Tag: Flickr

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Blogging Online Life Photography Reviews Web

Joined JPGmag.com – A First Impression

JPGmag.com logo
alseymour on JPGmag.com

I had been following JPGmag.com on Facebook for some time now, and earlier in the week, I posted a link to some of the contests that they offer, and finally, yesterday, I spent some time investigating what else the site had to offer.

Signing Up

JPGmag is similar to Flickr, in that anyone can join, and for $25/year, you can get unlimited uploads to your Profile, and a number of “Spotlight credits” which are all purchased via PayPal. (One should also be aware that you are enrolled into an automatic yearly renewal, which can be disabled within your preferences.)

Your Profile

Like any other website, you are given an area to create your profile so others can learn more about you if they wish.

There is an optional field that allows one to enter their website, but I have not been able to get it to work or see where the information would be located on the Profile.

I have also tried to add an active link to my website, but the Description field does not seem to recognize the HTML code for a link.

Update – I have been able to get both the Optional Website link and some basic HTML to work within the Description area.

I was very surprised that one can include their Google Analytics code to track your views!

Uploading Images

JPGmag encourages Users to upload images at a minimal of 1000px long-side, and is done via a clean easy to use web-based interface.

After files have been up-loaded, but before Posting, the User is presented with a three tabs to enter Details (Title, Description and Tags); Categories and Geo-tagging.

JPGmag also offers an online editing package, Express by Pixlr, which I have open, but have not used yet.

“Places/Map-It” – Needs improvement

The “Places/Map-It” tab is connected to Google maps, and does leave much to be desired.

You find your location by zooming in/out and panning. There is no place to search by address or enter in GPS coordinates.

I have also tried to edit my “Places” after posting, but have not gotten my place-markers to stick yet, which needless to say, is a real pain.

Flickr definitely has the advantage here.

Now What?

Once you have images on your profile, you can then submit them to the various Themes, Challenges and Contests. (At the moment, there does not appear to be an Adobe Lightroom plug-in, which would be nice.)

JPGmag has many Themes, Challenges and Contests area, that seem to be Member based suggestions versus the “Anyone Can Create a Group” model that Flickr uses.

Theme or Challenge (JPGmag)

One does seem limited to posting one image per Theme or Challenge, and depending on which Flickr group, is rather low, which does reduce the tenancy for someone to ‘spam’ a group with images, but makes it difficult if you have an image that could be submitted to several Themes or Challenges.

Contests (JPGmag)

The Contests on JPGmag are very different from Flickr in that one can actually win cash or prizes!

There are Entrance Fees, but there seems to be a high Entrance Fee to Award ratio – i.e. $5 Entrance Fee for a $1250 Award, then on other internet sites.

Groups (Flickr)

There also does not appear to be nearly as many “Groups” as there on Flickr (“Anyone Can Create a Group” model), and I have not run into a “Post/Award” restrictions, both of which can easily overwhelm a new contributor to Flickr.

100203 Struble Trail 023 (Updated)
100203 Struble Trail 023 (Updated)

Conclusion

I am still within my first 24-hours of starting my membership, and so far “things” seem to be going well.

I have uploaded 22 images, submitted to 3 Themes and have already gotten several nice Comments and Favorites, as well as an “Active Spotlight”.

There is more for me to explore, and I will continue to do so.

In the mean time, I invite you to visit my JPGmag profile to see that I have posted!

– Andrew
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Announcements Blogging Facebook Flickr Online Life Photo Essay Photo Journal Photography Projects Published

End of my First Flickr Pro year

It was a year ago, that I bought my Flickr Pro membership…

Last year at this time, I had about 50 images, and maybe 2,000 recorded views.

So… What has happened?

and “meeting” a great group of people along the way!

The Folks I have connected with on Flickr and Facebook, have been Great!

And because of the “Chester County (PA) Photography” group on Facebook, we had a Meet-Up at Hibernia Park in Coatesville in April, and have continued to share when ever possible!

I can only hope that the next year brings as much fun and excitement!

Thank you all!

– Andrew
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Categories
Blogging Chester County Downingtown Flickr Google Earth Google Maps Location Marsh Creek State Park Nature Photography Tone Mapping

Father’s Day 2011 – Daddy’s Day

Feather Light
Feather Light

It’s Dad’s Day and I don’t need to do anything!

