Embeding Picasa based gallery in your website

Here I go again, bragging about Google's Picasa features. It must feel like I'm making money from promoting it. Anyhow ...
Having used Picasa2 for a little bit now (and creating my Picasa Web Album in the process), I must say I'm more and more impressed with how well Google thought this whole thing out. It isn't perfect, mind you, but for the cost of NOTHING it's impressive.

Here I'd like to mention the process of displaying images from your Picasa Web Album on your own web site (or blog etc.). Process takes just minutes, within a few clicks you will have your HTML code ready to copy into your web page. Then it's just a matter of pasting it in the right spot (which would be any of your choice on the web page) and sending the new page to the hosting server. DONE.

Check this out, all it took was 5 minutes (that long, because I forgot to save the links in proper configuration and it did not work at first).

Just a photograph

Within Port of Jacksonville, FL - taken on 02.25.2005

Forum announcement

I have set up a discussion board that currently consists only of sections related to photographer's web site building/evaluation/review.

Perhaps there is something of similar focus, but I can't find any. Many most popular photography forums have threads that deal with this subject in depth. However, in most cases it is buried deep and searches don't always bring everything up. In addition, this is going to be a platform that will serve me as sort of a notepad, with links of places where the most interesting resources for building a web site of such kind can be found.

There is also a place to submit links to "best and worst" sites, which in itself is a great resource, for better or worse. Same goes for printed material and on-line tutorials.

Building a website, and specifically a photographer's site, involves a need to undertake certain measures not usually associated with such. While an attractive site for any sector will have a better chance for repeat visitors, a photographer's site needs to go beyond that. This is assuming, that one desires a design that will complement his images, will allow for efficient and fast navigation, yet remain uncluttered (or at least that's how I feel about a GOOD photographer's web site).

Auto portrait from a couple of years ago.

When I do LF, this is usually it: a Toyo 45AII. Larger format would be nice sometimes, but this is portable and relatively light.

Posted using Picasa2.

An open air museum in Southern Poland

One of the photographs from my trip to a Skansen (an open air museum) in Sanok, Poland. This place is large and you could easily spend a week shooting and ... shooting. Here is a link to their official web site. Too bad it's in Polish only and the gallery of the very few images does not do justice to what's accessible. I will be posting a small gallery from that trip and it should give a better picture of what one can expect.

To keep with the subject matter, there is also another skansen about 2.5 hrs away from this one. It's located in Kolbuszowa and here is a link to the official museum's map and a photo gallery (scroll down to see some images). Also check out this gallery, all from skansen in Kolbuszowa.

If anyone needs help or pointers to zoom in on the area for trip planning, drop me an e-line and I'll do my best to help (although my response may not be immediate).

Progress or NOT to progress?

Quite some time has gone by since last update to my website. This blog is not for sharing my life, so I won't get into the reasons for not having done anything over the last couple of years. Lots of ideas, little time to implement should suffice.

What's coming is quite a change though. I will split my efforts into separate sites, mostly for clarity. ElusiveFoto was a name of a Photo Club that WE (Jasiek W. Witkowski, Darek P.Jankowski, Piotrek Brzezinski and myself) had chosen (using a little numbers game and a dictionary) back in the old days of 1980's. We loved the name, we had some fun, but then we all parted ways. When I registered the domain it was with intent to resurrect the Club. It has not happened yet, but I sure hope it will. So I made the decision to put the domain on hold, with only some images for photography's sake. It will probably have a forum with one major section for WEB SITE reviews (and inquiries for opinions) as this is somewhat lacking on the web. I mean you go to different forums and you find these kind of posts, but they seem to be more of a distraction then an integral part of such.

The plan is to transfer the technical manuals (and more) to my other domain FotoFlack.com.

My personal web site with gallery of images and some thoughts on what I do (blog?) will go to wjgrabiec.com.

Last but not least, I'm outlining a different project which will likely end up under TrueAperture.com. This will take time and it won't leave the drawing board until it starts to make sens. My wish is to have it dedicated to history of photographic processes and photographers who have contributed to the medium in one way or another. I'm hoping to create a contributing community of interested, who would be willing to share their views on the medium and how it evolved over time. For starters it will have a Fred Picker section along with his Newsletters. The passing of Mr. Picker few years back took away a businessman/photographer (not necessarily in that order), who has helped resolve many technical issues for many aspiring (and not) photographers. Even though I have never met him in person, I regret I did not find time to participate in his workshops in Vermont.

I'm currently looking for a platform that would allow for an easy on-line contribution. It might end up being a hybrid of several platforms. I don't know yet. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated.

What the heck, I'll do it too, new FAA lithium battery restrictions

It's all over the net by now, but worth looking into if you travel to/from/or within USA by airplane. While general perception is that the NEW rule applies ONLY to the loose or spare lithium batteries, the reality is somewhat different.

DOT official page on the lithium battery restriction is available here.

The key is that ALL batteries MAY be affected, depending on their size. While the rule appears to not be affecting any consumer level batteries that are installed in the relevant device, the larger packs (for portable lighting for example), might be. Check the above out and look up the lithium content in your larger packs to make sure you won't loose any at the check point.