06 Sep
207/365(+1) by Luca Rossini
207/365(+1), a photo by Luca Rossini on Flickr.

Lens: Voigtlander color-skopar 35mm f2.5
Camera: NEX-7, ISO1600, f2.8, 1/8, raw

“Chi la dura, la vince”. An Italian idiom which means that if you keep working on your goals, you’re going to win, sooner or later. It’s usually true, I mean, besides if you die before winning, I guess. Anyway, today it happened, I worked on my new site despite all the odds, and at the end I won, on every aspect.
So, here’s the background. Next week something quite big (to me it’s actually huge, but it’s all relative, so…) is going to be unveiled, so I wanted to open a new web site, one dedicated just to my photography, with the artistic projects properly defined, and the professional achievements well presented.
Since I didn’t have much time, I decided to go for some of the more expensive services for web hosting and site building. I started looking at Photoshelter, since I love their e-books (they’re genuinely great, and free, you should check them out!), but, sincerely, I didn’t fall in love for any of their templates.
Then I came in contact with Graph Paper Press, and I decided that was the way to go. The theme Albedo is stunning, I really like the large slideshow in the home page, and the simple and elegant design. To avoid the hassle to install WordPress on a hosting server, I decided to go with the hosting services that Graph Paper Press offers. With 35$ per month, you get one site with any of their awesome themes, you can use a private domain name, and you don’t have to go through any installation.
Designing the site wasn’t as simple as I expected (I was completely unfamiliar with WordPress), but thanks to forums and tutorials I eventually came up with the results I was looking for. Only then I realized that the service didn’t include domain registration. I got the domain and DNS services, I set everything as explained by the support page of Page.ly (the company providing the hosting service to Graph Paper Press), and I waited for the DNS to propagate. It didn’t work. Neither it did after two tickets “closed” by the support services.
After a whole week wasted by trying to make the expensive service to work as expected, I decided to go for the tough path, I added a hosting server on Aruba, I installed WordPress, I bought the theme Albedo from Graph Paper Press, and I re-built the website, and finally canceled my account on Page.ly. I now have everything I was looking for, it works, and I’m paying much less than I was.
I kept working till I won. I can finally relax and enjoy some reading before going “a dormire il sonno dei giusti”, literally to sleep the sleep of the righteous.

8 thoughts on “207/365(+1)”

  1. Fabulous looking site! Congratulations. I went through the same pains as you on a website for my wife's company as well, so I know where you are coming from.

    Is the timing of this tied perhaps to any announcements or promotions from camera manufacturers next week? Perhaps also your trip to Alaska? Maybe you did some photos they will use in a promotion of a new camera or lens? 😉

          1. Mel Myers, very nice call on that one, and Luca congrats on getting picked up by a major camera producer! Very exciting indeed, also very sneaky!

          2. cheers Erich, yeah I’m not a sneaky person at all, it was quite difficult to keep the truth for myself for so long!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *