grumble grumble grumble
so i had an e-mail exchange with a friend, she asked me what i thought about a picture she took. it was a picture of a christmas ornament in the snow. it was a good shot you could see the individual snow flakes and the ornament, good framing etc…i thought it would look good on one of her postcards she designs. anyway i went on a bit of a rant, well i wouldn’t call it a rant, more like a “i have something to say so i’m going to say it” bit. i finally got around to writing about it, so here we go.
i personally do not like most of the pictures that i take. that is not to say i take bad pictures i just don’t feel that they capture what i am trying to shoot. i know i need to take more pictures to get it right. and i know that. i love digital because of the flexibility to shoot 40 pictures to get the shot, but i miss film for the exact opposite reason. if you take the time to focus, meter and frame a shot properly you do not need to take 40 shots.
with film the cost is prohibitive. with digital there is no film processing costs, yes there are printing costs and software costs but it is still not the same. i have a nikon d70 at 6.2 megapixels, small by today’s standards, but it still takes great pictures. that being said i am still not happy with quality of warmth in the pictures. especially after processing them to black and white. digital still does not compare to film, in my experience. give me an 8×10 camera with a bellows and a prism and i’ll be happy. now granted that is not something you take apple picking.
at some point in my life I want a medium/large format camera a darkroom and an enlarger. i really like the mix of art and science that film photography encompasses. i take my pictures (ie artsy fartsy) pics very personally and i do not like to show them to people because almost all of them, in my opinion are crap. i hold myself to a high standard and if i don’t like them, that is that. in all of my years of photography, 25+, i have maybe a dozen or so pics that i really, really like. you know the exposure, the framing the development the printing all look great. now is that because i do not take enough pictures or i do not know how to take good pictures? perhaps but I think it has more to do with capturing the moment precisely than my technique.
wow run on paragraph there. i got a bit long winded. here are a few more points I want to touch on, i don’t like most pictures i see on flickr, photo.net or any other number of sites. i think the digital camera revolution has made many people feel like “photographers” when any monkey can center a shot and take it. not that i think i am a photographer – far from it, but i like to think i am working toward that goal. i don’t know, photography is one of those things that i really enjoy but i find incredibly difficult to master. taking pictures at a birthday is one thing – it’s more about capturing memories. photography, in my opinion, is much much more, more like an artform. but that’s what i like about it, really good photos are elusive and take skill to get. i guess it’s the hunt that keeps me going.
sorry about that reply a bit more than you expected eh?
so short answer is yes i liked the photo.
me. i’ll take film.
.mike
should you build your site to be backwards compatible? is it really worth the effort to make your site as pretty for ie6 as it is for firefox 3.6 or chrome 5.0? are we as developers responsible to make this effort? do we owe it to our users to do this? well the long and the short of it is …maybe.
if you are working on a big site like say twitter or drudgereport you must deal with being backwards compatible. nicole sullivan said on her 5 by 5 interview when you have millions of page views even when ie6 at 7% that is more visitors than most sites get in a year. so yes when you are working on a big site you should be backward compatible to keep you audience engaged.
at the other end of the spectrum take developers sites, for example. most of us have pretty low traffic. plus the people coming to our sites are most likely using the latest browser versions and are capable of rendering the site the way you designed it. i have used some html 5 and css3 on my site. personally i do not even bother testing older browsers. i tested it in the latest browsers and just the major ones, ff, chrome, safari and yes even ie8. now am i being lazy? perhaps, but really most people that would be visiting my site would be running one of these browsers.
if you fall in the middle you have to judge you audience. if it is a tech savvy crowd then you users will probably be running the latest versions. on the other hand if it is an older audience then perhaps you should be sensitive to older browsers, because people like my father would never upgrade his browser if it wasn’t for me. so you, as a developer, have to keep that in mind. so you have to keep you audience in mind.
once again use common sense. for personal sites, i say go nuts. use what ever new cutting edge layouts you want. different navigation, rounded corners, transparency. knock yourself out. but for heavy traffic sites, keep to main stream techniques and conventions.
.mike
no, no, no. that seems to be the common advice given to freelance web developers/designers these days. don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with saying no. what if it is a bad project or a bad client or you simply do not have the time? they are all valid reasons for saying no. but i did something different the other day, i said yes.
when i said yes to the project i was immediately motivated. it is a simple project, on with no pay but will benefit people in the end. i started a business card exchange or as it is known on twitter a #bizx. basically people sign up and once i get say 50 people to participate i contact everyone and let them know how many cards to send in and where to send them. all i ask is for a small donation to help defray the costs of materials and mailings.
when i said yes i felt good. it was nice to have a fresh new project with goals to reach. instead of no i said yes. it is funny but lately i have been changing the way i approach life. call it mid-life crisis (kind of), call it father of five soon to be six. call it wanting to change careers. call it what you like, i simple have been much more motivated to say yes than no.
it really started a few years ago when my wife an i started a celiac support group because our son has celiac disease and his doctor asked us if we would be interested in starting a support group. we decided that instead of complaining about the lack of support, we would become the support. so for three years we ran the group. we made some great friends and i like to think helped out the celiac community. in the end we had to stop due to our expanding family size and the lack of funds. that being said it was a great experience and we look forward to starting it up again when we have a bit more time.
since that day i have been saying “yes” much more often. where in the past i would have been happy to say “no”. i am just starting out with web design and development. i have been on and off again for about three years or so, even in that time my designs have been better and my coding has improved. i know i will get better in time, it is a slow process for me with a day job and almost six kids. but i work when i can. i will get better as i go and by saying “yes” it will keep me motivated to keep pushing myself harder.
