I recently upgraded the site to the latest version of WordPress (3.2.1 at the moment) and am still in the process of tidying things up. In addition to the upgrade, I also have a fairly long list of ideas and updates I’m hoping to work on soon.

One of those, however, is just about wrapped up and ready to go — it’s the new Home Page of the site. Most of the content is the same, it just now has a little different look to it and the ability to more easily browse through previous photos without leaving the page.

Behind the scenes, there’s a some pretty cool WordPress code behind it, which I’ve really wanted to get back to for awhile now. You know, balancing coding, shooting, editing, parenting, hockey, Maui, and a full time job. What else is new?

Feedback

If you swing by the home page and give it a whirl, let me know what you think. It’s not 100% fully tested yet, but it should be pretty solid so anything that looks broken, please do send me a note so I can jump on it right away.

– Kris

One of the tasks I follow before posting a new photo on the blog is obviously making sure that I haven’t posted it already. I have my own tagging convention on Flickr that helps me track that, even with switch to a new Flickr account last year. What that let’s me do is see all my photos (kinda) in one place when doing this initial check.

At first, it lead to me creating the Blogged photoset on my Flickr account, which is actually what’s driving this new page. Not liking the small square previews or the 18 photos per page approach viewing this on Flickr, I decided to move it here to the site. Now, whenever I add a new photo to that set after posting it on the blog, it will automatically pop up on this new page as well.

Not Everything Yet

At the moment, the new page is only pulling photos from my photonelly Flickr account and not my original one that still hosts photos from the posts previous to the move. I’ve been re-processing the old photos and moving them over a few at a time, but to give you an idea of the numbers, there are currently 198 photos in the Daily Photos category and only 76 photos in the Blogged photoset.

Still, it’s a good sampling of where my camera has been and a feel for the variety of things I enjoy shooting.

Where to Find It

I decided to put the new page in the Portfolio section, so click there and find Blog Photos on the menu to the left-hand side. It may take a moment to load all the images, but once they’re up, click on any of the photos to see a larger view.

Links to the blog posts and back to Flickr will be added eventually.

Thoughts and suggestions are always welcome.

– Kris

What started as a little scare last week with display on my primary development/darkroom laptop turned into an inevitable hardware failure, so I’m getting it ready for a visit to the service department next week. Of course, it has to happen two weeks after my warranty expired. D’oh!

I can still use the laptop, but I have to use a remote connection from my Mac Mini to get to it. Not exactly ideal for working with Photoshop on my gorgeous 24” monitor, not is it?

I have a temporary replacement machine coming this week, so I’ll either set that one up this weekend to do some interim photo work, or I may just break down and download the 30-day Photoshop CS4 trial for my Mac.  Playing by ear and how I’m feeling about the situation later this week.

Off Topic

So I decided to use another one of my bunny photos for this post, because every post should have a photo, right?

The last gratuitous bunny pic I had was back in November when I switched to WordPress, so I think that officially makes it a pattern for these random site updates, issues, etc. I’m thinking my little friend here may become my own version of the well-known Twitter Fail Whale, watcha think?

In lieu of new photos this week, I’ll still try and stay on top of things with posts in the Before and After and Facebook series, and maybe even a book review or two. I guess that’s another sticking point is that there’s a lot for me to do than just taking and editing photos. My work is never done.

– Kris

The funny this about it, though, is sometimes I get so overwhelmed with everything else that I’m supposed to be doing, I actually take a step back and throw in a few hours towards something totally unrelated. This time around, the lucky beneficiary of that discretionary time was here at the website, with the introduction of the new Portfolio section.

The New Stuff

Admittedly there’s still more I want to do with the new section, but in essence, it’s meant to be simple. Along the same lines of creating my second Flickr account, the purpose of the new Portfolio section is to showcase the best of the best in the vast sea of photo archives I’ve managed to accumulate online up to this point.

Instead of trying to focus a single collection of the wide range of subjects I’ve been shooting (at least until I work on defining my style) I’ve created multiple portfolio sets. For example, there’s the obvious Maui Portfolio which is probably more than 50% of what I’ve shot. There are also portfolios for some of my best Hockey and Astrophotography images, just to name a few more.

Each portfolio still needs a little refinement here and there, but I was just happy to get what I have launched so I have something to work towards in the near future.

The Old Stuff

If all I had posted at this site was the Portfolio, it would probably be enough in and of itself. But since I first setup this site last year, I’ve also had two other somewhat related sections: Viewfinder and Favorites. They may seem redundant, but for now I’m keeping all three. Here’s a sort summary of why each is different.

• Portfolio – The new section that breaks down my best shots in different subjects/locations. The photos speak for themselves.
• Viewfinder – My favorite locations and subjects to shoot that are “in my viewfinder”. Each entry in this section has background as to what about that location or subject makes it interesting to me.
• Favorites – This is a deeper look behind some of my favorite photos over the years. Not so much of the technical aspects of getting the shot, more of the back story of each.

