I am proud to announce the immediate availability of the Hermosawave 2012 South Bay Calendar.

Besides from my web site, you can now purchase the calendar at the following retailers:

- Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce (1007 Hermosa Ave.)
- Treasure Chest, Hermosa Beach (50 Pier Ave.)
- Whole Foods Market, Redondo Beach (405 North Pacific Coast Hwy)
- Whole Foods Market, El Segundo (760 South Sepulveda Blvd.)

A full year of South Bay scenery, this year including Hermosa, Manhattan and Redondo!

A commercially printed color wall calendar measuring 11″ x 17″. Makes a great gift for any current or former South Bay Resident.

Only $15.

More information and to order…

Hermosawave Properties combines our skills in photography, web development/hosting and graphic design, to offer a turnkey package for real estate listings, including:

• Custom architecture photography
• Personalized Website
• Personalized Listing Brochure (pdf format, ready for printing)
• Domain name registration
• Website Hosting
• Photos sized for MLS listing
• High resolution photos for print advertising
• 24-hour standard turnaround, rush service also available
• Exceptional quality, all for one low price

Please visit our Hermosawave Properties site for more information.

Brokers: special discount if you mention this blog post.

Enjoy!

Timelapse of photos captured Friday April 29, 2011.

I’m happy to announce that all Hermosawave Picture of the Day images are now available as Personal Digital Desktop images, starting at 99 cents.

Hermosawave Digital Desktop Images are high-resolution images – much larger than what’s on my website and designed specifically for your computer, laptop or iPad.

Over the years I’ve found that a desktop photo needs to be a little different than a normal one. You need to be able to work over it, so if it’s too bright or detailed it won’t work as a screen desktop.

You can buy Personal Digital Desktop images from the Buy This Picture link below each photo. A selection of the most popular images are also available for immediate download at the Personal Digital Desktop site. Remember, these images are for personal use only.

For commercial use on your website, blog or in print advertising, you can now buy a digital image for commercial use by clicking the Buy This Picture link below each photo and choosing Digital Files for Website and Print Use. A variety of sizes are available, starting at $10.

Lost in the recent redesign of my Hermosawave Photography website was the ability to save the Picture of the Day photos for use as your computer screen desktop. I’m sorry, but I had bigger plans which I’m unveiling now: Hermosawave Digital Desktop Photos.

Hermosawave Digital Desktop Photographs are high-resolution images – much larger than what’s on my website and designed specifically for your computer, laptop or iPad.

Over the years I’ve found that a desktop photo needs to be a little different than a normal one. You need to be able to work over it, so if it’s too bright or detailed it won’t work as a screen desktop.

On the initial launch I have 19 different images in four different sizes. Buy online and have it on your screen in minutes with digital delivery. Check them out and let me know what you think!

Remember, these photographs are for personal use only, please contact us at photos@hermosawave.net about commercial use.

Check it out and let me know what you think! We’re just getting started, so if you don’t see your favorite photo, please let us know, thanks!

Some of the new capabilities of html 5 and css were put to good use in my latest web design, an update for Hermosa portrait photographer Cheryl Ogden. Visit the site using the Safari or Chrome browsers and you’ll see some little goodies on the home page. Check it out!

One of the issues when incorporating some of the vastly expanded capabilities of new web browsers is providing a good experience when visitors are not using the latest and greatest browser. So one must be a little cautious so that all visitors can enjoy the site — not all visitors will get the same experience, but all will get a good one. That is my goal and my mantra :-)

These days I also design for mobile, my iPhone and iPad are never far away when I’m working. And this year promises an explosion of new Android devices as well as Blackberry’s new Playbook tablet. The good thing about all these new devices? They all use Webkit, the open-source browser technology championed by Apple and Google, so they all offer more or less the same user experience.

Of course there are limits to this egalitarianism. Visitors using Internet Explorer 6, that shipped in 2003 with Windows XP? You people are not going to get the sweetest experience. Of course I test in IE6, as well as IE7, IE8 and the new beta IE9 (see how far behind these people are?) to make sure the site doesn’t break, but some details that I’m sweating to look great in new browsers… well I’m not sweating for IE6 anymore, sorry. If you haven’t upgraded in seven eight years even though Microsoft is buying advertising to get you to upgrade, well you get what you and your corporate IT department deserve. The good news is that less than 1% of my site visitors are using IE6. Your mileage may vary, but I don’t think I need to be concerned about them anymore.

I’ll get off my soapbox now, so you can enjoy the site!

I’m extending free shipping on orders of calendars and unframed prints through the end of the year! Don’t miss out!

The Chamber of Commerce also carries the 2011 Calendars if you need one in a hurry.

Finally had some free time to redesign MY OWN website, that of Hermosawave Photography. I had a couple of goals for the redesign:

• Increase the size and quality of the photos.
• Use CSS and html5 as much as possible and bring the design up to 2010 design standards — completely different than the way we would design websites even 5 years ago.
• Create a Best Sellers gallery to make it easier for casual visitors to find my best photos, without looking through the more than 1700 photos now on the site.
• Eliminate multiple versions of each photo (I was exporting 4 different sizes!), with only ONE version that was resized as necessary on the fly by the server. This also makes it possible to upload directly from Adobe Lightroom without going into Photoshop just to make the different versions. (This doesn’t mean that photos won’t ever go into Photoshop, but now only for complex edits such as HDR)
• Create special galleries dedicated to other types of photography I shoot.
• Designing the website so it looks and works great on the Apple iPad. This has to do with sizes and layout, and where I used Flash, making sure there was a non-flash alternative that worked well. (I do feel that Flash plays smoother and creates a richer experience than the html/JavaScript alternatives, so I am not one to shy away from Flash where it makes sense. That said, the days of the all-flash website are over.)
• Maintain compatibility with links to specific photos on the old site.

One thing not yet implemented, is a way for people to download photos to use as their computer desktop. I will get this going soon, as well as a few other loose ends I haven’t completely tied up

Anyway, check out the new site and let me know what you think!

I just completed a website for Hollywood movie photographer Suzanne Hanover. Suzie has had a long career shooting photographs on movie sets. These photographs generally get used for publicity and advertising, so you’ve probably seen her work in newspapers and magazines as well as on billboards around town and around the country.

Suzie is a happy, free spirit, and she appreciated that I made the process of creating her website a fun experience. She wanted an organic, hand-written feel, and I think we achieved that.

A photographer’s website ultimately ends up in a photo gallery, and I used SlideShowPro Director as the image content management system. This enables Suzie to easily change the images in her photo galleries without getting me involved. She wanted to have the feeling that these images were in a book, so I was able to integrate her photo gallery with a minimalistic book illustration. It works in Flash as well as without Flash on mobile devices.

Check out her site, it’s a fun look at the movies, both in front and behind the scenes.

If you want to see the new Hermosawave 2011 South Bay Calendar in person before buying, I’m happy to report that you can now see it and buy it at the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce office at 1007 Hermosa Avenue.

Featuring 15 months of South Bay scenery (October 2010 – December 2011), this year’s calendar includes images of Hermosa, Manhattan and Palos Verdes.

A commercially printed color wall calendar measuring 11″ x 17″, the Hermosawave 2011 South Bay Calendar is perfect for all current and former South Bay residents.

The price is $15. You can also order online for immediate delivery.