Let’s talk about blogsites!  I’ve been on a roll with them lately, and have really stretched my skills in making the most of WordPress to build blogsites that are all-inclusive, interactive experiences.  It’s amazing what you can do!  Here’s an example of a blogsite that pushes the limit and power of WordPress.

Marla  and I worked together to create a multi-template blogsite that contains 1) a regular blog (not yet live),  2) a senior information site (now live), 3) a general client information site (not yet live), as well as portfolio galleries featured in both the blogsite and senior information site.  All this with one WordPress login! All of the URL’s are root based and SEO friendly (i.e. …/senior-info instead of /blog/senior-info), making for a more organized, streamlined, and neatly presented blogsite.

Take a look around her senior information site (the other sections aren’t live yet), and you’ll get a feel for how her branding elements have been infused into every nook and cranny of the site.  I’ve recently switched from using flash fonts (i.e. sifr) to cufon fonts (image-based) and found that the custom cufon fonts load a lot faster than the flash ones.   Cufon fonts are great for replacing regular web-based fonts for menu titles and post titles (body font replacement not recommended).

Marla is also incorporating video into her site, so you can check out what she’s done and get a feel for how it can look on your own blogsite.  She also wanted to include client forms and agreements into her site, and I was able to set it up for her so she could create them within WordPress and create the pages herself.  Be aware that some of the pages are password protected, but you can view the senior information form to see an example.

I hope you feel a bit more inspired to come up with ideas for your own blogsite!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve featured a blog. I’m really excited about showcasing this one, because I think it came out so beautifully. Pam Cooley came up with the layout herself, a combination of soft, subtle colors and an elegant custom font, and building it turned out to be very fun, albeit challenging at times. The galleries showcase her beautiful work, so make sure to check them out.  Thanks Pam for letting me work on this with you!

Click image to view website:

(Click screenshot to view Blog)

I’ve been meaning to blog about this but I’m just finally having time to do so now.  This is another “Ground Up” blog with very, very custom elements.  Casia Fletcher of Purplenickel Photography had very specific criteria and guidelines of her design that made the project both challenging and thrilling to work on.  The top navigations are not the standard menu bars you see in most photography blogs these days, including the buttons that lead back to the home page and her photography website.  The footer includes navigation tools that were also very unique and includes a handy statistics table.  When you get a chance, check it out!  The photography happens to be easy on the eyes as well.

I wanted to continue featuring blogs that I’ve done extensive work on, and this is one of them.  Jenny provided me a jpeg mock-up to of the blog she wanted, and it proved to be a wonderful way to describe her vision.   She knew exactly what she wanted: right down to the size of each text element and the links below each post.  The end product is simple, yet elegant, and also unique at the same time.  Visit her blog at http://jennymasonphotography.com/blog.

I thought it would be nice to start a new series of featured blogs, just to show (off) what blogs I’ve been working on recently. Barb Uil of Jinkyart has been an (online) friend of mine for 5 years, and we finally got to meet a couple months ago in March for a workshop she was speaking at in San Francisco. I’ve admired her for years, and I credit much to her for getting me into photography in the first place.

Barb has paved her own brand and style of children’s portraiture and she channeled that talent into designing her blog, which she graciously allowed me to help her formulate. Hers is the first real “ground-up” blog that I’ve designed, basically meaning that the look and layout was completely designed from scratch. I did incorporate the Jillij theme for the menu. The main focal point is the framed post image, which showcases Jinky’s beautiful work. I convinced her that she just HAD to start doing comments again, so I came up with the hidden inline comments that I think came out pretty slick. It was a wonderfully collaborative effort that I enjoyed working on.

To see it live, visit http://jinkyart.com.au/blog