dpreview photo essay?

[Chris35927]

Alright, I haven't quite finished my first cup of coffee, so my mind isin't working as clearly as it should be... but I just had a thought.

Every now and then, I find myself with some free time on my hands. I try to get inspiration and go out and shoot something. Just as often, finding a good theme or subject is the hardest part of all this.

What do you guys think of doing a photo essay or photo project here? If we could manage to come up with a theme or subject, perhaps each of us could contribute one or two pictures, post them to some free website, and see how it comes out?

Would anyone be interested in this? Does anyone have any ideas for a subject/theme? Considering we are scattered all over the world, I think we could really do a bang up job.

I do have my own webserver with two T1s, and would be glad to provide space. My database/php skills are pretty good, but my time is limited. I'd be happy to do the hosting, though I doubt if I would be able to contribute much time to it. Maybe someone else could offer to host the site, or even just be the webmaster on this whole thing? Hell, I'd even kick in the $35 bucks of we wanted to register a domain for this.

Chris

 

[Pekka Saarinen]

Alright, I haven't quite finished my first cup of coffee, so my
mind isin't working as clearly as it should be... but I just had a
thought.

Every now and then, I find myself with some free time on my hands.
I try to get inspiration and go out and shoot something. Just as
often, finding a good theme or subject is the hardest part of all
this.

What do you guys think of doing a photo essay or photo project
here? If we could manage to come up with a theme or subject,
perhaps each of us could contribute one or two pictures, post them
to some free website, and see how it comes out?

Would anyone be interested in this? Does anyone have any ideas for
a subject/theme? Considering we are scattered all over the world, I
think we could really do a bang up job.

I do have my own webserver with two T1s, and would be glad to
provide space. My database/php skills are pretty good, but my time
is limited. I'd be happy to do the hosting, though I doubt if I
would be able to contribute much time to it. Maybe someone else
could offer to host the site, or even just be the webmaster on this
whole thing? Hell, I'd even kick in the $35 bucks of we wanted to
register a domain for this.

Hi,

A good idea.

Maybe we could use this as a base:
http://photography-on-the.net/essays/ ?

I'll just change it to a nonpersonal page, and maybe a SQL database for easy text searching and adding comments? I could build the essay pages by hand, to make them look good.

Pekka

 

[Chris35927]

Pekka-

That would be great if you could do that.

Perhaps if every person who participated were allowed 2 photos? The photos would all need to be standard size.

As for the database, since this is a photography forum related project, perhaps the database could be set to hold exif info? I'm sure everyone will want to know what lens, shutter speed, iso, etc, for the images... this would take care of that. Also, a title, and copyright holder. Maybe a caption too (100 words or less)?

How about a subject? It would have to be something "universal." Here are some things I thought of while finishing my coffee:

Local faces
My hometown

Churches/Places of worship (could be cool if people from all over the world participated)
Children at play (again, with worldwide photos, cool stuff)

Any other ideas or thoughts would be fantastic.

Also, should there be any limitations here? Number of people participating? Should they be dpreview registered posters? Should it be limited to Canon SLRs - D30 (I don't think so, but I figured I should bring it up)?

Chris

 

[Alfred Rijnders]

Chris,

I like the idea already! This could be a lot of fun considering the vastly different locations and backgrounds of everyone!

I don't think it should be limited to camera type/brand. A registration before posting should be a good idea. It could even end up as a nice stock photo site. When the images are put in a database you could categorized by subject, photographer etc.

However how to organize legal issues like ownership, copyright etc?

Alfred

Pekka-

That would be great if you could do that.

Perhaps if every person who participated were allowed 2 photos? The
photos would all need to be standard size.

As for the database, since this is a photography forum related
project, perhaps the database could be set to hold exif info? I'm
sure everyone will want to know what lens, shutter speed, iso, etc,
for the images... this would take care of that. Also, a title, and
copyright holder. Maybe a caption too (100 words or less)?

How about a subject? It would have to be something "universal."
Here are some things I thought of while finishing my coffee:

Local faces
My hometown
Churches/Places of worship (could be cool if people from all over
the world participated)
Children at play (again, with worldwide photos, cool stuff)

Any other ideas or thoughts would be fantastic.

