Want to go on a trip and help a fellow Pentaxian out too?

Want to go on a trip and help a fellow Pentaxian out too? · Posted by Tom M, 01-24-2008, 07:45 PM

Hey guys, I just finished re-processing some photos from a recent trip to Gata, Spain - A very colorful and fun town in the Costa Blanca region inland from the Mediterranean Sea.

Well, after color-calibrating my new iMac which I have owned for all of 4 weeks and learning to work with Aperture, I've published a few web pages using iWeb and things look good on my end - though, I know better than to trust that because I have found that I need to re-upload the other 10 albums due to some 'optimize' thing being checked off..

I didn't make the same mistake with this new album though, and would really appreciate it if you guys could give me some feedback on how the images look, color of course, and in general if you like the photos. Thanks all!

It's the album titled 'gata' on the top right hand side of the page- double click to enter the album.. Here's the link --> thomas maher photography

Thanks again everyone!

spyglass · 01-24-2008, 11:28 PM

I love the Hitman, nice insect pictures. (you can almost sense a pesonality with him)

JCSullivan · 01-25-2008, 06:38 AM

Man, that Gata sure looks like its one heck of a town to visit - in drag too. What occasion is it that makes people cross-dress, attach vegitables and balloons to cars and other vehicles, women ride bikes in tutus and in general have a great time?

Colour seems fine to me.

*daacon* · 01-25-2008, 07:21 AM

Colors look good - and I agree the insects are fantastic some general comments.

The black background is very nice simple and works well
The page takes a bit of time to load - not sure if the thumbnails need to be smaller
Cursor does not change into hotspot hand (using IE 6 here) - clicking on the picture works and you do have text to indicate that, but curosr should change to make it obvious
Slide show does not indicate when finished just repeats
Slide show comes up full screen pictures are not that big and that leave a lot of emplty space

These are just my opinions mind ya you have some nice photos there !

Tom M · 01-25-2008, 09:09 AM

Thanks all for the kind words..

I'm struggling somewhat with iWeb and some of it's limitations. As I mentioned in my original post, I now have to 'redo' the other 10 pages. Only 'Gata' was uploaded correctly. With reference to to the slow-loading times.. That's a .Mac service issue. It seems it's fine for some folks, slow for others and I am aware of it but not sure what can be done about it. Maybe smaller thumbnails is the answer?!

With regards to the slideshows, I agree and will change them so that it is not fullscreen and see if the images can be enlarged somehow. Thanks for the heads-up on that.

Now, about that crazy little town called Gata in Spain. It's a short ride from the villa in Orba and it's famous for it's Wicker. In that region, when people need wicker, they go to Gata to buy it. In addition to, it's full of great boutique shops and freindly bar & tapas.. The people are very nice as well and as you can see, very fun-loving.

If you look at the images, there is one image in the Gata series that explains everything. It's the one with a blue banner hanging from a balcony against a yellow wall.. We were there during festival but, they have lots of festivals throughout the year with different themes. A very fun and colorful town indeed. The whole Costa Blanca region is very nice to visit. I highly recommend it.

Tom M · 01-25-2008, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by spyglass

I love the Hitman, nice insect pictures. (you can almost sense a pesonality with him)

Spyglass - The 'Hitman' was around for 3 days this past September/October.. He stayed above my front door and was never once spooked by my poking a Viv 105mm f2.5 macro in his face..

BrianK · 01-25-2008, 11:41 AM

Your photos look great!. The only way that I found around the slow loading times is to not use Iweb. It creates code that is slow to load even if you place it on a non .Mac server. You can use other programs with your .Mac account and they will create sites that load quite a bit faster.

If you want to try something different and flexible have a look at ShutterBug for the Mac. Look at the sites in my signature, they are all created with Shutterbug. You can modify almost anything in it. I will admit that it is not quite as simple as IWeb but I have found it better for my needs.

You can update or add photos to Shutterbug sites and it will just upload the changes, not the whole site. You can download a trial version from the Shutterbug site, just Google it.

Tom M · 01-25-2008, 01:54 PM

Thanks Brian! Actually, I've looked at your website a few times. I like travel photography and the Kuala Lumpur shots interest me, as well as others of course.. I think you have one of a white bear statue as well that I may have commented on to you in the past.. I'll look into the shutterbug software for sure. Thanks again.

davemdsn · 01-25-2008, 02:52 PM

I don't have mine up any more but I had some galleries in the gallery section of .mac that seemed a bit faster than that. Then I used iWeb to create a gallery widget on my .mac site. The widget shows a mini slide show on whatever page you put it on and when clicked it takes you to the actual gallery. I am rebuilding my .mac gallery so I don't have any up to show right now. .Mac galleries are uploaded through iPhoto.

davemdsn · 01-25-2008, 03:00 PM

Okay, I just through one together. See if you like this as all as an alternative for showing photos at .mac.

Me and the family

Tom M · 01-26-2008, 07:43 AM

Originally Posted by davemdsn

Okay, I just through one together. See if you like this as all as an alternative for showing photos at .mac.

Me and the family

Very much so! When I clicked through, the images were large and snappy! What's the secret?

OK, I see, you're using the iPhoto galleries instead of the iWeb photo pages?

Tom M · 01-26-2008, 02:31 PM

OK - Took everyone's advice and made as many changes as possible.. I still need to work on some stuff but the following albums have been updated/fixed.. Granada, Gata, Denia, Alhambra and Insects and Landscape too.. Thanks again everyone!

The albums are here - http://web.mac.com/tmaher3

BrianK · 01-26-2008, 05:02 PM

They seem to be quite a bit faster to load. I was watching my browser on your site (and on one of mine) and it seems to preload some of the images and I suspect that is what may slow down the .Mac output. Whatever you did has improved the speed of loading from my computer (Mac). I have not tried your sites on my PC yet.

I love some of your shots of Granada, so colorful.

Tom M · 01-28-2008, 09:27 AM

Thanks Brian. I think it had something to do with file compression - either that or it was my 'upgrade' I paid for - Though, the upgrade was not for faster speeds, only more space. Thanks for comments on Granada, very fun place - I recommend it to anyone.