Winner Announced: Show Us Your #Beam!

For the last two weeks we’ve been asking PhotoShelter members to show us their new Beam websites in a creative way, and tell us what they love about it. We received a ton of entries, and great insight into why our members are switching over their website platform to Beam. Our winner, Francis Dufour, submitted an image that made us gasp and we couldn’t help but grant him the prize of 3 free months of PhotoShelter.

We caught up with Francis to talk a little bit about why he chose Beam, and his photography career thus far.

Give us a little background on your photography. How did you get started?

My background actually lies in Art and Communication and I have been teaching computer and software applications for over 20 years. I’ve always been known as the “tech guy” as well as the “camera guy,” taking pictures of everything from a simple twig in the sunset, to family celebrations. In 2008, a simple photograph of a special public pool changed everything. Schréder, an international lighting group specializing in outdoor lighting happened upon my photograph of their installation and ended up hiring me to photograph their installations around Montreal. One thing led to another, and soon I was doing sports photography as well as film stills.

Two years ago I moved to Dubai with my wife. This country is a kingdom of inspiration for photographers. The cityscapes and the landscapes are undoubtedly breathtaking. I do a lot of travel and landscape photography here. Currently I’m in the process of starting up my own business of photography training which will allow me to merge together my profession as a teacher and my passion for photography.

Why did you ultimately chose the “Marquee” template for your Beam site?

In my opinion, a good template must be simple and fluid, putting the photos at the center of the viewer’s emotional experience. All the Beam templates are nice, but the one that pleased me the most is “Marquee.” My featured photo looks great with the full-bleed layout, and the navigation is very intuitive. I also really like how my portfolio is displayed when switched into full-screen view. And last but certainly not the least, this template is fluid and looks great on a PC as well as on an iPad.

What do you think your clients will think about the new design?

Since I switched to Beam, I’d received many comments from viewers that they are extremely impressed by the professional look of my portfolio. However, because Beam is still in beta, I realize it’s a work in progress. None the less, I’ve chosen to go with Beam because I am very confident that PhotoShelter will continuously improve it!

What’s one of the best aspects of Beam?

One other thing that I truly appreciate is the ability to create as many custom pages as I want. I can utilize this to add information about my workshops, an ‘about me’ page, and more. Also, the template editor is very intuitive and simple to use. I built and customized my site in few minutes.

List your top 3 favorite PhotoShelter features:

• The efficiency of the archive
• Sales Tax calculator
• Self-fulfillment functionality

Thanks so much Francis!

Check out more from Francis Dufour’s new portfolio website, powered by Beam, at francisdufourphotography.com.