Well, within reason.

After all I have two kids…

But that is the best part!

When I was woken up, I was presented with Father’s Day cards, and a special banner that Amy, Madison and Logan had worked on just for me!

What a nice way to start the day!

From there, I was allowed to watch my Sunday morning programs with a hot cup of coffee and an omelet in peace!

So far so good!

And peace was a relative term…

I could hear the kids up stairs running back and forth in the upstairs hallway, screaming and giggling…

It was also not hard to realize, they needed to get out and burn off some of the energy that is perpetual when the two of them are together!

Since it was Daddy’s Day, I got to say where we were going! Yeah!!

I did not have to compromise or negotiate, especially when the kids heard that Mommy was going to come with us!

Marsh Creek Reservoir looking North (Panorama 01)
Marsh Creek Reservoir looking North (Panorama 01)

My plan was slowly taking shape!
(Insert “Mad Scientist” Laughter)

Now the hard part… Where?

I wanted to try some place that I have not been to before, but keep it close by.

I knew because of the heat and humidity, I wanted to be near water.

Based on that, I looked up Marsh Creek State Park.

Am I suggesting that I have never been to MCSP before? – NO

Along the trail (20110619 Marsh Creek 107)
Along the trail (20110619 Marsh Creek 107)

I have been to the Pool and Water Park area on the east side several time, and I have been Mountain Biking before in the south-west part near the Brandywine before, but I did not think anyone but me would be interested in that adventure.

So I had to figure out some place new, so I took to Google Earth to fly around a little to scope out a trail, and in doing so, I remembered the damn in the southern park.

So I gather up the troops, jumped into the car, and headed out, and about 30 minutes later, we were parked and heading down the trail.

There are many small coves that surround the lake, and as we approached the first one, there were some folks fishing and a dog that was having a grand time in the water.

Not to be out done, Logan and Madison pleaded with us to be allowed to go in the water and play with the dog.

Who am I to say “No”?!

We let them play for a little bit, and then called for them to join us on the rest of the walk, and all we got was “Awww…”, but finally we were off again!

I should have figured that as soon as we were on “open” trail, Logan would be running down the trail, and the parents calling out to him to slow down and be careful! Soon to be followed by his sister, trading back and forth who would be our guide, calling out rocks and roots so we would not fall.

Very cute, but after the first 50 “obstacles ‘… Well, what do you say as a parent…

We finally got to the over-flow drain, and the kids were having fun walking on the grate, looking down into the rushing water as it fell in, but Amy was a little more apprehensive about the whole situation.

Butterfly on the Damn (20110619 Marsh Creek 095)
Butterfly on the Damn

Then we crossed over the main damn, where we were pasted by several Mountain Bikers as they headed to the trails on the far side. I reminded both kids, that we needed to work on getting them off of training wheels so that we could start doing the same thing.

At the edge of the meadow, we stopped and rested, saw a Red-Winged Black bird, and agreed that it was time to head back.

Tree Stump and Ferns (20110619 Marsh Creek 110)
Tree Stump and Ferns (20110619 Marsh Creek 110)

On the trip back, Madison made sure that we all knew she was the guide, but after some time, she relinquished her lead, and Logan scampered to the front.

As we returned the swimming cove from earlier, both the kids just ran into the water without evening asking, and happy played until it was time to leave once again.

On the car trip home, there were talks of baths and then fun that we had on our Father’s Day Nature Walk.

– Andrew

Andrew (SDC) - View my 'Marsh Creek ('11 Father's Day)' set on Flickriver

Additional Information

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Categories
Chester County Chester County Balloon Festival Coatesville Events Facebook Flickr Photo Essay Photo Journal Photography

2011 Chester County Balloon Festival

Tethered Balloon Ride - 2011 Chester County Balloon Fest 034
Tethered Balloon Ride

Back in May, on the Chester County (PA) Photography Facebook page, Daniel Potter posted the first link for the “Chester County Balloon Festival“.

To be honest, I had never heard of this event before and over the next couple of weeks, I tried to help keep the topic alive in my “social” network.

That being said, when Saturday arrived, the kids were very eager to go, and were having a hard time understanding that we were going to be leaving later in the day.

