Did more cosmetic changes to the forums – colours/spacing – just to tie it in better to the rest of the site. The splash page is now in Flash – I still want to do some work on that. The Galleries page has been completely redone. So many tweaks, so little time, if only I could clone myself.

Have so many pictures sitting on the hard drive and I want to finish the Italian trip diary..I think I’m going to change it to HTML..will allow me more flexibility with the header images. Have already adapted both this blog and the photoblog’s templates (both originally based on Relaxation) to plain html.

I’ve been playing with the concept of community again, which means looking at opensource CMS once again. I screwed around with PostNuke last night – very disappointed – might be good for beginners though who don’t know how to edit a stylesheet. PhpNuke is now charging money so I didn’t even bother with it. Mambo, might be worth a second try. As for CMS additions such as Gallery and Coppermine – I find them much too cumbersome.

I’m considering writing a few photography tutorials for the site or its forums – covering the basics such as exposure and composition, others on purchasing equipment (the old Nikon vs Canon and digital vs film debates – how about Point and Shoot vs DSLR?). Perhaps this winter when it’s too cold to do anything else.

Have not done much photography lately – not happy about that – but the summer is winding down and I’ve been busy with other projects. Next serious shoots might be in the U.K. (September) and Boston/New England (October). Stay tuned.

I may also post some fiction – a shorty story (sci-fi/suspense) that is half finished but that I haven’t touched in about 4 months.

I found a new toy – one that might come in handy for photobooks, tutorials and/or other stuff.

I think it’s pretty cool, silly but cool. Just drag the edge of the photo (page) and turn the page. That reminds me of a Bob Seger song, covered by Metallica:

Here I am, on the road again. there I am, up on the stage.
Here I go, playing star again.
There I go, turn the page.

It works great in FireFox but you need to click in Internet Explorer. If you aren’t using FireFox yet, it’s definitely worth changing over.

It can also be integrated very easily in WordPress pages.

Nothing is constant but change. Made more tweaks to the SW interface, hopefully to facilitate navigation – make the overall site more user friendly. I’ve also removed most of the slideshows – the files were not optimized nor prepared properly – some photos are still up but even those will go thru adjustments as soon as I have a chance.

Reminds me of a David Bowie song:

Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time