This Web site design for tmagrain.com allows TMA to publish news articles and provide up-to-date commodity prices for their patrons. It’s built on a content management system so they can add new content to the site easily. I tried to give the design a little of an “agricultural” feel, while giving it an updated look. We integrated several third-party scripts to provide market data and commentary.

Fans and players were pumped for the McPherson College Alumni Night basketball game. It’s fun to photograph the excitement of the team getting ready to play. The event brought a full crowd to McPherson’s gym, making the event photography fun (even though the team lost).

My recent SmugMug customization for Michael McGinnis Photography includes a slideshow on the homepage which uses SlideshowPro for Flash to automatically pull images from one of Mike’s galleries, using the gallery rss feed. This integration between a SmugMug gallery and SlideshowPro was a little easier said than done. Creating the slideshow in Flash is a snap, thanks to SlideshowPro, but when you place the .swf on the customized SmugMug page, issues arise. Most frustratingly, everything seems fine when you preview the slideshow in Flash. The images load and everything looks great. But when you you try to view the same slideshow online, it breaks.

The solution (for me, at least) lies in properly constructing the URL for the media RSS feed. Normal SmugMug gallery feeds look something like this:

http://www.darrenhendricks.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=10046805_nR5QF&format=rss200

As long as you’ve checked the box to allow external links in the SmugMug gallery settings, your images will load when you test the movie in Flash. However, when you try to publish the slideshow and display it on your SmugMug page, you’ll wonder what happened. No images!

Luckily, I found this file in SlidshowPro’s documentation: http://wiki.slideshowpro.net/SSPfl/CP-RSSFeedNotLoading

Security limitations imposed by Flash don’t allow the RSS feed to be displayed. Fortunately, a couple changes to the URL fix the problem. We need to change the URL to the following format:

http://api.smugmug.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=10046805_nR5QF&format=rss200&Sandboxed=1

Note the change to “api.smugmug.com” and the addition of the “Sandboxed=1″ parameter. You may also want to add a size parameter to the URL: “&size=Original” (or Small, Large, etc).

In your SmugMug Bio, or wherever you choose to display the slideshow, a basic method of embedding the .swf file looks something like this:

<object width=”800″ height=”525″>
<param name=”movie” value=”http://www.dviso.com/slideshow/Slideshow.swf”>
<param name=”quality” value=”high”>
<param name=”wmode” value=”opaque” />
<embed src=”http://www.dviso.com/slideshow/Slideshow.swf” width=”800″ height=”525″ quality=”high” wmode=”opaque”></embed>
</object>

This may not be the only way, or the best way to get SlideshowPro for Flash working with your SmugMug gallery, but it has worked for me. Feel free to share your experiences or methods for integrating SlidshowPro with SmugMug.

This alumni magazine for McPherson College included a recap of their fall homecoming activities, their annual giving report, and regular alumni features. I work with the college’s communications and marketing staff to produce the piece and procure printing and mailing services. The piece incorporates lots of photography and features on alumni and current student activities.

This project was a basic design of a Joomla! template for a non-profit in Kansas. The content-management system will allow them to expand the site as needed.

Photographing the shiny timing covers and thermostat housings for this magazine ad presented some challenges. I used several sheets of white foam board to limit reflection on the parts. The successful ad helped increase traffic to the performance automotive parts site.

The graphic design of this seminary viewbook features photos, program descriptions and info about the local community. We incorporated the leaf elements and colors to highlight the theme of transformation.

It’s hard to believe another year has come and gone. Thanks to all my design and photography clients who’ve made this a great year. I’m looking forward to continuing to work together in 2010.

This admissions magazine for McPherson College is a publication for prospective students. I work with the college to complete photography and design for the project, and procure printing and mailing services. Instead of publishing a traditional viewbook, the 16-page print piece is used to highlight college programs and the campus, and is a regular communication from the college to prospects.