2013-02-24     Website Migration…

My apologies if you are experiencing any difficulties with my Canadarama website, especially images …I am migrating to a new host/server and the process can take up to 72 hours to fully propogate. Thank you for your patience!

2013-02-22     Another update…

Surgery over and done with and I'm now on the mend! The tendons were not repairable but the good news is that my recovery will be much quicker. Many thanks to the doctors, nurses and support staff at PRH …I'm very fortunate to live in such a beautiful part of the world and know that help is always there when needed. Thanks also to my amazing family for their love and care and for making this whole thing so easy.

2013-02-06     Update!

Rats …I got bumped …my surgery day has now been pushed to Feb. 20th. Meanwhile, I'm going gung-ho on my website makeover. I've come upon some really cool stuff and made some great connections with developers from around the globe. It's a steep learning curve but with that comes a very rewarding experience. Stay tuned!

2013-01-29

Thank you for browsing on over to my personal, panoramic website! If you arrived here by way of a search engine like Google, congratulations …you’ve found my little needle in the haystack! Perhaps more appropriately though, the beetle in the array stack.

Admittedly, this website needs a serious makeover! It's definitely on my To Do list and has been for some time. I could just WordPress it, but I have goals of a little more interactivity and content management. If you or someone you know, has any experience with web design you'll understand it's not just a one-or-two-click endeavour. In the meantime, I appreciate your patience and hope you will return again to see the progress.

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree
and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."
Abraham Lincoln

Canadarama, as the name suggests, is my personal quest at capturing the many diverse and stunning landscapes, views, and vistas of this beautiful country we call Canada. To date, my library of images is limited to British Columbia but it will grow as time, the seasons and of course, finances allow. My other website is more of the business end of things where I mainly shoot commercial⁄technical photographs.

Like many entrepreneurs today, I juggle, manage, learn a lot, make mistakes, observe, create, and the list goes on. I’m not complaining …I love what I do, I’m proud of who I am and the direction I’m heading. I’m also very grateful; for the love and support of a wonderful family, for the opportunities I have and the drive to succeed.

"The family is one of nature's masterpieces."
- George Santayana

My role as a husband of an extremely hard-working, entrepreneurial wife and father of an amazingly talented, beautiful 16-year-old daughter is one of love, support, encouragement and highest on my priority list. I’m responsible for the day to day chores like cooking, cleaning, maintenance (shovelling snow in winter, yard-work in summer), tech support on six different computers, walking our two dogs, grocery shopping, and… driving! That last one is no small feat as we live in a rural area and I often pick up my daughter after school, get her to the farm where our two horses are kept and, May though October, we are off to equine events near and far almost every weekend.

So, when it comes to my work as a photographer and digital geek, I have to be flexible and capitalize on the windows of opportunity as time allows. Currently, I have about two weeks until I go “under the knife” to repair some severely torn tendons on my right shoulder, the result of an injury I sustained almost a year ago. My recovery time is uncertain as my surgeon tells me he, “won’t know until he gets in there”. One outcome means less mobility in that arm in the long term (though improved from where I am now) but a shorter recovery of 6-8 weeks. The other, which would give me the best result and may take some divine intervention, could be 4-6 months before I have full mobility.

"Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity."
- Hippocrates

The re-designing of this website then will follow my surgery and at least initially, likely mean slow progress as I fumble along with my left hand. At any rate, I plan to build a Joomla driven, dynamic site that will simplify the navigation of my panoramic images, integrate a shopping cart for ease of purchasing and last but not least, allow me to add new panoramas easily, on an on-going basis as I shoot and process them.

I first heard about Joomla ten or so years ago, but it wasn’t until 2010 that I immersed myself deeply and developed the Penticton Pony Club website as a volunteer. Although daunting at first, determination and sheer hunger for knowledge got me over, under and through the many hurdles I encountered. Thanks in no small part to the generous, dedicated individuals that make up the Joomla Community.

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time.
We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
- Barack Obama

If you haven’t clicked out of here by now, I thank you most sincerely for taking the time to read this. No doubt, I’m taking a leap of faith.

If you would like to comment, make suggestions, give some friendly advice or just say “Hi, I can relate”, please send me an email. I'm always eager to connect with like-minded individuals whether you are up the street, the other side of this planet, or beyond.

John Barber

"There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,
That can circumvent or hinder or control
The firm resolve of a determined soul."
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox