I’ve been working on this website for Chris Becerra for a while, and it’s finally out on the internet and in production which is very exciting. Chris is a cool guy and was my highschool photo teacher. He’s also the person I would credit most for making me passionate about photography. He’s an incredible photographer and it’s been absolutely awesome working with him. The website is for his photography business, Becerra Photography, which is now offering videography with all of its wedding packages. I think that’s really, really cool. The site showcases several couples weddings and emphasizes the convergence of still photographs and videography. Check out the new site.

A screenshot of a page on the new Becerra Photography website, created by Ivar Vong.

I am available for freelance web development. I primarily use Flex/Flash, PHP, Javascript, CSS, MySQL and HTML. If interested, please contact me at ivar@ivarvong.com.

Interested in the technical aspects of the website? (Warning, it gets a bit geeky) The site is written in Adobe’s Flex 3 SDK. The code is mostly Actionscript 3, but relies on Flex components like mx:VideoDisplay and mx:Image to do some of the heavy-lifting behind the scenes. All of the settings and content are loaded dynamically at runtime though an external XML file. This allows complete control of all the image, video and text assets on the site. Images are loaded in the background when possible, decreasing wait time and creating a fluid feeling while traversing the site.

Wrapping up this project means I’ve got some time to work on others. One of the things towards the top of the list (there’s always a list, isn’t there?) is redoing my portfolio site. I’m also thinking about some new photography and video projects, but they’re a bit further off. Unfortunately, school is sneaking up on me and 11 days I’ll be sitting in a production meeting at the Oregon Daily Emerald and the term will be ready to start.

Here’re a couple recent photos:

Wylie with a little split-toning in Lightroom. Photo by Ivar Vong.

My dad, Rick. He turned 61 last week. Happy birthday, dad! Photo by Ivar Vong.

Also: I just watched the behind-the-scenes footage from Vincent Laforet’s film Nocturne- it’s pretty cool (link). Laforet is totally awesome.