Over the past several months, I have been watching several of my Facebook contacts using Pixoto, and during that time, I would check out the site every now and then, but stopped short of signing up.
Until a couple of days ago…
What is Pixoto?
It is an online Photography competition site, at has recently added other graphic arts formats to the array of seemingly endless images, all vying for Top honors and the potential of money.
How does Pixoto work?
Basically, one uploads their images, with at least a 900px long side, no water-markings to their account.
From there, one selects from several main Categories (Abstract, Animals, Babies, People, etc.) and sub-categories, adding a Title and some keywords that best fit and describe the image.
Once submitted, your image is now in one of several competitions within the Category for Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Yearly recognition(s).
“Playing” Pixoto
This is the easy, fun and potentially beautiful part of “playing” Pixoto!
Clicking on the “Vote” button in the top menu, sets up the ImageDual™ environment, where two images are sent to the screen, and you click on the one you like more.
Two competing images continue to pop-up on-screen until you decide you are done, and by selecting images in the shoot-out, you are also collecting 1 Credit that can be used later for submitting more images, or giving them a “boost”.
One can spend hours in front of the computer screen with the television or something else is going on in the background.
Not all the images are great, but that is the point, to select or weed out that do not reach the mark, for what ever reason.
Your Submissions
Within seconds, you will see feedback on how your image is doing, based on a ‘secret’ formula for scoring.
The algorithm apparently factors in the Win/Lose ratio and the ranking of competing image, to come up with the scoring.
It is not uncommon to see an image rise quickly, and then level off as its ‘final’ ranking is being solidified over the course of time.
The course of time
If an images starts to reach various percentage levels (Top 1%/5%/10%, etc.) during the course of time (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly) additional points will be awarded, and if your image can get to the top, there is the possibility of earning money.
Comparisons
Flickr – Flickr is by far the bigger of the two sites, and has many more competitions, but that is also a big distraction for some. It can be complicated, take a long time to figure out and to compete in various contests. Pixoto is far simpler!
Paid vs Free – Like most sites these days, there are two versions, and a side-by-side comparison can be found on the website, but for me, at least at the moment, I can not justify the expense see so few benefits in my case.
Selling Stock Images – This is a new feature on Pixoto, and sounds very interesting. On the surface, I like the idea of the higher payout compared to some of the other micro-stock sites I belong to, but I have not tried it yet.
Alerts
If you do move forward and get yourself an account, here are some things that I have already run into:
Watermarks– I am of the school of putting a watermark on all my images, if nothing more as a form of advertising and some copyright protection.
On Pixoto, images are displayed in competition without watermarks, but are shown with the sites default user copyright on your page/gallery, and are some what protected via simple right-click efforts.
Why? – In competition Pixoto is trying to reduce any bias during the ImageDual™, which is easily understandable, and they do take it seriously.
I accidentally uploaded a few files with my watermark, and they were reported.
I did receive a nice, informative Notification from Pixoto that my images had been removed, but it did cost me my ‘earned’ ImageDual™ points, and additional Credits to up load them again.
Upload Issue – I have, on several occasions, tried to upload an image, only to find ‘scan line’ errors on the thumbnails and larger images.
My work around, has been to delete the image quickly, because you do not want to lose points, delete my browser cache (Firefox), and then try again.
So far, this seems to work, but it is a time killer.
It is very easy to connect to Pixoto via Facebook or Twitter, even though I dislike using those services to link to accounts, but that adds to the simpleness of using the site.
I have also been very interested seeing how my Top images on Flickr are doing on Pixoto, which is helping me to better select images for promotion on my main website, but at the moment, Flickr edges Pixoto in easy of direct feedback on an image.
I do like the idea of being able to sell stock images from Pixoto, but I have not had a chance to test this feature yet, but I do plan to!
With all the above being said, I would recommend using Pixoto to increase your exposure to a larger audience, while fine-tuning your portfolio, and maybe making some money!
The following is the Talk I gave about the covered bridges in the Oxford area of Chester County, PA.
The information on the history of the four bridges was done over the internet, and tries to be as accurate as possible.
Thank you’s
Good afternoon…
First, I would like to “Thank” the Folks here at the Oxford Branch of Citadel for hosting tonight’s events, and especially Gwen Smoker for coordinating all the various people.
Gwen first contacted me at the beginning of October about this event, and asked if I would be interested in Sharing some of my Covered Bridge images.
My immediate response was yes!
Over the past several weeks, I’ve been frantically opening two-year-old files, and regenerating new images based on new tools and techniques, gained over hundreds of hours of practice.
So who am I?
According to my Twitter @alseymour profile – “A Father, a Photographer and a Computer Geek in Chester County PA – #photography #restoration #science #physics #space”
I have lived in Chester County for over 35 years, and was introduced to photography as a young child, and have carried that interest ever since.
Over the years, I have been lucky enough to work in several industries, where I can use my love of photography and technology to their fullest.
With the maturing of both computers and cameras, the technology is readily available to use both to enhance what we see in daily life.
Technique
In my case, I am using a digital photographic technique known as High Dynamic Range Imaging or HDRI or HDR.
The basics of HDR photography are this –
you need to capture at least three separate images
each image needs a different exposure level
What this means, is that you take a middle image, and then one overexposed and another one underexposed.
Then on the computer, you combine the three images, creating a single file that contains the color range for all three images.
From there, there are many different software packages and techniques to create a final image that pushes the boundaries of today’s technology.
My First Bridge
I took my first digital photo of a Bartram covered bridge in Newtown Square, during the early Fall of 2009.
After processing the image, I posted it to my Flickr account for photo sharing and thought nothing more of it, until several months later I got a request to add it to a covered bridge group.
Shortly after submitting the image to the group, I began to get some wonderful comments, which only encouraged me to further investigate the other opportunities in Chester County.
Little did I realize what I was getting myself into…
During the summer and fall of 2010, I lived on Google Earth as I hunted down all the Chester County bridges, and then plugged the coordinates into my car’s GPS device.
With all this information, I was able to plan day trips to capture as many bridges as I could in what little free time that I had available to me.
Covered Bridges of Chester County & Oxford area
The first covered bridge in Pennsylvania is thought to have been built around 1807, and for the next 92 years, it is believed that there were over 1500 covered Bridges built.
Currently, there are about 220 covered bridges still left standing in Pennsylvania, with 15 of them residing in Chester County.
Of those 15, three of them are in Elk Township, the smallest Township in Chester County.
Today, I have been asked to tell you about the four covered bridges that surround the Oxford area, and they are:
The first Pine Grove Bridge was built some time in 1816, but was later destroyed by a storm.
In 1846, the bridge was rebuilt by Robert Russell and Joseph Elliott for just $1,494, but it was later swept away by ice.
In 1884, Elias McMellen, a former Captain in the Union Army, built the 198 feet long and 15 feet wide bridge, and added it to his list of 12 other bridges he built in eastern Pennsylvania.
(Mostly in Lancaster County, but I have also photographed Pool Forge, which is North of Oxford, in Caernarvon Township.
[Anyone have an idea of how much it cost?] – ($4295)
In 1988 it was restored, and 20 years later in 2008 it was refurbished.
Pine Grove is the longest bridge in Chester and Lancaster counties, and sits just below a waterfall that is next to the old pump-house of the Octoraro Water Company.
The pump-house was built in 1904 by the Chester Water Authority, and since 1953, they have been leasing space for meeting rooms and art studios to the Charles X. Carlson Octoraro Art Association (OAA).
On a personal note, this is one of the bridges that I got to photograph with my daughter, Madison.
She was such a trooper, even though she was usually bored out of her mind.
I did ask her to blog about her experience during the days adventure, and she has… Kudos to her…
Since this was the first time that she had seen me at work, my running around in the water, and up and down rocks was causing her to caution me continually.
It was hard to convince her that this was one of the easier bridges to photograph.
I did visit the bridge this past September, but there was a lot of construction going on, and finding a place to park was difficult, so unfortunately, I did not stop. [August 27, 2010] – Original Photo-Blog Posting
§ § § § §
Linton Stevens
Long View of Linton Stevens Covered Bridge (1886)
From the information that I have found, this bridge was originally just a foot bridge across Big Elk Creek.
Then in 1875, an iron bridge was constructed, but only to be destroyed 9 years later in the flood of 1884.
In 1886, J. Denithorne & Son’s built the 102 foot long, 15 foot wide bridge we largely see today.
The bridge was named after a local landowner, who also served as the Postmaster for Hickory Hill, and ran the Post Office out of his General Store.
On December 10, 1980, Linton-Stevens Covered Bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In the spring of 1996, the bridge was closed down due to damaged underpinnings during a flood, but was reopened in August 1997.
[Pause to ask question? Anyone know the name of the Hurricane that hit the area in 1999?] – Hurricane Floyd
To me, some of the most memorable and interesting shots from Linton Stevens, are from underneath.
You see these massive, freshly painted, cream-colored girders running the full length, and then in between, colorful spray paintings of those that had visited the bridge.
Looking through Rudolph & Arthur Covered Bridge (1886)
From 1850 to 1909, the Rudolph family, along with Charles Arthur, ran a Paper Mill up-stream with the power generated by the water.
In 1880, the Randolph family, along with Charles Arthur, commissioned general contractor Menander Wood, to build the wood bridge, while Richard T Meredith supplied that masonry work
[Can anyone guess the cost?]
Wood Work – $1440
Stone/Mortar – $890
Total – $2330
This bridge is also built across Big Elk Creek, but is further downstream than Linton Stevens, and seems to be more prone to flood damage because of this.
There have been reports of flood damage in 1915, 1994, and again in 1999 with Hurricane Floyd.
Rudolph and Arthur covered bridge was also listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 10, 1980.
What I really remember most about this particular bridge, was standing in the nice cool water on such a hot day.
What is also different it is that if you look at the under structure, and is much darker and more visually elaborate than Linton Stevens.
After returning to the bridge deck, I managed to get some detailed framework before my battery died signaling the end of the day of shooting.
Looking East (Down Creek) – Glen Hope Covered Bridge (1889)
Built in 1889 by Built by Menander Wood and George E. Jones for
[Who much do you think it cost?] – $1767
This 65 for long, 16 foot wide bridge also holds the distinction of being the Southernmost Covered Bridge in Pennsylvania, and in 1980 was listed National Register of Historic Places.
I photographed Glen Hope two years ago, and I still remember my conversations with Jamie Crouse of Elkton, Maryland, as he was kind enough to stop and chat with me for some time.
He and his family have lived in the area for several generations, and the stories he told me seem to roll right off his tongue, as if it was yesterday’s news.
As a young boy, Jamie remembered his father telling him the story of an overloaded cement truck crashing through the floorboards in 1967, and how new Steel Stringers were added by the end of 1968.
Jamie also told me the story of the arson fire that occurred during 1987.
Apparently a couple of local college boys, decided to take bales of hay, put them inside a bridge, and then doused them with gasoline, and setting them on fire.
He was able to point to dark indentations in the floorboards, where one can still see the outlines of where hay bales were set on fire.
There was a great deal of damage to the roof, and in 1991 a significant restoration effort was completed, including the recovery of the original Bongossi wood.
Bongossi wood is from Africa, and is very dark and dense and used heavily in construction and marine work.
I do not have any collaborating evidence on this but Jamie’s most humorous story was the following:
“During his teenage years, two local girls visited Glenn Hope and other local covered bridges in the area, and carved “Boobless Wonder Strikes Again” on the down-creek trusses and “Woogie” on the up-creek trusses.”
If anyone can confirm this…
Glen Hope was the last Chester County Covered Bridge that I photographed on October 21st, 2010, nearly a year to the day of when I started with Bartram on October 23, 2009.
In conclusion, the four covered bridges of the Oxford area are very unique to Chester County, and with the colors of fall starting to emerge, I encourage you and your family to take a trip to any one of these bridges and witness the beauty of the bridges and this coming fall season.
There are 4 computers set up, each with a different Slide Show, that features 2 more images of each bridge, and 5 images from the rest of my Portfolio.
I invite you to take a look…
Thank you…
Questions
Final Thank You’s
Citadel for Hosting…
Gwen for arranging everything…
And everyone for coming…
Slide Show
The following links where part of the slide show that were running on four (4) different computer screens during the Open House.
I have finally done two things for my computer and online environment that I’ve been contemplating for a very long time: Upgrading to Windows 7 and Moving to a new Web Hosting service. (Moving to a new host will be described in another post.)
When Microsoft Vista came out, there were a great many reports and issues involved with this transitional operating system, and many of those did not like what they seem trapped with when they bought their new machines, and many corporations refused to move to Vista.
Even with time, service packs and patches, Vista never seem to be ready for prime time, so when Windows 7 came out in October of 2009, many people were even more anxious about this new operating system. Would this new operating system be a similar public relations disaster?
As more and more people used and reviewed Windows 7, it became clear, the Microsoft had learned from their earlier mistakes.
Personally, I had said to myself many a times, that I was going to wait till I got a new computer before I made the switch to Windows 7 on my primary machines, but that thinking got squashed when Adobe announced that Lightroom 4 would only run in Windows 7.
To my knowledge, this was the first mainstream application that required the use of Windows 7, and since I rely heavily on Lightroom, I had to reevaluate my thinking and my pocketbook.
So after freeing up some time and getting all business related activity done, I set about the task of backing up my system and beginning the migration to this new operating system.
I had not done a fresh install of my main computer in many years, so I was very concerned that I was able to keep my various settings, as well as applications that I had grown very fond of over the years.
I made backups of backups, hunted down preference settings and serial numbers, and finally made the switch.
After booting into my fresh operating system, I noticed my machines seem to be responding quicker to normal tasks which was quite pleasant.
I am still amazed the amount of time necessary for our newly installed machine, which easily reaches 200+ patches, if one includes Microsoft Office, but once done it is like driving a new car, but without that unique scent (some would argue there is a different scent…).
At the moment, my single biggest issue with doing the upgrade, has been the restoration of my files, and this has to do mostly with my usage of Robocopy and User Account Control (UAC).
In the past, using Robocopy was a matter of learning the various command-line switches and writing your script accordingly, and for the most part, this still holds true, but one still needs to manually increase their privileges for the script to work.
