Quite some time ago I used Wordpress for my Rebuilding Thailand blog. It was strictly a blog site that chronicled my year as a volunteer after the 2004 tsunami, and the adventures that went along with it.

When it came time to building a professional level site (this one) I ended up looking at ModX. For what it was worth it was a very rich content management system, but I found that it took a lot of time to learn the system, and in some circumstances even learning a new code structure. And the blogging software was rather clunky.

And now I find myself jumping ship back to the familiar platform of Wordpress. But this time in a much more robust application than before, and I couldn’t be more happy. Along with the thousands of available plugins to make it super powerful, the interface is just simple enough to do no more than what you really need to do.

For other Wordpress users here is a short list of some of the useful plugins I am currently using:

• Skype Online Status: Display’s when I am online on Skype and allows Skype users to directly start chatting with me.
• Google XML Sitemaps: Essential tool for SEO geeks like me. Automatically rebuilds your Google Sitemap with every new blog post.
• Clean Notifications: By Mike Davidson who’s blog I read. Makes the email notifications very pretty.

These are just a few, but they make the experience of blogging and adding new pages so nice.
I hope that you enjoy navigating and viewing the site as much as I enjoy writing and updating in it.

Great News

So I had mentioned that there were two pieces of great news a couple of weeks ago. The first, the t-shirts and clothing line of my photos was a huge hit. Everyone loved the shirts and they look great, I’m actually wearing my Dunes at Sunrise in Death Valley shirt now. I hope to at some point in a few months offer posters as well. I think that will be a great alternative for people that like my work but cannot afford one of my fine art prints.

The next big piece of news is that I have hired a Salesperson to book my weddings and portrait work. Her name is Sandy Hargrove. A wonderful person that has been in the Austin area for years and has a number of great connections that we are hoping to tap into.
Sandy’s background is really strong in marketing and sales, and currently runs her own business in the Spa industry. She is a welcomed addition to my business and should prove to be invaluable.

Great Shots

While I tend to market my Headshot Photography separately from my Wedding and Portrait work here, I just had to put these images up that I took today. This is Holly. She is a Conductor for a choral group in Austin. These are my two favorite photos from todays shoot. They turned out so lovely. And they haven’t had any retouching yet. Straight Out Of Camera, cropped to 8×10 and uploaded.

Thanks for looking!

I promised a couple big items earlier this week. Here is the first one (the second one is still coming):

For a couple years I have wanted to find some way in which to give back to the world with my photography. Well, I have just started selling a signature series of my photographs on clothing through Café Press.

Most importantly, half of all profits will be donated to ecological and natural disaster relief organizations.

As most of you know Burma (Myanmar) was hit with a very severe hurricane that killed 125,000 people. I was in Burma once a month while living in Thailand. It’s something close to my heart and I hope to give what I can.

You can reach the store here or by clicking the “The Shop” link on the menu above.

Remember, it’s a great way to get some cool clothes and assist some people that really need it now, at the same time!

Here is an example below. Have fun shopping!

It has been awhile since I have written any blog posts. Many life things have changed, some haven’t. But I am really excited about some upcoming changes to William Bay Photography. This is just a teaser. I know it’s a little mean, but the announcements (yes, more than one) will come soon.

On another note I recently did a portrait photoshoot for a local family here in Austin. I had teamed up with Keep Austin Beautiful and donated a portrait session for one of their charity events. I just shot a couple of weeks ago with the winning family and here are a few of the best photos of the Myers family.

When I was a kid I loved playing with my Legos. That may be why I later aspired to become an Architect. Each night I would take my five gallon bucket of Legos out, dump them onto the floor and build elaborate (for an 8 year old) multicolor worlds complete with buildings, rocketships, and little people. It was the great pleasure of my life at the time!!!

Well I recently ran across a photographer on Flickr that has combined my childhood love of Legos with my adulthood passion for photography. He has taken classic photojournal images from the last century and recreated them in Lego format. Going by the name of Balakov, he has managed to create a set of nine benchmark photographs ranging from Henri Cartier-Bresson’s “Behind the Gare Saint Lazare” (my favorite), to the ever romantic VJ Day in Times Square by Alfred Eisenstadt shown below.

Additionally, Balkov has some other great Lego creations he has photorgaphed. I highly reccomend you taking a look at his profile on Flickr. I would also take a look at the original photos that are linked to. These are images that have become societal changing, I still remember the Tieneman Square Protest so many years later because of that one photo of the singular student in front of the tanks. Photos are just a slice of time in our lives, literally a fraction of a second. And taken at the right time, and the right place (what Cartier-Bresson called the Decisive Moment), photos really can shape and impact the world.