Developing Your Own Portfolio Online

I’ve just visited one of the member’s of the Digital Atelier site, Dorothy Krause, and I noticed she had done something very interesting in terms of displaying her work. She used a flip book where you can click on the edges and the pages, well, flip them, as if you were turning actual pages from a book.  It’s a great use of the application because the images she is sharing all have a similar textural quality and so, viewing her book of images is a fluid, engaging experience.

Flipbooks, then, are great if your work is grouped together as a series.  And they are very easy to create — especially when your website is a blog and you can access tons of plugins that have this feature.  Just check out this flipbook plugin on the Wordpress site, and you’re good to go.  Once installed, you’ll be able to upload your images into it  automatically.  Of course, there are other options you might want to check out too.  I use both NextGen Gallery, a plugin for blog sites when I want to embed an image gallery in a line format into a web page, and a Content template called PhotoNexus with a built-in gallery, when I want to have a dedicated website, that is, when I want just a site that shows images in quick succession and organized by category.  The latter did cost me a small amount but it fit my needs perfectly.

So, don’t be overwhelmed, as if this is a mountain of a technical problem.  It isn’t. There are plenty of ways to scale the mountain of “how best do I present my images exactly!” —  from a simple slideshow, using Smilebox or a show generated from a Flickr account, to the more advanced that keeps your images completely within your own domain, as in the dedicated gallery template I’ve just described above.  Any and all of these options will create satisfying displays of your work.

Somebody told me recently.  We all have our own way to climb a mountain.  Just stick to your own preferences and do it!  I think, in this case, that’s pretty sage advice!