Category: Blogging

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Blogging Flickr Personal Photo Journal Photography Rants Thoughts

Flickr + CraigsList = Dilemma

Japanese Maple (Fall) - 11/21/2007
Japanese Maple (Fall) – 11/21/2007

Not sure how many folks have run into this, but I was kind of curious to see what folks think on this subject.

As many of my followers and readers know, I maintain a Flickr account for my photographic work, and may remember that I have a big interest in Japanese maples, to which there are several images in my photostream.

Users of Flickr know that they can track various metrics on their images within their account, and over time you begin to see a trend of where your viewers are coming from.

Over the past couple of months, I began to see a Refer coming from Craigslist.com, and one day, I decided to trackback original link, and see what is was being used for, and in doing so,  I found a Craigslist User linking to one of my images on Flickr,  who was selling Japanese maples in Seattle area.

This kept up for several days, and I actually e-mailed the user, on June 13th,

First eMail to CraigsList User
First email to CraigsList User

in which I do express my hope that my images are helping in their effort of selling more Japanese Maples.

During the next couple of week, I continued to notice some more views, but after a while, they went back to near zero.

Today, while checking my Flickr account numbers, I noticed the CraigsList.com Referrers link again…

CraigsList Flickr Referrers #2
CraigsList Flickr Referrers #2

and tracked it back again…

CraigsList User Posting #2
CraigsList User Posting #2

In the mean time, I have gotten no word from the CraigsList User at all.

With all this being said, my questions are this…

1) Am I going overboard?

– This CraigsList User is showing my Flickr Link clearly, but at the same time, there is no further acknowledgement, reference, permission or Thank you.

2) Should I be asking for compensation?

– It appears that this User might be making some money, since this is their Second advertisement on CraigsList.

3) What level of compensation?

– We all know, today’s economics are bad, and everyone is trying to make a money, but what is “Fair” these days? and on something like this?

4) What should be my next step?

– Well, I have kind of “outed” them with this Post, but considering that “their” true identity is still hidden…

Please let me know your thoughts…

– Andrew
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Categories
Blogging Chester County clouds Equipment Filters Gadgets Lionville Nature Photo Journal Photography Tone Mapping

First Day with ND 3.0 10-stop filter

As part of “Daddy Day Camp”, I took the kids up to Lionville Elementary School to practice their biking riding, in prep for taking off the training wheels.

We first started in the upper play ground, and after parking, I unloaded the bikes, and the kids were gone. I had to coach them a little, but with the follow-up tweaks after Sunday’s outing, both kids were doing much better.

Now I was able to grab my tripod and camera and set up for some shooting.

The wind was rather gusty, and was really nicely formed white clouds against a very deep blue sky, and I had my new filter… Tee hee! wink… wink…

With my first few shots, I felt like a complete amateur, because as I would set one thing that, I’d forget about something else, and the shot would be blown, but I got into a rhythm and finally began to click off some shots.

Long exposure 019 – Take of the intersection of Rt 113 and Devon Drive.
Long exposure 022 – Taken from the outfield of one of the Baseball diamonds.
Long exposure 024 – Taken of the Main School Building
Long exposure 035 – Tennis Practice

Most of these pictures were taken at ISO 100 f22 for 30 seconds to 1 minute, the tennis practice image was around 3 second, using the B+W 58mm 3.0 ND MRC 110M Filter.

At one point, I could hear Logan asking me why I was taking pictures of cars, as I set up for my shot looking north on Route 113 with the Devon Rd. intersection in the background.

He was very puzzled, and even more so, when I showed him the pictures later during proofing. The cars just disappeared!

While playing with my new filter, it became very apparent to me, that I was going to need to recalibrate my water shots, and how to do my HDR work with so much potential ghosting issues during processing.

But as they say no gain without pain.

So come back again, and see what new things I’ve done with this new filter of mine!

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Categories
Blogging Science

A Basic Ant Lesson

Anatomy of an Ant - antstuff.net
Anatomy of an Ant – antstuff.net

In today’s mini-science lesson…

After lunch, I asked Logan to go check the mailbox, and within a few seconds, he came running back screaming “Sissy, Sissy, come see this!”.

Madison darted out the front door, and after a few seconds, in the distance, I could hear “Daddy! Daddy! Come see this!”.

I exited the house, and see both kids at the end of the driveway looking down, still very excited.

When I got to their location, and looked, I could see a big cluster of small ants that had swarmed for some reason, and I started to explain to the kids, that ants work as a group, and explain the various functions of each group, and what they provided to the colony.

