Nina Nicholson

Website Assignment: FlexTime Solutions, Inc.

2009-06-27T18:39:00.011-04:00

I was asked to completely redesign the website for FlexTime Solutions, Inc. This is a screen capture of the main page of their original website:

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Below is the the main page of the site I designed for them (the site is at flextimesolutions.com).

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I worked closely with Kathleen Shelby, one of the principals of FlexTime Solutions, to design the new site. First we reviewed several websites she liked to give me an idea of what she was looking for. Then, working with these ideas, a rough draft of the revised content, and the blue, green and gray logo which had been designed previously, I pulled it all together into the original design seen above. Kathleen provided all the text, and I directed her to istockphoto.com to select artwork at a reasonable price.

After the new website was launched, Kathleen emailed me:

Nina,
I think the site looks great - really great! I so appreciate your suggestions, ideas and implementation.

Photo Assignment: The Bishop of Newark ("Gates of Hope" Vestments)

2009-06-04T12:50:00.005-04:00

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After taking official portraits of the Bishop of Newark last year, I was asked to photograph the him a second time, in his "Gates of Hope" vestments (above). While there I also took some "purple shirt" photos of him in front of a stained glass window inside the cathedral that depicts children looking at the cathedral (below).

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Redesign of the Website of St. George's Church in Maplewood, NJ

2009-05-11T09:00:00.027-04:00

I first launched the website for my home parish, St. George's in Maplewood, in March 2001. Nearly four years later, in late 2004, I completely redesigned it for St. George's centennial year in 2005. Since then I've created a number of other websites, and greatly expanded my knowledge of CSS and JavaScript as well as my skills in web design. I've also grown more skilled with my digital SLR camera and built up a photo library of literally thousands of digital photos of St. George's ministries -- many taken by me, as well as some taken by other parishioners. "A picture's worth a thousand words," and I knew that if I could find a way to incorporate these photos into the website design, it would be more effective than any mission statement at conveying what St. George's is all about. So last winter, I began thinking about a new website design that would do that.

The problem was, I wanted to be able to show as many photos as possible, as large as possible, but without giving up valuable "real estate" on the site that was needed for text. Then one day a friend directed me to the website of St. Olaf College to see her daughter in a video of the choir. That's where I got the idea to use photos cropped as long panoramics in the header of each page.

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The two white arrows at the top right of each page can be used to scroll through the header photos. The main page has over 30 header photos representing all the ministries of St. George's. Each sub page has two or more photos representing that particular ministry. In the few cases where relevant photos weren't available, generic photos of St. George's grounds and stained glass windows were used.

New header photos can be added very easily, thus keeping the website fresh with minimal effort.

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I hand-coded an original template using HTML, CSS and Javascript which was used to create all 24 pages on the site. Some technical considerations taken into account in the design:

The website can be displayed on even the oldest, smallest monitors without horizontal scroll bars -- the gray space on either side will simply grow or shrink to fit the screen dimensions.

All links to email addresses are encrypted using JavaScript so they can't be harvested for spam. On computers where JavaScript is disabled, emails will be spelled out as text ("parish-office AT stgeorges-maplewood DOT org").

The website is search engine optimized by the appropriate use of header tags and by putting the most important content at the top of each file.

The use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and include files for repeating code such as menus and footers, allows design changes to be made to the entire site by changing just one or two files, rather than having to modify every single HTML file.

Photo Assignment: The Bishop's New Vestments for "The Voice"

2009-04-07T18:21:00.007-04:00

I was commissioned to photograph the Bishop of Newark's new "Gates of Hope" vestments for The Voice, the diocesan newspaper. My photos will be used to illustrate articles about each of the four "Gates of Hope" in four issues of The Voice, starting with the issue that came out today:

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First Photo in the New York Times

2009-03-20T20:22:00.005-04:00

OK, so it’s not the print edition, but I did finally have one of my photos published -- with photo credit! -- under the imprimatur of the New York Times.

(Incidentally, I'm responsible for both the website and the sermons blog linked to in the article.)

Photos of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor® Dreamcoat"

2009-02-28T11:54:00.003-05:00

Twenty-six photos of the February 22, 2009 amateur performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor® Dreamcoat, at St. George's Episcopal Church in Maplewood, NJ.

