Hi, I’m Ted O’Hara. Welcome to my website. Here I write about whatever I feel like, from history to pieces about web development to photography, both terrestrial and underwater.

I’ve been a web developer for over 20 years, starting in Ye Olde Netscape 4 days, where I laid out pages using nested and re-nested tables and lots of spacer images, up to now, where we have good browser support for CSS based layout, good semantic HTML, and nifty downloadable fonts. I love playing with CSS.

When I started, I was building static HTML sites from Photoshop mockups; later I transitioned to working on and building e-commerce and content management systems, using ColdFusion and SQL, and fitting disparate graphical designs to existing back-end systems.  I’ve also done a lot of work building administrative user interfaces, and have created a number of reusable Javascript driven user interface elements. Along the way, I also did client training on the content management and e-commerce systems. For the seven year,s I’ve been focused on the front end, building single page apps using first, AngularJS, then, Angular 2 and up, and now, React.

I’ve had a love of photography ever since my Uncle Tom got me darkroom equipment when I was twelve years old. I started with an Instamatic camera, and later, my father’s old Kodak rangefinder cameras. I graduated to a pair of Pentax SLRs, first a K-1000 and later an LX. I ran a lot of film through those cameras. I started shooting digital in 2002, and completed the transition over the next few years. Now, I shoot with a Nikon DSLR and a Canon point and shoot for underwater work. I spent years working in a photo lab, and that made me very picky about how my pictures came out. I still enjoy post processing work in Photos, Raw Power and Photoshop. All the photography on this site, unless otherwise credited, is mine.

I’m what you could call an active bookworm. I’ve always loved to read, and growing up, that was my main pastime; I can still get lost in a book or on the web. Over the years, though, I’ve added less sedentary pursuits, like motorcycling, bicycling, diving, cross-country skiing, and most recently, kayaking. Often, I’ve combined these other pursuits with photography.

You can follow me on Twitter or Mastodon or reach me via email at contact at tedohara dot net.