Recording work for publishing on web site

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Robert The Gray
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Recording work for publishing on web site

Post by Robert The Gray »

I am initially addressing this to Tim but please feel free every one to add your thoughts. Tim, your northern yacht restoration logs are models of clarity. they are rich in information while being brief. Your photos illustrate the processes and the whole thing flows very well. As many have said, it a great form of communication. I have tried to do this and have ran into difficulty. It is my hope that these questions will elicit a brief exposition upon your experiences as a chronicler of construction.

How do you remember to take photos?
Do you keep the camera safe and take off your gloves every time?
Do you plan the shots before, or are their standard views?
When you write it all up how much time does it take.
Do you compose all of it fresh each time or do you have a template for things like " wash and sanded the previous day's work"
Do you write and download photos as part of your day's work phase or after the evening shower and chow?
Do you have any suggestions for cameras?
Do you use a tripod or is that more clutter.
What soft ware do you use to upload and compose the pages.
What do wish you could do with regards to the logs but can't as of the moment.
HOW DO YOU REMEMBER TO TAKE THE ^%$*^$ PHOTOS??

As if you did not have enough to do but help this wayward wandering fool out of this prison that is my head.

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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by Tim »

"This one time, I'll let you ask me about my affairs..." (Michael Corleone, Godfather II)

How do you remember to take photos?

It's become a way of life, honestly, over the years, and it's second nature now. At the beginning, I remembered to take photos because I made the effort to remember. Now, it's just a natural extension of the work.

Do you keep the camera safe and take off your gloves every time?

I buy relatively inexpensive cameras and treat it like any other tool--that is, it's a tool, not a fancy gadget, and I consider it to have a finite lifespan. My camera has a little epoxy on it, but that said I rarely take pictures during the height of the messiest work. If my gloves are covered in resin, I won't grab the camera till I change gloves, or till the chore is complete. But I don't fret about shop dust or the occasional resin spot. Obviously I prefer not to ruin the cameras, but I don't take any special protective steps. I'm not a slob so it's not like I'm about to drop the thing in a bucket of resin.

Most of my cameras eventually die because they tumble to the ground off a boat deck or something, not because of the other elements of their shop-based lives.

I'd take a picture of my well-worn camera, but that's hard to do when you only have one camera.

Do you plan the shots before, or are their standard views?

No. I am not creating photojournalism or fine photographic art; rather, I am simply documenting work that is going on. I don't set up shots, take any time with them, or think much about them in advance. I grab the camera and snap pictures at whatever points in the process I feel are important or worthy. I take many different shots of the same thing much of the time, and choose the ones that I feel best represent what I am trying to show about the day's work. Each project ends up with several thousand photos, most of which never see the light of day beyond my computer's hard drive.

When you write it all up how much time does it take.

Writeups--10-30 minutes. This is the easy part. Resizing and optimizing 5-40 photos per day--longer than the writeups, often.

Do you compose all of it fresh each time or do you have a template for things like " wash and sanded the previous day's work"

No templates--it's all fresh, baby.

Do you write and download photos as part of your day's work phase or after the evening shower and chow?

Every morning, bright and early.

Do you have any suggestions for cameras?


Right now I use a Canon Powershot A560. It's about a year or two old now, I guess, and the latest in a string of identical or effectively-identical (but earlier generation) Canon point-and-shoot cameras I have used now for many years. I don't go for super-duper megapixel/resolution cameras because that resolution is wasted on the web, and the web is the only place any of my photos end up. I think it cost $150 or less when I bought it. I like it because it's small enough without being credit-card sized like some of the itsy-bitsy ones out there, so it's still substantial enough in the hand. It has many more features than I ever use or care about, but they all do.

Do you use a tripod or is that more clutter.

Never used one in my life. I am not a photographer and don't pretend to be. I just take pictures of work I am doing. I use the "auto" setting all the time.

What soft ware do you use to upload and compose the pages.

Expression Web. I absolutely despise it, but I am sort of stuck with it for reasons I need not go into here. (And no, I don't need suggestions for how else to proceed or what else to use.)

What do wish you could do with regards to the logs but can't as of the moment.

Find an easier way to bulk-resize/optimize my photos without requiring a master's degree in some fancy computer program to do so. What I do isn't hard, but it requires several different steps and therefore is time-consuming.
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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by Bluenose »

Tim wrote:What do wish you could do with regards to the logs but can't as of the moment.

