Sonialena Photography Blog » general

Website All Klabooey!

Sonia — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:45:21 +0000

I’ve been having website issues for the past 24 or hours or so. It’s awful! None of my slideshows will load, and everything else seems to be on again, off again. Yesterday the company said everything will be online again soon – this was at 4:30 in the afternoon, after the server had been down for six hours. Fifteen hours later things are still not right.

In the meantime, if you are trying to look at my images, please browse through the blog! Hopefully the company will get the server back up – or I will have to take my business elsewhere.

UPDATE: It looks like things are working now – if not a bit more slowly.

Accepted into the WPJA!

Sonia — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:24:31 +0000

I’m very excited to have been accepted into the Wedding Photojournalist Association. The WPJA is an international association whose members specialize in capturing weddings in a candid and unobtrusive style. And it’s not the type of organization that any photographer can join. Photographers must undergo a portfolio review before gaining acceptance, and must adhere to held to strict membership standards regarding image quality and content, technical and creative technique, website and marketing professionalism, business ethics and communication.

Becoming a member of the WPJA has been a professional and personal goal of mine since I started my photography business, and I’m so happy that it’s now a reality. I’m also honored that my work will be alongside that of some brilliantly talented photographers. I’m really looking forward to growing as a wedding photojournalist in the years and weddings to come!

Sonialena Photography Has Moved!

Sonia — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:11:30 +0000

Please take note of our new mailing address, as the post office WILL NOT forward mail from my old address to the new one. Why must they be so evil?

Sonialena Photography // 1308 E. Colorado Blvd. #319 // Pasadena, CA 91106

Telephone number is the same.

I’m working hard to post some new events on here!

New Website Coming Soon!

Sonia — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:58:42 +0000

I have been squirreled away working on my new website. The new blog colors are a sneak peak of the new website. The website won’t be super different – different colors, yes. But the layout is basically the same – slideshows of my work, and links to other slideshows showing different work.

I’ve ditched my much-loved warm color palette for nuetral grays and whites – I love yellow and orange, but I think white, grey, and black provide a better background for viewing photos. I’m also using a different content managing system, which should enable the slideshows to load faster.

I know, geek speak! But I’m really excited about the new site and can’t wait to launch it.

New Business Cards

Sonia — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:37:17 +0000

Just one of those things that is incredibly mundane for most people, but incredibly exciting for me. I received my new business cards in the mail and couldn’t be happier with them. They have foil printing, which you can’t really appreciate by looking at a computer screen. But the logo and the squares are glittery little flecks of color.

I’m looking to redesign the website and blog – debating whether to go with tweaks here and there with the colors and layouts, or whether I should go for a full out conceptual overhaul. I’ll probably do the former first and the latter later. If I can find someone whose skills are up to the task.

Sonialena Photography Joins the Cloud

Sonia — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:34:53 +0000

I’ve finally finished setting up my online client access system. Now clients can electronically sign their contracts and make payments online, all from their personalized client access page. I’m using a web-based studio management system, rather than software that runs from my computer. And I’m looking for even more ways to join “the cloud.”

A few months ago I read an interesting article in Slate about cloud computing. The idea is that you can chuck your computer out the window, watch it smash into tiny little pieces, and think nothing of it. Why? Because all your data, your photos, your files, your digital life, are stored on the web instead of on your hard drive. A smashed computer means bits of plastic lying in the street; it doesn’t mean your life as you know it has disappeared forever.

Unless Adobe comes out with web-based versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and InDesign, I won’t be giving up my desktop anytime soon. But I recently purchased a very tiny, very cute netbook that I plan to tote around with me for client meetings and photography shoots. We’ll see how much of the cloud I connect with when I’m jetting about town.

New Facebook Page

Sonia — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 03:59:02 +0000

I’ve finally created a page for Sonialena Photography on Facebook. I’ve had a personal page on Facebook for quite some time but did not want to mix my personal and opiniated rantings with the photographic work I do. The Facebook page has nearly all of the photos I’ve posted here on the blog.

I’m also trying to give Twitter a go and feel terribly unhip that it hasn’t become a part of my web arsenal yet. I signed up for an account last year, and, well, it’s been dormant for a few months now. Twitter will most likely be a mix of personal and professional tidbits, minus the ranting.

Become my fan on Facebook. Follow my tweets on Twitter. Trust me – I’m fascinating.

Blog Back To Normal

Sonia — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:22:37 +0000

Apparently a little slash here and there makes a big difference with web programming. For other people in need of a nice WordPress theme for showing off their photos, the good people at NetRivet are super helpful and helped me get everything back to normal in a very short amount of time.

Technical Difficulties

Sonia — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:32:54 +0000

I don’t know what happened to my blog, but whatever happened has made my very unhappy! As I write this post, all of the formatting has disappeared from my blog. I’m looking at a plain white background, no banner, no logo, no colors. And all of the text and pictures in my posts are jammed together.

Ugh. For first-time visitors to the blog, I promise that this is not some minimalist experiment of expression! Hopefully the WordPress fairy will visit me during the night and get everything back to normal. Until then, at least my photographs are viewable. Just not in the most aesthetically pleasing environment.

New Blog and New Website!

Sonia — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:08:39 +0000

I’m very excited about my new website and new blog. I now have a custom-designed html site that makes use of Flash slideshows but is not an all Flash site. This probably doesn’t mean much to non-techy people – and a year ago I couldn’t have cared less about html vs. Flash sites – but after navigating many a photography website, I have developed a preference for html frameworks.

I also have a new blog to go along with my new site – a big thanks to NetRivet for providing such a great WordPress theme! I still need to do some touching up of my posts from the first half of 2008, but all my new posts will have wonderful big pictures. And now that I am running WordPress I can have everything hosted with my own www.sonialena.com domain.

I’m somewhat ashamed of how behind I am in my blogging – I have portrait sessions and weddings from the last four months of 2008 that have yet to be shared with the world. Not to mention a bit of personal work here and there that I’d like to put up as well.

I’m hoping to be all caught up by the time I leave for Washington DC in two weeks for Obama’s inauguration, because I will have plenty to blog about when I return!