Stephen Ip Photography

Moving to Squarespace

Stephen Ip — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:02:12 +0000

After much thought and deliberation, I have decided to move my photography blog to Squarespace. I was persuaded to check out the free trial by an ad I heard for Squarespace on Macbreak Weekly. I was impressed with the templates available and the ease with which they could be customized. As great as the free service has been here at WordPress, I wanted a way to customize the look of my blog without having to spend a lot of time tweaking the code.

The Site Builder at Squarespace was exactly what I wanted to make building a new site easy and intuitive. The great thing about the Site Builder is that it allowed me to build more than a blog. I was able to create a gallery for my favorite images with an integrated lightbox in seconds. Creating separate pages for archives and contact information was also quick and easy. In my opinion, the service at Squarespace is ideal for setting up a simple blog or creating a more robust website. I plan to expand my site as time goes on to take advantage of the power of Squarespace.

While I am really enjoying the experience at Squarespace, I do have to end with one caveat for those considering switching. Unlike WordPress, Blogger, or Vox, Squarespace is a paid service and while their pricing is quite reasonable, it is still something to consider for those thinking of moving.

I hope you found this mini review to be helpful and that you visit me at my new location. If you decide to try Squarespace, you can support me by using my affiliate link and get 10% off your subscription by using the coupon code Macbreak. Hope to see you at Squarespace.

-Steve

Update (9/17/2010): I recently decided revamp my site as a photoblog and to move my site from Squarespace to Tumblr. While I enjoyed my time with Squarespace, the sporadic nature of my posting recently just didn’t justify the cost of keeping my site there. I also really like the simplicity of Tumblr, both in design and function. To see what I mean, feel free to check it out here.

Zenfolio – A Great Flickr Companion

Stephen Ip — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:12:36 +0000

One of my goals this year was to set up an online photo gallery for displaying some of my favorite work. Up until now, I have used this photoblog and my account at Flickr to share my images online. While Flickr has many useful features and a fantastic community, it simply did not offer what I needed from a portfolio website. I wanted something easy to use like Flickr, but with more options for customization and a less cluttered layout. After quite a bit of research, I decided to take advantage of the 14 day free trial offered at Zenfolio.com.

Zenfolio is a paid service for storing and sharing images online. They offer three plans priced at $25, $40, and $100 per year. The least expensive plan allows you to store up to 1GB of images while the other two plans provide unlimited storage. Some features of the service include customizable layouts, print services and sales, watermarking for your images, and the ability to link a custom domain name to your Zenfolio site. For more about the feature set of each plan, visit Zenfolio.com.

The web interface for setting up my online gallery was intuitive and easy to navigate. After customizing my layout, I installed a free Lightroom export plug-in available at Jeffery Friedl’s Blog and was uploading images within minutes. I was so impressed with the look and browsing speed of my site that I signed up for the premium plan within the first week of my trial.

After using the service for a month, I have no complaints and found the technical support to be great and very timely. To see my site at Zenfolio or to see more of my work, visit StephenIpPhotography.com. If you decide to sign up for any of the plans, using my referral code (38U-JD5-NMG) will save you $5 on your new subscription and save me $5 off my renewal fee for next year. Thanks for visiting my photoblog and I hope to see you over at Zenfolio.

Newport Beach Back Bay

Stephen Ip — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 23:40:39 +0000

The Newport Beach Back Bay is one of the most beautiful places in Orange County for hiking, biking, and photography. It is one of the places I go when I see the potential for a picturesque sunset. Here are a couple images captured during two of my many trips to the Back Bay.

-Steve

Enjoy the View

Stephen Ip — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:37:08 +0000

One of the reasons I enjoy landscape photography is because it allows me to spend a lot of time outside surrounded by natural beauty. When I first started getting more serious about photography, I spent most of my time staring through the viewfinder of my camera. I was always so focused on exposure and composition that I would often forget to enjoy the view. The more time I spend shooting landscapes, the more I try to remember to slow down and enjoy the scene that is before me. The next time you are out shooting, remember to stop for a minute to enjoy the moment.

