Photos

Photos by Walter vom Saal
updated June 27, 2006

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This part of the website is a testing area. I am using it to test methods of uploading photos, downloading photos, organizing photos, and displaying photos. This means it may change unpredictably. Photos or entire albums may be added, removed, or modified without notice. Different albums may not be consistent in format.

If you have problems viewing photos, or suggestions about how the displays can be improved, please e-mail me at. Thanks for your understanding, and your help.

Unless there is a notice to the contrary, all photos on this site are ©Walter vom Saal. They may be copied or printed for private use. Please respect the copyright, and, where appropriate, please attribute the source.

Albums

To view an album, click the link to the right. Then press F11 to expand your viewing window to maximum size. See full instructions below.

Instructions

1. Click on the appropriate album above to see photos. Further information will be displayed in the album.

2. The album will open in a separate browser window. You can close that window to return to this page.

3. You may need to expand the window to full screen: click the box in the upper corner. If you are using Windows Internet Explorer or Netscape, please press F11 to expand the viewing window to its maximum size.

4. For some albums you have two options for viewing:

5. If the larger files are too large for your screen, you may want to change your screen resolution. On some computers (like mine, for example), when I have my screen resolution set too low the smaller files will fill the screen but the photos aren't really sharp and don't look very good. If this happens, I encourage you to check what your screen resolution is and try changing it. This is not hard: see the section on Additional Information below.

Additional Information

This part may seem a bit complicated, but it's simpler than it sounds. You can skip it if you want.

CONTENTS

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Image sizes. I am experimenting with how best to present photos that may be viewed in different web browsers and with different screen resolutions. In certain conditions, photos will be too big for the screen, and you will have to scroll to see the complete photo. This can get especially annoying if "NEXT" and "PREVIOUS" buttons are off the screen and you have to scroll to use them.

In most albums on this site, I have offered two options for image sizes: 640 x 480 pixels (smaller) and 880 x 660 pixels (larger). You can choose to view an album with the smaller photos or the larger photos.

Your computer settings. The choice of which size image to display depends in part on your computer settings. Two important factors are:

1. What size window does your browser display? Browsers have toolbars and other displays at the top and bottom of the screen that reduce the size of the screen available to see a photo. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape, you can hide some toolbars and increase the size of the screen by pressing the F11 button at the top of your keyboard. (Press it a second time to return to the original layout.) I have put instructions to do that on recent albums.

2. What is the screen resolution? Most computers are set for a screen resolution of either 800 x 600 pixels or 1024 x 768 pixels. The photos on this site are best viewed at the higher resolution (1024 x 768).

If your computer is set for the lower resolution and you view an album designed for the higher resolution, the photo will be too big for the screen and you will have to scroll.

How do I tell what my computer's screen resolution is? In Windows, this can be done in various ways. One is to click Start > Control Panel > Display > Settings. There is a similar procedure on Macintosh computers. Go to the Apple menu, select Control Panels, then select Monitors, and you will see what your screen resolution is.

Can I change my computer's screen resolution? It's quite easy. Follow the procedures above, and there will be either a button or a slider that allows you to select the resolution you want. Just change the resolution from 800 x 600 pixels to 1024 x 768 pixels. You can change back the same way.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. These are preliminary notes; they will be expanded. Send me any questions or suggestions.

Can I print these photos? I'll be adding more information about this. Here are some preliminary notes. You can download the photos and print them (in Windows, right-click to download). Higher resolution (large size) files produce better photos, so select photos from the largest size album for printing.

At this point, all of the photos on this website have been scaled down from originals. The originals are higher resolution than the photos on the website. If you really like a photo and want the full size file for printing, contact me. I'll need to know the filename.

How do I find the filename of a photo? If you are viewing a photo, the filename will appear at the top of your screen. It often will be something like "r5126546.jpg" Depending on your viewing program, the filename may also appear when you put your cursor over the photo for a second or so, OR when you put your cursor over the thumbnail (small picture) in the album.

What does the filename mean? In early photos I used an Olympus camera, and the filename is coded this way: "p5126546" means 2001, May 12, sequential number 6546. I change the first character, so q means 2002, r means 2003, etc. For example, r7131552 means 2003, July 13, sequential number 1552. Later photos were most often taken with a Sony F828, and a number like 041003s7592 indicates a photo taken 10/03/04 with a Sony sequential number of 7562. The "s" will be "n" for shots taken with a Nikon. Prescripts like "640x480" or "880x660" indicate the photo has been reduced to those dimensions. Subscripts like "a" or "b" or "c" indicate post-processing and editing, usually with Photoshop Elements.

Is other information about the photo available? For most photos, if you download the photo you will be downloading a jpg file that contains embedded information called EXIF information. Many photo programs can read that information. Try this: download the photo, open the photo, right-click on the photo, and select "properties" (usually at the bottom of a list that appears). For example, I use a program called ThumbsPlus, and when I do that I can see various technical information about the photo such as the date and time it was taken, f-stop, speed, ISO value etc.) Many other programs work the same way.

Other questions? If you have ideas about additional questions and answers that should be put here, please send me an e-mail.

Technical Notes

Recent photos were taken with a Sony F828 (see "What does the filename mean" above). Technical information on each photo is contained in the photo and may be viewed with many photo viewers.

The web albums above were made using ThumbsPlus. I like that program very much, and use it to organize over 20,000 photos. As an example of what it can do, I can locate all photos in the entire database that have the keywords "Mom" and "Dad" in about 3 seconds.

[Walter vom Saal home page]
e-mail: vomsaaw@oneonta.edu