Also, should there be any limitations here? Number of people
participating? Should they be dpreview registered posters? Should
it be limited to Canon SLRs - D30 (I don't think so, but I figured
I should bring it up)?

Chris

 

[Michel26604]

Count me in!

gr. Michel

 

[Deborah Duke]

Count me in!

Me too . . . sounds like fun!

 

[kelleym]

Pekka-

That would be great if you could do that.

Pekka is a good person, and I trust that involvement.

Perhaps if every person who participated were allowed 2 photos? The
photos would all need to be standard size.

If you're going to limit it to two photos it really won't be much different from the threads that are posted here (I remember one memorable thread that was just "Self-Portrait").

A photo essay needs images to develop the story, and unless you're doing anything more than a montage it won't be meaningful with such a small sample. I'd think three would be the minimum -- but with enough storage space available I wouldn't think 10 or 15 per person would be excessive (you're only caping it so that one person doesn't dominate the essay with 100s of images).

My hometown

I like this for an essay -- because there are so many diverse localities represented here, this would be ideal. It also shows how you need more than one or two images -- I couldn't even come close to representing this area with less than five or six.

 

[Kevin50205]

Chris,

Great idea. It give us just another excuse to go out and shoot!

I have to agree, that limiting the number of submissions to 2 would be difficult. So, to eliminate that problem...I have a sever with unlimited space and I am willing to donate enough space to this project.

I am by no means a expert web designer, but can do what needs to be done. I would ask for Pekka's help and will give him access to the site to do what he needs to do.

Let me know if my donated space needs to be used, and I can get with Pekka to work out the access details.

Again, this is a great idea...I look forward to it.

Kevin
http://www.firestorm.com

 

[dancook]

Very good idea! Count me in too! Maybe post a pointer to this thread in all forums so that all member may participate if they wish.

My camera is out for repairs: 4 stuck pixels. I'm supposed to have it back in 2-3 weeks. Hope it will not be too late.

DC

Pekka-

That would be great if you could do that.

Pekka is a good person, and I trust that involvement.

Perhaps if every person who participated were allowed 2 photos? The
photos would all need to be standard size.

If you're going to limit it to two photos it really won't be much
different from the threads that are posted here (I remember one
memorable thread that was just "Self-Portrait").

A photo essay needs images to develop the story, and unless you're
doing anything more than a montage it won't be meaningful with such
a small sample. I'd think three would be the minimum -- but with
enough storage space available I wouldn't think 10 or 15 per person
would be excessive (you're only caping it so that one person
doesn't dominate the essay with 100s of images).

My hometown

I like this for an essay -- because there are so many diverse
localities represented here, this would be ideal. It also shows
how you need more than one or two images -- I couldn't even come
close to representing this area with less than five or six.

 

[C. R. Bell]

I also would be interested in participating in such a project.

 

[Pekka Saarinen]

Ok, my understanding of "essay" was a bit different (a finnish thing!), this seems to be more like a "joint project".

There are a few things we must decide first before starting to work the practical things out:

a) is this D30 only?

• my view is that yes. Start with D30 only and bring others later? Reason is that all digicam shooters together build just too much data. And to discuss/compare lenses and technique is much easier if we share the tools.

Also, it would be very practical to use fixed EF lens databases (you just select a lens from dropdown menu and it holds all the details) instead of gathering tons of variable information.

b) Max image size?

• my view is that 100KB/image should be enough. 800x600 or smaller.

c) Image storage?

• my gallery works now with URL's - this makes it easy to share servers. If the photos would be saved on someone's server what if that server goes down, or someone hacks into it? It would be great that people with own servers would use them as image URL's and maybe share them for those who don't have server space of their own.

d) Password system?

• I have built one system (for a new site I'm going to launch soon ), which has a simple pass scheme: you sign in, and start working right away. All images and texts you upload are tagged with your id, and if there is a problem with porn or trolls, it's very easy just to hide that user from the database by switching one key. Later, you can log in and can edit your entries.

e) Project form?

I have soon done the new version of my gallery software, and it could hold those projects as "exhibitions". Then you just join an exhibition, enter your photos, write texts and visitors can browse the data project by project or all projects at the same time. Searching and sorting plus several ways (templates) to display data is already functional. Also individual entry dates and counters are there. As is paging.

d) EXIF data?