View Album (larger images)

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Church PR: "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor® Dreamcoat"

2009-01-09T19:32:00.010-05:00

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This has been my main project for the past few weeks: a graphic to promote my parish's production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor® Dreamcoat. The image above is a scale representation of a 6x10 ft vinyl banner to be displayed on the front of the church, and a 3x5 banner to be displayed by the back door. Variations of the same design are being used for postcards, flyers, emails and on St. George's website.

When starting the design I immediately envisioned the words of the title in the shape of a coat. When I asked what color scheme to use, I was told "bright rainbow." I found the rainbow swirl graphic on www.istockphoto.com after searching through hundreds of vector graphics tagged "rainbow." Unable to find a coat graphic that would work for what I wanted, I ended up drawing the coat myself as a bitmap graphic using Macromedia Fireworks.

I did the design above as a vector graphic in CorelDraw with everything except the coat. I then sent the CorelDraw file and the bitmap coat graphic to my friend, designer Linda Yesline (of www.asterandsage.com); she "vectorized" the coat graphic for me in Adobe Illustrator and inserted it into the final design.

The fonts are Berlin Sans FB (inside the coat) and Berlin Sans FB Demi (the date), and then simply Arial for the phone number and Arial Narrow for the website address.

Website Assignment: Church of the Transfiguration, Towaco, NJ

2008-12-01T19:40:00.010-05:00

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My latest free website for a parish in the Diocese of Newark (transfiguration-towaco.dioceseofnewark.org). This is the fifth one I've developed in 2008. You can read more about this ongoing project here.

Church PR: Christmas Postcards

2008-11-19T18:49:00.008-05:00

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I designed this postcard -- using a photo I took at the Christmas pageant two years ago -- for my church to use to advertise our Christmas services.

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Website Assignment: St. Dunstan's Church, Succasunna, NJ

2008-10-21T19:07:00.015-04:00

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This website for St. Dunstan's Church in Succasunna, NJ (stdunstan-succasunna.dioceseofnewark.org) is the fourth website I've developed for a parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Newark. This is a continuation of a project I started in February 2008 for the Diocese of Newark Technology Committee, to insure that every single parish in the diocese has its own website. I develop the websites for free, and they're hosted for free as a subdomain of the diocesan website. All these parish websites are listed in a column to the right side.

Each website consists of a single page with relatively static information provided by the parish on a simple form. In the event the parish has someone who can take over maintenance of the site, the code would be handed over to them as a starting point.

It took me two hours to design the look and feel of the template, and eight hours to code the HTML file and Cascading Style Sheet. With those two files, using the information provided by the parish, I can now develop a parish's website in under one hour.

The first three parish websites I developed using this template were:

Christ Church, Harrison
christchurch-harrison.dioceseofnewark.org
Calvary Church, Bayonne
calvary-bayonne.dioceseofnewark.org
St. Thomas' Church, Lyndhurst
stthomas-lyndhurst.dioceseofnewark.org

Website Assignment: The Assembly of Episcopal Healthcare Chaplains

2008-10-11T16:05:00.010-04:00

I was asked to completely redesign the website of the Assembly of Episcopal Healthcare Chaplains. This is a screen capture of the main page of their original website:

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This is the main page of the site I designed for them (currently online at www.episcopalchaplain.org). Because they already had a distinctive, professionally designed newsletter, the Chaplair, I based the website design on the newsletter design for a continuity of look and feel.

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Just for Fun: An Unposed Mother-Daughter Portrait

2008-08-10T20:43:00.004-04:00

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While on vacation in Cape Cod with a friend and her daughter, my friend asked me to try to get a photo of them riding the "Flying Horses" carousel on Martha's Vineyard. I took a shot every time they came around; this was the best. Because the flash had frozen the movement, I Photoshopped it to selectively blur the background, suggesting motion, while leaving my friend and her daughter in sharp focus.

Photo Assignment: A Baptism

2008-07-20T20:33:00.002-04:00

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I was commissioned to photograph this child's baptism. Extended family came in from out of town for the service, and his parents wanted posed group photos of everyone in their finery in the church garden. However, this candid photo of the child surrounded by his parents and big brother is my favorite.

Because I was shooting in very low light without a flash, I shot at 3200 ISO, and used a monopod to avoid camera shake.