Find an easier way to bulk-resize/optimize my photos without requiring a master's degree in some fancy computer program to do so. What I do isn't hard, but it requires several different steps and therefore is time-consuming.
I have, over time, installed and removed many, many imagine viewing and manipulation programs. But I have found one that has become my favorite and is one of the first programs that I install on a new computer. The program is FastStone Image Viewer.

http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

Most anything it will do to a single photo it will do in a batch mode (resize, rename etc.). Once you get used to its particular style it is quite easy to use. No advanced degree needed.

Bill
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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by Bluenose »

I also have a camera recommendation. I definitely think that Tim's method of using a "disposable" camera in his high risk environment makes sense. But I have been really please with the durability of our Olympus Stylus 1030SW. It is shock proof from a drop of 6.6 ft, waterproof to 33 ft and generally all round rugged. Olympus makes several types in this line and you have to be careful as some aren't as rugged as the others.

Ours has become the dedicated boat camera and once it got past the "I am new please be gentle phase" it gets used everywhere. It has been dropped and dragged and was the go to camera when I wanted to dive on Bolero to check the keel. It gets covered with saw dust in the shop and sat in the rain during the boat shed project.

Pretty darn nice. They are spendy for the newest models with highest resolutions but Olympus has older models and they can be had cheaper on ebay.

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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by Chris Campbell »

Tim wrote:Find an easier way to bulk-resize/optimize my photos without requiring a master's degree in some fancy computer program to do so. What I do isn't hard, but it requires several different steps and therefore is time-consuming.
If you're using a Windows-based computer then you can try IrfanView. It's a free download and includes the ability to resize/optimize photos in a batch. It's what I use, and I find it very helpful - all my photos start one same size and end up another same size, so this works well.

In case it's suited to your process, I can provide detailed instructions for how to use it simply. I started writing them out and realized that it wasn't going to look simple - but really it is. I can make a PDF with screen shots detailing it and make it available to anyone who's interested.
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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by earlylight »

Chris,

If you decide to do a PDF file on using IrfanView I would love to get a copy. You could email it to me off list at: rcoerse@erols.com.

Thanks,
Dick Coerse
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Rachel
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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by Rachel »

I'd been wanting to ask something similar. I'd like to be able to document certain projects on the web, but for various reasons have resisted things like "Blogger." Friends in the know tell me that doing it on my own domain will be a total time suck, but then I see that Tim (and others) do so, and they are neither computer nerds nor people without lives.

Is there a relatively simple/basic alternative to using a canned site like Blogger? Is that the part you're using now but don't particularly love?

Rachel

PS: Love the Godfather quote - I can think of a few uses for that.
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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by Bluenose »

Rachel wrote:I'd been wanting to ask something similar. I'd like to be able to document certain projects on the web, but for various reasons have resisted things like "Blogger." Friends in the know tell me that doing it on my own domain will be a total time suck, but then I see that Tim (and others) do so, and they are neither computer nerds nor people without lives.

Is there a relatively simple/basic alternative to using a canned site like Blogger? Is that the part you're using now but don't particularly love?

Rachel

PS: Love the Godfather quote - I can think of a few uses for that.
Rachel,

Out of curiosity, what is you objection to Blogger? I don't think that they are the end all to web publishing, but I think they could do a pretty nice job for a project log. They work pretty well with date oriented posts, photos are easily managed and stored, with searches and tags info is readily accessible and most of the back end heavy lifting is already done.

Just curious.

Cheers, Bill
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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by Rachel »

Hi Bill,

I have this (perhaps misconceived) idea that if one uses Blogger (or the like), that then one's content is not completely one's own.

Also, it just appeals to me more to have my own domain with my own content (contrarian nature perhaps). It seems more..... professional somehow. Not that I'm a professional, by any means, but I guess it's like being on AOL and using their interface vs. just going on the web oneself (or at least this is how AOL was ages ago).

I don't know. I just stubbornly don't want to? :laugh:
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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by Bluenose »

Rachel,

No worries, I completely understand. I have authored a few websites in my past both with my own domain name and blogs.

In the end it seem that it was the websites that owned me regardless of how they were hosted.

Cheers, Bill
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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by Rachel »

Of course note that I still don't *have* a website/domain, whereas if I used Blogger I would already.
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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by Chris Campbell »

My Yankee 30 site is based on free software called "Textpattern" - check it out here: http://textpattern.com/. I've modified the templates and the way the navigation works a little to include more than one section and different behaviour in some of the sections, but out of the box it looks much like my Yankee site and supports blogging and images nicely. Should you later get ambitious and decide to fancy it up, it supports that nicely also.

