kepo-ing Zz85

on this blog, on your wordpress site, or anywhere else. This series is a result of my recent craze with scripting/programming and photo ideas.

1. Photo Gallery
I tried a couple of wordpress plugins in the past: Gallery2, Simple Extended Gallery, Flickr….

They were perhaps good, but perhaps complex, lacking and I didn’t seem to like it. Then I created PhotoZip and even though Photozip plugin had its short comings (eg. perhaps a little slow due to batch processing), I’m glad Tim have the interest to improve it so much better than I would.

It is only recently I found out about Aaron Harp’s Fotobook, an integration/mashups of Facebook’s photos into your blog. So I tried it, and it works.

The integration is good (since I use facebook too), the layout neat, the configuration all done with much ease. It seems like it was something I tried looking so hard before, now that I found it, I love it. My photo gallery can be viewed by clicking on the Photos tab.

2. Highslide
Tim’s improved PhotoZip supports LightBox, so does Fotobook. No doubt it gives great effect and I like it too when used appropriately. Even my cousin’s portfolio uses it to enhance viewing experiences.

However, a reason why I don’t use it? Perhaps it was due to some negativity when I experienced it on some sites. But when I come across the Highslide javascript library, I thought I would use it for the following reason
1. At the first impression it reminds of LightBox- to expand an image in the same window.
2. However, unlike Lightbox, it is less obstructive. The background is not grayed out, and window can still scroll, and the expanded image can be dragged around.
3. It seems more reactive.

Not only it good to find the right tool for the right job, it good to find the best package available. So I’m using Highslide Wordpress plugin. Since fotobook was written in a way it was simple to customise it, I created a style/theme similar to Aaron’s lightbox style, except it works with highslide. Check out one of my gallery for example.

(Tip: You can use arrow buttons on your keyboard to navigate through the photos. You can also click/expand more than one photo at a time too.)

Click here to download Highlight Style for Fotobook.

Instructions:
Ensure you have Fotobook and Highslide plugin working.
Copy the highslide folder into fotobook styles folder
(eg. /wordpress/wp-content/plugins/fotobook/styles)
Select the highslide style under fotobook options.
View your photo gallery, test and enjoy!