Travel & Humanitarian Photos
Welcome to my new-look web site. I hope you like the new design, which now proudly boasts integration with my Photoshelter archive.
I’ve been a fan of Photoshelter for some time and all of my clients are familiar with the process of downloading their images from my archive. It’s a great storage facility and, importantly, offers me a remote back-up facility. It’s also earned its keep on many occasions when I’ve needed to deliver hi-resolution files to a client but have not been near an Internet connection with wide bandwidth. Once the hi-res files are stored in the archive, I just need to make a connection somehow and I can release files to clients. I’ve done this a number of times via my phone and have made sales from such varied locations as a boat in the middle of Lake Windermere, whilst speeding along on the Bangkok Skytrain and from the middle of a rice paddy in Bali. When your livelihood depends upon meeting clients’ needs at short notice, this kind of functionality is invaluable.
However, until recently, I’ve not been able to integrate my Photoshelter archive with my main web site in such a way that it appears seamless. It was the missing link in providing a cohesive web presence, something that’s increasingly important when presenting yourself and your work online. A quick e-mail to the nice people at Photoshelter several months ago suggesting that they consider offering this service revealed that they were, of course, way ahead of me and were in the process of working with the equally nice people at Graph Paper Press, who provide WordPress templates.
The result is that photographers can now obtain a selection of groovy themes from Graph Paper Press, which can then be integrated with their Photoshelter accounts. I almost wish that it was more difficult than it is and that I alone had access to this impressive solution but apparently they’re determined to offer it to everyone!
Graph Paper Press have also recently launched their Visual Society service, which is a turnkey solution where you don’t even need to have your own web host. Sign up, create your design, integrate with Photoshelter, pack your camera bag and get out and take some photos. Brilliant, thanks!
Now, much as I would like to take the credit for the work required to get this integration up and running, I have to admit that it’s all down to the skill, expertise, patience and downright genius of Steve Fox. Steve is a member of the Bangkok Photo Club, an inspiring photographer in his own right and one of the few people I know who can out-geek me without breaking his stride. Whilst the standard Graph Paper Press/Photoshelter installation is excellent and relatively straightforward, it’s probably no surprise to you that I wanted more. “I want more!”, I cried. And Steve, in his typically affable and good humoured fashion, delivered.
If you are looking for a reliable geek with a sense of humour (something of a rarity I’d suspect) to make your site look gorgeous then Steve is definitely the guy. In all seriousness, I cannot recommend him highly enough. So, contact him online if you’re keen to make the most of this new functionality but be quick as I suspect he’ll soon be too rich and famous to bother with the likes of you and I.
So, I hope that you like the new web site look. I want it to serve as a venue to showcase my photography whilst also providing clients with the functionality they expect. With big plans to set the world alight in 2010, I’m pleased that this first step is pretty much complete. I hope to see you back here regularly.
I like the new site. Super classy.
Looking good. Always keeping one step ahead!
Fantastic, mate. Very pro. You’re making the rest of us look bad, but we’ll catch up.
Love the new look, Gavin! You’re gonna make me wanna redesign my site again and it hasn’t even been a year since my last redesign.
Hey, sorry to ask you on the blog, but did you ever get my email?
Thanks guys. Mitchell, sorry not to have replied, it’s been hectic but the answer is “yes, please do”.
Sure, ruin my holiday season by making it painfully obvious that I must now commit to a site re-design.
Looks great. I bet Steve is about to be inundated with requests. In fact, perhaps I better get myself in Steve’s queue ASAP.
This new look is great. Nice, clean and fresh.