Below, I will list the features that I wanted to have in my new site, some few months ago, on the 27th of October 2011. Back then I wrote a blog entry that I would post the day the design is finally finished and up and running. Here it is:
1. The interface. I have worked on a new site interface for a long while. Most of that while was all about conceptualizing …alright, so most of the while was procrastination; procrastination right after I decided to come up with a new design and until I started creating it, and then a whole lot more procrastination since I had the design done and until I started implementing it into HTML and CSS. But alas, the new interface is here and alive and you get to enjoy it! Highlights of the new interface include an easier to navigate menu system, where all options are conveniently located in the same place, a beautiful full-screen black menu with bright icons, text and a search bar that will lead you exactly to the content on the site that you want to get to. Oh and faster; I need to mention it will be faster. The faster part is not so much part of my innitial needs for the new design, since the old one was not too slow to begin with, but it is certailnly a handy side effect to the new design concept.
2. New types of content:
2.1. Video blogging: Vlogging/Video Blogging, whatever you like to call it. It’s here. I’ve been wanting to do this for so long now, and the new GUI to the web site is a good moment to introduce this additional factor. The vlogging feature will be as follows: blog posts containing videos will have a video tag on them, as well as a vlog tag. You will be able to sign up for a separate RSS feed that leads to the vlog posts, so that you get updated on your favourite video podcast if you want to think of it this way.
2.2. Tutorials: Tutorials a useful resources. This will be a section on the site where photographers can access things that I find can be seen as useful and want to share with them. Tutorials, plug-ins, freely downloadable software all are things that can easily fall into that category. Browse the new site design and look them up and make sure to let me know if you find something you like!
2.3. Gallery: A gallery is something that the web site was definitely lacking. As cliche as a gallery is, it is useful beyond questioning. A little quirk that I plan on implementing is inter-linking images in the gallery with the corresponding blog entries regarding when and where they were shot and what the story behind them is, if there is a blog entry about them.
2.4. The forum: An addition to the previous blog/site layout is the forum; a place where discussion can take place. The reason behind it is that a forum can add to the whole tutorials/useful links part of the site, where people can ask questions and receive answers, not just from me but from each other. At the same time, a forum is a great means to organize outings and other events.
3. Kitchener/Waterloo discovery outings and workshops:
3.1. On location workshops: Up to this point I have been offering the Photographing Consciously Workshop, which if I may say so myself, is rather successful in terms of what I planned to achieve with it. But the Photographing Consciously Workshop is inherently, due to the means of teaching and the nature of the topics talked about, an indoor, or in-the-classroom type of workshop. While there is nothing wrong with that, I am mentioning it in order to clarify how the on-location workshops that I intend to offer differ. An on-location workshop is practical, hands-on and usually not done in a classroom setting. An example would be a portrait photography workshop; because whenever I talk about portrait photography I mention how in my opinion there is hardly any way to replace the look of natural light (hence, when indoor, standing by a window, using the outdoor light often gives best results), therefore the best, if not only, way to practice it is to go to where natural light is …outside. An especially good scenario for powerful portraiture is golden light (the golden-yellow-orange light produced by the sun near sunset), and the best place to harvest it is in a place outdoors. It is needless to say that practicing the positioning of a model in reference to the light source (especially when the light source is natural light, aka the sun), is best done on location and hands-on, rather than theoreticising it while watching examples on a projector screen. Portrait photography will be one of the topics covered in such a workshop style, and more are to come.
3.2. Kitchener/Waterloo discovery outings: I live in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. You may not live in the same city, so you may think that the rest of this paragraph may not matter much to you; but before skipping ahead, do read the following sentence, please. Exploring the areas where you live, as a photographer, may soon become something that might resemble the realm of boring. The places where we live are the places where we live, we walk the same paths every day to the same bus station, the same super market, we sit on the same benches in the same park. I will get to the point now; what seems boring to you at first sight, is most certainly not boring to the rest of the world, especially those living in a different time zone with perhaps a different climate. A place, although not interesting to you is not necessarily a place not worth photographing. That being said, and mentioning that looking at a place from a different perspective (try climbing a building and looking down …but not in a …dangerous kind of way of looking down), there is yet something else; and I think this fits the city of Kitchener very very well. Often times people underestimate their own surroundings, perhaps their whole city, because they don’t know it very well. In the case of Kitchener/Waterloo, the issue is this: these twin cities are filled with oases of green woods, old abandoned landmarks from another age, paths that go on for miles, interconnected, uniting the farthest corners of the city (one of them being the Trans Canada Trail itself). I am not trying to make anyone feel bad, but I do believe that I can raise some awareness and show some of the disbelieving Kitchener/Waterloo dwellers that their cities are far from boring… or at the very least, far from uninteresting. In order to do so I plan on organizing outings of different time-frames, call them photo-walks if you wish, which will explore specific aspects of the city, mostly elements usually overlooked by people.
This is it for now, as I mentioned earlier, feel free to let me know your thoughts, even if it’s just a word or two like “this rocks,” or, “this stinks.”
Stefan Chirila | stefan.chirila@gmail.com
November 27 2011
Now a lot of the above are not yet implemented; one that is specifically on my mind at this point is video blogging. I have never done it before and it will be a big step for me, especially because I very much prefer myself to be behind the camera… but it’s coming. As for everything else …go ahead, try out the galleries and write me a line or two!