The Code

Again, my love affair with the Flickr API contributed to this new section. It actually started when I was working on the Wall of Aloha page a few months ago. It’s simple from the API side, just listing photos from a predetermined photoset on my Flickr account and just listing the thumbnail and then the larger size with the Lightbox 2 plugin.

The Portfolio section has a few additional hooks into WordPress that I’m just scratching the surface with. At the moment, it’s a new Page Template with the code behind it for pulling the photosetid and other parameters from custom meta tags. Going forward, it would probably be better suited as a plugin instead, but that might have to wait for another life.

Thoughts?

As always, check out the new section for yourself and if you have any questions or comments, I’m all ears.

– Kris

Surely an undertaking that I admittedly entered into lightly, it was nothing short of a huge relief choosing that last photo to close out the set (for now). I have slightly larger plans for this imagery than the current Daily Maui Photo gadget and feed, but in the meantime I wanted to have something to commemorate the completion of this effort.

Introducing My Wall of Aloha

What I came up with was a quick way to see all 366 photos in one place, and my Wall of Aloha was born. Sure, it takes a while to load up all those photos on a single page, but once it finishes downloading into your favorite browser, you have an entire island awaiting the click of your mouse.

Those who know me, either in real life or online, know the impact that Maui and the Aloha Spirit has had on my life in the last few years. And as far as my photography goes, it was perhaps this photo and that first day on the Valley Isle that could be considered the epicenter of this next creative phase of my life.

It has meant so much, in fact, that I’ve added this page to the main site navigation all the way up there at the top. Just click on Aloha and enjoy.

– Kris

krisnelsonphoto.com is now running on the WordPress platform.
(gratuitous bunny pic)

All told, it took less than a week to move over all the custom pages from the existing photonelly.com site, as well as bringing over the 180 posts from Blogger that were published via FTP.  Hadn’t really paid attention to the post count until now, as it looks like I’ve been posting more daily photos than I realized.

Another good chunk of that time was taken up by porting over the custom home page code I had on the previous site to parse out the Blogger feed data to show new photos on the blog itself. It was fun code for the geek in me to write, but the new structure I setup with WordPress is a lot cleaner.

So … What’s Different?

Well, not much right now. The blog itself has a slightly new look with the sidebar and new widgets. Oh, and PAGING!!!! Not something that I had from FTP publishing with Blogger. It’s the little things, folks.

But, it’s really only the beginning. With all my site pages and stylesheets now maintained in WordPress, it is a lot easier to add more of the new content I’ve been dreaming up. There are also good widgets, plug-ins, and maybe a theme or two that I may look into adding. I also have a ton of new links to share, and looking to feature some of the great photography blogs I’ve started to follow this year.

All-in-all, it’s going to be a lot more fun than Blogger was.

Stay Tuned

Okay, that wasn’t much of a teaser for things to come, but if you like some of my images or where I take make them, go ahead and subscribe to the feed to get updates as they’re posted. You can also find me on Twitter, too as @webnelly if you’re into that or even on Flickr if you wanted to say Aloha!

- Kris

P.S.: Nobody’s perfect, so there are bound to be a few things that I missed when migrating or are no longer working. Please let me now if you find such instances.

I learned quite a bit from my first migration earlier this year, but fortunately this move isn’t going to be as large as the first one.

Caution: Kinks Ahead
At the end of it all, moving to WP is going to be a big plus for this site and blog. I’ve already spend a good number of hours getting the test site ready by moving all the site pages and styles over, but I still anticipate the normal move-related issues once this switch is flipped.

I’m hoping to cut everything over late tonight and start fixing the first issues this week. By the weekend I hope to have everything ironed out and the newly renewed stream of photos coming in through the feeds again.

Thanks,
– Kris

Allow me to introduce my new “bubblesite”, Kris Nelson Photography. The phrase bubblesite comes from the company that is offering this service, Red Bubble, and it is a very clean and easy to navigate site to browse through different galleries of all my best work, including Maui, Chicago, and Door County photos.

Not Just Maui
The first thing that’s cool about this site is that it’s not just Maui focused like my existing store, Maui Wall Candy. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Maui is and always will be my absolute favorite place to take photos, but there is another part of my portfolio that is growing faster than I can get to Maui. This new site lets me brings those shots to you as well, and hopefully right to your living room wall.

More Options
Not only are there more than just Maui photos, there are many different things you can do with them as well. For example, you can use these photos to make a greeting card. There are also options such as matted prints, canvas and even framed art, too. They also have options for creating posters, which I’m still exploring.

In any case, if you have a need or are looking for a great gift idea for yourself or someone else, give it a look.

