About

Website Colophon

This site is the result of my collaboration with Mark Wiens, a master designer with an impeccable sense of what is possible on the web. And he's a fellow photographer too. I've learned a lot from Mark through this process.

Mark put the latest web technology to work. Running code includes php, javascript, jQuery, mySql, CSS 3, HTML 5, Twig, Yii, and Craft CMS. The site works across phone, tablet, and computer displays.

We use the Craft Content Management System for a web framework. This system allows the user to enter simple text content and photo files for the site from anywhere, even from a phone; similar to Wordpress but with more flexibility. The functional content is placed into a database on the web server. The image files are stored in nearby directories. When the user requests a page, the basic page information is generated on the fly and relayed to the "front-end" template files, which include logic for displaying and listing the photographs and CSS for styling. The templates style the database information and image files into the final site look and feel after rendering by the user's browser of choice.

I'm using a shared server for hosting several websites; I might switch to a Virtual Private site in the future for improved performance.

My computer is a 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro, loaded with speed and memory. Backup is done with a Promise Pegasus32 R6 raid system, with a second backup from the Pegasus to a bunch of hard drives stored offsite.

I use Visual Studio Code for coding, and Fetch for file transfer with my server. I use Web Inspector on Apple Safari for reviewing the rendered page.

For landscape photography I use a Nikon D850 and Nikon lenses. For making photos of birds in flight I use a Nikon 500mm F4E lens with a 1.4x lens extender and a Wimberley gimbal mount. In addition, I have a Nikon Z9 mirrorless camera which improves capture speed, focusing, and shoots 8K video. I have both Gitzo and Robus tripods with four-leg sections for long extension. The bird setup works for both still and video capture. I use a leveler between the tripod and the head to allow for easier panos and video panning. For landscape stills I use an Arca - Swiss D4 head. For planets I'm using the bird setup for now. I would like to purchase a tracker for deep space objects, especially nebulae, as well as planets.

Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic are used for photo editing. Topaz Denoise AI and Sharpen AI are helpful for processing high-ISO and motion-blurred bird photos. I use Helicon Focus and Photoshop for focus stacking. Starry Landscape Stacker reduces noise for star photos. I have Aurora HDR for photo editing. For video I use Adobe Premier Pro. There are specialized software packages I may acquire for planets and deep space objects.

The books mentioned on this site were designed using Lightroom, Adobe InDesign and Adobe Acrobat DC. I publish the books on Amazon Kindle Direct, Blurb, and Magcloud print-on-demand fulfillment services.