Web Designer Ramblings - Photo of The Day

Downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. Shot with Panasonic Lumix FZ20.

Web Designer Ramblings - Photo of The Day

Rio Grande Botanic Garden, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Photo shot with Minolta x-700 (film SLR) & 50mm f1.7 lens. Kodak Ultracolor 400 film. Negative scanned with Nikon Coolscan V ED. Cropped and sharpened in Photoshop.

Web Designer Ramblings - Photo of The Day

Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photo taken with Panasonic Lumix FZ20. Converted to black & white & cropped with Picasa.

Web Designer Ramblings - Photo of The Day

Downtown, St. Louis, Missouri.

Web Designer Ramblings - Photo of The Day

Old Town, Albuquerque, New Mexico

An Ode To A Fair City . . .

When inspiration hits, some write poetry, some compose songs . . . I design websites! Here is a labor of love that is currently under construction (pardon the bad links). It is a website that celebrates one of my favorite American small cities, Albuquerque, New Mexico. It will be a growing collection of photos I have taken in and around that city. Click here to visit Albuquerque Syle.

Web Designer Ramblings - Photo of The Day

This photo, one of my personal favorites, was shot in Old Town, Albuquerque, New Mexico. These flowers grow wild all over Albuquerque and are a beautiful sight to behold. I used a Minolta X-370 (SLR) and Agfa Ultra 100 film for this shot. I don't remember the lens used. The negative was scanned using a Nikon Coolscan V ED. Agfa Ultra 100 gives wonderful Velvia like colors in a negative film, and has a fine grain that is perfect for scanning.

Web Designer Ramblings - Photo of The Day

Rio Grande Botanic Gardens, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Shot with Minolta X-570, Vivitar 70-150mm f3.5 close focusing zoom lens, Nikon 3T close-up lens, polariser, and Fuji Reala film. A gold reflector was used to soften the harsh shadows from the sun. The negative was scanned on a Nikon Coolscan V, sharpened and cropped with Picasa.

Web Designer Ramblings - Photo of The Day

Rio Grande Botanic Garden, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Shot with Minolta x-570, with Vivitar 70-210mm F3.5 Series 1 zoom lens. Negative scanned with Nikon Coolscan V ED and sharpened and cropped in Photoshop.

Search Engines and Privacy Concerns

We all use them . . . Especially Google, the current ruler of the search engine roost. However, identity theft and other privacy concerns are growing concerns for anyone who uses the Internet. Just how much information can the major search engines collect about us? What is done with that information? A good article worth reading on this topic is provided by Wired.com. Check out What Search Sites Know About You.

Web Designer Ramblings - Photo of the Day

Rio Grande Botanic Gardens, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Photo taken with Panasonic Lumix FZ20. Sharpening and soft focus effects applied with Picasa.

Cheap Acrobat PDF Clone Software

Adobe Acrobat PDF file format is a wonderful way for web designers to swap files with clients (and potential clients). Contracts, bids, and other documents that may combine text and graphics maintain consistent format and layout as .pdf files. However, the relatively high cost of the Adobe Acrobat software needed to create these files has kept a number of designers from using this tool . . . until now! A number of recently released inexpensive Adobe Acrobat clone's allow you to create .pdf files much more cheaply. Read about it here . . .

Web Designer Ramblings - Photo of the Day

Rio Grande Botanic Gardens, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Photo shot with Minolta X-700 (SLR) with 38-90mm f 3.5 Rokunar Zoom Macro lens, and Fuji Reala film. Negative scanned with Nikon Coolscan V.

Google Toolbar for Firefox Is Coming!

Any web designer who wants to be viewed as even moderately intelligent has used Firefox as his (or her) default browser for months now. Firefox is for web browsers what the BMW is for drivers: fast, slick, and a great performer. However, Google has been slow in providing a version of the Google Toolbar that is Firefox compatible. Until now! Google is expected to launch a Firefox version of its popular Toolbar late on Thursday, sources said. However, by noon eastern time the browser add-on had not yet appeared on the Google Web site.

Allrighty, Google, where is it already?


Thanks for the update Matt, Google Toolbar for Firefox is now available at http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/

Web Designer Ramblings - Photo of the Day

Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver Colorado

Ajax is Coming!

Ask any web designer to identify the one web development tool that provides an enhanced online interactive experience with sharp graphics and smooth animation . . . One application will come to mind . . . Macromedia Flash! Well, there's a new sheriff in town, and they call him Ajax! Ajax, short for Asynchronous JavaScript plus XML, is the brilliant web application that may revolutionize online development. Imagine Flash without the long download times, and you have Ajax! A powerful example of Ajax in operation is Google Maps. Google Maps has the speed of locally installed software while being an online application thanks to Ajax. Read more about Ajax and its implications for web developers here.

Web Designer Ramblings - Photo of the Day

A storefront in Old Town, Albuquerque, New Mexico. This is typical of the tourist area storefronts seen in the Santa Fe / Albuquerque area. Color is used in a way in New Mexico that I have not seen in any other state in the US.

This photo shot with the Minolta X-370, Fuji Superia HQ film, and scanned on a Nikon Coolscan V. The blur in the leaves is due to the wind.

The Digital Luddite . . .

Rio Grande Botanical Gardens, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Think you need an expensive digital (DSLR) camera to get great photos? The picture above was taken with a 25 year old Minolta film SLR camera (Minolta X-370 purchased used on ebay.com for $75.00. The lens was also an exceptional bargain--an 18 year old Vivitar 70-150mm 3.8 lens along with a Nikon close up attachment purchased for $45.00 total (also ebay.com). The film is a widely available (purchased at Walmart) Fuji 100 ASA consumer print film purchased for $1.75 per roll and 1 hour processed (at the same Walmart) for $6.00 (including prints).

This is one web designer willing to wait for the prices of digital to come down quite a bit more before making the upgrade. I am not cheap, but do want the most value for my hard earned dollars. Meanwhile, I am enjoying the incredible quality that the mechanical photographic marvels of yesteryear provide. Besides, I'd rather spend my money on good restaurants and travel.

There is another nagging, (and perhaps, more important) reason why I stick to film for my more "artistic" photography. Digital does not yet seem to have the "soul" or artistry of film. To me, it's like the argument for old vinyl based albums vs modern cd's. Or, the difference between listening to live musicians and a synthesizer. There is a certain warmth, or depth, to film that I just don't see captured in digital yet. Am I crazy for feeling that way. Are there others out there who feel the way I do? Leave a comment. Let your voice be heard!

Here is another photo taken with the same "out-dated" camera:

Easter Lily, shot in early morning window light.

Web Designer Ramblings - Photo of The Day

Rio Grande Botanical Gardens, Albuquerque, New Mexico

CSS Eye Candy

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are one of the most indispensible tools in the arsenal of web designers. I discovered a website that features some marvelously creative applications of CSS in design tricks that were once only possible with Javascript or Flash. Check out the CSS "eye candy" at http://www.stunicholls.myby.co.uk/.