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The ceili-album Website

Ceili-Album is the website where I share the results of two of my passions: photography and Celtic music. I began with film, but now I use digital exclusively. I enjoyed sharing prints of my film photographs, and digital photography has made sharing even easier. Until telepathy becomes widely available, the World Wide Web provides the ultimate medium for sharing photographs.

A céilí (pronounced kay-lee) is a traditional social gathering where Irish music and dance are enjoyed by all. (I think the Irish would feel at home at a Texas barn dance.) A céilí is the ideal place to find the kind of music and dance that I like to photograph.

An album is a collection of photographs (among other things).

So Ceili-Album is the perfect name for this website. (I chose ceili instead céilí because the Internet and English language keyboards aren't quite ready for accented characters.)

At the time of this writing I have only shared my most recent photos. I'll add new photos as I take them, and I hope to add some of my best photos from the past.

The Info Button 

The Info button is a white, lower-case i on a small, black circle. When this symbol appears near something on the pages of the website, it is a hyperlink to more information available about that item. For example, when an Info button appears near the name of a performer, it is usually a hyperlink that performer's website. Click or tap the Info button to visit the page containing the new information.

Celtic Music and Me

During the 90's a friend unobtrusively but persistently spoke of his interest in Irish and Scottish music. At first I listened to Celtic music tentatively and experimentally, but gradually I became more interested. By the late 90's I had become passionate, too.

Photography and Me

As a software engineer (now retired) and computer user, I have worked with several computer graphics programs. I even wrote one (a computer-aided software engineering tool) during my studies toward a Master of Science degree in computer science. (I've worked with computers since they used card readers and line printers.) Then a friend asked me to help with the digital preparation of performer photographs in the program for the 1998 North Texas Irish Festival.

In 1999 another friend resumed his hobby of photography after a hiatus of many years. Knowing that I enjoyed the visual uses of computers, I decided that I ought to see whether I would enjoy the visual art of photography. I learned the technical principles and basic composition in two 35mm photography classes at Richland Community College. I enjoyed the class exercises, but I really wanted to capture the emotion and energy I felt in Celtic music. The photographs from my first attempts were not very good, but I learned a lot from my mistakes and now I can share the results of my efforts.