The $29 solution….

If any of you are like me, you got into this business for one reason, to take photographs, to capture that special moment in time. And if you go back to the day of processing your own film and prints, you saw your photos come to life in a tray full of developer. But we are now tasked to learn a new method of image processing, the digital darkroom, and a new way to showcase our work, the internet, which brings me to my topic.Sharing our work with our clients and the outside world has an entire industry devoted to it. There are a number of ways to post images and some methods are better than others, and if you’ve seen the websites of other photographers, you will see some pretty impressive sites out there. Personally, I don’t have the time, nor the remaining brain cells to learn enough about Flash to create one of these whiz-bang sites, perhaps twenty-years ago I would attempt it but my knowledge of Flash is minimal. I could always hire someone to do it for me but I don’t have the desire nor the funds to bring someone else in. So how could I update my website, share my work with the outside world, have it look nice and do this all on a shoestring budget of time and money?

I did a little searching to see what I could find in the way of a template or standalone package that could do this for me, basically something that didn’t take much effort or have a steep learning curve. I wanted something that gave me a sophisticated look, something that I could customize, it had to be inexpensive, work on a Mac and required very little effort on my part”¦boy when did I get so damn lazy?

I did a search for a photo slideshow package and came across SlideshowPro, http://www.slideshowpro.net. SlideshowPro is a $29.00 plug-in for Flash or a $25.00 plug-in for Lightroom, yes Lightroom. The Flash plug-in requires a little XML programming, but don’t be afraid, the only thing I knew about XML prior to purchasing SlideshowPro was how to spell it, so I was able to figured it out! This little plug-in has given me everything I was looking for in an easy-to-create slide show package. They offer a free trial version of both the Flash and Lightroom plug-in and each has its unique features. Both are very customizable, come with a great set of tools and a very comprehensive set of instructions, including how to write simple XML.

So, if you’re like me, and would rather be shooting than writing code, this little $29.00 investment may be just right for you.

Fred Troilo