• do we really need full exif? If we could choose lens from menu, and enter basic stuff like aperture, ISO, speed and extra descriptions, would that enough? PHP can read EXIF from files, but problem is that resized photos have almost always lost exif and reading it is not always very "clean".

Looking forward to see your comments,

Pekka

 

[Kevin50205]

Ok, my understanding of "essay" was a bit different (a finnish
thing!), this seems to be more like a "joint project".

I agree this is more of a "joint project". In fact it may be a good name for the site: "D30 Joint Project" or something of that nature.

There are a few things we must decide first before starting to work
the practical things out:

a) is this D30 only?

• my view is that yes. Start with D30 only and bring others later?

Reason is that all digicam shooters together build just too much
data. And to discuss/compare lenses and technique is much easier if
we share the tools.

I also agree, limiting this to the D30 is a good idea. In fact, it may be cool if you can setup the D30 project first, then if others want to "play" you can make similar areas for the different cameras.

Also, it would be very practical to use fixed EF lens databases
(you just select a lens from dropdown menu and it holds all the
details) instead of gathering tons of variable information.

Great IDea

b) Max image size?

• my view is that 100KB/image should be enough. 800x600 or smaller.

100 KB should be plenty. 800X600 or smaller is a requirement.

c) Image storage?

• my gallery works now with URL's - this makes it easy to share

servers. If the photos would be saved on someone's server what if
that server goes down, or someone hacks into it? It would be great
that people with own servers would use them as image URL's and
maybe share them for those who don't have server space of their own.

This seems like a godd idea, and you bring up some good points. My only question here is load times. Usually, when going to multible servers that coud be located throughout the world can cause problems with DL times. Most of the world is still surfing at 56K or less. Access multible servers means a longer wait for that page to load, especially for those on older modems.

d) Password system?

• I have built one system (for a new site I'm going to launch soon

), which has a simple pass scheme: you sign in, and start
working right away. All images and texts you upload are tagged with
your id, and if there is a problem with porn or trolls, it's very
easy just to hide that user from the database by switching one key.
Later, you can log in and can edit your entries.

Excellent Idea.

e) Project form?
I have soon done the new version of my gallery software, and it
could hold those projects as "exhibitions". Then you just join an
exhibition, enter your photos, write texts and visitors can browse
the data project by project or all projects at the same time.
Searching and sorting plus several ways (templates) to display data
is already functional. Also individual entry dates and counters are
there. As is paging.

I love this exhibition idea. This goes back to my other point. Different exhibitions can hold different cams.

d) EXIF data?

• do we really need full exif? If we could choose lens from menu,

and enter basic stuff like aperture, ISO, speed and extra
descriptions, would that enough? PHP can read EXIF from files, but
problem is that resized photos have almost always lost exif and
reading it is not always very "clean".

I agree, EXIF data is not always pretty to look at. And it is difficult coming up with a way to publish that information and keep the site "clean". I think the basics is what is needed here, not all the info. Also, your point about resizing the photo and losing that information is a valid one. The poster should have the option on to include the EXIF information (or what you think is appropriate) or not.

Great job Pekka. I look forward to this project.

Looking forward to see your comments,

Pekka

 

[Kevin50205]

Might I suggest that we put together a committee to "oversee" the details of this project.

Chris, Pekka, and I could put together the basics and work together to get this thing going, and then put together the specs and requirements to those interested in contributing to the project.

Kevin
http://www.firestorm.com

 

[JCDoss]

"D30 Joint Project" or something of that nature.

No way... sounds like a bunch of D30 users getting together to smoke dope.

a) is this D30 only?

I also agree, limiting this to the D30 is a good idea. In fact, it
may be cool if you can setup the D30 project first, then if others
want to "play" you can make similar areas for the different cameras.

I think making it "future proof" is a good idea. Since equipment is one focus of this project, let's open it up to Canon EOS DSLRs (ie, D30, 1D, and whatever else comes along assuming this site is long-lived). That way, we can make equipment decisions. I'd like to exclude P/S and non-Canon cameras if possible (Sigma/Tokina/Tamron lenses would be perfectly fine).

