Redesigned my blog.
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under me
I spent a few hours tonight giving my blog a shiny new look.
The picture editor in me spent 3 hours trying to find a header image that I thought worked well. Finally I found a few possibilities and settled on the one you see above.
If you’re reading this by a RSS feed drop in and check it out.
I was boxed in with my old theme. It was dated and was never meant to harness the full potential of WordPress. This should free me up nicely.
What do you think?
Tags: design, me, web, wordpress
MultimediaShooter is no longer being published?
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under multimedia
Awoke to find that MultimediaShooter was down this morning and I’m hoping it’s only a bad dream.
My stomach dropped when I read this:
I’m walking away this time with my head held high. It’s been fun. I’m closing the blog doors for good this time. There’s not enough Jack Daniels or Red Bull to get me back this time. Sorry for on again off again nature of the blog lately. Thanks for the support through the hacks. This is a great time for me to step away from the blogosphere.
Good Night and Good Luck, see you in the real world.
Richard thanks again for everything. As I’ve said before you’ve been an incredible asset to the storytelling community and hopefully your voice isn’t lost for good.
Richard’s Multimedia Journal is sitting on my wish list and can be bought here.
Tags: inspiration, journalism, multimedia, photojournalism, web
WordPress Plugins
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under wordpress
Since redesigning my portfolio website and producing my Snowbird project using WordPress I’ve got a few emails about how I did things.
If you’re like me and don’t know squat about php or coding these WordPress plugins will go along way in making your WordPress endeavor an enjoyable one.
If you’re completely new to WordPress Richard has a very nice intro tutorial to WordPress at MultimediaShooter.
Here are a few plugins that have made my life a little easier. Hopefully they can help you.
Advanced Permalinks
This plugin proved to be extremely helpful in changing the default WordPress link structure to a user friendly and inviting link. It also helps in SEO(search engine optimization) rankings. The plugin keeps your old link structure in tact so even if someone is using an old link they’ll still get to the right page.
For example by default my link to the Projects section of my website was:
http://www.timgruber.com/?page_id=4
After Permalinks it’s a more usable:
http://www.timgruber.com/projects
Akisment
Akisment is a no-brainier when it comes to fighting spam on your blog.
All in One SEO Pack
What good is your website if people can’t find your content? The SEO pack will allow you to configure and optimze your site for improved SEO performance. The All in One Pack can auto generate your post descriptions and create keywords for your posts based on your tag or category groupings.
Google Analyticator
Just who’s coming to your site and how much time are they spending? This plugin automatically enters the Google Analytical code in the header of every page making it a breeze to track users across your site.
StatCounter for WordPress
If you’re a fan of monitoring how people are using your site the StateCounter plugin is another useful item to have in your plugins directory. Lately I’ve been using it more than Google Analytics for the nice log of recent visitor activity it keeps.
Flash Video Player
This will make embedding FLV files on your site a breeze. You can also customize the poster image for the player along with a slew of other options. For example with all my videos the user sees a splash screen with the branding of my site and a simple “Click Here to Start Video” in case they’re not web savvy.
Wordpress Plugin - My Page Order
Allows you to quickly and easily change the order of your pages. With this plugin I can change the order of the links on my navigation bar with ease. For example my about page was one of the first pages I built so by default it was one of the first links on my navigation bar. From a hierarchy standpoint it felt awkward having it in-between my singles and projects links and is much more at home where it resides now.
Random Image Selector
This simple plugin allows me to have the main image on my homepage change with each visit. It cycles through a folder of images I created for that purpose only.
WordPress Database Backup
After seeing what happened to MultimediaShooter a few weeks back this pushed me into action and this plugin makes backing things up a breeze. It does backups for you automatically on a daily or weekly basis. The backup can be emailed to you or stored in a hidden directory on your server.
Theme Test Drive
If you’re like me you’re always looking for a new theme to try. This plugin makes it easy to do that without your audience being affected by your playful curiosity. The plugin allows you to safely test drive any theme on your blog as an administrator, while visitors still see the default one.
Subscribe to Comments 2.1
This plugin allows people leaving comments on your blog to check a box before commenting and get an e-mail notification of further comments.
Maintenance Mode Plugin
This plugin adds a splash page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenance. Especially handy for those times when you’re upgrading to a new version of WordPress.
