Eternal Gratitude and Many Pints Owed

WEB DESIGNER AND PHP & MYSQL PROGRAMMER EXTRAORDINAIRE JIM SHANNON

Back in 1991 when we met, fresh faced but not too naive, at Art College in Brighton there was definitely a feeling that we would continue to be friends throughout our lives. Jim is one of those people who has this amazing work ethic and ability to learn new skills and talents that I admire and respect so much. He is also the most patient, understanding and generous person I know. Thankfully. Because, although he has not said or shown it, I do worry that I may be pushing things at the moment.

Although he is trained as an illustrator (an extremely good one), has a passion for photography that easily equals mine and goes travelling at every given opportunity, he has also somehow taught himself to design websites and write all the code by hand. So when, in a moment of extreme generosity, he offered to help me redo my website I quite naturally accepted.

As I write this, the site is perhaps a month away from completion and has, I fear turned into a bigger monster than he anticipated. We have squeezed the odd hour of work into his few spare moments where ever we could and I have sat watching over his shoulder, slack jawed, as he works his magic. It is a truly awe inspiring and humbling sight watching someone do something that you could never dream of achieving yourself. The way an idea or piece of design is translated in his head into code and then appears on the screen as a page or idea is something that has many times left me speechless.

It makes me feel like the pathetic thanks I mumble, the pints I buy or the promises I make to one day pay him are almost insulting. All I can do is hope that I have not pushed our friendship too far and that soon I will have occasion to repay the debt. In the mean time please visit Jim’s own site, admire his fantastic photography and web design and bear him in mind if you ever have a site you want doing and you can afford to pay him…

Latest

Swarm

It was as simple as ‘get to the top of Finland and turn left’.  At least that is

Blink and you’ll miss it

Iceland. Never has the essence of a country so closely resembled the way in which I see the

Under the Stars in Madagascar

There are times when writing about memories from as far back as my eighteenth year feels wrong. How

Viewpoints

The Rooftop Collective exhibition edition VI Tempus Fugit. So they say. Here we are again, another Rooftop Collective

Memories

Speedometers and Bikes

When cycling around Eastern Europe it was very low-tech for Morgan and I. Our decision was spur of

Ablutions on the Giant’s Causeway

Sometimes you have to squeeze a trip into whatever time you have available. And if all you have

In Sweden without a camera

There have been many, many times over the last seven or eight years when I have been unable

Stereotypical rivers

India 18-03-11 If in any doubt at all (photographically speaking) head straight for water. Immediately as a photographer

Randomly Selected

The Red Light District: Preparing for India 03/11

I am going to India. In just over a week. On the floor next to me are over

The National Portrait Gallery: Irving Penn

Irving Penn: Portraits at The National Portrait Gallery until the 6TH of February 2010: I went to see

Holi Hunters by Jim Shannon in Sidetracked

The latest edition of Sidetracked came out today and it features an article by Jim, reporting on our

West of the Sun trailer

A huge thank you to Jim Shannon for putting together this wonderful trailer for ‘West of the Sun’.