It is finished. I am exhausted. I am ready to go lay down in a meadow and watch clouds drift by all day. Maybe for a few days in fact!
I’ve just completed a monumental effort in overhauling my entire photography collection – a nearly-indescribable task that has occupied much of my free time over the last several months. Countless hours of building, editing, reprocessing, writing, tweaking and plenty of hair pulling have finally culminated in the relaunch of JesseSpeer.com.
I invite you to take some time to browse through the entire website. Nearly everything has been rebuilt from scratch. I’ve added a new blog — which I plan to update regularly. No, seriously. And most importantly, I’ve added a significant number of new photographs. Many of them are new images being seen for the first time, and many are older “hidden gems” I came across during the course of the last several months. In short, a website that fully represents the state of my photography collection today is finally publicly available. It’s a huge relief, and I am very excited. After all these years, there is still no greater thrill than being able to share my work with others. I thank each and every one of you who are reading this for the continued show of support for my photographic efforts!
Now, I’m going to take some time to describe the new website. So, either jump right into browsing around using one of the links at the top of the page, or keep reading to learn more about the “behind the scenes” process. There’s still plenty of work to be done, and I welcome any feedback regarding errors that you encounter. I plan to be very active here. So, visit often!
So, what was wrong with the old website? Well, nothing really! It was beautiful and functional. But with this latest redesign, I have significantly improved upon the functionality – and have managed to achieve this using a building process that was fairly easy and low-cost. Most importantly, I can now redesign (because I’m a designer!) whenever the whim arises. Furthermore, my website now displays virtually every photograph I’ve ever taken that I consider to be of “publishable” quality. Prints, licensing and personal use downloads can now be purchased using a very powerful, automated system. The list of features goes on and on. But I’ll try to be brief, and describe just a few …
Key features:
• The “info”, “portfolio” and “blog” sections are completely powered by WordPress – using a slightly customized theme developed by GraphPaperPress. The ease and power of WordPress is legendary – and FREE.
• The “Image Archive” is now powered by PhotoShelter. High-resolution master files are now resting behind the scenes on their servers. Not only does this give me another backup of my photo collection, but it also means that all JPEG files are dynamically generated on the fly – depending on the sizes I specify. Image purchasing, at nearly any size, can be fulfilled instantly. I can now offer prints, licensing, personal downloads and online collaboration from a single database of photos – all with powerful searching, collecting and purchasing features.
• My website collection went from a few hundred images to over 600 images – with more on the way.
• My photos are now displayed BIG and beautiful (especially in the blog).
• My most-recent work, dating back to fall of 2009, is now publicly available – with all new subject matter.
• Nearly every photograph has been reprocessed, numbered, captioned and keyworded – and then sorted into convenient galleries.
• I will be blogging. I plan to make the blog the primary focus of this new website. I hope you will participate.
• The design minimizes bells and whistles, and places high emphasis on content display. Simplicity rules.
I could really go on an on. But for the sake of brevity, I’ll stop here and let the discussion begin. Feel free to add your comments, and let me know if you see any errors! I know they are there. Thank you in advance, and I’m more than happy to answer any questions about the new website.
A BIG THANK YOU. I have to give credit where credit is due. I wouldn’t have accomplished this without the helps of friends and colleagues. First, to my good friends Nat and Erica – for their insight, advice, encouragement and editing prowess in the final stages. And, to Warren Diggles – my website/programming guru – whose professional skills (and PhotoShelter experience) were key in integrating the various parts of my website. And certainly to all of my friends who popped in and said “wow” and “cool” every now and then. Even to those of you who said “I really don’t like that.” – which helped the most. You are all a big part of making this finally happen. And I am grateful. Thank you!
Beautiful site and spectacular images (as always). Also a very interesting approach in the design concept of using WordPress and PhotoShelter. Congrats!
Thanks Scott! I wasn’t too sure about the mix at first, but it works. I’m a huge fan of WordPress now.
good job jesse. the new website is great! I will publish it on my fb page for others to hopefully visit.
I appreciate that Kevin.
Congratulations, Jesse! Quite an accomplishment… and a great example of what can be done when you just keep plugging away. Your stick-to-it-iveness has been an inspiration to me as I follow a parallel path.
The new site looks great; your beautiful work is presented in spectacular fashion, and I look forward to seeing the site grow and evolve as you keep adding content.
Kudos!
Thank you Nat! Now, it’s your turn.
I thought your previous website was incredible (which it was), but this new one is in another league! Your hard work has paid off in a huge way. I’d like to link your site from mine if that’s ok. Your images look even better here if that’s possible. Go lay down in that field and cloud gaze…you’ve earned it! Congratulations Jesse!
Congratulations, Jesse. I have just started to check out the ins and outs of your new site but I am loving it. I think it shows your work and vision so much better than before, and that was already being done at a high level. I do love the larger images and I have always been a sucker for that light clean background! I look forward to following your blog.
Thank you both! Of course you can link, Pam. I need to set up a links page still, so I can link to all of you.
Congrats Jesse! I knew that the website would be fan-frickin-tastic! I’ll be checking it out all night long. It’s amazing what magic you work.
All the best!
Thanks my friend. Hope to see you this fall.
Beautiful site as well as photography! The photography is very inspiring and the site has me rethinking a few things on my own site now.
Thanks Mike. It’s viral.
Fantastic work, Jesse, looks very beautiful, streamlined and professional and presents your images well. You know I am especially impressed by the use of WordPress and Photoshelter, great work. And as someone who has just gone through the same, done the same, I can certainly appreciate the enormous amount of work that goes into launching a new site and re-processing almost all of the back catalogue. Cudos!
Thanks Flemming. Your recent “grand opening” played a role in a lighting a fire under my tail.
Excellent job on the site Jesse, thank you for the props! It is a pleasure working with you, especially after admiring your photography work since being exposed to it over the last couple of years. Looking forward to your blog posts, hopefully you are still planning some trips in Colorado.
Couldn’t have done it without you Warren. Thanks once again. I’m sure I’ll have more stuff to send you soon.
Stunning achievement with the new organization. I know how painstaking this must have been to get going, and I bet it does feel good. I see a lot of new imagery, and as always, one of the best collection of eye candy on the Web. I always go to your site for a photographic pick-me-up, and already enjoy the increased volume. Really great work, dude!
Thanks Darren! I appreciate the kind words. Good to hear from you. I hope we can connect someday soon, either up here or down there. Thanks for chiming in!
Many similar sites show photo images at such a small size that it’s no fun to watch (I suppose the creators are worried about misuse); but yours are a nice size (personally, I wouldn’t mind even larger!)
Love your website Jesse. I have had it locked on my browser for the last few days so I can slowly make my way through it. Nice simple design, clean, bright. Images are all fantasic too. Great job
Excellent job on the new website Jesse. Your website has always been great. You have really updated with the times and I love how everything came together. Glad to see you went with wordpress. I really love their stuff myself too.
Thanks Carl, Richard and Gale! I appreciate you taking time to enjoy the new work and website.