Journal tags: picture

Last month I wrote about writing on web.dev. At that time, the first five parts of a fourteen-part course on responsive design had been published. I’m pleased to say that the next five parts are now available. They are:

1. Typography
2. Responsive images
3. The picture element
4. Icons
5. Theming

It wasn’t planned, but these five modules feel like they belong together. The first five modules were concerned with layout tools—media queries, flexbox, grid, and even container queries. The latest five modules are about the individual elements of design—type, colour, and images. But those elements are examined through the lens of responsiveness; responsive typography with clamp, responsive colour with prefers-color-scheme, and responsive images with picture and srcset.

The final five modules should be available later this month. In the mean time, I hope you like the first ten modules.

I did not take any photographs today. There was a moment when I thought about it. Standing in the back garden, looking up through the leaves and branches of an overhanging tree, I almost reached for my phone.

The sky was a rich clear cerulean blue. The leaves of the tree were a deep maroon colour. The sunlight shining through the leaves showed a branching system of vein-like lines.

If I had taken a photograph, I probably would’ve pointed the camera lens straight up, filling most of the frame with pure blue, and the purple leaves encroaching into the picture.

Heather Champ just announced that the Mirror Project is being revived and it has brought back a flood of memories for me. Heather evocatively describes the origins of the Mirror Project from a time “when the web was younger, when home pages were what we made.”

The premise was simple: Take a picture of yourself in some reflective surface. That’s it. It seems so very straightforward in today’s age of ubiquitous photography and instant updates but there was a thoughtfulness that went into every picture posted. Keep hitting the “surprise me” link to see what I mean.

My first Mirror Project shot was taken eleven years ago. I have a few more in there. I used to blog about The Mirror Project every time one of my pictures was posted. I even used to have a little widget on this site to show a random Mirror Project shot.

Here’s a shot that Jeffrey took at the start of the millennium. That picture went on to have a life of its own as a book cover. It even spawned a meme.

Back then, I never could’ve imagined in my wildest dreams that I would get to know Jeffrey Zeldman, much less call him my friend. Here I am, eleven years later, writing and speaking about web design with my hero from way back when. Crazy!

Within a year, the Mirror Project reached its 10000th picture (just look at those fresh-faced kids).

My last Mirror Project shot was taken at South by Southwest in 2005.

My first pictures on Flickr date from the same time—when the worst-kept secret at that South by Southwest was that Flickr was being bought by Yahoo. Online digital photography was changing.

The Mirror Project has been gone for six years. It warms my heart to see it return, its URLs restored, its images reflecting back.