Why This Site Looks So Good

So, even though I know enough HTML to maintain and even modify a website, and although I do (sort of) know how a camera works, it’s a very good thing I have help. And not just any help: I’m very fortunate to be surrounded by experts who also happen to like me.

The Site Design:
Simon, my partner in life, crime and computing, is the genius behind the code behind the details that make this site stand out. When it’s broke, he fixes it, and when it’s functional he makes it artistic. Here’s how the computer conversations in our house often go:

Me: Simon, I want a new category of menu links but site settings won’t let me change the format.
Simon (sitting down and toggling between screens): The site isn’t set up to function that way. Here, let me edit the program.

And a few minutes later I’ve got a menu bar customized exactly the way I envisioned it, even if I couldn’t articulate it. He also writes and/or customizes iPhone apps on demand — he’s not bad to have around.

When Simon isn’t cleaning up my HTML or watching Big Bang Theory, he’s managing all the websites that represent the Pattonville School District (officially, this makes him District Webmaster). The District owns about 5,000 Macs and only 2 PCs, and this makes Simon supremely happy. Plus, he gets to make most of the sites work by writing custom programs, which is one of his favorite ways to solve technical problems.
He also does freelance tech support and web design (he gets his fill during his day job but he’s so good at it that people keep asking). He also occasionally gets inspired to design a 3D game level, which you may have played. Since he writes them under a pseudonym, you won’t know they’re his though.

He’s been so busy working on other peoples’ websites and computers that he’s neglected his own. But if you’re a techie, check back soon because his site is in the works.

The Photography:

*An update: Lest my fledgling photos reflect badly on Tim (which is like saying “lest you think my work is his work” — ha!), do note that around March, 2007, I started taking my own photographs. I’m not entirely sure of the post where I started doing my own, but when you’re scrolling through the pages, it becomes pretty clear pretty fast. But Tim gets credit for all the photos before March (all the good ones, anyway) as well as for the banner, the pics of me, and all the other obviously professional shots!

I won’t be modest about the photography on this site. It’s freakin’ gorgeous! But I didn’t make it. Tim Pastor, photographer extraordinaire, of Artisan Photography and Artisan Babies, gets all the credit. And if you’re thinking, “wait, they have the same last name”, you are correct. Tim is also my baby brother.

It was inevitable that Tim would become an artist of some sort. He was making sand sculptures before he could walk, and he was drawing before he could talk. (An aside – chances were just as good that he would become a CEO, because he was dealing in backyard box turtles by the time he was 8). By the time he was in grade school, he was winning awards for his paintings and his charcoal sketches (that is, when he wasn’t getting in trouble for pulling some of the most extravagant and creative pranks I’ve ever heard about). At some point during his college years, he picked up a camera and never looked back.

In 2001 Tim got into wedding photography, and it wasn’t long before he was established as one of the most sought after photographers in the St. Louis metro area. His photographs demonstrate a gift for sensing relationships and translating them visually, and a talent with composition and design. Because many of his previous wedding clients have requested that he now photograph their new babies, he has launched Artisan Babies.

He has done some automobile advertising photography and a few sports events, and he can claim the distinction of capturing Torry Holt in a tutu and tiara.

So far he is really enjoying taking pictures of cooked tomatoes (especially if I feed him afterwards). Let’s all pray the novelty never wears off.