It was ten years ago today that I first put up a photo website. Not the current domain – that wouldn’t come for another five years – but rather I used the 5 megabytes of space provided by my old webhost, netlink. The old website was www.net-link.net/~cassino – it’s long gone, but some editions of it can sometimes be found on the Internet Wayback machine.

Honey Bee in Impatiens Flower

I first picked up a camera in July, 1997, so putting up a photo website three months later was probably a bit premature. But one photo from that original site still lingers in the current site – the bee shown here. This shot was taken in October, 1997, as I pulled up the bedding plants after the first frost. The shot was taken on print film with a Pentax Pz-70, Takumar-F 70-200 zoom, and close up diopter. It would no way meet current standards or sharpness and clarity, but bees have forever since been a favorite subject, and the composition is still pleasing to my eye.

A lot has changed on the internet in ten years. This site has grown, but has not changed all that much. It’s still basic HTML - the original site was hand coded in Windows Notepad. It was later prepped in MS FrontPage and currently with Namo Webeditor. But the essential design has remained the same. The image stream is a change towards less-edited, more chronological presentation of work. In large part that’s for my own convenience – I use the website to organize my stuff, and wanted to see it more from a chronological . seasonal perspective than subject oriented. The blog is new, of course, and someday Calarti will probably take over the whole site.

Since I can’t thing of much to say about this anniversary, I consulted the Oracles – in my case the I Ching and Morgan’s Tarot. (I wonder is the spirits of these oracles hang out together in oracle world. It probably is a small world and you gotta take the neighbors your get…)

For years now, I ask only one question – “Where to now?” All the other stuff is best left unsaid, to avoid confusion.

The I Ching returned the 48th Hexagram – The Well. All lines young. Interesting figure, and it’s uncommon to have no lines changing. But considering all the lines in the figure, I realized that most describe a well that does not work, and only two describe one that is really functional. So the old book is pointing out what could be, but also noting what is. I should figure out how to get a fish to swim across the screen here…

Morgan was more to the point, as I pulled up the BOO! Card. No fear – lets have some surprises…

So much for anniversaries – I’ll think of something better to say ten years from now.