Progress

As suspected the website is evolving as I work on it, I like it better than ever now, the subtle changes in the format make the pages more accessible I think. Note that I'm currently working on a local copy so there aren't that many noticeable changes yet.

After I finish reformatting all the camera pages I'll review them for dead/broken links and current information and upload them as a whole. I'm finding a surprising amount of missing sample pictures for things I've taken pictures with, I'll have to dig out my stacks and get to work scanning when I come back from vacation.

Speaking of, I have my usual dilemma, what camera(s) to bring? I know, I should be more worried about which shoes...

Site Update in Progress

It is time. Slowly, surely, you will begin to see the pages at mattdentonphoto.com and mattsclassiccameras.com updated with a slightly new look. I've picked a layout and typefaces, tweaked the templates and have been testing it quite a bit. Not only is it a slight cosmetic upgrade, this update will give me an opportunity to clean up my code and update all of my pages and links, though there are hundreds of them so it will take a while.

The move to use css has been something I've been putting off for a long time, but now the time has come, the technology is tried and true and used very widely now. In the end it's as much for the look as it is for me to be able to update the site more easily and quickly in the future.

I'm prepared to hear complaints that the 'new look' is too this or too that, even though it's essentially the same... just a little application of some of my dormant design training, that's all. It may change again as I go through this process, we'll see.

Keep checking back!

What's Going on (What's Going on) ?

What the heck have I been up to lately you ask? Certainly not adding new cameras to my Classic Camera page! Alas, this is true, though I do have a few pages that I am working on for a few worthy cameras that haven't been immortalized yet. And other updates as well...

Instead, what I have been up to since last summer (2005) have included the following:

-changing jobs within my department
-remodeling our kitchen
-continuing to take and teach Taekwondo (Casey and I are both black belts now)
-assistant coaching Casey's basketball team
-learning to play the recorder, the tinwhistle, and now the guitar
-photographing.... a little...
-engaging in the fine (and fun) art of spirits tasting, notably premium tequilas and bourbon

a lot of the latter actually :)

and other life stuff

What happened last summer was this -- we went on vacation where I took many rolls of film with 3 different cameras, then came back and developed but didn't print most of the images. THEN, went into house project mode and gutted our kitchen/dining area, so many of my cameras and books went into storage in the garage. Spent the next month rebuilding the kitchen and installing cabinets, etc., and once the kitchen was done I still have less storage for my stuff than before SO most of it's still in the garage. Without space to store stuff there wasn't much point in continuing to collect so I put that off and then got busy and haven't done much photography either. Not to mention that my darkroom became a holding bin for Christmas presents and well, refer to the list above to see why I might not have been able to find the time for darkroom work since Christmas.

Then I changed website hosts, which opened up some opportunities to do some things that weren't really possible before -- such as this past week I've been teaching myself css and attempting to rework my website in css to be able to update it easier, and integrate this new blog.

Almost forgot - I also lost a fair amount of time glued to the World Cup on tv and Yahoo Matchcast (not to mention lunchtime pub crawling - yow!).

Anyway, check back for site updates in the near future, I have new images to (finally!) replace my ancient 'new work' area. It won't be done overnight but hopefully it will be a steady stream of updates and tweaks. Keep those emails coming!

Matt

Welcome to my Weblog

Hello all - I finally decided to take the plunge and adopt this trendy technology to stay in touch and help keep my site updated even when I'm not adding new pages. Bear with me while I work on integrating this section and updating the mechanics of the site itself. The challenge for me (besides finding the time!) will be to update and enhance the site without compromising its simple look and feel.

To be sure, this is not my first attempt at what is now called a weblog or 'blog'; several years ago I attmepted in one of my early websites to keep an online diary (long before blogging software made it simple), in what became "Geekboy's Essays" before it just got too difficult to maintain. Ring any bells? Of course not. Not enough people were online at the time, which is why that site eventually vanished in obscurity. NCSA Mosaic and Netscape 1 were the browsers of choice, Altavista was the search engine of the day, Amazon was barely starting out and there wasn't much worth seeing on the Internet except for Swedish porn (well, some things don't change). Only geeks and nerds were online, not the general public. Now everyone and their grandmother is online and has their own website and weblog....

Hm... suddenly I feel like I'm on the verge of ranting 'Blogging! Text messaging! Why, in my day we just used two cans and a piece of string and liked it!' Ah well. Check back for updates and announcements, I'll try to keep it interesting :)