Also, it would be very practical to use fixed EF lens databases
(you just select a lens from dropdown menu and it holds all the
details) instead of gathering tons of variable information.

Although equipment comparisons are a good "side effect" of this, I thought the point was to produce an "artistic" site. Having everything categorized by lens is a nice touch, but I wouldn't make it the primary focus.

e) Project form?
I have soon done the new version of my gallery software, and it
could hold those projects as "exhibitions". Then you just join an
exhibition, enter your photos, write texts and visitors can browse
the data project by project or all projects at the same time.
Searching and sorting plus several ways (templates) to display data
is already functional. Also individual entry dates and counters are
there. As is paging.

This sounds excellent!!!

I can't wait to see this idea in action!
JCDoss

 

[Chris35927]

A committe would probably be a good idea, but I would rather not be on it.

If Kevin and Pekka would like to handle the details, maybe a few others could help with this, that would be fantastic. My whole thing this morning was thinking how cool it is that we, as a 'team,' have photographers all over the world - and in my mind, I had visions of all the places I would likely never see - and who better to show them to me than photographers? Not just any photographers, but photographers like myself, people that I can communicate with, and discuss ideas, thoughts, and images.

I suppose there really has to be limits. Otherwise, this thing wouldn't work. Whether we limit the number of pictures, the camera type, the number of participants, or whatever, I guess that needs to happen if we are to create a decent project, rather than 1000's of photos that no one will have time to look through.

I do like sticking to the idea of an essay. As a previous poster pointed out, an essay tells a story. This might not be possible with the distributed nature of the people working on it - probably better suited to a project. Although, if someone smarter than I could conceive of a story that we could tell with images - that would just be coolest thing.

Chris

Might I suggest that we put together a committee to "oversee" the
details of this project.

Chris, Pekka, and I could put together the basics and work together
to get this thing going, and then put together the specs and
requirements to those interested in contributing to the project.

Kevin
http://www.firestorm.com

 

[kelleym]

A committe would probably be a good idea, but I would rather not be
I do like sticking to the idea of an essay. As a previous poster
pointed out, an essay tells a story. This might not be possible
with the distributed nature of the people working on it - probably
better suited to a project. Although, if someone smarter than I
could conceive of a story that we could tell with images - that
would just be coolest thing.

It could be done if the story itself was broken down so that posters had a clear idea what part of the essay their images were supposed to represent. Let me try an example (although it's late and I'm rather brain fried):

Say the story is: Freedom (bear with me, I am an American, but we don't have a monopoly on the concept). So you break up the story into: Oppression, struggle and triumph, just to take one possible optimistic tack (remember, we're talking photo essay here, so the concepts will tend to be broad, but within the basic concepts the editor will have lattitude to mold the images by their placement).

So people submit images which they believe represent one of the parts of the concept, the editor arranges the images within the parts (no other way to do it without an editor -- otherwise you might as well expect those monkeys to write the works of Shakesphere) and the essay as a whole is then presented. You may or may not offend someone by the positioning of their images within the "chapters" of the story, but I don't know a good way around that risk.

The only other possibility is to have an essay theme worked on by each person (similar to a class assignment in school) -- take "My Hometown", for example. You'd allow someone up to 15 images to get across the concept of their hometown, and end up with dozens (hundreds?) of essays on that subject.

If neither of these two approaches is what you had in mind Chris to start with, then I'm of the opinion this whole process would be better served by these very forums. Just to go Images and Galleries and suggest a topic (like "Canon SLR -- My Hometown") and we can all contribute an image or two to the thread. If we don't need an editor there's no better way to do it.

 

[Al Pacheco]

Sounds like a very good idea. It would sort of bring a bit of order out of the chaos of posting a group of random shots. Samples & Galleries gets a bit boring after awhile because of it's Alphabet-soup tangle of images. Good ones, for sure, but too random.

How about something like 'The month of December around the World'.

So many countries, religions, cultures tied togrther by the last month of the year.

Keep truckin'

If Kevin and Pekka would like to handle the details, maybe a few
others could help with this, that would be fantastic. My whole
thing this morning was thinking how cool it is that we, as a
'team,' have photographers all over the world - and in my mind, I
had visions of all the places I would likely never see - and who
better to show them to me than photographers? Not just any
photographers, but photographers like myself, people that I can
communicate with, and discuss ideas, thoughts, and images.

