My new personal blog site and image gallery - mikesalway.com.au is launched!

[iceman]

Hi all

Over 4 years ago when IceInSpace was first created, it was originally my little home on the internet - a place to upload my images and share and write about my experiences in astronomy. It soon grew into a community site for amateur astronomers in Australia and across the world. I still kept my personal image gallery on IceInSpace but it always bothered me that it wasn’t really the right place for it anymore.

Earlier this year, I decided it was finally time to completely separate my personal work from IceInSpace and create a new site specifically dedicated to my thoughts and my images - and here it is, mikesalway.com.au (http://www.mikesalway.com.au).

It’s been a long time coming - I started it back in April 2008 but have only found time to work on it in shorts bursts, before being dragged off to do more work on IceInSpace, or just being able to find the time outside of real work and family life.

I'd love for you to take a look, and i'd be happy to receive your feedback, suggestions, input, comments etc.

http://www.mikesalway.com.au/siteimages/mikesalway-400px.jpg (http://www.mikesalway.com.au)
mikesalway.com.au (http://www.mikesalway.com.au) - Astronomy and Photography by Mike Salway

Thanks!

[leon]

Very Impressive and professional Mike, I'm sure there will be many interesting subjects for me to explore.

Leon

[matt]

Very nice, Mike.

I'm in the process of doing the same thing.

Hope to have it up and running soon:)

Well done. I'll visit every so often to see what you're up to.

[Matty P]

Awesome Mike. It looks great. :)

I am very impressed. I'm wanting to do the same thing but at the moment I am happy with my little website. I will get around to it one day.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

:thumbsup:

[Shawn]

Very Nice Mike... top notch as allways...

[GTB_an_Owl]

love the banner Mike

geoff

[Ric]

Great looking site Mike, very nicely laid out and great images.

[h0ughy]

mate you have far too much time on your hands LOL. nice site

[gaa_ian]

That is a very cool looking blog Mike !
Well done, I will put up some links to it.

[jakob]

Very nice, Mike.

Congratulation to another Masterpiece. :thumbsup:

Jakob

ps No Pelicans in the banner?:rolleyes:

[Phil]

Great stuff Mike i will have a good read after i have finished on this site.
Phil

[norm]

Well Done Mike. Professional as always!:thumbsup:

[rogerg]

Nice site Mike :thumbsup:


I've been working on a new website since April too, difference is mine still has 40 odd hours of development left on it, probably because I'm slacker :) Trying to get 30mins done each day during lunch, but like you said can be very tough to find the time.

Roger.

[Bassnut]

Top work Mike, lots of interesting stuff to look thru. Obviously much effort put into this, and it shows.

[Kevnool]

Great design there mike , Looks like your fellow IISers are about to follow in your footsteps also....cheers Kev.

[Starkler]

:rofl: houghy

I just hope that IIS doesnt suffer as a result of splitting your time Mike.
Good luck with the site!

[Satchmo]

Looks great Mike ... once you get over that typically cringe inducing feeling you get when you see anyone making a .com with their own name that is :)

[gman]

Mike, where do you get the time?

With a daylight job, a house to look after, kids to drive around and observing of a night, you must be running on an eight day week.

Its looks great and has the feeling of letting newcomers like myself get a bit of a personal insight into Mike Salway.

Keep up the inspiring work.:thumbsup:

[iceman]

Thanks to everyone for the great feedback, it's really nice to hear after you look at it on your own for months on end wondering if you're going down the right track.


haha thanks Dave, unfortunately I didn't have enough time which is why it took so long to finish off :)


Thanks Ian, much appreciated. Good luck with your Ask The Science Guru (http://www.askthescienceguru.com/) blog.


haha thanks Jakob :) I certainly had a few photos with pelicans that I could choose from ;)


Thanks Roger - your site has always been an inspiration to me to get a new personal site up and running.
I can't wait to see your new site - with 40-odd hours still remaining it must quite a masterpiece!


Thanks Fred, much appreciated.


No, absolutely not Geoff. When deciding to do the new site, I looked at a number of options such as using another CMS (Content Management System), a custom-written site, or using something like WordPress. In the end, I chose WordPress mainly because once the site is up and running, very little time and effort is required to keep it running.
Setting up a WordPress site could literally be done in a few hours if you choose a pre-written theme - unfortunately due to wanting it "perfect" (or as close to as possible), I rewrote most of the theme, and the integration with Coppermine and setting up the gallery took a bit more time too.
But now it's all done and setup, adding articles or posts is a piece of cake and won't take time away from IceInSpace.


lol thanks Mark. I know what you mean - I thought about having a site name, instead of my own name, but in the end I kept it simple.


Thanks Grant. Appreciate the feedback.
I would've liked to have had the site finished 4-5 months ago, but I kept tinkering with it to get it "just right". I didn't want to launch it and then have to fix stuff up afterwards. In the end, I got most of the stuff done I wanted to but with only being able to spend a small amount of time on it every few weeks, it dragged it out. There's still a few minor layout issues in IE which I'll need Terry's help to fix up :)

Thanks again to everyone for your kind words.

[Hagar]

Very nice Mike, I like your personal setup of coppermine. Very professional looking site.

[multiweb]

Very cool - Love the way the gallery works with the popup div and the way it works.

[Jen]

:eyepop: Awsome site Mike ;)
:thumbsup: Great work you have some amazing stuff on there very nice :thumbsup:
cheers :)

[styleman333]

Wow mike , awesome site , great to see the personally touch , made me laugh with abbey askin how they got the astronauts in the iss

Great job