Totally revamped my Photography Website with Flash! December 28, 2007

I just totally redid my website with Flash photo galleries and the best thing about it is that I did not even have to open up Macromedia Flash to do it.

The old photo galleries are still up on my website as the non-Flash alternative for people who do not have Flash or don’t want to wait for the Flash to load.   It is a javascript slideshow, you can download the code from http://www.barelyfitz.com/projects/slideshow/ .  This page would also explain to you how to install the code to your website and how to customize the interface for your use.  View my javascript slideshow at http://silvasphoto.com/wedding/slideshow.php .  There are lots of other slideshow javascripts out there but this is just the first one that worked.
This javascript slideshow actually worked pretty well but I thought it lacked a certain sumthin’ sumthin’ so I started looking for Flash slideshows.  I came across Simpleviewer at http://www.airtightinteractive.com/simpleviewer/ and Autoviewer at http://www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/autoviewer/ from the same company Airtight Interactive and thought that was pretty neat so I implemented it in my website here http://silvasphoto.com/sswedding/ .  I actually have seen simpleviewer and autoviewer used in a lot of other photography websites so I am in pretty good company.

Well, imagine my dismay when after I have done all this work, I discovered JAlbum at http://jalbum.net/ which is a free downloadable software that makes online photo galleries in a very easy interface but they also have Simpleviewer and Autoviewer as Skins!  (You mean I didn’t have through all that code???)  Well, I already did the Simpleviewer and Autoviewer so I’m not about to change it but I still have another gallery to make which is the Photo Gallery of my complete weddings and engagement sessions. 

Well, before to handle all the ordering of the photos, I used Backprint at http://backprint.com cause it’s free to register but when somebody buys a photo, they get 15% of the price which is not bad since they print and send the photos to the customer.  Not a bad deal, but 15% is still 15% and I could easily code a shopping cart from scratch.  (I could but I won’t.  At this point in my life, it’s too much trouble to code anything from scratch when other people have already made a near-perfect shopping cart.)  The only problem is looking for a shopping cart that would suit me and of course, is FREE!

So I install JAlbum and my oh my oh my!  What do I discover!  In their most popular skin the Chameleon, in addition to the most awesome and coolest photo gallery, it also has a Shopping Cart attached to it!  Payments are made via paypal which is perfect and it’s free (aside from the paypal transaction fee). 

View my JAlbum Chameleon Photo Gallery at http://www.silvasphoto.com/album/