Good luck and hopefully that list will help you some. Any that I missed?
Snowbirds in Quartzsite launches.
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under Uncategorized
My magazine project is complete. (This is when I’m told it’s safe to breathe again.)
One main multimedia piece. One photo gallery. One embedded map. One time-lapse. One website. All in the blur of one quarter.
It was the class of ones for me.
One step at a time, I wore the many hats that the class calls upon you to wear. I was the publisher who wrote the mission statement for my publication. I was the assignment editor who researched and wrote up the shooting assignments. I was the photojournalist out in the field shooting, which was the highlight even if it left me exhausted. After shooting came the tedious world of production and editing. Days spent hacking away at php files and hours cutting audio and video.
It’s a great(well somewhat great not fully satisfied with things, but who ever is?) feeling to see the end product and how all the hats eventually brought us to one uniform package. It’s no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, but it’s a quarter I’ll never forget.
It doesn’t feel like I’m done yet, but hopefully tomorrow when we have our show and tell I’ll be able to look at everything my classmates and I accomplished and be proud of what we did.
Is it on caliber with the multimedia newspapers produce? Hopefully.
See what you think for yourself.
Tags: me, multimedia, photojournalism, Quartzsite, school, web
Redesigned my website.
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under Uncategorized
Spent all weekend buried deep in WordPress working on a redesign of my website.
Check it out here.
I’m hoping by using WordPress and a content management system to drive the photo galleries that I’ll actually update it more often now.
It’s not completely finished it yet, but it’s getting close. I need to get this blog integrated into the mix yet and finish up the multimedia page.
Everything look alright? I haven’t been able to try it on a PC yet. I’m a little fearful of the way it might render in Internet Explorer.
Any feedback would be great.
timg at timgruber dot com
Tags: me, multimedia, photojournalism, web
The citizen photographer
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under Uncategorized
While I’m not naive to the power of citizen journalism when it comes to spot news there’s a lot I could nitpick in this article like blurring the lines between the paparazzi and photojournalists. Thanks, but no thanks.
The last paragraph is worth a chuckle:
But it may mean that the actual aesthetics of news photography will change as the public starts to privilege ‘amateur’ imagery over the professional. To be believable photos will have to be more like YouTube and less like Frank Capa or Don McCullin. In other words, more real less reel. Actuality will finally triumph over art.
I hope not.
Tags: 2read, photojournalism, web
When will newspapers get it?
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under newspapers
As I do most mornings I spent a portion of my time checking my RSS feeds. Besides the print edition of the NYTimes and NPR it’s how I get most of my news.
So the question is when will newspapers finally understand you can’t take your content from the printed page and just plaster it to your website? The web is a community that thrives on linking and commentary and not cut and paste journalism.
Reading my RSS feed for the Louisville Courier-Journal this headline caught my eye:
Flurry over a photo prompts explanation
Apparently there was an outcry from readers over an image that ran on the sports page after Louisville beat the University of Kentucky in men’s basketball the day before. I couldn’t tell what the photo is about since I can’t seem to find it anywhere on their site. A search of the archives turns up nothing as it wants me to pay for the article with no guarantee the story will include the photo I’m looking for. Browsing through their 4 photo galleries (scroll down to 01/05/08) from the game turns up nothing. This image was good enough to run as their lead on the sports front, but doesn’t find a home in an online gallery of over 100 pics? I see one image that looks like it might be the one, but it comes from the second half and not the first as the article states.
There will be no apology. However, I think an explanation is in order because it encompasses what’s involved in selecting photos to illustrate stories — and what can happen if context is lost on, or not apparent to, the news consumer, which is what I think happened in this instance.
Apparently they also forget about context for their online audience since we have no way of seeing the image that sparked the public editor to write this column and address their readers.
One of their readers get it:
Here’s what makes me mad: writing a long essay about a photo, but not showing it online or providing a link to it. I have no way to make my own judgment, because the C-J isn’t showing me the picture in question. I’m out of town and did not see the original publication…..To my original point… why should readers have to dig up this stuff? See, there’s this thing called the Internet, and it has a feature called “links” by which you can actually show us what you’re writing about. Cool, huh?
Rant off.
Not all is bad in the online world. Check out the new look of the Las Vegas Sun. Refreshing.
Tags: journalism, newspapers, photojournalism, web
