Portraits: Blended #6

I don't know how Ed heard about my mixed race project, but I'm sure glad he did. Ed and Rebecca are a great couple who recently became engaged and are planning their November wedding. We took these pictures at Lacy Park in San Marino.

Site Design

As I continue to plow through my Project Blended website, struggling with every little detail, I'm finally beginning to understand why people hire professionals to do this kind of thing.

I know - duh.

The main reasons I keep going are that I just want to prove to myself I can do it, and I want something that I can control. So if I need to add a new gallery, or change some text, I don't need to hound someone else to do it. I only need to hound myself - which is already hard enough.

The next hurdle is WordPress - I installed it and am somewhat hypnotized with all this PHP stuff. It's hard to believe that all those weird words and symbols actually mean something, and that there are people who understand it.

And here I am, still fumbling through CSS.

Clearly there are plenty of people who have figured out all this stuff, and I like to think that I'm reasonably intelligent. The goal is to get this thing up in July. And if I haven't hurled my computer out the window by then, I will move on to re-energizing my personal website, and finally - the Big Kahuna - redesigning my photography site.

The Murky World of Web Design

When I first came up with the idea of a mixed race portrait project, I had no idea that in a couple month's time I would be puzzling my way through CSS, XHTML, XML, and Flash. I thought that I would go around taking pictures, dump them on my current website, and maybe design a postcard using Illustrator or Photoshop.

But the idea of a website just for this project seems like such a good idea. I could have the portraits. Then I could add essays. A section of resources. A blog that deals exclusively with mixed-race issues.

And a movie section - which I admit seems kind of random. But the idea of writing critical essays about the ways in which mixed racialness is portrayed in cinema has been bouncing around my head since I was film school student at UCLA.

So I'll put up with the headaches in order to get the site just how I want it. And I'll pray that the Flash fairy visits me and helps me build a slideshow based on an XML file that allows for visitor interactivity so that they can click on a photo and be whisked away to the relevant photo gallery.

Ugh. I get sick just writing that.

Portraits: Blended #5

Pheng and Jon were recommended to me by Kristie, who I photographed earlier for my mixed race project. Pheng and Jon have three beautiful - and quite energetic - children. We took these pictures at their home in Pacific Palisades.

Yet Another Logo

On to Project Blended logo number three . . . .

First is was the flower, then the rings. Now it's these circle people. I made this illustration to use as the banner for my website, and I have to say, I'm really digging it. It looks exactly how I envisioned it. I might toy with the colors, make the rays a little wider, but overall I'm happy with the look.

I'm starting to get the hang of this Illustrator thing. It's still a struggle, and things like this take me a long time. But all I can say is that layers and clipping masks are wonderful things.

One banner down, a whole website left to go!

Corn

I'm always intrigued with what people can turn into a book.

Like photos of corn.

A Year of Corn. Yeah, it sounds weird. But the images are really beautiful.