I figured using a separate site to tracks my books would be easier, so I played with LivingSocial for a while after I joined FaceBook, since it was there. It was ok, but didn’t offer a way to note when you finished a book, which I liked about Now Reading. Being able to see how many books I read in a given year, or the order I finished them in, was nice.

That’s when I turned to Goodreads. Like LibraryThing, Shelfari and many other sites, Goodreads is a social cataloging site where users can track books they’ve read, are currently reading, or would like to read, and can share that information with other users. Each book is added to one of three “shelves” (to-read, read, or currently-reading), and can be added to any number of other shelves of the user’s creation. Additionally, users can record the date they read the book, the number of times they’ve read it, who they would recommend it to, who recommended it to them, and their rating and review of the book. Those features alone make Goodreads quite handy, but there are a few more ways to extend it that I like. You can display your Goodreads library on Facebook or a blog via apps and widgets, and there’s a bookmarklet for adding books to Goodreads directly from Amazon.

Hopefully now I can actually spend more time reading, rather than just queueing up books that look interesting.

No related posts.

I’ve already set it up to pull posts from my blog, and if I can figure out a way to get it to pull photos from the photo gallery, I would be extremely happy. I don’t really want to maintain the same content at multiple blogs and galleries, so anyway I can automate that will make my life easier.

So yeah, that’s about it. If you’re on FaceBook, my profile is here.

No related posts.

My Criteria

I’m looking for few things in a photo gallery, but I think it will be easiest if I divide my criteria into things I want for my benefit, and things I want for the benefit of my audience, which is mainly my friends and family. So, to start, things I want for me;

• WordPress Integration – I want to easily reference photos from the gallery from 2 different WordPress blogs, while keeping the photo gallery it’s own entity.
• Upload from Lightroom – I use Lightroom to manage and edit my photos, so it would help me if I could publish the photos straight to the gallery without the intermediary step of exporting from Lightroom first.
• EXIF/IPTC support – Using Lightroom, I assign tags, titles, descriptions and location information to photos using EXIF and IPTC headers. I do NOT want to manually re-type all that information.
• Slick Admin Interface – Rather subjective, really. I want a clean interface I can easily navigate.
• Easy Photo Organization – This kind of goes with the slick admin interface; basically I want to easily organize photos within albums/sets, and move them between albums if I reorganize.
• Archive/off-site backup – I’m hoping to be able to treat the photo gallery as an off-site backup, in case my hard drive ever fails. I have a DVD burner which I’m using to archive the photos, but an off-site backup would give me some peace of mind.
• Replace/re-upload photos – I continue to fiddle with photos on my computer after I’ve uploaded them; I want to be able to swap out the old photo for the updated photo without losing any comments it may have, and without having to re-add it to any albums/sets it may have been in.
• Embed/Link Re-sized Photos – There are a few photography forums that I read, but in order to participate and submit my own photos, I need to embed my re-sized photo, linking to my original. Anything that can make this easier for me is good.
• Protect Photos – While I generally want anyone to have access to my photos, I would like the ability to protect them, as well, either by password protecting certain photos or albums, or by limiting access to full sized photos.

There are also a few things I would like for my photo gallery, that would ideally make the experience easier for my friends and family viewing it. For starters;

• No Account Required – I don’t want to make my friends or family sign up for anything in order to view the public photos. Ideally they shouldn’t need to sign up for anything in order to comment, either, but I doubt my family would actually comment on photos at the gallery, so that is probably a non-issue.
• RSS – This is probably more for my friends than my family, as most of my family probably doesn’t know what RSS is. I would like an easy way for people to subscribe to feeds for either specific albums or the entire photo gallery.
• Easy Navigation – Again, rather subjective. I want an interface that is easy to navigate, and isn’t terribly confusing. If I have to explain to my family how to navigate, it’s no good.
• Search Ability – I would like the ability to search against all fields (tags, location information, decription, titles, EXIF data), and display the results cleanly. Like navigation, a bit subjective.
• Prints – It would be convenient if my family were able to order prints directly from the photo gallery. Not required, but definitely a convenience. Of course, if they could download the images and make their own prints, that would be fine as well.

While I would prefer an open source gallery option that I can host myself, I’m not completely against a commercial photo sharing site, either free or fee-based. My husband and I are paying roughly $6 a month for our hosting and domain names, but our space is finite. If we host our own gallery, eventually I will need to remove old photos, post smaller versions or only post select photos, in order to conserve space. With our present hosting plan we get 150GB of space, so filling it up is a long way off, but with the increasingly larger sizes of digital photos, it’s still a concern.