More Photos Coming Soon
There are still less than 30 photos here, but more are on their way. I’m working putting the finishing touches on quite a number of photos so they look the very best when they’re ready to be sold. And if you have any questions or requests for some of my work you’ve seen online, please Contact Me and I’ll be very happy to help anyway I can.

Thanks, and happy browsing,
– Kris

The new site is targeted at fellow fans of Maui, and local residents alike, who have fallen head over heels for the Valley Isle and want to relive their favorite Maui memories without stepping outside the comfort of their own home. Although, most of us would jump at a chance to head back to the islands if we could.

In addition to featuring some of the best locations on Maui, each post has a place for comments where readers can talk story and share their favorite memories for the location their viewing.  There are posts for some of the best beaches you’ll probably find anywhere, as well as a section for the twists, turns, sights and sounds of the road to Hana. There are other sections, too, but it’s probably easier for you to just check it out for yourself.

I’ve updated the Find Me page here at the site with more links to Maui by Photo, and if you haven’t seen that page yet, it’s getting pretty big now.  There are now 7 different places online that you can go to find various parts of my photography, a number I hadn’t realized was getting so high until now.

You can also read more about the new site via the official launch announcement yesterday on my existing Maui site. I also created my very first page on Facebook for this site, which you can find here.

I hope you like it, and if you’re a fan of Maui, I look forward to hearing some of your favorite island stories.

Thanks,
– Kris

It’s been some time since the last update here aside from the daily photos I’ve been posting. It was a great two weeks in Maui this year, which is really no surprise. As anticipated, I took a large amount of photos, again no surprise, and I’m still in the process of going through and editing/publishing the very best. No surprises there either.

Even without going through all the photos yet, I can already say from a photography perspective, it was a very successful trip. I tried out a few new techniques and expanded my horizons quite a bit further over the previous years, especially with a renewed focus on composition. It gets even better, though, as I’m hoping to determine this week if we’ll be able to return to Maui in September for the first annual Maui Photo Festival and Workshops. More details on that soon.

Sticking with this most recent trip, I hope to have more of my latest photos published out on Flickr in the next week or so, as well as over on my profile at Hawaii Photography. As I finish them, I’ll have updates on the blog here as well.

New Home Page

About two weekends ago, I went ahead and redesigned the home page of the site here to feature the daily photo that I’ve been posting on the blog. While it’s not complete (nothing ever is, really) I think it’s a pretty nice addition to the site and a good way for me to feature a larger range of photos here online. There’s more to it than just throwing up a new photo everyday, and I’ve been meaning to write up some of the behind-the-scenes details behind it on my web development blog. Hopefully I’ll get to that soon as well.

In the meantime, feel free to browse through some of the past photos and let me know your thoughts on how you think it could be improved.

Upcoming Projects

After every trip to Maui, I end up with a giant pair of blinders on from a photographer standpoint. You can’t really blame me because Maui is such an amazing place to shoot, and no matter where you go, there’s something beautiful and intriguing to capture with your camera. While I don’t live there (yet), there are still many other things closer to home that I enjoy shooting, and get to practice with more often.

I thought I’d take a moment to mention two of the larger projects I have upcoming in the next month, aside from a few other smaller things I’m also working with.

Upcoming Project – Blackhawks vs. Sharks, March 25th

Last year, my wife and I were given tickets to the Blackhawks-Sharks matchup at the United Center. While the Hawks ended up losing, the seats were amazing and I was able to get up close thanks to my telephoto lens. This year, when I had to the opportunity to purchase similar seats to the same game, I jumped on it.

Hockey is one of my favorite sports to shoot as a photographer, mainly because I’ve played the game all my life and it is probably the most exciting sport to watch live (yes, there’s obvious bias in that statement). The action is so fast paced and physical, there are tons of great photo ops just waiting to be captured. With these seats, I hope to come home with a handful of shots to share here, and seeing how much I’ve learned and practiced in the last year, I’m really excited about this one.

Upcoming Project – Door County

My wife and I are also planning another trip up to Door County, Wisconsin next month. With Maui being my absolute favorite place to shoot, Door County comes in as a strong second. It will be our third trip up north as Cindy and I continue our visits to different parts of the peninsula at different times of the year. Previous visits included our first trip in September and most recently in December.

December was a great time to shoot even though it was below freezing the entire time, and I was out there at least one day when the wind chills were below zero. Although our trip next month in April will be just a tad bit early for all the spring blossoms and colors to be in full bloom, it still stands to be a good trip for us to do a little more exploring through the state parks and a few lighthouses that were just impossible to do in the winter. Seeing that visits to Door County is much closer and easier to budget than trips to Maui, this is likely the first of a handful trips to the “Door” this year.

Be sure to stay tuned for updates from both projects in the coming weeks, as well as continued daily photos here at the blog.

Thanks,
- Kris