. Ken seemed happy and proud of the care he had given his partner

Two days later, Ken shot himself to death.

I made this lithograph shortly afterwards. The loss was still fresh, the dismay palpable. I still think of you Ken. Maybe not everyday, but your memory still pops up. I hope my lithograph and your story helps someone going through similar pains.

May 1 reboot.

A day for web designers to launch new versions of their web site en masse and to relish the glory of all that is new.

After weeks of procrastinating and last minute design ideas, I jumped into my site only to see things fall apart. However, here it is. A new design.

I wanted to have a fluid layout with left and right columns set and the center column fluid. I used a Wordpress theme as the backbone and did some customization to get it to work the way I wanted. I’d like to say that I will fix a few issues with smaller screens, but I’ve got way too many projects to finish before then.

Coming soon: Photo gallery, a redesign story for the Museum of Fine Art in Puerto Rico, I-tunes connection, and some google adwords will come back.