e-Communication Reflection

Here I am on my final Tuesday of high school and wow it's been a great run. Now it's time for me to reflect back on my amazing four years in the e-Communication program. I have grown a lot in the past four years. I have the program to thank for a lot of that growth.

What I've Learned

I have learned so much. I went from an awful three-four neon color scheme with about five different fonts to AP divs, matching color schemes, and a knack for font finding. I have learned so much about CSS, HTML, WordPress, JavaScript, and PHP. I have learned how to work with all kinds of people. I have worked on a multitude of projects with multitudes of people. My skills have grown in every way. My communication skills, my leadership skills, my people skills, my web design skills, my computer skills - everything has been improved so vastly it's so hard to name it all.

How I Learned It

The learning process is different for the many different things I have learned. Most of my computer skills I learned from my amazing teachers through the years. However some things I've learned were through some rough trial and error. Like messing up a website so horribly I had to restart around two or three days before it was due. The learning process is rough but the pay off has been amazing.

The Importance

Everything that I have learned has helped build and define my character over the past four years. These are skills that will help me through the many trials to come in my future. The knowledge that I have gained over the past four years is incredible and beyond helpful. I am so grateful for the knowledge that has been given to me and I am forever grateful.

Strengths and Weaknesses

My strengths are being able to figure out CSS and its chaos. I have a knack for making simple look amazing. I have more weaknesses than strengths in my opinion. I typically ask for help when it comes to color scheme, fonts, design, and compatibility. I have improved everything from completely crap to either stellar and/or pretty decent.

What I am going to do with what I learned

I am going to take everything with me to use in the future, some more than others. The leadership skills, the technology skills, the communication skills, the collaboration skills, and the project management skills. I am going to take everything with me and use every ounce of it that I can, when I can.

Things I Would Change

I honestly don't believe there is a single thing that I would change. The ups and the downs made everything worth it. I got everything and more that I wanted from this experience in this program. I broke through every wall that was built. So no there is not a single thing that I would change.

Summary

All of my projects through the years show everything that I have talked about. Let me tell you, these four years have been amazing and I plan to enjoy the last few days just as much as I have enjoyed the past years. In conclusion I want to thank all of my amazing teachers and peers for the great run. I love each and every second of e-Comm. Web Design Forever. Peace Out e-Comm!!!

Senior Showcase & Photography Brief

So it's been awhile since my last update, and this one is on my photography, not web design. So today I have the Senior Showcase for e-Communication seniors. This showcase has been many months in the making. It has taken a lot of work outside of class by every focus of our e-Communication program. I was selected to be our photography for professional portraits for every senior in our program. To view all of my portrait photos check out the senior show website at http://www.onwravens.net/ecommseniorshow/. Or even better if you can attend tonight at Olathe Northwest High School. We are located at 21300 College Blvd, Olathe, KS 66061. The show is from 6-8pm and my headshots will be displayed on the brochure as well. I will have a reflection of the show up in the next few days following the show. I hope you enjoy my newest works!

Senior Project - Week 8

This week is my final week for this project as today, March 4th is the deadline to enter the eMagine competition. I had to resize around 200 images for my thumbnails on my portfolio. Other than that I just put on final touches to my site. I have entered my Photography Portfolio this year in hopes of a great outcome and some critic. I have finally upload my final Photography Portfolio, so click here to visit it! I have learned so much through this entire project. I am still going to continue to update my photos but everything else is done. I really enjoyed this project and it's entirety. I have learned so much about images and CSS and making images responsive with CSS. I have put the best of the best of my photos on my portfolio but all of my photos are uploaded to my flickr.
The biggest thing I have taken out of this week is that resizing images is no fun and that the final product is so worth all the struggles.

Senior Project - Week 7

This week was a very eye-opening week. I realized how much time redoing my web portfolio and creating a new index page will take. I have been planning times to add content to my photography portfolio. Once I have the content I will be done with the entire photography portfolio. And of course content is the most time consuming part. I will have just about everything done. Then I can finally submit my Photography Portfolio to eMagine.
The biggest thing I took out of this week was that web design is easy after you get all of the code figured out.

Senior Project - Week 5&6

These past two weeks have been very successful. I finally fixed my image galleries, so they work flawlessly. I managed to get all the pages made, as well as the website uploaded. My Photography Portfolio layout is complete. All I have left to do is to create, edit, and add content. My goal is to have my entire site completed for the eMagine deadline, which is two weeks from today. I figured out that my Web Design Portfolio site is in need of updating. So I am working on updating both my Web Design and Photography Portfolios. I also plan to create a new index page.
The biggest thing I took out of this week was that I love when CSS works and that CSS media queries are not any fun, especially when they are messy.

Senior Project - Week 4

This week has been short but with lots of struggle and success. I have started structuring my website. I have the home page created, without content, but it is set and done. I have finished my about me page. I have linked my Flickr as well as my blog to my photography portfolio page. I am currently working on my image gallery pages. I am trying to perfect one and then I will just save as to create the rest of the photo image gallery pages I need. The CSS is being a little tricky at the moment but I will hopefully get it figured out by the end of next week. Once I have the entire website outline done, I can finally focus on my content.
The biggest thing I took out of this week is that I absolutely hate jqueries and I love CSS; however, I only love CSS when it is cooperating.

Senior Project - Week 3

So week three has come to a close and all I  can say is dang. This week has really kick my butt. I found image plugins that I love and really want to use, but they've had complications. The one I want to use for my home page is working quite well. I just want to edit the size a little, and it is causing me quite a headache. The other plugin I wanted to use for all my other pages won't decompress on my computer. So I am currently looking for other options to use. Next week will consist of me figuring out all the CSS and sizing issues, and then hopefully finishing the website layout. Then after that everything will be about getting content and editing. Not much this week, just lots of stress and headaches.
The biggest thing I took away from this week is that jqueries are no fun, and that they look really cool when they actually work.