Image Gallery!

Even though I've been busier today than I feared (what with it being Super Bowl Sunday and all), I did still manage to get a very exciting thing done - I created Gallery Galiana! http://galianachance.com/gallery

I wanted a simpler web-based way to deliver groups of pictures for sale, especially now that I'm getting a new camera (any day now!). I can easily enter captions, protect albums which are pay-to-view, and have the user experience be a little more feature-rich than I am willing to build on my own. On Friday, I realized that my hosting provide had free image galleries available as auto-installer scripts, so all I had to do was compare features, install, configure, and I was good to go!

Each individual task was simple enough to do, but of course, it took time to read through all the options, make changes, test things, and the inevitable "scrap the whole thing and reinstall because you'll be sorry later if you don't" ... twice. At least I'm predictable.

I have two galleries ready for your perusal, if you don't mind helping me out and testing them, please. Thanks!

First, a free, public album, of pictures from my 40th birthday celebration shoot in September which have been posted on the blog in one form or another. http://galianachance.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=1

Then a "private" album, which means it's password protected, which are a few of my favorite pictures from the at-home amateur-photographer photo shoot I did in July 2010, including one topless. The password for it is "reader" -- as in blog reader, because blog readers who read this post will get access to it for free! http://www.galianachance.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=4

It would be a huge help to me if you could go check them out, play with the features, and let me know what you think. I can't make changes to the core functionality, but if you have ideas for how it could work best, I'd love to hear them.

It's fantastic to be able to deliver photo content in a different way. And honestly, it's tons easier for me than the way I was doing it, now that it's all set up. I'll still continue to deliver a .zip file with all the pictures, but many people can't do downloads, or want access from their phone. I'm thrilled I can provide it.

I love that you can view them as a slide show. I love that you can click on individual pictures to see a higher-resolution version. And of course, I love the ability to write captions easily.

Those three things together, well, this was a triumph. Making a note here, huge success. (apologies to non-gamers for that last reference...) Well, look at me still talking when there's science to do! (stop that, GLaDOS, just stop it right now) Anyway, this cake is great. (give. me. back. my. blog, dammit.) Ahem. I apologize. We had to tear a few things to pieces and burn them. We seem to be okay now.

(someone should stop me from posting after midnight...)

Anyway, hopefully now picture sets can be released more rapidly, and be available in more formats. Yay! Goooooo Galiana!