Monthly Archives: July 2009

Theme Work

by · · leave a comment

I switched from a fixed-width theme to the Sancta Simplicitas (SS) theme. The primary reason is that I can use a larger photo size for inclusion in a post.

I picked SS as the theme for another reason: it is based on the Yahoo! YUI Grids CSS package.

Out of the box, it used a 240 pixel sidebar on the right. That wasn’t so hot for the reason that if you reduced the size of your browser, an image could be truncated by the right sidebar.

Changing the sidebar width and layout is as simple as changing a tag in the header.php file in the theme. Unfortunately, Yahoo! YUI Grids CSS doesn’t come with a 240 pixel left sidebar option. 180 pixels on the left is too small for the calendar view, and 300 pixels on the left is just too big. Fortunately, it has been extended by a web developer who likes symmetry in code, and that allowed me to set the layout to have a 240 pixel sidebar on the left. Now, if your browser window is too small, it will present a scrollbar to view the complete image as posted.

I doubt that I will have time to do much more with the theme until September.

Viewed 67490 times by 9918 viewers

“Devil In Dover” Book Cover Photo

by · · 1 comment

Tammy Kitzmiller in press scrum after trial, 2005/11/04

This was one of the photos I took while attending the 2005 Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District trial in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In the middle of the press scrum, Tammy Kitzmiller (in the salmon sweater), the lead plaintiff, watches as her daughters answer a question from the reporters.

Lauri Lebo, a reporter for the York Daily Record, wrote a book, The Devil in Dover, about the case and her own experiences in reporting on it. Lauri had a philosophical difference of opinion with the management at the York Daily Record, and by the time the book was published, she was no longer working there. She had originally planned to use a photograph taken by a York Daily Record photographer the showed most of the press scrum on the courthouse steps. I’m pretty sure that the picture was taken by the fellow on the ladder:

KvD photographer who planned ahead.

The York Daily Record refused Lauri’s request for use of the photo for her book cover. Given that the print date was just a couple of weeks away, this put Lauri in a tight spot to come up with cover art on short notice. Lauri contacted Glenn Branch at NCSE, and Glenn reminded Lauri that I had a bunch of photos from the trial myself. Lauri and her editors picked the photo at the top to go on the dust jacket for the book.

The gear I used for the photos was a Fuji S2 Pro DSLR with a Tokina 12-24mm f/4 zoom lens. I went pretty light to the trial, with just the one lens, camera, and a flash.

Viewed 75178 times by 11363 viewers