Welcome...

enjoy the new design!

I recently decided that it's finally time to update the design of my own site. I've been working on this re-design for a couple of weeks now and I think it's finally ready. My reasons for redesigning were two-fold - both a tune-up under the hood and a new paint job. I wanted to make improvements to the mark-up of my site so that it was more semantically corrent, standards-compliant, and SEO-friendly. I also wanted a fresh look for the site that felt a little more professional than the old design but still incorporated at least one of my photographs.

The design was inspired by an article about Photographic Palettes by Dave Shea, (of the always excellent Simple Bits.) The article suggests taking sample colors from an image and then layering black & white squares of varrying opacity over those colors. The resulting tonal varriations can be used to create a color palette.

Before I had finished the article, I already knew which of my own photos I wanted to use for experimenting with his technique. I took this photo of a wild columbine in a place that I've always held very special - the warm springs in Atlin, BC - and it's one of my favorite macro shots. I set to work sampling the prominent colors in the photo and then layered black squares, (with an opacity of 20%,) and white squares, (with an opacity of 40%,) over each of the highlight colors.

Now I was left with the choice of which of these colors to use in my new design. I initially thought I would use all three of the accent colors (red, yellow, pink) but I eventually gave up on that idea because I wasn't happy with the way they looked when I tried to mingle them. (It always amazes me how color combinations that look just fine in nature often don't look so good when used in various types of design.) I experimented with all of the colors but eventually settled on the combination of tan, red, green, and sage because it was the most legible.

I hope you enjoy the new design. As always, feel free to contact me with any comments.