Kicking back, feet up

One of the more popular things on Flickr is to do a “365″ – a project that forces you to get out and take at least one photo each day.  I’ve never been big on these types of projects, personally.  Forcing myself to take a picture gets… pretty miserable results, actually.  So I’ve never done one.  Quality would be lacking, to say the least.

So in regards to the last post: this is not a 365 project.  I will myself to post no more than I want, and only when inspired.

I would also like to point out: there is a link to the Stream of Consciousness to the right, just above the link to my Flickr stream.

See me kicking back with my feet up?  That’s my approach to that site.

So this is the new it. Such as it is.

Flickr Favebrowsr

Meet the Flickr Favebrowsr.

I wasn’t in too creative of a mood when I named it, but I was enchanted by the concept.  I forget where I saw it, exactly, but someone had built a beautiful way of surfing between user’s favorites. It was wonderful, but: it required giving up personal info (email address, or logging in) and the images in all screens were too small for my tastes. Some of the behavior wasn’t all that I wanted, either.

So I built my own.

You see the results to the right – and the link to the far right.

OK, so this should be pretty easy to get the hang of.  See the pictures below?  They’re just drawing pictures on how to get there & get started:

Favebrowsr - Link

Favebrowsr - search

So, you use the link & go to the page. Then search by user name. In this case, I decided to abuse Jason From Duluth. He’s wild and zany (just look at that icon!) – he’s got to have super-crazy faves! On closer inspection, how not true. I’m just destroyed, man!

But nonetheless, it makes a couple of points: if you search & you get the message from the “Favebrowsr-search” icon, then you’re doing it wrong. Do it right, and all will be OK.

Once you get a valid search in, you’ll see a list of images appear.  It might be slow.  Deal with it – I’m not gettin’ paid for this. You now have two options.  Click anywhere on a thumbnail (well, small image in Flickr terms), and you’ll see that photographer’s images added to the list.  Click on the small “I” icon that usually hovers over top-left corner of the small image.  That will pull up a nice, larger image:

Favebrowsr - Link to Details

Favebrowsr - details

That’s all there is to this guy.  Surf around, browsing only by user favorites.  All links are pointing back to Flickr, all info comes directly from there, and I’ve tried to make it as easy as possible to go to that user’s photostream.  In a little over a day of programming & debugging, I’ve found far more interesting photos this way than I do via explore.

The Barely Alive Part

OK, so the last thing.  You might experience trouble with this.  I tested in Google Chrome and Firefox: no probs whatsoever.  IE8 is failing, though.  So for you?  It’s probably a crapshoot.  I’ll try to get IE running, but… well, it’s not a high priority for me. Maybe in a month or so…

Feedback or notes to the contact page, please!

Clouds in the evening - 10pm

Look at the angle of the light on the clouds to the right.  It’s at quite an angle, and yet it’s not yellowing.  You know, the yellowing that you see as it gets closer to the golden hour?  Not yet – it’s too early.  This is 10pm last night.  It’s probably two or three hours away from a colorful sunset.

There were great textures though, and the sky was unusually clear.  These clouds are probably over the inlet or, at the closest, over the open fields at Elmendorf Air Force base.

Classic for my situation, I noticed them almost too late – I had to pull out my good 80-200 f/2.8 lens & handhold at f/8 (1/250th sec.) to get this. This is fully zoomed out (200mm), so there’s an effective zoom of 300mm.

Black and White treatment of a drain pipe

I’m taking this as a literal statement, but it doesn’t have to be.  I mentioned in yesterday’s post that there’s a movement to take photos near your home, where you live.  While I stand by my statement that it’s better than nothing, I gotta say – it’s hard to be motivated.

And yet, a thought comes to me: while I’m not big on “projects” (as we see in photographer portfolios), I do like the concept of documenting what it’s like to live in my home.  Ignore the artistic side of the excercise, think more from a homeowner’s standpoint: if you’re going to sell a house, what if you had a photo book sitting on the counter, with a note inviting them to look through it?  It’s an opportunity to show them what it’s like to live in the house, as opposed to just the visual impact of looking at your staging.

There’s a dim chance that we may want to sell in a year, so as a project it’s a natural melding of interests and effort.  The photo above?  That’s one in the project, from Friday after the rains.  Black & White isn’t necessarily ideal for this, but I like the effect.

Hopefully by next January, I’ll have enough built up to get something published.  Who knows where – guess that’ll be a post for another time.