totalcms / starter-photographer

v1.0.0 2026-11-10 06:30 UTC

Requires

• php: >=8.2
• totalcms/cms: ^3.6.8

proprietary

• Joe Workman

• json
• twig
• cms
• slim
• flat-file
• content-management
• headless-cms
• php-cms
• flat-file-cms
• no-database
• total-cms
• totalcms
• totalcms-starter

Published on Packagist.org on 2026-11-10 06:54 UTC

README

A photographer's website built on Total CMS, for a nature and portrait photographer who books outdoor sessions and sells a few prints. Each page takes its color from its photographs. Every page is filled with demo content, so the site works as soon as it's installed. Every template opens with a comment that explains what it does, so it's also a good site to learn from.

What's in it

• Projects: bodies of work with a story, a location and a gallery, filtered by type on the Work page
• Pages that take their color from the photo: each cover's palette tints its page, and the band changes color as you scroll
• Sessions: packages, fees, client quotes and common questions
• Prints: a request form rather than a cart, with watermarks set in the schema
• Booking form: public, protected from bots, saved in the admin and emailed once SMTP is set up
• Private client galleries: a passcode page with watermarked photos
• Journal: an RSS feed, and paging done on the server so drafts stay private

Install

With Composer:

composer create-project totalcms/starter-photographer mysite
cd mysite
npm install && npm run build

Point your web server's document root at mysite/public/, then visit the site. The setup wizard creates your admin account. Then open /readme on the site for a tour and a list of what to change before launch. The passcode for the demo client gallery at /clients/mara-and-theo is 8675.

Make it yours

• Content. Sign in at /admin to edit the projects, sessions, prints, Journal and studio details.
• A login for the photographer. The client access group can edit the content and read enquiries, without touching settings or templates. Give the photographer an account in that group.
• Colors. Most of each page's color comes from its photos. The rest comes from three settings in css/theme.css: --yeti-hue-primary, --yeti-hue-neutral and --yeti-chroma. DESIGN.md explains the whole design system.
• Templates. The pages, layouts and partials are Twig files in builder/.
• CSS and JavaScript. Edit css/ and js/, then build them with npm run build. public/assets/ is build output, so don't edit it. FRONTEND.md has the details.

Photos

The demo photos come from Pexels, and CREDITS.md credits each photographer. Replace them with the photographer's own work before the site goes live. The Pexels License doesn't allow selling unaltered copies, so never sell the demo prints.

Going live

Set up email in the admin's settings so booking and print requests reach the photographer. Before you deploy, set Site Environment to Production in the admin's General settings. Production keeps error messages short for visitors and makes the template editor read-only.

Requirements

PHP 8.2 or later, Node.js to build the CSS and JavaScript, and a Total CMS Pro license for the domain you deploy to. The site uses custom collections, decks and the Protect extension.