-Steve

Happy Chinese New Year

Stephen Ip — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:37:53 +0000

One of my last days in Hong Kong during my recent trip was Chinese New Year. On the second day of the lunar calendar or January 27th this year, Hong Kong celebrated the new year with a spectacular firework display over Victoria Harbour. After a two hour wait, I captured the following image from a jetty that allowed for both sides of Hong Kong to be photographed during the firework show. A small travel tripod and a piece of black construction paper allowed me to capture multiple firework bursts during a 30 second exposure.

Happy Year of the Ox!

-Steve

When In Doubt, Look Down

Stephen Ip — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:34:23 +0000

I am on vacation in Hong Kong visiting family and giving my camera a nice workout. While Hong Kong is filled with photographic opportunities, the often hazy and overcast sky can make scenics look dull and flat. In these situations, I often look for a scene with water and use a reflection as the main focus of my image. This works especially well when I have a polarizing filter around to maximize the reflection. In the photograph below, I decided to cut the sky out of the scene entirely to make the reflection from the pond the subject of my image.

-Steve

Photographic Resolutions

Stephen Ip — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:59:20 +0000

The beginning of a new year, for me, is not only the time to recover from the madness of the holiday season but a time to reflect on the events of the previous year. While 2008 was a trying and turbulent year, it will also be remembered as the year I truly fell in love with photography. No matter where my life takes me in the coming years, I know that my camera will be with me to make images to last a lifetime. Like many others, I spend time at the beginning of a new year coming up with resolutions. This year, I decided to make a few photographic resolutions to go along with my other New Year’s Resolutions.

My first photographic resolution is to grow into the gear I have. I spent a lot of time and money last year researching, buying, and selling camera equipment. Now that I have the gear I want, I plan to learn to use each piece of equipment to its fullest. I would like to learn exactly what lens will work best in which situation and really push everything I have to its limit. Only when I reach a point where I am outgrowing what I have, will I invest any more time or money on camera bodies or lenses.

The second resolution is to simply take better photographs. I know that sounds like a given but I would like to improve my percentage of great images to okay ones. In order to help accomplish this, I decided to keep my very best shots in a Lightroom collection called 1%. As of today, four of the 1310 images in my Lightroom library reside in this collection. The goal is to have one percent of my library in this collection.

My final resolution is to make more time for shooting. When I first got my hands on a DSLR in April, I brought my camera everywhere and made many interesting images. As life got more busy and hectic, I found myself carrying my camera less and taking less photographs. Even though the quality of my images were improving, it was frustrating to realize I had less and less time for photography. So this coming year, I will try to set aside time at least two to three days a week to go out shooting. Regardless of the number of images I come home with, I know getting out with my camera will move my photography in the right direction.

Well those are my photographic resolutions for this year, lets see how I do.

Happy New Year!

-Steve

Huntington Beach Pier

Stephen Ip — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:46:50 +0000

Winter in Southern California brings cooler nights, cloudy skies, and some of the most beautiful sunsets of the year. Here are a couple photographs I captured recently at the Huntington Beach Pier during one of these great winter sunsets.

-Steve

Christmas at the Beach

Stephen Ip — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:58:28 +0000

With Christmas only a few days away, I wanted to share a couple images I captured recently at the beaches of Southern California. I used the antique light preset in Adobe Lightroom 2 to get a vintage look.

Happy Holidays.

-Steve

Keep Shooting

Stephen Ip — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 06:29:15 +0000

An important thing to remember about digital photography is that the pictures are free. Once we purchase our equipment, we can shoot as much as we want without worrying about the cost of film or developing. My advice is to keep shooting until you are sure you got the shot you want. As I become more experienced with digital photography, I have come to understand the importance of getting it right in camera. While I might come home with many images of the same scene, having a shot close to what I want in camera cuts down on the time I spend in front of the computer.

Take the image below for example, I took a total of thirteen shots of this scene to make sure I had something close to what I envisioned. Once I uploaded and reviewed my images, it only took me ten minutes in Adobe Lightroom to fix the white balance and exposure to get what you see here. I don’t know about you, but I prefer to spend my time looking through my camera than staring at my computer.

-Steve