You know how some women covet shoes…

Many, MANY moons ago when I started in photography, I was shooting Velvia slide film.  I was just learning and it was great.  Then the whole digital thing kicked in and I thought that that was cool so I went digital.  A few years after that, I had the opportunity to take a course on how to use a large format camera.

I fell in love.

By the end of the class, I actually owned a 4×5 Toyo view camera.  What I loved about it was that it slowed everything down.  I actually had to know how Sunny-16 worked.  I actually had to learn how to use a light meter.  And because of the price of materials, I actually had to really want to snap that shutter.

Today, I own three 4×5 cameras.

Then yesterday, after a 7-month journey of looking for parts, my Grandfather’s Leica SL finally came back home; fixed, cleaned, and meter calibrated.  I have some old 35mm film in my fridge that I will run thru the camera this weekend to make sure all’s well (I am sure it is).

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First time for everything….

It’s official.  One of my photographs will be on a cover of a publication.  Fifth Wednesday Journal will put one of my photographs on it’s cover.

This was pretty serendipitous.

I was referred to them as someone having images that may work.  Emails were sent back and forth.  Sample images were shared.   The one below was selected for the cover.   It will wrap around the front, spine, and back.  What’s really cool is that the ‘back’ could stand on it’s own as an abstract.

This is the first time my photography has been used in this fashion and I am more excited than I can say.  Head on over to Fifth Wednesday Journal and order yourself a copy, or two or three.

The journal will be sent out in May.

© Amanda Dussault 2011  All Rights Reserved

Building a website

Since Apple got rid of iWeb, I lost my web site hosting.  And frankly, GoDaddy doesn’t need any more of my money.  I researched some different options for building/hosting my website…I tried a few sites.  If they required a CC for a trial I didn’t go any further.

RapidWeaver:  $80 or so, mac only.  not all that user friendly.  I’m a computer programmer and user friendly-ness is important.  This wasn’t all that user friendly.

Squarespace – reasonable.  struggled a bit with the free trial and the embedded images.  couldn’t figure out how to easily manage a portfolio and rearrange images, resize.  I spent an entire Saturday morning with this and did fall in love.  A website could be built quickly.  Templates can be reapplied without losing content.

VisualServer – really easy to use.  limited templates and not all that much of a difference between them.  I picked the cheapest option as a trial.   Easy user interface.

I ended up picking Squarespace.  I really warmed up to the interface.  I did sign up for the Developer’s site, where templates can be altered and all that jazz – it makes the geek in me happy.  I do think that, eventually, I will pick up a copy of Dreamweaver – it satisfies my need to be in complete control.