My Options

When searching for photo gallery options, I started at Wikipedia and came across this lovely comparison chart of photo gallery software, where I started my list. After eliminating a few gallery options that didn’t meet my criteria, I still had too many options. Checking out OpenSourceCMS let me view the admin screens without going to the hassle of installing each gallery option. After checking out the admin screens, I eliminated the galleries I didn’t like the looks of. When I started limiting the options to galleries which can easily interact with WordPress, my main options are down to Gallery2 and Zenphoto. Of course, if I widen my options to include photo sharing websites, I add in Flickr and SmugMug. There are other services as well, but those two best meet my criteria.

Option #1 – Gallery2

Gallery is the photo gallery option I have the most familiarity with, as I’ve used it for over 2 years now to host my photos online. It meets most of my criteria, but has a few failings. While I can make it interact with WordPress via WPG2, the plugin no longer easily allows interaction without embedding the gallery into the blog, which is aggravating. As for metadata support, Gallery does support EXIF and IPTC, however “Location” is not supported by default. There does not seem to be a way to easily link to resized images, or if there is I’m not aware of it. RSS feeds are available in Gallery, via a plugin, but need to be configured individually.

One of my bigger issues with Gallery, however, is the way it handles searches. When a search is performed, it will search tags, keywords, titles and descriptions, but can not presently search any other data, including EXIF or custom fields. The search results are rather rough looking, as well; all the results are listed, without distinguishing between an image or an album.

Option #2 – Zenphoto

Zenphoto is a photo gallery solution I’ve only become familiar with relatively recently, despite the fact that it pre-dates Gallery 2. I installed it briefly after moving from by previous hosting at ikith, but gave up on it as I was unable to move or rename photos or albums, which has since changed. Overall, Zenphoto meets almost all of my criteria. Presently, there’s not an advertised way to replace or reupload a photo, although since photos can be uploaded via FTP, theoretically I could just overwrite the file on the server with a newer version. Like Gallery, there is not an automatic way to link to resized images, but it can be done.

One of the main reasons I like Zenphoto is it’s search ability; all fields can be searched (including EXIF fields), and the search results are presented as an album which can be browsed. Additionally, dynamic albums can be created as a type of saved search; as new photos are added which meet the search criteria, they show up in the dynamic album.

Option #3 – Flickr Pro

I formerly used Flickr as my photo gallery, until I was introduced to Gallery by a friend. The primary reason I switched from Flickr to Gallery was cost; Gallery was free, and in order to create more than 3 sets on Flickr required a Pro account, which cost $24.95 a year. Flickr meets virtually all of my main criteria; it especially excels at the “sharing” aspects of photo sharing. It easily allows me to embed or link to a re-sized image, or make prints or other merchandise via the print service partners. And with a Pro account, I get unlimited space and uploads, so I can never fill it up, unlike a gallery I run myself.

Flickr handles searches a little better than Gallery, but not as nicely as Zenphoto; all EXIF and IPTC fields can be searched, but the results are simply spit out in a long list. And while Sets and Collections make sense to me, I’m not sure how easily navigated Flickr is for someone not already familiar with it. My chief complaint with Flickr, however, is a result of the fact that I’m not running it myself; I can’t change aspects I don’t like.

Option #4 – SmugMug

SmugMug was recommended to me as a more professional hosted photo solution, at a higher cost. Whereas Flickr Pro is $24.95 a year, SmugMug has three different plans going for $39.95 (Standard), $59.95 (Power User) or $149.95 (Professional) per year. It seems to meet most of my criteria, while looking a bit more professional than Flickr Pro.

I’m not sure how extensive the EXIF and IPTC support is with SmugMug – I know it’s supported, but I’ve not been able to view the EXIF and IPTC information in galleries beyond the standard title, description and tags. Without creating an account, I can’t really judge the the interface for the admin or photo management. The ability to replace or re-upload a photo is not advertised, but I can’t know for sure without creating an account. Beyond that, it fares well; member can choose who is allowed to comment or download images, and folks don’t need to sign up in order to leave a comment.

My Conclusions

Between the two open source options, I would lean towards Zenphoto over Gallery. My only real complaint with Zenphoto is my inability to replace photos, which I may actually be able to circumvent by simply overwriting the photo via FTP. I much prefer the search and dynamic albums of Zenphoto, and it now has support for the Shutterfly printing service.

