Perez Studios

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to share with you the new look of Perez Studios.  I was getting tired of the old look of the old site so I decided it was time for a new theme.  The good thing about a new theme is its super easy with the Word Press Engine running your site. 

I have been using Word Press for a couple of years now to manage my blog site and I must say that it makes things easy.  It allows me to choose from a bunch of layouts and themes and with the click of a button, I have a new theme and look without having to know too much coding. 

Above you see a screenshot of the old look which was Layers 1.1.1.  I liked it but the black on the screen and the words weren’t pleasing to the eye on the black background. 

Above you see a screenshot of the new look which is iNove 2.3.  I like it that it has a white background but still has the look of the black on top.  I had to do some research to figure out how to manipulate the width of the css because it was too narrow and when you viewed the upcoming events it would shrink the calendar and not display it all. 

I went to this site to view tips on how to manipulate the css. 

Let me know what you think of the new look and if you have any ideas.

If you are interested in setting up a Word Press site then visit their website for more tips.  If you would like me to build one for you then I can do that as well.  I created a couple for some organizations and it is quick and easy.  The Word Press engine runs on a SQL database which is very quick to setup and keeps your entire website organized and running smooth. 

Call me for a free quote on setting up a website utilizing Word Press for you or your organization.

Here are some websites I did that run Word Press.

Mendota Pentecostal Church of God

Mary Allen’s Country Colors

I am working on building a new PC and I must say it gets pricey when you want to add things like redundancy.  I have been purchasing most of the parts from New Egg which is really great with the prices.  In fact I think just about all of the parts came from New Egg except for the processor which I got from my friend.  Nothing fancy on the cpu but my friend is going to over clock it for me.  Here is what we have in it so far.

This does not count all the taxes and shipping for all the different times I had to buy this and then realized I needed this.  That is always a pain.  I plan on installing Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit on the OS.  I also have a 120GB SATA drive that I plan on hosting my OS on and using the 4 – 1.5TB drives in a RAID 5 configuration and use it to store my music, photos and documents on.  I will have another 1.5TB drive that I plan on using for Backups which I know I will have to upgrade that soon to keep all the backups on.  Thankfully I use Storage Craft to do all my backups and I must say it is the coolest way for backups. 

If anyone has any feedback I would appreciate it.  I am hoping to have this system up and running by next Friday since I have a Photography Gig coming up.  Wish me luck folks!

While doing some research on the web on Adobe Lightroom, I came across a site from Adobe that is called Adobe TV.  The site actually has videos that show you how to use the Adobe programs.  I was amazed at all the helpful information that they have for viewers and what is even better is that it is all free.  I studied up on Adobe Lightroom and have been playing with the program to familiarize myself with the program.  I was amazed how Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop work hand in hand together to automate photos.  I even learned how catalogs work.  If you want to learn more or share your experience with Adobe TV then please do so.

I have been wondering where do you professional photographers store your photos after so many years?  I have a 1.5TB drive as my Main drive and another 1.5TB drive as my backup which I use Storage Craft’s Shadow Protect to backup but what do the pros use?  I use Adobe Lightroom 2.0 to keep track of all my photos but as I begin to run at about 300GB left on the 1.5TB Main Drive I am wondering should I archive them onto DVD and keep them in a safe or what? 

Anyone with any ideas I would appreciate the help!  

Over the years I have hated the fact that I didnt have the patience to go and touchup people’s faces in Adobe Photoshop.  I gave it up actually and fixed just the major issues with a charge of course.  That was until I came across Portrait Professional which is a very powerful program that allows you to draw the outline or major features of a face and it does all the touching up for you.  If you look at the photo above and look to the left you see a girl with a case of bad acne.  On the right you see the work that Portrait Professional does.  If you are into portraits and need to do a lot of touching up I highly recommend it. 

You can purchase Portrait Professional by going to http://www.portraitprofessional.com/ and paying $69.95 right now.  If you are interested in a free trial they offer that as well.

Have you ever had been at work and forgot to do something on your computer?  I have been listening to all the commercials about the ability to log into your computer from anywhere and remote to your computer.  The only problem with that is that they charge you a monthly service fee.  When I first started working at my current employer we came across a program called LogMeIn which is just as powerful as those other guys but its free.  They have some additional features for an additional price but the base package is free and comes with more than enough ability to take care of just about anything at home.  They even have plug-ins that allow you to work on a Blackberry or iPhone and remote into your guest computer.

I currently set this up for my clients so that when they have an issue I am able to check their computers remotely.  They even give you the ability to send email links for your clients so they can install it on their computer and then you have the ability to login from your home or office. 

If you haven’t seen this program go and check it out.  http://www.logmein.com.  If you have any questions or concerns about the software just let me know.  If you have had experiences with this or similar software I would love to hear about it.

Are you having trouble reading my posts? If you are then feel free to use the Global Translator on the bottom right of the page. It allows the viewer to actually translate the text on the page. I thought this was great because I seem to be getting a lot of visitors from countries overseas and I dont think my text is in their language and I want to be able to allow everyone to view my site.

I recently finished creating the site for Mary Allen.  She is happy and it looks great.  I love her work.  If anyone is interested in viewing more of her art please check out her site.  We are still working on perfecting it some more but we are close.  

I pretty much had her purchase the domain name and I installed WordPress 2.8 on her host and we were in business very quickly.  I did some customizing and it is almost done.  I went over to their home last week and was able to install Windows Live Writer for them.  I love how easy the program is for updating your blog.  I showed them the Dashboard and how to manage the site.  We still have some work to do but that the hard part is done.

I also want to mention that her husband Dink does some very beautiful custom framing on photos, paintings and anything that you want to put in a picture frame.  Check them out!

Hello All!

It has been a while since my last update but I have been very busy with a lot on my plate.  I kind of wish my mom had made two of me so that I can get twice the amount of work done. 

Anyways, I have been busy with the Police Activities League Photos and the FAST 2009 Swim Team Pictures.  I just finished ordering the photos yesterday after doing all of the editing.  I am glad it is done.  I still have to prepare the envelopes and packages for the photos but that is easier than the photo editing. 

I have one major project coming up and it is not until next month.  A friend of mine has a brother that will be celebrating their 25th birthday.  I will be videotaping the event.  There is supposed to be food, mariachis and a DJ.  We will see how the event turns out.

I have also been working on a website for a good friend of mine.  They wanted something to be able to post their work on to.  I have a skeleton site up and running after they purchased the domain and hosting plan.  The site is http://maryallenscountrycolors.com.  I invite you all to check it out and let me know what you think. 

I have also been working on some evaluating projects.  I mentioned before about how much I love Adobe Lightroom and I must say it is great but I was also curious as to see if there was a program out there that a photographer can use to take the photograph from the camera and actually keep track of what type of package the person in the photograph is ordering.  Something like a portrait program that a school photographer would use.  I am trying to find an easier way to keep track of the kid in the photograph and what they ordered and when it comes time to order just run a report that tells me what and how many to order.  If anyone has something similar to what I am looking for I would surely appreciate the name and where I can get my hands on it. 

Thanks and stay tuned for future updates.