Following up from the last post about the beginning of my freelance business here is the behind the scenes of the websites Lukaitis Photo and my associated Smugmug Lukaitisphoto.smugmug.com site I use to sell the photos.
When looking for a website to host and sell my photos, I frequented a couple of different photo message boards for information eventually settling on a Pro Account from Smugmug. With multiple backups and the ability to sell prints in various sizes and for various prices Smugmug was the answer. Smugmug’s easy to use backend now offers personal branding, watermarking, coupons and package pricing making it more and more useful to the professional photographer.
Associated with the Smugmug site is the standard WordPress run Lukaitis Photo.com site. Originally designed in FrontPage, I changed over a couple of years ago to a WordPress self-hosted website. I purchased the domain name and set up a hosting program through Network Solutions and built the site from there.
Here is a screenshot of what the site looked like in early 2006 designed in FrontPage.
Very basic navigation and a clean background, not bad for a non-designer building the site with a Front Page for Dummies Book.
The original design led to this one in early 2007
Offering a slightly different style. All of the gallery links directed back to a Smugmug hosted gallery thus tying the two sites together.
Switching to a WordPress self-hosted site, still with Network Solutions, allowed a better design and an easier way of updating posts with new information. After using several Free Templates and not caring for their look, I have finally settled on the design you see here:
It is a WordPress Premium Theme designed by Studio Press. The theme name is the Landscape Child Theme and is built off of their versatile Genesis Theme framework. Since I have no experience in writing code, the basic theme was tweaked with a series of trial and error moves. The mistakes and quick internet searches combined with the Studio Press message board made it simple to make changes and get the look and feel I wanted. All of the galleries still link to the associated Smugmug gallery, but the large photo seems to draw more attention to the photography and the simple menu at the bottom left links to the appropriate gallery.
So there you have it, the behind the scenes at Lukaitis Photo.
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Update August 2018 – Smugmug updated their platform and I no longer had the need for a separately hosted photo site. Everything for Lukaitis Photo is on the Smugmug platform and I am still very happy with the service.
Get your Smugmug account HERE. (Affiliate Link)
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