Between the photo sharing websites, the decision is a little tougher. I prefer the design flexibility of SmugMug, but can’t necessarily justify the price difference. Of course, SmugMug has less controversy regarding censorship, leading me to feel my photos would be more safe at SmugMug than at Flickr. Without seeing the admin interface firsthand, though, I can’t really choose SmugMug over Flickr.

Final decision? I think I’m going to go with Zenphoto. It lacks some of the photo sharing and print service aspects that Flickr and SmugMug have, but I don’t really need them. For what is primarily family photos, I think I feel more secure having them under my own control.

No related posts.

The Joy of Digital Photography can be divided into 3 main sections; general orientation & the basics of photography, composition & design, and finally digital editing. The first few chapters cover the basics of photography. The book starts off with the obligatory “digital camera orientation” chapter, explaining about megapixel count, resolution, different types of digital cameras, and various camera accessories like tripods, monopods, external flashes and bags. The next few sections address the basics of photography; exposure, depth of field, shutter speed, aperture, ISO and white balance.

After the basics of photography, the focus of the book shifts to design and composition. Some of the design basics include horizon placement within the photo, how to frame the image, and how to add depth to an image.  An entire chapter is dedicated to light, explaining how the direction and quality of light will affect images. The next two chapters cover two broad photographic subjects; people (weddings, children, groups, sports, travel, etc.)  and nature (mainly landscapes, animals and weather).

Finally, the last chapters focus on the digital aspect of digital photography. Two chapters explain the basics on digital photo editing (cropping, leveling, sharpening, cleaning up scanned images). The final chapter focuses on how to set up your digital darkroom; discussing computer options, organizing your digital library, what to look for in a scanner, and how to decide on photo paper.

As a whole, I really liked this book. I found it to be accessible to those just starting out in digital photography, while still being relevant to those with some digital photography experience. One thing that I really liked was that the author made no assumptions about the reader or the gear they might be using. While Tom Ang’s How to Photograph Absolutely Everything covered a broad range of photographic subjects,  Ang assumes the reader is using a simple point and shoot digital camera. The recommended camera settings for various subjects are generally given in terms of which semi-automatic camera scene mode to use, with little explanation of why one setting was chosen over another. If the reader has a more advanced camera, or hopes to delve into anything beyond automatic or a pre-selected camera scene mode, they are pretty much on their own. With The Joy of Digital Photography, there is perhaps a slightly smaller range of photographic subjects covered, but the depth of information on design, composition and digital editing more than makes up for that. Overall, I think this is an excellent digital photgraphy reference book; it covers a full spectrum of topics without confusing new photographers or speaking down to more experienced photographers.

No related posts.

I’ve already checked out the ceremony location, as it’s the same church Matt & I were married at last year. There’s a little chapel with beautiful stained glass windows that I’m hoping I’ll be able to use; I’m not really sure what kind of light to expect in the middle of the day, though. I’ve not checked out the reception hall yet, and I’m not sure I’ll have the chance to before the wedding. Hopefully there are photos on their website, so I can get a rough idea of the layout, and possibly the lighting situation.

As far as camera gear goes, I’m thinking I’ll want to get an external flash before the wedding. My main issue is deciding if I want the Speedlite 430EX ($235) or the 580EX ($390). The 430EX is probably all I need at this point; the 580EX has more features and such, but I can’t justify spending that much more on a flash right now. Where lenses are concerned, I’m hoping my 50mm prime should suffice for most of the shots. Of course, if I get the flash then I should be able to use my 18mm-55mm indoors as well. I’ll probably need another memory card; I’ve got a 1gig CF and a 4gig CF, but since I plan to shoot in RAW I’ll need all the space I can get.

Overall, things seem to be shaping up well. I’d like to finish tagging and editing my backlog of photos before the wedding, so that I can have a clean slate when I get the influx of photos from the wedding. I’m up to March of 2008, so I should be able to finish tagging the photos, at least. Hopefully when I’m done editing and tagging all the photos, I can start uploading them to the gallery again; for various reasons I think I’ll be sticking with Gallery2 rather than Zenphoto, but that is for another post.

No related posts.

For a new photographer, this book is extremely helpful. It gives tips on a broad variety of photographic subjects; pointers for weddings, portraits, children, vacation photos, and more. At the beginning of each section, Ang also gives some suggestions for camera settings to capture a given subject type. What’s more, the book is filled with large, full color photos to reinforce the tips.

