I have to admit that it’s a little surreal to see your own website with your own images. It was very surreal when it went live. Now it’s just a little surreal. Getting here was a journey of years, encouragement, suggestion, and dreams. Ultimately, Laughing Frog Images went live with the basic premise of making photographic art available to people how they wanted it at realistic prices.
For the launch, we started with about 40,000 images, then about 1400, and then finally we got to the plus/minus 600 on the site now. To make the site, file size was the first consideration – each file had to be able to make a medium sized print. (I’ve used several digital cameras over the years – and a lot of images taken with “cutting-edge technology” over the years didn’t make it. Do you remember when a 3 megapixel camera was a hot item? Some images look great on a computer screen – but…). After file size came critical focus, sharpness and overall appearance. Finally, it came down to one simple question: “Would I hang it on my wall?”
You may notice that most of the images are not cropped. This is purely intentional (and not my being lazy!). This leaves you room to crop it your way, and provides for the many choices in print shapes and sizes.
You’ll also see many images from Yosemite Falls. I’d like to think I’m not crazy by giving you so much to look at. Those were tough to weed out – every picture is a little different based upon how the water was behaving. Out of that Gallery, five different people might have five different favorite pictures. I figured it would be best if I wasn’t the judge and jury and left that for you to decide.
The site is still being fine-tuned based upon your feedback, and it’s probably nearing a point where it will be relatively stable for a while.
So… What’s next?
We’ll be adding more galleries as more images are taken, considered and scanned. The scanning project will take a while – and it will feed the evolution and growth of the Frog over time. There are thousands of slides and negatives to scan dating back further than I care to admit. There are trains, scenic and city scenes, national parks, fireworks, animals, and things that will probably surprise me when I see them.
Thanks for visiting, and liking/following the Frog. If you like the Frog, please “like” us on Facebook and spread the good word.
We hope you’ll follow along as the site grows and evolves, and that somewhere along that journey, you’ll see some things that will make you laugh, smile, think, or just simply make you feel good.