Major 75CentralPhotography.com Updates

I'm excited to share some significant improvements that have been rolling out over the past few days! This update represents a major leap forward in functionality, user experience, and visual design.

Dark Mode Implementation

The site now features a comprehensive dark mode toggle with seamless theme switching:

• Smart Theme Detection: Automatically detects your system preference on first visit
• Persistent Settings: Remembers your choice across sessions using localStorage
• Complete Coverage: Every element has been carefully styled for both light and dark themes
• Smooth Transitions: All color changes animate smoothly when switching themes
• Custom CSS Properties: Built using modern CSS custom properties for consistent theming
• Timeline Integration: Even complex components like TimelineJS now respect your theme choice

The dark mode isn't just an inverted color scheme—it's a carefully crafted experience with proper contrast ratios and thoughtful color choices that make browsing comfortable in any lighting condition.

Advanced Mapping System

A powerful new mapping feature that revolutionizes how you explore photo locations:

Interactive Map Features:

• Dynamic Clustering: Photos automatically group by proximity with smart cluster management
• Multi-Taxonomy Support: Map by place, category, tag, or EXIF metadata. Every archive page for these items supports viewing a map of the relevant photos.
• Rich Popups: Click any marker to see photo previews with direct links to full posts
• Responsive Design: Seamlessly adapts from desktop to mobile viewing

Performance Optimizations:

• Efficient Data Loading: Only loads necessary photo metadata for faster map rendering
• Smart Memory Management: Automatically manages marker creation and destruction
• Optimized Queries: Custom queries ensure fast data retrieval even with thousands of photos

Slideshow System Overhaul

A while back, we introduced a slideshow to allow you to ambiently experience our photography. Today, it's received a complete reconstruction with professional-grade features:

Core Improvements:

• True Infinite Loading: Fixed the photo repetition bug - now cycles through ALL unique photos
• Smart Buffering: Preloads upcoming photos for seamless transitions
• Improved AJAX Architecture: Completely rewrote the loading system for reliability

Enhanced User Experience:

• Cinematic Transitions: Beautiful 1.4-second crossfade effects with subtle scaling
• Background Music: Integrated SomaFM Drone Zone ambient stream with toggle controls
• Flexible Timing: Choose slide duration from 2-15 seconds
• Full Keyboard Support: Arrow keys, spacebar, 'M' for music, 'F' for fullscreen

Technical Excellence:

• Memory Efficient: Smart slide management prevents memory leaks during long sessions
• Error Handling: Comprehensive fallback systems ensure the slideshow never breaks
• Mobile Optimized: Touch controls and responsive design for all devices
• Performance Focused: Lazy loading and efficient DOM manipulation

Visual & UX Enhancements

Consistent Design Language:

• Unified Color Scheme: Updated colors across the site to make their usage more-uniform
• Improved Typography: Enhanced readability with better contrast ratios
• Streamlined Navigation: Added keyboard shortcuts to single posts (← → for navigation, 'R' for random)
• Smart UI Elements: Controls and hints appear only when relevant (mobile vs desktop)

Performance & Accessibility:

• Faster Loading: Optimized font loading with proper fallbacks
• Screen Reader Support: Enhanced ARIA labels and semantic markup
• Touch-Friendly: All interactive elements properly sized for mobile use

Technical Improvements

Database Optimizations:

• Efficient Queries: Rewrote attachment queries for better performance
• Smart Caching: Reduced database calls through intelligent data management
• Taxonomy Integration: Proper taxonomy handling for categories

Code Quality:

• Modular Architecture: Clean separation of concerns in JavaScript and PHP
• Error Prevention: Comprehensive validation and fallback mechanisms
• Modern Standards: ES6+ JavaScript with proper async/await patterns
• Security Focused: All user inputs properly sanitized and validated

The combination of dark mode, interactive mapping, and the completely rebuilt slideshow creates a photography showcase that's both beautiful and functional. Whether you're browsing casually or diving deep into the archive, the experience is now smoother, faster, and more engaging than ever.

Technical details: This update touches over 2,000 lines of code across CSS, JavaScript, and PHP, representing one of the largest updates for the site. All changes have been thoroughly tested across desktop and mobile platforms. If you have any suggestions for improvements or find anything "weird", feel free to reach out to me directly at matt(at)75central.com.