However, if you’re anything other than a new photographer, this book might not be as helpful. It becomes clear rather quickly that this book is geared towards users with little experience, as the suggested camera settings at the beginning of each new section are often as simple as “use landscape mode on your camera.” As far as content goes, it gives a few pointers for each topic, but due to the broad nature of the book, lacks depth on any given subject. And while the book seems aimed at the newer, less experienced photographer, it doesn’t really cover the basics of photography.

What I would have loved to have seen was something a bit more informative as far as settings go. Perhaps including the EXIF data on sample pictures, so the reader has a better starting point. Or ignore the “camera mode” and stick to suggestions for aperture, shutter, focal length and sensitivity.

Overall, I think this book would make a lovely coffee table book, as the photos are quite lovely, and make up the bulk of the book. I might recommend it to a new digital photographer, or a film photographer just making the switch to digital. If you’re looking for a general reference book that is more inspiration than reference, this is probably the book for you. However, if you want more in depth information on any given subject matter, I’d keep looking.

No related posts.

The biggest criteria to start with is IPTC metadata support. I use Lightroom to tag and organize my photos, including such information as location, title, names of people, photo description and more, all of which is stored in the IPTC headers of each image. I don’t want to have to replicate all that data, so photo software that can parse and display IPTC headers is essential. Both Gallery2 and Zenphoto manage IPTC data with no problem; Zenphoto actually appears to parse out the location information as well as title, description and tags, while Gallery2 only parses out title, description and tags.

I’d love to have software that can manage dynamic or relational albums, so that one image can appear in multiple albums. Unfortunately, Flickr is the only solution I’ve seen that will keep the original photo in multiple locations, with all the comments. Gallery2’s best solution is to make a copy of the image and place a copy in each album, which is less than ideal. Zenphoto has a solution I’m still investigating, which is “saved searchs;” a search can be saved, and will appear as a gallery that can be browsed. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but a definite step in the right direction and the closest I’ve seen any other gallery option come to Flickr.

Zenphoto, for all it’s good points, is not without bugs. The first issue I came across is the inability to create empty galleries. Not a huge issue – you can make albums via FTP, and upload images that way. But using the admin interface, I couldn’t create an album without putting at least one image in it. A little frustrating if you want to create a top level album to hold sub-albums. Another issue is the inability to move photos or albums; apparently there is not yet a way to move things while retaining the comments and such. There are also a few features I’d like to see implemented in future versions of Zenphoto – the ability to re-upload a photo (to replace a photo with a touched up version, while preserving the comments), and the ability to choose what portion of the photo is used for the thumbnail.

Between the two gallery options, it’s a tough choice. Gallery does almost everything I want, plus a lot more that I don’t really want or need. It’s a bit larger, and more difficult for me to maintain on my own. On the other hand, Zenphoto does the basics, without some of the extras. It doesn’t do as much as Gallery, but I prefer the way it does some things. Zenphoto was easy to install, and looks to be easier to maintain. In the end, I’ll probably go with Zenphoto – it doesn’t do everything I want, but it does everything I NEED, and it’s prettier.

No related posts.

• Cross stitch birth sampler for my niece (who just turned 3)
• Tag and organize the backlog of digital photos (currently I’m up to December of 2007)
• Prepare for sister-in-law’s June wedding (I’m the photographer)
• Update the online photo gallery, investigate other software options
• Create digital address book (plans for software to generate reports and Christmas card labels)
• Convert recipes to digital, add recently tested recipes
• Work on denherder.net (blog up, but no content)
• Knit baby blanket (also for my niece)

Of course, there are other projects to be added to the list. Once I finish Laurel’s birth sampler, I need to see about making a Peter Rabbit birth sampler for Marin. After I get all my photos tagged and organized, I was thinking about starting a photoblog, to give myself a reason to practice. I’d like to have my consolidated address book ready to go by this fall, so the mail merge labels are ready for Christmas cards.

Another project that has been floating around in the back of my mind has been a recipe blog. Once I get my recipes typed up into MasterCook, a cooking blog wouldn’t be too difficult. Each recipe would become a post; categories would be for recipe classification – beverages, cookies, breads, desserts, main dishes, etc. The tags could be used for ingredients, or perhaps other criteria (Bread Machine, Crock Pot, ethnicity of the dish, etc.). Of course, if the full text of the recipe is in the body of the post, you wouldn’t NEED ingredients as tags – you could simply search the blog to find a recipe that used buttermilk, for example. Pictures to accompany the recipe would be nice, too. Matt had a suggestion to rate the recipes on various criteria, as well; difficulty, tastiness, and how well it reheats. I do like the idea of giving some honest opinions on how a recipe keeps or reheats – some recipes are great, but don’t reheat terribly well in the microwave. And with any luck, I may have some friends willing to contribute to a recipe blog, so I wouldn’t bear the full weight of upkeep and posting.

