Well, I suppose it is time for me to step up to the plate. I was at a club last night in Honolulu doing some networking. There was a [good] fashion shooter there who had a selection of his images on an IPOD [I didn't even know what it was!!!] with the images fading in and out like a slide show. It got me thinking. I like the design of my site [i.e. the page layout] but I am starting to wonder if it's static nature just doesn't cut it in today's IPOD/FLASH world. I guess the question is: Do I need to incorporate a slide show type presentation [with a non-flash portal as well] into my galleries?

Hi Steve,
Well i just returned from iPod World, i mean MacWorld Seriously iPod accessories dominated the show it was incredible I even have pictures of a Toilet Paper Roll holder with speakers for you to listen to your ipod while you are in the bathroom, yes it has become that ridiculous. But this should give you a pretty good indication where computing is going.

I'll be completely up front I personally do not like websites completely built with flash for many reasons most specifically are useability issues for people with disabilities. This doesn't mean that flash can not be used and the best application for this would be the Photo Gallery. This is exactly what i'm doing with my site a flash gallery integrated into the framework of a blogging program that allows me to easily update and manage my site from anywhere in the world.

So to answer your question, i think it would be worth taking the next step and start putting your images into a flash based gallery. The best one i've found so far is SlideShow Pro www.slideshowpro.net it's worth checking out and definitely worth the price.

Cris...

Welcome back Cris! How was the conventiom Any goodies for us PC guys?

>I'll be completely up front I personally do not like websites completely built with flash for many reasons most specifically are useability issues for people with disabilities.<

What do you mean?

Hi Steve,
Well MacWorld was mostley a bust for me, I sure didn't see anything that I had to leave there with except a new Angle Finder from Hoodman since the show price was almost 80.00 cheaper than the retail price. I figured it was as good of time as any to finally get one. I saw brief demo of a image editing program that looked rather interesting calle LightZone it's based on Ansel Adams Zone System. Some of the results were rather stunning, they do have a free demo for both mac and pc might be fun to play around with. http://www.lightcrafts.com Other than that the show seemed to be dominated by iPod accessories. We did meet Robin Williams and Graham Nash which was kind of cool, both were gracious and allowed us to take pictures with them.

Ok as far as Flash being an obstacle for people with disabilities... Because Flash is a self contained animation with all text and images being embedded inside the swf file people with blindness etc... can not use their browsers to experience the website. Their has been some progress in this arena with the use of externally loaded dynamic text etc... but I still don't feel like it's enough. Useability is still a huge issue when it comes to flash.
My personal preference is to use flash sparingly inside another framework such as HTML. This allows for the best of both worlds.

Again this is just my opinion and others may not see the need to go this far.

I hope this answers your question.

Cris...

All this talk about flash...It's my understanding that if you want good 'organic' placement in the search engines for your site, Flash and Frames are to be avoided! What's your take on that Cris?
SPC II

Stan,
You are absolutely correct that is the other downside to using flash as well as frames. However I think many photographers end up driving most of their traffic to their sites and search engine ranking really is that much of a priority.

Search engines that's a whole nother topic

Cris...