This can easily be done, by typing in “cmd” in the program search field, and then holding the “Shift” key, as one right clicks, and selects “Run as administrator”.
I do need to spend some more time to get my backup scripts running with the same robocopy scripts but at the moment I’m happy doing it manually.
At least, I know they are running and completed.
All in all I had been very pleased with the upgrade, and does seem to increase the life of some of your existing computer equipment, assuming you can find compatible drivers.
If for nothing more, you now have a lot longer period till you have to worry about Microsoft no longer supporting your operating system! (See Microsoft Product Lifecycle for XP)
During my morning online updates, I ran across a Google+ post on More Tong from Shanghai, highlighting his calligraphy work, and I had to look at more!
As you look at his work, you will see that he has added dimension to the normally flat characters, and shaping them into some new.
There are several in his “24 Solar Terms of China” series that I would love to see up close, and owning one would be a dream.
If you get a chance, I highly recommend that you check out More Tong’s website!
Over the past several months, my work is required me to be more critical of what I’m doing with my hands and eyes, so I no longer have the luxury, of being able to view TED conference videos.
If you are not familiar with TED, and you enjoy learning and hearing about new ideas, I strongly recommend that you visit the site and listen to some of the most interesting talks that are available free on the web. Well worth your time.
I had been using my laptop as my interface to the TED lectures, but being tethered to such a device was no longer an option, and my wife was nice enough to give me her old Creative Zen MP3 player.
To me this was a major upgrade, considering last book that I had listened to, was on a cassette tape player, two cars and 10+ years ago.
Would you believe, I still have the two cassette tape collection (4 sides), The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra with a copyright date of 1990.
I’m not even sure if I have a device to play them back anymore.
In mid December 2011, I signed up with Audible.com for their three-month introductory offer, and yes I was influenced by their various TV commercials and banner ads.
It was a relatively standard new account setup, and I was off and searching.
The Hunt Begins
I was very interested in finding several authors, that I had just been reintroduced to, by watching on the Discovery Channel, “The Profits of Science Fiction“, namely H.G. Wells and Arthur C Clarke.
I was also trying to find several of the Speakers that I heard on TED, most notably Richard Dawkins and Douglas Adams.
Audible.com
So the downloading begun, at least on Audible.com:
Not bad collection start with, but I knew I was giving go broke if I was going to stick with Audible.com only.
Project Gutenberg
From previous web meanderings, I was aware of the Project Gutenberg and decided to do some hunting.
Also at this point, having already listened to several of the books mentioned above, I finally broke down and bought an Apple iPod touch.
The addiction is growing…
With the aid of the Audiobooks app, I downloaded several classics:
Dracula – Bram Stoker (Done)
Dubliners – James Joyce
Flatland: A Romance of many dimensions – Edwin Abbott Abbott (Done)
Relativity: The Special and General Theory – Albert Einstein
The Art of War – Sun Tzu (Done)
The Invisible Man – H.G. Wells
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – Washington Irving (Done)
The Time Machine – H.G. Wells (Done)
and several others that I have only as a reference at this point, such Aesop, Confucius, Lao Tzu, and Robert Frost.
A very interesting collection of works so far, and as indicated, I have already put in many hours of listening.
In the Gutenberg collection, I first read Dracula in the 7th or 8th grade while at Rectory school, and the Dubliners while at St. Andrew’s, and Einstein and Abbott in college.
Needless to say it’s been a few years for some of these books, and I am debating on whether to do reviews on my blog.
Problems
Difficulties always arise when moving from one medium to another, and moving from a hardbound paper book to an object that can hold volumes of books in your shirt pocket, is no different.
Highlighting and Notes
One of my biggest peeves right now, is the inability to efficiently bookmark sections of the audio book, in a highlighter fashion, or be able to write notes in the margin, but I have a feeling as audio book applications mature, there will be these enhancements, and possible improvements, such as a singular platform Reader that can catalog your highlights and notes!
Readers/Narrators
One of the biggest things that can kill an audio book, is the Reader/Narrator.
I cannot imagine the effort involved all reading some of these chapters or books at length while being recorded.
I applaud those that can do it, but please do not add over dramatization while reading!
A good example of this, is to find and download the Jabberwocky by Lewis Clark, and listen to the various readers as they repeat this poem again and again and again.
When listening to paid audio books, it is not uncommon to have a professional reader, or celebrity narrating. In some cases, you can also find the authors narrating their own work, which can be very delightful.
Conclusion
If you have the time, it is great to be able to listen to a book, while doing something else.
In my case, when I am home, I am doing Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop work, as well as listening in my car during my commute.
It has also been wonderful listening to books I read when I was a boy, and see how much I remember and how much I have forgotten or missed.
Boy I wish I had these technologies back when I was in grade school, things would’ve been a lot different.