I suppose there really has to be limits. Otherwise, this thing
wouldn't work. Whether we limit the number of pictures, the camera
type, the number of participants, or whatever, I guess that needs
to happen if we are to create a decent project, rather than 1000's
of photos that no one will have time to look through.

I do like sticking to the idea of an essay. As a previous poster
pointed out, an essay tells a story. This might not be possible
with the distributed nature of the people working on it - probably
better suited to a project. Although, if someone smarter than I
could conceive of a story that we could tell with images - that
would just be coolest thing.

Chris

Might I suggest that we put together a committee to "oversee" the
details of this project.

Chris, Pekka, and I could put together the basics and work together
to get this thing going, and then put together the specs and
requirements to those interested in contributing to the project.

Kevin
http://www.firestorm.com

 

[Chris35927]

I really like Pekka's consideration of detail for the technical aspects of the project. I think that between him and Kevin, they can figure out hosting, organization, etc...

Perhaps, as Mike suggested, maybe we need an editor to place and select the photos. Hopefully, everyone who contributes would have at least one photo included - that makes the editor's job a little tougher, but nothing worthwhile is easy ;-) Any takers here?

If someone would volunteer for 'editor' - it looks like we got a committe.

Now we just need to firm up the subject/theme.

Oh yeah, should we have a finish date?

Chris

 

[Kevin50205]

Between myself and Pekka, and anyone else who would like to volunteer, I think it would be best to have an editorial committee...I do not mean to overuse the committe theme here. Having more than one editor I think would be better for a few reasons:

1. One person is not saddled with looking over what could become thousands of pictures.

2. No one person will get blammed for not possibly publishing someones pic. If it is ruled by committee, there is more than one person responsible, and not as easy to blame.

3. A vote of three people on the pics would be fair to everyone who decides to submit their pics.

There are some logistics to work out:

1. How and where to submit photos for review by the EC.
2. What topic to use
3. A deadline for submitting
4. A name for the site and URL

And I am sure a bunch of others and I cannot think of at this late hour.

Since Chris has decided he does not want to be part of the committee, I think it is best that at least one more person volunteers. Any takers?

Kevin
http://www.firestorm.com

I really like Pekka's consideration of detail for the technical
aspects of the project. I think that between him and Kevin, they
can figure out hosting, organization, etc...

Perhaps, as Mike suggested, maybe we need an editor to place and
select the photos. Hopefully, everyone who contributes would have
at least one photo included - that makes the editor's job a little
tougher, but nothing worthwhile is easy ;-) Any takers here?

If someone would volunteer for 'editor' - it looks like we got a
committe.

Now we just need to firm up the subject/theme.

Oh yeah, should we have a finish date?

Chris

 

[ubergoober]

Hi Guys,

This is very interesting! I'm willing to offer some of my software development skills towards to the project (6 yrs, XML/XSL/ASP and SQL dev). Gonna be fun

Casey

1. One person is not saddled with looking over what could become
thousands of pictures.
2. No one person will get blammed for not possibly publishing
someones pic. If it is ruled by committee, there is more than one
person responsible, and not as easy to blame.
3. A vote of three people on the pics would be fair to everyone
who decides to submit their pics.

There are some logistics to work out:

1. How and where to submit photos for review by the EC.
2. What topic to use
3. A deadline for submitting
4. A name for the site and URL

And I am sure a bunch of others and I cannot think of at this late
hour.

Since Chris has decided he does not want to be part of the
committee, I think it is best that at least one more person
volunteers. Any takers?

Kevin
http://www.firestorm.com

I really like Pekka's consideration of detail for the technical
aspects of the project. I think that between him and Kevin, they
can figure out hosting, organization, etc...

Perhaps, as Mike suggested, maybe we need an editor to place and
select the photos. Hopefully, everyone who contributes would have
at least one photo included - that makes the editor's job a little
tougher, but nothing worthwhile is easy ;-) Any takers here?

If someone would volunteer for 'editor' - it looks like we got a
committe.

Now we just need to firm up the subject/theme.

Oh yeah, should we have a finish date?

Chris