About Me

Donovan Childers

My name is Donovan Childers and I grew up in Beaverton, Oregon.

I am a software developer at Smart Solutions in Bend, Oregon. Born and raised in the Portland suburb of Beaverton, I decided to pick up and move to Bend - about 150 miles from home. Bend is beautiful - an average of "300 days of sunshine a year", snow in the winter and a sunny warm summer.

My passions are web development (web programming front-end and back end systems), web design, and amateur photography.

Web Development and Design

I've been doing web and software develoment since 2004, so I’ve seen a lot of change in this industry. From hand-coding your website from scratch with no server side helpers, to coming full circle via a complete integrated CMS. Having worked in multiple CMS’s (and built one, too), there are so many differences in the systems available. That gives us developers and end users lots of choice when choosing a system or technology to develop a website. I can’t wait to see what the next few years brings this industry that I’m thrilled to be a part of.

View resume

Photography

Having been an amateur photographer for over 20 years, it’s amazing what is now possible with today’s technology and available equipment. This has helped me become a better photographer. It does’t hurt that I rather enjoy this, too.

It’s only recently that I really stopped shooting using technical details and specs. In the past, I thought having a better camera would give me better pictures. To some extent this can be true, but relying on camera settings and other technical details of the picture won’t cut it. It’s all in your head and your ability to make a photograph. I’ve finally overcome the tech side of things with my camera and started thinking of my camera as a tool for my vision. This has had a dramatic impact on how I compose a photograph. It’s also made me think about each and every photo I shoot. I used to just “spray and pray” that I got a good photo. Now each one is carefully composed and shot. This is problem for a lot of amateur photographers, and once they get over it, it’s like an epiphany.

Visit my Photography page to see my photo galleries.

This site

This site is built entirely using Astro. Astro is a Static Site Generator that lets you build and deploy sites quickly. Give it a look and a star on GitHub!