New Photography Site Up

I finally have the Christopher Ward Photography site up and running. I feel like I have been working on this new site for ever. Off and on for a couple of months anyway. This was a new site for me in several ways. First is that I designed it based on a business card, and I started by putting it together in Photoshop.

New Christopher Ward Photography Site

This site is much better representation of where I am at, and where I am trying to get to. Some of the other landscape pictures and city shots I really liked, and maybe I will find a place for them on this site somehow.

Some of the cool things about this site…

The menu at the top with the rollover images is one big image and some CSS tricks. I plan to blog about that later. The index page, and the galleries page have slide shows that use jQuery and the cross slide plugin. It does the Ken Burns effect on the galleries page. Not sure if I should keep it. It seems like it is jerky and pixelated in versions 6 and 7 of IE. Works great on Firefox and Safari.

Clicking on an image in a gallery brings up a larger image and allows you to move between the images using the Thickbox jQuery plugin.

The text on the galleries thumbnails is done with a transparent PNG overlay. I forgot that IE6 doesn’t handle it very well, and that IE6 could be used as much as 30% still. I might need to just redo those images with the overlay put on in Photoshop. I did have plans to change the thumbnails dynamically, but I might not bother now.

Check out West Photo in Minneapolis

I have posted before how I was frustrated with National Camera. I have stopped using them. I fugured that I was going to be a purely online buyer until I found out about a store in Minneapolis called West Photo.

West Photo is a whole different deal. For one thing, this is a store for photographers. Staffed with photographers, selling gear to phtographers. They even had a couple of people out at the MN Strobist event I was at.

I have been there a couple of times now, and while I wish they were open later or on weekends, I am glad I went. I¬†was surprised that their prices are right in line with Amazon and others. I am willing to pay a bit more (don’t forget the tax) to buy from a local store, but there are limits to the price difference I can handle. West Photos prices fall in my range.

The staff here also understand, use, and shoot with the photography equipment they sell. They had no problem telling me what they use and comparing it with other gear in their store. Real world experience counts for something.

They have lighting equipment out the wazoo. If you want to look at something and have knowledgeable people talk to you about it without sounding bored, this is the place.

If you drop by, tell Kyle or Jenn I sent you.