Using Wordpress as Photo web site

[Chris Bishop]

As a present I was given a domain name and a wordpress site, set up as a photo web site. Photos are posted instead of blogs. It's basic but works.
Anyone else doing similar?
A wordpress book recommendation?
This is all new to me, but it was meant to get me moving!
Chris Bishop

[Ken]

Hi Chris,

Nice gift!  I believe that the consensus is that with enough time and attention, you can get WordPress to do anything.  Unfortunately, that menas one more thing to learn.  If you are not comfortable working directly with the program, I understand that some people use Live Writer to draft and layout their posts, and then upload to thier blogs.  I can certainly sympathize with the need to get moving, but I chose a simpler route.  I am going to try and use a Posterous blog, possibly with daily photos at aminus3.com, and then use my SmugMug account when I want to upload a number of images.  We'll see where this leads in a few months.  Keep us posted on your efforts if possible.

--Ken

[Chris Bishop]

Both starting out on a new venture. Should be fun. I can't get any more grey hairs, so worry isn't an issue!
Chris Bishop
Enjoy New Years eve (if applicable)

[Ken]

Both starting out on a new venture. Should be fun. I can't get any more grey hairs, so worry isn't an issue!
Chris Bishop
Enjoy New Years eve (if applicable)

Chris,

I would worry about getting grey hairs, but my schedule is too busy for me to add it to the list of items needing attention. 

Thank you for the well wishes for the new year.  I hope your new year, and your new blog, get off to a good start.

--Ken

[BobSmith]

Like most anything else... Wordpress can be quite simple or very complex.  It's what you choose to make it.

A few days ago I got an email from KelbyTraining promoting a new video specifically about using Wordpress for a photographer's site.  I've not seen it yet but I plan to.  It costs about $20 to subscribe to KelbyTraining for a month.  They have loads of very worthwhile training videos there on all sorts of digital topics.  Based on others I've seen, I'm confident this will be worth the time/price as well.

Here's a site for a graphic designer friend that was build from a WordPress template from themeforest.com I think.  It was assembled in large part by a student assistant with minimal web experience.

http://www.creativemanstudio.com

Bob Smith

[jimtron]

I think Wordpress is really great. I don't know of any good Wordpress books, but there's a ton of good support online. I have a simple WP photo blog here. I have mine setup like regular WP blog, but you can configure it so your front page is a static (non-blog) page, with or without a blog on a different page. Let me know if you want more info on how to do that.

Here are some links with photo themes for WP:
http://ntt.cc/2009/07/25/31-great-free-premium-wordpress-photo-gallery-themes-let-us-discard-gallery2.html
http://wordpressphotographythemes.com/
http://www.wpzoom.com/design/10-wordpress-themes-designed-for-photo-galleries/
http://www.reencoded.com/2009/04/05/26-free-wordpress-photo-gallery-themes/

Here's the Wordpress online manual:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page

I've found if you have a specific question or problem with WP, you can virtually always find the answer by Googling it--there are a lot of smart WP nerds out there.

- Jim