Photo Assignment: The Bishop of Newark

2008-07-13T21:05:00.009-04:00

After photographing some of the staff of the Diocese of Newark, I was asked to come back and photograph the Bishop, The Right Rev. Mark Beckwith.

I spent an hour with him and shot a variety of portraits, all using only available light, no flash.

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This one, taken in front of the altar in Trinity & St. Philip's Cathedral, is my personal favorite. I used a gold reflector to focus light on the Bishop's face; I liked the effect in the dark cathedral.

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The same shot, but this time wearing his miter.

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This was taken on the roof of Episcopal House. The spire of Trinity & St. Philip's Cathedral is on the left, and NJPAC, where the Bishop was consecrated in January 2007, is on the right.

The spire of the cathedral is badly in need of paint, so I Photoshopped it to improve its appearance. Again, a gold reflector was used to focus light on the Bishop's face.

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And finally, a basic headshot, using only natural light from a north-facing window.

Just for Fun: 4th of July Fireworks

2008-07-04T22:25:00.002-04:00

These are from my first serious attempt at photographing fireworks. They were taken at the fireworks display which ends the 4th of July celebration held in Memorial Park in Maplewood, NJ.

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It rained throughout the fireworks, and my husband patiently stood and held a large umbrella over me and my camera equipment while I shot away.

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Website Assignment: Grace Counseling Center

2008-06-07T02:54:00.004-04:00

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Grace Counseling Center (http://www.gracecounseling.org/) retained me to complete and launch their website, which had been started by another developer who had moved away, leaving the project unfinished. All GCC was able to give me was a CD with multiple versions of the HTML files and graphics, and a couple emails about the domain name registration. There were no notes or comments about the code, and the previous developer was not available for questions.

I first examined the HTML files and identified the most recent and complete set, and what was needed to complete the website. The interface was close to being complete - only the menu required modification - but the internal code had many gaps in functionality, and the text that had been used was now out of date. Also, the website as it stood would not work in the Mozilla Firefox browser, only in Internet Explorer.

In order to minimize the number of hours spent on the project, I kept the design by the first developer. First I got the website complete and working in IE, by modifying the existing HTML files to fill in the gaps in functionality, and updating the text. I then went through all the HTML files making consistent modifications so that it would work in Firefox as well.

GCC decided they wanted to take advantage of the free web hosting provided by Rosenet (http://www.rosenet.org/) to all Madison, NJ organizations. I worked with the Rosenet webmaster to create the account, and then uploaded the files and set the domain name http://www.gracecounseling.org/ to forward to http://www.rosenet.org/gracecounseling/index.html. Several issues arose on Rosenet's side, and I worked with the Rosenet webmaster to resolve them.

After the GCC website was launched, Thomas Harris, the Communications Consultant to GCC, emailed me:

Nina,
Thank you for a terrific job. It looks fantastic and without you it would still be floating around in the digital ether.

Photo Assignment: Diocese of Newark Staff

2008-06-01T20:03:00.003-04:00

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In May 2008 the Episcopal Diocese of Newark asked me to photograph staff members for a pictoral directory. These photos are now used on the diocesan website at http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/staff.html,
and also appeared in the June 2008 edition of The Voice (page 13): http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/Voice0608_web.pdf.

Photo Assignment: The Presiding Bishop at the Community of St. John Baptist

2008-06-01T15:25:00.004-04:00

On behalf of Episcopal Life and The Voice, I photographed the Presiding Bishop's visit to the Community of St. John Baptist in Mendham, NJ on April 22, 2008.

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Episcopal Life Online ran one of my photos with a feature article on April 24, 2008: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81834_96643_ENG_HTM.htm.

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The Voice ran three of my photos in their June 2008 issue (pages 1, 2 and 14): http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/Voice0608_web.pdf

(an unrelated photo of mine also ran on page 1).

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The Rev. Elizabeth Kaeton used one of my photos in her blog, Telling Secrets:

http://telling-secrets.blogspot.com/2008/04/caption-contest.html.

I donated 73 photos to the sisters of CSJB for their use. Several of these were published in their Spring 2008 newsletter (pages 8 and 9): http://www.csjb.org/originals/NewsletSpr08.pdf.