Archive for January, 2008

My first book !

Monday, January 21st, 2008

I never knew making a publishable book is well within my current resources. I had been planning to get a heavy duty mac desktop primarily for design work. After working on a macbook pro, I know that all I need to master is Adobe Photoshop and InDesign before I can make really professional stuff out of my photos.

I didn’t know about blurb.com and its Booksmart software for mac till Francesco showed me the light. Thanks buddy !

I had to make a practice book, and what is better than making one devoted to the SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) !

A few happy hours of labor, and the result brought me a big grin. A perfect end result in my quest for a photography workflow.

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My first personal business card

Sunday, January 20th, 2008

My first personal business card

Trying to be a pro photographer eventually needed me to make my own cards. An hour with gimp later I came up with a picture I can never be tired of, plus this picture is featured in my professional site as well. I am feeling quite satisfied about it. Wanted this setup for a long while and it is complete now. I am getting more motivated to go out and shoot so I can keep improving my portfolio.

Long way to go still, though.

Posted in photography | 7 Comments »

jQuery - best javascript library till date

Monday, January 14th, 2008

I have been using javascript extensively at work for over 2 years, and YUI for the most part of it. Even a few days back I didn’t know about jQuery. I was building my professional photography website and was discussing designs with my good friend and photographer Francesco. When I was done, our sites resembled a lot and Francesco suddenly got the urge to renovate his professional portfolio. He had been using jQuery at work, and in just a day he put up a gallery with top-of-the-line look and feel with soothing effects. I could not believe something existed that was much better than YUI so we compared code fragments. The conciseness and power of jQuery language blew me over, especially the $() selector. I added some cool effects on my site in a very short time and realized I could not do that with such simplicity had I used YUI.

I did not stop at that. I renovated my main website last Sunday, with a few hours of labor, mostly spent in GIMP to make some cool icons to go hand in hand with the magic of jQuery. I am very happy with it now and planning to do more changes to the site soon.

Big thanks to Francesco for opening this wonderful javascript world to me.

Posted in technology | 1 Comment »

photography.joydutta.com launched !

Thursday, January 10th, 2008

As the cliche goes, I am finally going “pro”. Just wanted to see what the professional side of photography has to offer. Waited long enough to gather a few portfolio-grade images and thanks to my recent sessions on portraits and headshots of few models, I am ready by now.

As I find out, it is fierce competition out there. Since money is not my sole focus in this, I am determined to find out what my skills are worth in the market. Business cards are in short order. Several TFCD sessions done so far have been very productive.

I am looking forward to photograph people, especially weddings and children. They are both hard to do well and highly rewarding. Hoping for a productive 2008 in my new adventure.

http://photography.joydutta.com

Posted in photography | 3 Comments »