Learning by Doing

Just over 2.5 years ago, I developed a curiosity into how websites are developed and designed. A few weeks ago, someone asked me what tools I used to create my website as well as this blog. That is a dangerous question to ask someone who is still learning by doing. However, it did make me realize I needed to take the time and record a few of the tools and the process I use if only for my own reference.

I started in the summer of 2007 by reading a book on HTML. I started coding a few pages, and using some open source software created a few static pages. That was simple, but time consuming. I soon learned there were programs (Adobe Dreamweaver) that would make this process simple. With an interest in photography as well, I purchased Adobe Creative Suite . The programs, which I use in the Suite, are Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Fireworks.

The next step was to take a course in Dreamweaver. Locally, I took a one-day course at the Computer Training Unit at North Carolina State University. From there, I also relied heavily on the support forums at Adobe while experimenting with Dreamweaver. In addition, I subscribed to a hosting service-Blue Host, and was finally able to get a website up and running on the web.

Once I felt comfortable creating a basic website, I turned my “focus” to learning Photoshop. I quickly realized it would take a lifetime to learn and effectively use all of the features of Photoshop to their full potential. I found a few books by Scott Kelby that covered the basic features, which was all I needed at the time.

Almost one year later, Adobe released Photoshop Lightroom, now in version 2.0, which I now use more often than Photoshop. In addition to having the basic post-processing as Photoshop, Lightroom has a few features that have an advantage over Photoshop. Lightroom is excellent at organizing and creating collections of photos, has a “Develop” module to make needed adjustments, allows you to create both HTML and Flash based galleries / slideshows, and has a FTP upload function so you can upload a web gallery directly to your site.

In late 2008, I wanted to learn how to make a website interactive, so visitors could leave messages, etc. This required knowledge of MYSQL/PHP. This is where I hit a roadblock. I was able to learn the basics, create databases, and contact forms for my site. Nevertheless, this required more time than I had now. Therefore, I put MYSQL/PHP aside, and looked for other ways to make a site interactive. This is where WordPress came into the picture.

WordPress is an open source blog publishing application. WordPress has many excellent themes on which to develop a blog. After a year, I decided to go with the Thesis theme, from DIY. I put a link to this blog on my website, and thus use the blog for contacts and communication.

That brings me to this past week. I wanted to improve on the galleries that Lightroom produces. There is a plug-in for Lightroom “Slideshow Pro for Lightroom” that I started using the last few days. It provides for a bit more flexibility and ease in creating and embedding slideshows into blogs as well as websites.

Finally, for most photos I use a Nikon D300. I have not yet mastered all of the features, but hope to over the Holiday vacation coming up. After that, I plan to return to learning MYSQL/PHP.

Still learning. Not enough time

FD8SXDUYG8CT