Our plan was to be there for the “Mass Ascension Hot Air Balloon Launch”, which was scheduled to start at 6pm.

Getting there was a breeze, and parking was the typical off-road and on to the grass arrangement.

We got there early enough that the real crows had not gathered, so we were able to leisurely walk around and check up the some of the vendors and get some food.

As we relaxed and ate some dinner, we sat in the field that was allowing folks to walk into semi-inflated interior, and watched as some people climbed into another tethered for a quick ride into the sky..

The starting time for the “Mass Ascension Hot Air Balloon Launch” neared, and we headed toward the viewing area, and managed to squeeze into a small spot.

Both Madison and Logan stretched their necks to see the balloons slowly gaining size as the handlers blew up the balloons with hot air.

Handlers adding hot air to the balloon
Handlers adding hot air to the balloon

We watched as each colorful balloon gained its final shape, and lifted into the air.

Balloons being launched into the air
Balloons being launched into the air

The last few balloons were taking much longer then the traditional ones to fill with air, and kept may new comers guessing what they were, but it was apparent that they were something complex.

Finally the Clown Head and Haunted Halloween House had taken shape, and in the spirit of the balloon, the crew added a little extra touch to the moment!

Skeleton in the Haunted House balloon
Skeleton in the Haunted House balloon

The kids had a great time, and we do plan to go back next year!

Andrew (SDC) - View my '2011 Chester County Balloon Fest' set on Flickriver

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Add-Ons Backups Browsers Flickr Hacking How to(s)? Information Reference Tech Talk Tips

flickr Award Counter – Backup, Restore and Transfer

Beam Walker - Victoria Harbour (Hong Kong)
Beam Walker - Victoria Harbour (Hong Kong)

If you get involved with the Flickr photography groups that have awards, you will notice that there is no really good way to track what you have, until flickr Award Counter (fAC) by Andy Felton (PhazeShift).

flickr Award Counter can take some time to initially setup, because you have to enter in each Award Title (think of a naming structure), and the URL to the Award image for the greasemonkey/javascript counters to work, but once it is done, fAC works great!

But beware, once done, there does not appear to be a direct way to back up all your filter/counter work.

Backup

After some hunting, I found a thread on the Flickr Hacks – “Award Counter – backup?“, which suggested that one backup the Firefox “prefs.js” file, which can be found (example: Win XP):

C:Documents and Settings%profilename%Application Data ¬
MozillaFirefoxProfilesdm24ria8.defaultsprefs.js

where

%profilename%

is the current user, and

dm24ria8.defaults

could be “any-name.defaults” within this path, and includes “prefs.js”, and all the more fun if there are multiple users! A-)

The simplest backup, is to copy/duplicate the “prefs.js” file within the same directory and adding the “.bak” extension (“prefs.js.bak”) or copy the file to another location, and leave yourself a reminder of where!

Restore

To restore, just replace the damages file with the backup from above.

Transfer

Many times, all you want to do, is to transfer your filter/counter information from one machine to another.

If you use the Restore method mentioned above, one of the immediate down sides is that the destination machine, will inherit the “prefs.js” settings from the source machine.

In some cases, this might be sufficient, but what if you ONLY want the filter/counter information.

about:config

On the machine that has the Main/Source of filter/counters, launch Firefox, and type about:config in the address bar.

You will get a warning screen, and just agree.

[Technically, you are on your own now, so...]

Scroll down to the following filter:

greasemonkey.scriptvals.http://www.phazeshift.co.uk/download//flickrAwardCounter.awards

Double click on the entry, and a new window will open up.

In the “Enter string value” window, copy the string value.

Move to the destination machine, and find the similar entry, and paste in the source filter information.

Quit your browser, and re-launch Firefox, and check your work.

This has been done transferring an existing series of Firefox 4.0 XPro filters to Firefox 4.0 Win7Pro (destination):

C:Users%profilename%AppDataRoaming ¬
MozillaFirefoxProfilesx5lnhhwl.defaultpref.js

with out issue (“x5lnhhwl” will change).

Your mileage may very.

Feature Request(s)

  • Ability to Export/Import filter/counters
    • These could be “traded” via Flickr

Please feel free to add Comments or Feedback.

– Andrew
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