The scout ants go out first, and explore for food, and when they do find food, the scout ants return to the colony, leaving a scent trail for the foraging ants to follow, back to the found food, and with each back and forth from the colony to the food, the scent trail is built up.

In this case, there was no visible reason why the ants had swarmed, but there were two  very distinct tails going in opposite directions, which I followed, and show the kids where the ants where disappearing into the ground.

I also explained that both entrances where most likely part of the same colony, because ants where smart enough to do so, just encase one entrance got destroyed, the ants could escape out the other side. (Being a home owner, the concept of the main colony being in the middle of my driveway entrance was not the most comforting.)

Returning to the main swarm, I asked the kids if they wanted to see something cool, and I proceeded to gently blow on the group, and as I expected the ants started to scatter, to the delight of “That’s cool!” and “Let me try!”.

It was from here I said “I have an idea!”, to which Madison responded, “I don’t like when he says that.”

I went back inside the house, and grabbed a small container of crackers, and returned to the driveway edge.

Breaking the crackers into smaller pieces, I placed the first piece in the center of the main swarm, and as expected the ants started to scatter, but soon where crawling and biting the cracker, trying to break it into smaller pieces to be carried off.

We watched for a few minutes, and because the crackers were orange, it was easy to see some of the ants heading back to the colony.

I also explained that ants were capable of carrying things may times their own size. We also saw several ants working together to carry off larger pieces, and I explained how ants work together for the good of the colony.

After a few more minutes of watching, we went back inside the house to get ready for some soccer, but before we left, Logan insisted that we take another look at the ants.

When we got back to the foot of the driveway, the kids noticed that several of the larger cracker pieces has moved several inches since we had last looked. I was able to point out that their noticing the movement of the crackers was a good observation, and good observations are very important when doing science.

Here is a perfect, innocent way to introduce your kids to the wonders of nature and science.

What started as a routine trip to the mailbox, turned into a basic lesson on ant colonies and how they function, as well as the importance of good observations.

Logan is now obsessed with checking on the ants!

Additional Reading

Ant colony – Wikipedia
10 Fascinating Facts About Ants – About.com

– Andrew
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Categories
Blogging Chester County Exton Restaurant Review

China Grill – Review

MAS writting her review
MAS writting her review

China Grill is an awesome buffet where you can get Chinese food!

My parents tell me, that China Grill was the first restaurant that they took me to, They put me on the table in my baby carrier.

When I got older to eat on my own, I had to use a fork or a spoon, but I now use chop sticks just like my parents! It was hard to learn how to use them.

They also have a lot of sushi! My favorite type of sushi to get there is the avocado, crab/pollock, nori seaweed and orange roe (flying fish eggs) around the outside!

I remember watching my parents putting this brown stuff into a small bowl, and then add this green stuff to it. It looked really yucky!

I now really like soy sauce, and the last time I went, I tried the wasabi, mixed with it and that is good, but can be hot if you are not careful!

My dad has a rule when eating there: “You have to try at least one new thing each time we go”.

One time, my dad made me try these round little balls covered with seeds.

At first, I was not sure, but then I tried one, and it was really good!

I now like the sesame seed balls filled with sweet bean paste!

Trust me they sound weird, but it’s like chocolate inside a sesame ball!

Even I like them, and I’m 8!

There’s a whole little dessert part of the buffet, and sometimes they even have a chocolate fountain on!

There are so many things there to try, and I think you’ll really enjoy it!

– Maddie ; – }
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Update

8-Year-Old Foodie Strikes Again, Reviews China Grill

Categories
Announcements Blogging Ideas

Daddy Day Camp Opens!

Welcome to the first day of “Daddy Day Camp” 2012!

I am starting this blog segment in an effort to exchange ideas with other Parents that might be needing some ideas for what to do with their kids this summer!

Over the past couple of days, I have been working with my kids to come up with a list of things they would like to do during the course of the summer on Monday’s and Tuesday’s, and here are a couple of ideas to start off with:

  • Arts and Crafts
    • Make Official T-Shirts
      – Every camper has to have one!
      – Very simple, just grabs some white t-shirts and markers and let them make their own!
      – Let the kids design the logo!
  • Education period
    • Reading or Blogging
    • Math
    • Science!
  • Library Time
    • Both my kids have library cards, and we are going to take advantage of our great local library!
  • Outdoor time
    • Nature Walks
    • Sports Play

We also plan to mix in chores (weeding, pick-up the lawn, etc.) and little projects (clean basement, paint mail box post, etc.) that are a benefit to the “Camp”.

There are plans to also visit local parks and museums!

So stay tuned for more details!

– Andrew, Madison and Logan

Possible Ideas

20 Creative DIY Project Ideas

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