V & C Impressions

Almost Grey Nomads in Australia

Tag: website

  • Updated Website and News

    Updated Website and News

    Welcome to my updated website.

    I have made a few changes around here, tweaked the theme, and played around under the hood to hopefully streamline things. The most obvious change is to the URL. I thought a change in name may better reflect on what this website is all about. I do photography as a hobby, but I like to try out different post-processing techniques and ideas, so I have no qualms about image manipulation, using multiple images or whatever else can be achieved on a computer. I don’t want to just document what I see, I want to do something different.

    Flowers

    Over the past couple of weeks, I have tried my hand at photographing flowers in my studio. Also, a bit of creative post-processing has been used. This was inspired by a couple of Youtube videos by Visual Art Photography.

    Also, I have been having a play around Topaz Studio after watching of a few Youtube videos from Jim Nix, Getting Started with Topaz Studio. In this video, he explains what Topaz Studio is and demonstrates some of its uses.

    Topaz Labs Impressions
    Topaz Labs Impressions

    Rumors and Stuff

    It looks like at long last Canon and Nikon are going to release professional, full-frame mirrorless cameras. Is this going to be a big game changer? Probably not. If you know how to use a DSLR to its full potential, mastered manual mode then there is probably not much the mirrorless camera can do that you can’t do already.

    And if you think that your kit will become lighter, think again, the camera body may be 1 or 2 hundred grams lighter, but the lenses are still basically the same weight,  especially for the f/2.8 pro lenses.

    Will I change to mirrorless, yes I will at some point in the future, but if I do change to cut down on weight and size, then I won’t be staying with full-frame.

     

     

  • WordPress themes

    WordPress themes

    Since starting this of this website, I have been on a search for the perfect theme, with excellent functionality, especially when it comes to showing pictures.
    There are a lot of options out there, free ones (lite) and premium (commercial ).
    A lot of time can be spent searching and customizing WordPress themes. The problem that I am coming across constantly is that some themes don’t work correctly with all plugins. In fact, even plugins can conflict with other plugins.
    Photo gallery plugins are the worst culprits. The theme either has its own gallery implementation which invariably conflicts with the one you have already, or the gallery that comes with the theme doesn’t have the functionality that you want. Also getting your website to look like the demo is usually an exercise in futility, especially if going with the free (lite) version. Something will be missing from the configuration options (need the premium version), or they just don’t work.
    Of course, you don’t realize this until you are about 80% along in your website development, with only a few things to tick off the list, but that is when the fun begins. Plugins clash, theme functionality is missing. Searching the www for answers, get frustrated, change course.
    Here is an article about theme development from WPTavern. It basically says there is a lot of errors in theme development, and the review team can’t keep up. There is a new process getting under way so hopefully, these problem themes can be corrected before being set free.
    I think that if you are trying to set up a WordPress website, generally you have a few ways to go about it.

    • Get the theme and plugins from the same developer usually referred to as premium. quicker and easier.
    • Hire a developer.
    • Go free and learn to edit theme files. cheaper, slower.
    • Use another platform altogether.

    After saying the above statement, I still think WordPress and all it’s associated plugins/themes are awesome. Just be prepared for a learning curve, with a bit of perseverance, you can get a website you are proud of. Still, more work to go on here, that will happen over time.
    For those that are interested, this site is using –