Yeah, so I've been out of the loop quite a bit lately.  The primary reason is that I have been working a ton!  Beyond my normal web design and development duties at my regular job, I have also been working on some freelance projects which have occupied most of my ridiculously sparse free time (finishing Final Fantasy XII didn't help, either…).

Anyway, I am proud to announce that my first major freelance account is complete and live !

In a nutshell, landscape-expressions.com is a online photography portfolio for Gary Compton, a native of Somerset, Kentucky.  In addition to displaying his photographs in an organized fashion, Gary also wanted visitors to be able to purchase various-sized prints online via PayPal.

Overall, this site was incredibly fun to do.  Not only was is something I had not done before, but it also provided me the opportunity to utilize some new technologies that I've been dabbling in over the last few months.  Primary of these is Adobe's Spry Framework , a robust yet ridiculously easy-to-implement javascript framework which provides the majority of the functionality on this website.    One of the particularly nice things about Spry (beyond providing the engine for the gallery) is that it has some nice, native AJAX capabilities (such as the onLoad() function) which enabled me to use Spry in conjunction with ColdFusion, the application language which drives the database side of this application.  For example, if a visitor leaves a comment on one of the photographs, instead of the page having to reload as is typical for form submissions, Spry allows me to communicate directly and seamlessly with my ColdFusion component (which handles the database entries) with no page reload whatsoever.

What made this project fairly involved, however, was the Content Management System that I built for Gary.  This CMS allows him to upload photos, edit photo prices, manage comments, and even create new galleries, all in a simple, straigthforward manner that requires absolutely no knowledge of HTML, programming languages, etc.  Plus, all of this integrates seamlessly with PayPal's requirements.  Although a bit more time-intensive (and pricey, of course), this CMS will be a huge boon for future management of the site as Gary will not have to rely on me to make routine, recurrent changes to the content of the site.

Anyway, I have rambled on enough about this.  If you would like to see the final product, you can follow this link .  Also, as a plug for Gary, he has some truly amazing photographs. I especialy like the Canadian Rockies gallery.  Moreover, his prices are extremely reasonable–so if you are in the market for some great, professional photographs, be sure to check out his collection.

Oh yeah, this post couldn't be complete without the obligatory, explicit plug for my services.  If you need a website design and/or development, I would be honored if you would consider my services.  You may visit my design site, singularityconcepts.com , to learn more.