SITE UPDATES - CSS
It's hard to give up old habits, and that includes old html habits. So, besides shoveling snow and taking pictures in the blizzard the first week of 2007, I gave my self a crash course in cascading style sheets, commonly called CSS. Long gone are the days of endlessly repeating font and table tags for webpage layout. With browser support for CSS now somewhere near ninety percent, it's time for me to make use of these powerful new tools.
There are some great advantages to CSS that you don't get in plain html: there are things like cool hover effects for links, proportional font layout, as well as several kinds of absolute sizing. With CSS you also get text effects such as letter, word, and line spacing. For example, the Robert Chavez Photography logo at the top of each page is all done with CSS coding. In the beginning days of html you had to use an image or images to get those kind of text effects.
OK, I admit I still used a table to make this and the new pages, but it's a single table with only two table rows and the rest of the formatting relies primarily on a style sheet. For you, the viewer, what the heck does this mean? The new pages load as much as 50% faster because all of those repeated html tags that were presentational elements, are now downloaded only once, in the form of tags in a style sheet. The CSS file is then referenced by subsequent web pages. If you are a designer or web-site builder, you probably know that all you have to do is change the style sheet to affect site-wide changes to your "look". The website HTMLSource was a great reference in the implementation of CSS on these pages, and, it has other interesting stuff for webmasters and designers. If you like, you can view the text of my style sheet here, basic.css
CREDITS
Artwork, design, and construction by Robert Luis Chavez. Photography by Robert Luis Chavez except for guest artists and featured artists.
image by David Alfaya
Portrait of me by David Alfaya, who is from New York, but now
lives
and works in Santa Fe.
INSPIRATION
A special thanks to two of my friends: While they were living and working in Santa Fe, Alan Crandall and Tony Rawlins, prodded me to build and run my own site. They're "You can do it" attitutide has continued to inspire me to dive into new things, even when the path isn't clear. When I first started this site I said about the two of them, "...Craig and Tony are computer wizards and have helped me immeasurably in getting this site going". Well, their wizardry has grown in leaps and bounds. Tony is now also an Autocad wizard while Alan is creating exciting IPIX pictures, which are 360 degree bubble images, with a Nikon digital camera.
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CONTACT INFORMATION
Email: email me
Phone: (505) 982-4457
Mail:
Robert L. Chavez
2 Torreon Place
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87508