No related posts.

The game centers on Professor Layton and his apprentice, Luke. As the game starts, the pair are en route to a village named St. Mystere by invitation of Lady Dahlia, widow of the late Baron Reinhold. In his will, Baron Reinhold stated that whoever solved the mystery of the Golden Apple would inherit his entire estate. Unfortunately, no one in the village has a clue what the Golden Apple is.

The gameplay is fairly simple; using the shoe icon in the corner of the touchscreen, you move about the village. To talk to villagers or inspect your surroundings, touch them with the stylus. Villagers normally have a puzzle for you to solve, or information to help in your investigation. Inspecting the scenery can turn up hidden puzzles or hint coins, which are used to unlock hints on more difficult puzzles.

I was pleasantly surprised by the cut scenes in the game; the voice acting and animation were some of the best I’ve seen on the Nintendo DS, and I was not expecting that from a puzzle game. Some of the puzzles were rather obscure – not difficult, just rather vague and a bit more lateral than logical. The hidden puzzles and hint coins were a bit difficult to find, at times; I explored one shop countless times, missing the one object I had to inspect in order to unlock a puzzle.

As a whole, I enjoyed the game, and was happy to learn that after you finish the game, there is still more. There are 120 puzzles in the game proper, 15 bonus puzzles unlocked for completing sub-quests within the game, and then weekly downloadable puzzles via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. There are also sequels in the Professor Layton series – Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box has already been released in Japan and Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel is currently in the works.

No related posts.

At first Chiyo wishes for nothing more than to escape the okiya, find her sister Satsu (who was sold to a brothel), and return to her family in Yoroido. After a failed escape attempt results in a broken arm, she is met with more bad news; her sister escaped without her, and both of her parents have passed away. With no place for her but the Nitta okiya, her lot in life becomes a lifetime of servitude as a maid; Mother refuses to invest more money in Chiyo’s training, seeing her now as a bad investment.

A chance encounter with the wealthy and kind Chairman gives Chiyo hope; she sees the encounter as a sign that she wasn’t meant to become a geisha as a goal unto itself, but as a means toward the Chairman. The rest of the novel follows Chiyo through her eventual geisha training, her debut and early life as a geisha, the closing of the geisha districts due to World War II, her life during World War II, and the post-war re-opening of the geisha districts, with her ultimate goal always being the Chairman.

Despite being a work of fiction, Memoirs of a Geisha was a well researched and relatively detailed novel. In fact, the author, Arthur Golden, was sued in 2001 for breach of contract and defamation of character after publicly acknowledging Mineko Iwasaki, a retired geisha he interviewed for background information while writing the novel. Apparently Iwasaki had agreed to speak with Golden, and violate the geisha “code of silence”, only if the interview was kept confidential.

Of course, part of the reason he was sued also has to do with some artistic liberties he took. The most controversial liberty was with “mizuage”, the coming of age ceremony where the transition from maiko (apprentice geisha) to full fledged geisha is made. In Memoirs of a Geisha it is a portrayed as a financial arrangement, where the maiko’s virginity is auctioned off to the highest bidder. As Memoirs of a Geisha was based heavily on the life of Mineko Iwasaki, and parallels her career as a geisha, readers would incorrectly assume that Iwasaki had prostituted herself as a young woman.

I found some aspects of the novel lacking, however. For instance, Chiyo’s lifetime dream of being with the Chairman is a little creepy, if you think about it. She spends her entire life plotting to be with a man that she met for maybe 15 minutes, when she was 12? That goes a little beyond infatuation, if you ask me. About halfway through, the novel begins to lose some steam; from World War II on, the story seems a bit more bland and distant. I’m not sure if that was supposed to be an intentional reflection of life after World War II, or if the author started losing interest and was simply trying to wrap up the story.

Overall, I think Memoirs of a Geisha is a decent novel, despite some flaws. While it does take liberties with aspects of the life of geisha, it IS a novel; I would recommend Iwasaki’s autobiography, published as Geisha, A Life in the US and Geisha of Gion in the UK for those interested in a more accurate version.

No related posts.