Alek has done some amazing work since graduating from Pratt. Here’s his latest reel showing off his work:
Category: Design
I’ve decided it’s time to move away from the amateur world of point and shoot photography and take the leap into SLR. I’ll be very honest, I’m envious of a lot of bloggers out there who have amazing photo galleries with great collections to show off to their friends. I not only want to learn out of jealousy but it’s a general interest and hobby I can see myself getting into. Long gone are the days were I was satisfied with an overexposed photo from my old Canon SD600 Powershot.
Cameras
My first big decision is going to be which camera I want to get. I’m currently deciding between the Nikon D60 and the Canon Rebel xsi. They both fall within my budget range for an entry level dslr. I don’t need anything super expensive right off the bat in order to take excellent photos. If I was trying to make money off my photos I’d probably consider going for a Canon EOS 40D. From what I understand the Canon and the Nikon are fairly close in quality. The 2 megapixel difference isn’t too significant at the entry level. The biggest selling point for me is the fact that the Xsi has a bigger lcd viewing screen than the D60. The autofocus and stabilization features are also better than the Nikon. This is important for a photography newbie such as myself. I guess I could just buy a tripod and then it’s a non issue. I’m not an expert on any of this so if anyone has any input, please make some suggestions on a good camera. My budget is currently in the 500 to 700 dollar range.
Web Galleries
I know everyone loves to use Flickr and I completely agree that it’s a great platform to share photos. Personally, I’d prefer to host all the photos on my own site since I have the bandwidth to spare. There are three galleries that I’m considering using. They are, Gallery, ZenPhoto, and Lifebox. I hear Gallery is a great piece of software with tons of options and configurations but I think I’m going to be using Lifebox. It’s new and has a great interface. It supports,
- Full resolution images
- One photo library: every image on my computer should be available on the internet
- Reads metadata from Lightroom, Picassa, iPhoto and other applications to allow for photo touch ups while maintaining synchronization between your desktop and photo gallery
- Ability to rename, reorganize, and modify without structural changes on the website.
- Image security: some pictures are meant for the public, some for family members, some for friends, and some for just me.
- No more accounts and logging in. The site should just know who you are.
- Completely database independent, using a db just for speed. Should something happen to the database, all data can be re-generated from reading exif tags and the existing file structure.
- Less than 100 milisecond execution times for every page
- 100% XHTML Valid
- Viewers should be able to suggest titles, tags, and descriptions for images. It’s too cumbersome for one person to organize a hundred thousand photos.
I took that last bit from the website, but you can see why I’m leaning towards it.
Purpose
The reason I’m going to take up photography is that I want to express myself more artistically, find a new constructive hobby, and also provide myself an abundance of stock photography for my own web design and development. Plus, let’s be honest, taking really good photos is pretty awesome. I guess I should sign up for a photography class. Anyone know of some good classes in the DC area? I’d love to hear from some other photographers.
If you live in the DC area and you’re into web development and blogging, you’ve probably heard of TECH Cocktail. If you haven’t then let me enlighten you. According to their website,
“TECH cocktail, a community building startup founded in May 2006 by Frank Gruber and Eric Olson, offers events and community-powered projects open to bloggers, technology enthusiasts, entrepreneurs & professionals interested in technology in under served technology communities.”
Viq and I at DC TECH Cocktail 5
Essentially it boils down to a happy hour of technophiles networking with each other over free drinks. It’s actually a really great opportunity if you’re even remotely related to the field. I went to TECH cocktail DC 5 recently, and it was held at the LeftBank in Adams Morgan. I met a whole slew of Web Developers, Designers, Photographers, Lawyers, even Venture Capitalists at the event. There were some pretty prominent people there including Brian Williams, the CEO of Viget Labs.
Hopefully TECH Cocktail comes back to DC because it was a great event. Hopefully some new faces will show up and continue the trend!
I’ve been working as a Designer for about 4 years now. I’m still pretty young and new to everything but I have gathered a few tid bits of knowledge over these years.
- There’s always someone better than you.
- There is always someone who won’t like whatever you’ve created.
- Don’t design for yourself, design for your client.
- Current trends in design don’t always apply to your project.
- Design by committee WILL happen.
- Be proud of your work, but know compromises will have to be made.
- Everyone is a designer (whether they should be or not)
- Don’t be afraid to disagree with people.
- Web design is not print design.
- White space is your friend…seriously…