my posts, as of late, are how does one put it gently, lame. i have been putting up entries because i felt i had to. i am really trying to get my web development business off the ground and i felt that if i could post something, anything, it would be helpful. well after re-reading the last few posts, ok most of my posts they are anything but. now i am not a great writer, not that i suck i just need more time to polish what i am trying to say.
take for instance my college roommate, he was an english major and i was a computer science major, yes a match made in heaven. we were both in the same photography class. we had a paper due and i had written a first draft, a few revisions and a final draft. the day the paper was due rock, yes he was called rock and i was called bully, as i said a match made in heaven, rock said he was going to write the paper in class. i met up with him later at the coffee shop and he showed me his paper. i read it and i was so pissed, it was great story that he wrote during class. now that guy could write. i have to work at it.
so i told you all this because i am going to make sure that i put more effort into writing. a little more research and a little more insight. i am going to put out better quality work. if i want to get anywhere i have to sound half intelligent. oh and by the way the all lowercase is by choice. i like the look of it.
.mike
really relax. it helps.
i had a problem that i could not figure out. what ever i tried the solution just did not work. so in frustration i put it aside to work on something else, something mundane. i actively avoided the issue for the rest of the day. the next morning after a night of sleep, as much sleep as one can get with five kiddos, i was in the shower when the answer presented itself to me. i really wasn’t even thinking about it and pow, there it was.
last week i had another sticky issue on another project. this time i had to avoid the issue due to the act it was time to go home. so my mind chewed on this particular problem for two days before coming to the solution. i figured this one out while i was cooking scrambled eggs.
so take time, relax. your mind will work out the solution. it works. listen to some music, play guitar or go outside and walk. anything to get your mind moving in another direction. how many times have you gone back to look at an old project and be amazed that you did that? get some distance and then look again you may be able to see the solution that was there all along.
.mike
this ad experiment is something i came up with for two reasons. one i hate ad space on a website, i think it just does not fit into the flow of a site, and two to make a few bucks and see if it is a viable approach.
so the deal is the available space to be purchased is 800 pixel by 532 pixels in 5 x 5 blocks, for $1 each. here is the catch there are no logos allowed only color. each block or multiple blocks you buy will have a link back to the site you would like but no logo or blinking or scrolling. just a colored block, if you would like a custom color just send it along or i can give you a random color. which is what i will do if no color is chosen.
so i figure once the whole area is filled in it will look neat filled in with totally random images and links. a few disclaimers, i will not link to porn sites or anything that i find objectionable. let’s keep it pg-13 ish, ok.
paymet, right now all i have is paypal – you can send it to mcouellette@gmail and we can go from there, remember it is $1 for a 5×5 block no limit on the number of blocks.
thanks for reading, and for participating.
.mike
as you may or may not know i live in manchester nh. i have worked in manchester since 1993. i grew up not to far from here. went to college at saint anselm, which is near machester. you get the picture. i have been in and around manchester most of my life. and i swore that i would never live here. so 10 years and 5, plus one on the way, kids later, i live in manchester.
now if you have ever visited manchester, heck if you have driven by you will see the mill buildings. these are amazing brick building that line the merrimack river. i have always loved the mill buildings. their sheer size and the heritage that they hold are part of manchester’s history as a mill town.
the mills now hold a variety of businesses from high tech to storage space. from restaurants to radio stations. i have always wanted to have a job in one of the mill buildings. with the 20 foot ceilings, giant windows and worn wooden floors that creak as you walk along. it is just the type of place i want to work in.
lately i have been thinking about letterpress and the old machines that small shops still use. i have never done any printing, but it looks like an interesting way to make a living. mixing high tech with old tech , so to speak. so in a round about way what i am getting at is i’d like to have a print shop in the manchester mills. yes i know it was quite rambling but for some strange reason i had to get this written down. so there it is.
.mike
ok.
i’ve been on again off again with this web freelance idea for the past few years. since i changed my direction to web development i have been trying to get better at my html/css (xhtml html5…) coding. it is going pretty well. i am confident that i can do small sites now.
that being said, where do i go for business? cold calling clients is not really my idea of marketing. also most people off the street could not tell you the difference between a web designer, a web developer or a network administrator. we all have heard the “my nephew has a computer and has his own mybookface site.
i am thinking that i need to start contacting designers and go that route. i’d like to get a small site or even a page or two to get into my portfolio. i am currently working on a free (gasp i know) project so hopefully that will go live soon. just seems to be hard to get going when i have a day job. how do other developers get gigs?
i am sure i’ll find out.
later
.mike
i’ve got blisters on my fingers…
no really i do. well sort of. i decided to start learning how to play the guitar a few years ago. i was lucky enough to be able to trade an old pc of mine for a guitar, thanks to craigslist. i was going to a friends house weekly to learn how to play. he has been playing for 30+ years. he’s no mark knofler but hey who is, well ok mark knofler is but i digress. from then on i have been playing on again off again for the past 2 or so years.
i have recently decided that since i was stopping karate i will have time for the guitar again. so as of late i have been playing more and more and my fingers have begun to get used to playing again an basically they hurt. i’m still having fun though.
i look forward to the time when i can play a song all the way through and not sound like i just dropped the guitar.
rock on.
.mike
my oldest announced this past weekend that he will NOT get married. he simply will not have the time, as he puts it. because, after all, he is going to be a fireman, a policeman and a farmer. so i re-assured him if he was going to hold all of those jobs at once he certainly would be single. seeing as he wouldn’t have time to eat or sleep, never mind get married.
funny i didn’t notice web designer anywhere on that list. have to work on that.
.mike
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