Standards-compliant website helps photographer get more focused.

A Newburyport, MA location photographer was having difficulty with managing his photography portfolio online. Various browser and platform combinations were difficult to test, and so the site was not delivering a high-quality professional image. With the help of an Internet Systems Developer and free software, the site now offers standards-compliant code that works well in any browser or platform, with the same original professional design.

Newburyport, MA -- August 07, 2002 -- A professional location photographer was having difficulty with managing his photography portfolio online. Various browser and platform combinations were making it difficult to deliver a high-quality professional image on the web. With a new website built by FREePHILE using free software, the site now offers standards-compliant code that works well in any browser or platform, with the same professional design. As an added benefit, the new site has content-management features built right in.

One reason for the new site was to correct cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility issues. Says Greg Nikas:

"Many people in the graphics/media industry use Macintosh computers. We had to make sure that everything was top shape for the Mac, plus Windows. I want media buyers and art directors to be able to experience my website the way it was intended, and get an accurate reflection of our professional abilities. If the page doesn't even display properly, that isn't happening. Our developer was able to solve all our issues, and actually created a site that gives us a great deal of power and flexibility to manage the portfolio now. It's just a lot more professional.

Mr. Nikas was concerned with the amount of time spent maintaining the site too.

"We have several portfolios of photos, plus QuickTime movies that demonstrate our virtual tour capability. Managing all that content can get tricky. FREePHILE solved the content management problem by allowing me to simply and quickly add or remove content, without touching any code. Now I can spend less time on the website, and get better results with it."

Greg Rundlett, founder of FREePHILE, comments on the project:

"Using server-side applications to manage your digital media assets is something that has become really important on the Internet, to allow for copy-control and rights management plus content management, archival, etc. I see a lot of graphics and media professionals wanting to make their work available, but they also want do it in a way that makes sense for them. For this project, we created a FREE publishing system called 'BlueMantis' where the media files just have to be loaded on the server. All the code then gets created "automagically". To remove assets, simply move them to an archive, or delete them. Again, the website updates itself automatically. All the HTML code gets generated and is standards-compliant, so it works on any platform, using any browser.

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Greg Nikas is a professional location photographer with nearly 20 years of experience. His work covers a broad range of subject matter from architecture to landscapes, the boardroom to the beach. "Greg is one of the best shooters I've worked with, and he is a gentleman to do business with", says Lance Hidy, designer and former art director of the Harvard Business Review. You can see his portfolio of work at www.gregnikas.com.

FREePHILE is a Free Software development company that uses free software to create world-class business solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises, government and non-profit groups. FREePHILE offers a wide range of free software solutions suitable for digital media content management including galleries and slideshows. You can visit FREePHILE at www.freephile.com