This winter I took a radical decision: I decided to discard my (norwegian) blog I've had going for almost ten year! After 233 posts I found that I'd like to start fresh. The reasoning behind this was mainly that it had few readers, and most of them came via Google+ og Twitter anyway, where I posted my blog updates.
It was a tough decision to make because I always found blogging fun, and it gave me the opportunity to post longer texts with photos. There's been som "hype" about using Google+ as a blog platform, and my plan was to see if it suited me. But I soon found out that it didn't! The main caveat is that mixing images and text just isn't possible in Google+ (or other SoMe platforms). And I found that few readers would click on album links to view a collection of photos attached to a post. So I ditched that!
While winter passed outside, I sat before my computer and scratched my head. And after some thinking and head scrathing I decided to put up a new blog. But this time in english, which hugely increases the potential reader base!
I soon found out that I'd like to include galleries/portfolios on the new site. I've always used Blogger as my blogging platform, and I wouldn't want to switch to something else (like Wordpress). Not that I don't think other platforms could cut it - it's only because I'm too lazy ;)
I used considerable time to find out how to set up galleries/portfolios in Blogger. After looking through way too many Blogger themes, I landed on using Galleria [galleria.io], a javascript plug-in based on JQuery, with the Portfolio theme. I've used it before and it's reasonably easy to include in Blogger themes.
I pondered a while on what I should call the picture collections - gallery or portfolio? I decided thatI decided to go for portfolio, as I connect galleries more with images for sale. Portfolios to me is more to show where I stand photographically.
So, at last I've got it all stitched together - and here it is :)
And now I'm heading into unknown territory!
I'm sure that I'll have to reconsider some design decisions after some time. Obviously I'll add and remove portfolios as the time goes. And maybe something completely unexpeted will surface here?