→ My Own Intertubez
So, a quick one for now.
I’m spending more time dicking around with the site than actually writing or producing content so far. I guess that’s probably going to continue for a while, too. At least until I get the layout to look a little more the way I want it. You’re just going to have to deal with it.
It’s taking a long time too, not that I expected to just click my heels and have a website. But despite being what I’d consider ‘technologically inclined’, I’ve never really built a website from scratch. I realized that I didn’t plan my ideas out well going into it, but I really didn’t know what I wanted and what was possible until I was hip-deep in code. And I say ‘from scratch’, but I’m certainly not monkeying around in there and pushing too many buttons. WordPress is the engine behind this mad machine, and I had to get re-acquainted with that. It took almost a week of reading and testing and fiddling to get a proper starting platform.
I had a bastard of a time trying to figure out what I was doing about a photo gallery too. I kept trying all this crap, and it was all either too code-intensive or to limited in features or too ugly or what have you. I kept FTPing some new wizard plugin to my server, loading it, configuring it, trying it, and deleting it right away. Many times. Yesterday I finally found what I was looking for.
SlideShowPro is an amazing little piece of software that has so far solved all of my needs when it comes to photo presentation. It integrates with Lightroom, too, so it’s handy for my workflow already. I bought the CMS and the Lightroom plugin pretty much sight unsen, and it has already been well worth the price. I had no problem getting it set up and configured, and the galleries it creates are stunning.
I’ve only just begun to get some content up there, but check out my Photos page to see how it’s going so far. I’m pretty pleased with the actual photo presentation, and it’s infinitely customizable too. Much more to come.