Web Profiles

From Sunny Portland
Donald Higgs' website (www.dahphoto.com) contains an eclectic mixture of styles that includes everything from people and lifestyles to landscape to wildlife. The funny thing is that he does all of them pretty well. Glacier National Park is one of the most beautiful places on this planet, and Higgs' gallery contains images of awesome beauty along with a few "so-what" shots. (See "Website Design Tip of the Month.") He provides titles for his images, so I can direct you to "Grinnell Pt.-Swiftcurrent Lake" to see the kind of scenic photography that many aspire to but few accomplish. Site design may fit a widescreen format better than the 3:4 standard, but just keep scrolling horizontally back and forth to find new (and tiny) thumbnails and see them enlarged, if ever so slightly. As falling down gorgeous as many of the Glacier National Park images are, the most subtly spectacular images, such as "Red Barn & Rainbow," are found in the Landscape & Nature gallery. There's even a section he calls "Everything Else" that contains pictures of art glass that Higgs could have added to People & Lifestyles and nobody would have known the difference.

It's Not Too Late
The January 2005 issue of Photo Industry Reporter contained a story about the photographic highlights of 2004. One of them was the annual Take Your Camera to Work Day to "celebrate photography worldwide." This year's date is May 21, 2005, so visit the website (www.takeyourcameratoworkday.com) and post images made beginning at midnight on May 21st capturing a
snapshot of the world.

Website Design Tip Of The Month
Edit, edit, and then edit your images again. You don't have to show every picture of the Statue of Liberty on your site, just the one. The only difference between a print portfolio you schlep around to clients and potential clients is that one is paper and the other is pixels. Edit ruthlessly; just show the good stuff.