New LI is coming

by Matt | Mar 6, 2009 | Personal, Web

As you may have already figured, I’ll be installing a new WP install and new spiffy theme for LiquidIllusions this weekend. The theme is actually pretty cool. I think it’ll serve as a perfect blend of portfolio and infomative website that I can use to drum up some business. I’m downloading all my old files and backing them up since doing this will pretty much require a wipe of what’s there now. I’ll let everyone know when it’s up and running and if you have a second, I’d appreciate some feedback once it happens. I hate use the phrase but, “in these tough economic times”, it’ll be good to have a little side business to bring in a little extra money. I’ve already done an engagement portrait and I have a highschool senior portrait “on the books” for the near future. I’m not charging much for either shoot, but they’re good starting places for building my portfolio. If it all works out, this kind of thing can be the begining of my own studio.

Anyway, just wanted to spread the word that the “reboot” of sorts will be happening shortly. Stay tuned.

Photo Portfolio

by Matt | Mar 5, 2009 | Personal, Web

Hey gang, I’ve got a quick opinion question for you. Due to a recent (and welcome) increase in the amount of freelance work I’ve been getting, I feel it’s probably time to update my portfolio (on LI dot net). So, my question is this.

Should it remain as Mackenzie Photography, even though it’s under the LI domain name? Or, should it be rebranded? If it’s not rebranded, does one name under a different domain name confuse anyone?

Also, given my love for WordPress, should I try and create a WordPress photo portfolio using an available theme (althought there aren’t too many that are any good) OR should I create a static web page that might be more aethestically pleasing, but be harder to maintain and update in the long run? Is there an alternative option I haven’t considered? Anyone know of any really good photo gallery software that would work well AND look professional? Or should I just stick with a regular old web page?

Thoughts?

Quick Additions

by Matt | Feb 27, 2009 | Personal, Web

Along with my upgrades to php and mysql, I’m now able to run a few of the more recent wordpress plugins which had required the latest versions. I’ve replaced the MyGamerCard picture with a much more flexible and customizable version from Ardamis. It’s all CSS, links to the correct pages on xbox.com instead of mygamercard.com, and it’s a callable function that I can use elsewhere (like in a post for example) if I wanted to.

Also, I’m toying with LifeStream at the moment as something else to possibly add. My main issues are that I don’t “tweet” so any updates would be things like digging a story on digg, adding a photo to flickr, that sort of thing. That’s all great and wonderful but anything other than pure text (such as a tweet) adds a thumbnail to it. So, instead of:

“Matt dugg [insert story name here]”

it’s: “Matt dugg a story on Digg: [story thumbnail]”

and I think that’s kind of silly. It’s the same for Amazon, Flickr, etc. If I added an item to my Amazon Wish list it comes out as “Matt added an item at Amazon: [large photo]”. I’m trying to find a way to make it just text or just text with links. If it works I’ll let you know.

Matt out.