
About the Author
I have been building websites since the days of HTML frames and dial-up modems. My first website was hosted on Geocities in the late 90s. I continued hacking together webpages and Java/Visual Basic applications in highschool. A huge revelation came in college when I discovered the L.A.M.P. stack, dynamic content and AJAX.
After finishing my undergrad in 2010, I moved to the Washington, D.C. area, and have spent the last 3 years working as a technology consultant for Deloitte Consulting, LLP. During my time at Deloitte, I have gained technical experience as both a web developer, and a Business Intelligence/report developer. Outside of work, I have always enjoyed investing time in personal web projects, bicycling/mountain biking, hiking/camping, traveling and spending time with friends and family.
Website Background
This website was created as a hobby, with the goal of finding a way to keep my photo library in sync across multiple computers (and mobile devices). The idea of storing my photos/videos in the cloud was attractive, and I decided to give S3 a go. What started as a simple file upload form, powered by a L.A.M.P. backend, has grown to include several technologies, many of which are featured in the list/diagram below.
This website is a work in progress, and is not complete. I will continue to build it out, make bug fixes, and add new/fun-to-build features as fast as I can think them up. I hope you enjoy your time browsing, and please do not hesitate to contact me.
Tools and Technologies
(this section is under construction)
Below is a list of the tools and technologies used to create this photo gallery. Click on an item for more information.
Frontend / UI
- jQuery and jQuery UI Components
- Google Maps API v3
- Web Service Interaction (often via JSON)
- CSS3 Media Queries
- HTML5 Video (with FLV fallback)
- Photo Geotagging
- Google Maps Marker Clustering
- Flash Video (via JW Player)
- Mobile Formatted Theme
Backend / Core
- Object Orient Programming (including CRUD)
- RESTful Web API
- Photo Submission (via HTTP POST)
- Photo Retrieval (from S3)
- User Authenticated Sessions
- AWS SDK for PHP
- Photo manipulation (via GD Graphics Library)
Data Persistence
- MySQL
- Relational Data Model
- Geospacial Queries
- Correlated Subqueries
- Amazon Web Services
- Simple Storage Service (S3)
System / Support
- L.A.M.P. Stack
- Queue Processing
- HTML5/Flash Video Conversion (via FFmpeg)
- Email Interface for Photo Submission
Photo Gallery Statistics
Number of Pictures: 12633
Number of Albums: 395
Number of Tags / Associations: 70 / 6735
Total Gallery Filesize: 33.58 GB / 1.36 GB (base)
Development Hours: approx. 300 hours