Blog

Hello Everyone, so nice to see you’re all keeping track!

I have some great news, I now have access to a studio for photography, located in Cardiff and within easy reach of the M4. I’m currently investigating lighting options, and should have more information soon.

I’d also like to say a huge thank you to everyone that’s sent lots of lovely tweets, messages and emails to me about this site, and I’m very pleased you all like it.

There should also be a few gallery updates in the coming days.

Thanks again everyone, and may you have a great day!

You may be forgiven for thinking that after over a year of searching, I may have just given up entirely, and that the theme I eventually chose was a simple compromise to everything that had happened and an act of desperation. You would of course, be wrong.

After a going through countless different themes, examples and the odd attempt to do this myself, all however had failed. Despite all of the searching, I couldn’t quite decide on one. Dark Or Light? Vertical or Horizontal Scrolling? Image Intensive or Magazine News Style? It was all there, but many questions still hovered above my brain.

Inspiration

Those of you following the technology scene, will know of a little something called Windows Mobile, or rather it’s newer brethren, Windows Phone 7. The device uses a beautiful, clean and unique user interface known as Metro. it’s a concept developed my Microsoft, using a scrolling banner style for it’s display. As soon as I saw this, I knew it was along the lines of what I wanted. It was clean, oversized, quirky, yet it worked, and it worked beautifully.

Of course, the Metro UI had it’s shortcomings. It usually required a background, and wasn’t really going to work on anything but a touchscreen interface, since the whole element was based on scrolling. So how could I make this clean, easy enough but incorporating some of the elements that made me fall in love with it?

Design

In the months that had passed while designing, choosing and pondering the different options, I did a lot of research into some of the sites that are out there, before I hit on a stunning example of a photographers portfolio, that blew me away.

Paolo Boccardi - http://www.fashionphotographer.it/

The website was dark, intensive, and it had something that you don’t see every day. A side scroll, just like Metro UI.

This example, was simply breathtaking, and I maintain to this day., that this is the site I would actually like to have. It was clean, elegant and functional.

Choices

So that was that. I knew that I wanted something that resembled Metro UI, whilst still retaining some of the side scrolling features, as well as remaining clean and functional, simplistic, but not barren. I had yet another choice, Black or white?

I already run a number of sites that are ‘dark’, my blog site, thelongmile.net for instance, is based on a dark theme. Moreover, I had already had business cards printed that were dark. Should I employ a background image?

So I toyed with the idea of making an exact duplicate of the Metro UI theme, but decided it was too crowded, and simply not possible without using a touchscreen. Until I stumbled across a theme by pure chance.

Kin

On a chance searching I discovered Kin on Themeforest, developed by Peerapong and located here, http://themeforest.net/item/kin-minimalist-photography-wordpress-template/123713

This theme, had exactly what I wanted, it was clean, black or white, incorporated side scrolling and had the wisdom of using a font set that was a near perfect match for the Metro UI concept I had dreamed of. Within an hour I knew this was the site, the site I wanted and absolutely had to develop, I brought it, and less than four hours later, this site went live.

For me, it’s perfect, it’s clean, minimalist, and I chose to go with white as a refreshing change. I can customise it, but frankly why would I want to?

To say I’m pleased is an understatement, it fits my requirements exactly, and it’s easy to use which is always a bonus.

So for the benefit of everyone involved, here’s the Metro UI style site in one big image.

Thanks for coming, reading and supporting me through all of this.

A fond hello to everyone that has stumbled across the site! and a huge thank you for visiting.

This site is the formation, the excitation if you will of an idea. it’s also the home of a passion that is as close to my heart as anything ever could be. I hope you will all enjoy your visit on the launch of this site, and remember, you can always contact me by using the contact form on the left.