It's written in PHP and uses MySQL as a database - this is extremely common in hosting packages that cost very little. If anyone wants to set up a basic Textpattern site but is daunted at the prospect of how to get it running, I'd be happy to set it up for you once you've gotten the domain and a hosting package (1and1 seems to be the most reasonable hosting service, although I use Hostica and have had good results also).

Cheers,

Chris
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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by catamount »

I code all my own HTML using a basic ascii text editor, and upload to my server account using a simple FTP client...
Tim Allen -- 1980 Peterson 34 GREYHAWK
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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by Robert The Gray »

Great responses every one. Tim, As always my respect for you has no bounds, or if it has bounds they are very far away like light years or something. What ever you wish of me god fader I will repay dyou wid all ofb my heart. Blood for blood to the end of the fillet. I am but a humble soldier in the army of plastic and I hope that dis gesture of my respect will assuage your great and massive eminence. Any time you have a problem wid a west coast supplier let me know. I will bring the horses head or the fish of Luca Brasi or what ever, but your trust in me will not be betrayed. By the way didn't he say that to his wife? I may have long legs, but I am no Diane Keaton. Now I'm all confused and unsure of how to proceed. Boy, meta4 and simile get complicated pretty quick. Onward into oblivion rode the 600 words in my vocabulary, once more into the breech.


r
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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by One Way David »

A suggestion on cameras. I bought my wife a nice Kodak 8 mega pixil but last week found the flaw. We went to Houston and left the charger at home. Had to drive all over town to a battery specialty store to find a charger that requires the battery to be removed from the camera. $50, grrrr. I bought myself a cheaper version of the same camera at a Walgreens while fixing my sisters house in Galveston (http://www.plasticclassicforum.com/view ... =20&t=4619) after Ike, $79. It uses off the shelf AA batteries. Left it at home, too.

On a totally other note, If one wanted to take down the USA, bomb the battery factories.

I empathise with Robert, can't remember to....

Dave.
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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by avd155 »

I'll also throw out there that I do web stuff and I'm usually able to help with basic questions as well as do freelance work if you don't want to set up your own site. Check my website (in my signature) to get my contact information :)
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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by Command_1 »

Its like Van gogh and Monet :)
Your work is not to shabby either Robert.
It's always fun to read your posts.
When are you going to start/document your next project?
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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by Robert The Gray »

Antonio,
It may be a while till I have another boat, I have these good friends named chase and us bank that I have to correspond to each month, and that project is tedious and not worth documenting. Other current projects, except the art of writing these amazingly funny and histrionic posts posts, are not of a nautical nature, therefore I would be remiss in including them on this forum. I am forever grateful for the indulgence shown to me, the drunken uncle in the corner, by the members of this forum with regards to my being allowed to share only my thoughts. Of course, I know everyone loves photos so I thought I would show some links to full sized pictures of my mind. Did I say histrionic before? I meant historic, of course. At times a thesaurus is like a revolver, it sits there on the table willing to be used by any fool that comes along. On to the photos...............

I call this snapping turtle mind.

Image


This was a moment of everlasting forgetfulness.


Image

This was when I was thinking about the way a jib sheet can hum when on a close reach.

Image


r

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Re: Recording work for publishingon web site

Post by Ceasar Choppy »

Chris Campbell wrote:
Tim wrote:Find an easier way to bulk-resize/optimize my photos without requiring a master's degree in some fancy computer program to do so. What I do isn't hard, but it requires several different steps and therefore is time-consuming.
If you're using a Windows-based computer then you can try IrfanView. It's a free download and includes the ability to resize/optimize photos in a batch. It's what I use, and I find it very helpful - all my photos start one same size and end up another same size, so this works well.

In case it's suited to your process, I can provide detailed instructions for how to use it simply. I started writing them out and realized that it wasn't going to look simple - but really it is. I can make a PDF with screen shots detailing it and make it available to anyone who's interested.

+1 for the Irfanview. very simple, very easy.

I also use CoffeeCup software for HTML coding.
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Re: Recording work for publishing on web site

Post by Sailordave »

I will second IRFANVIEW! Very useful. If you want to spend $70-80, get Photoshop's ELEMENTS

I use this for tweaking the stuff I take w/ my DSLR (Nikon D80) and you can batch process w/ it also. Very powerful program for adjusting the exposure, lighting, color, etc.
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Re: Recording work for publishing on web site

Post by Chris Campbell »

I finally got around to writing up how to batch resize with IrfanView, if anyone is interested. I've emailed it to Dick, as requested, and have also stuck it up on my website as a downloadable file. Click here to get it.

Hopefully it'll help save someone some time...

Cheers,

Chris
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