Would you know who took this photograph? When and where was this photograph taken? What is its copyright status? Would you know what it contains?
The answer is yes, because you can see it. However, when you look for an image on the Internet you relay on search engines such as Google or Bing which are BLIND and can only absorb textual content. Your greatest photograph or painting may never be found because of this shortcoming.
So, today I have decided to write something relating to the Internet and media. If you are a photographer, painter, composer or any other creative person you will know how difficult it is to describe your work on the Internet in a way for the search engines such as Google and Bing to index our work in a meaningful and relevant way.
Most of the search engines rely on the image (media) title and surrounding content to deduce what your published media is all about. Most often the end result is less than satisfactory. So, what if we could specify meaningful information to the search engines?
I hope this prepared by me and proposed microformat gets noticed, gathers some feedback and matures to the point where it can be submitted to relevant bodies to extend the functionality of the HTML markup.
more …
I came across this graffiti mural in a pedestrian tunnel near Central station. In addition to few animal forms such as iguana, turtle and a snake the center piece was this very impressive almost two meter high face of an aboriginal and a misspelled words “Sovereign being” followed by a slogan “Not British subject”. The turtle on the opposite wall was accompanied by “Invasion Day” caption referring to 26th of January – the Australia Day.
Instead of searching for divisive issues I think the aborigines should petition the government in an attempt of unification to abolish “Department of Aboriginal Affairs”. For as long as there is a special department for them it means they are not part of mainstream population. There should be no departments for any social or ethnic groups if we are all equal in the eye of the law.
Here is the gallery with the remaining photograph of the Aboriginal graffiti
During my recent trip via many European countries I have come across phrase “Photography Forbidden” far too many times. Museums, churches, castles and in one case a public street display these signs. I have inquired on many occasions “why?” only to receive very long winded and meaningless answers. The only credible answer I received was in Krakow’s Wawel castle: the castle displays a lot of light sensitive paintings and finishings. Bright flashes damage the paint and it is far to difficult to explain and enforce “No flash photography” so they ban every kind of photography – just in case.
In one place I was referred to ministry of Art and Culture to get a photo permit. Seriously, who, as a tourist, would ever bother with that and yet the staff were very serious that is the way to go.
Some places would have you buy their brochures and thus they feel their business model is threatened if you take your own photos. In these places I’ve offered to buy their brochure if they still let me take photographs. Only 1 (ONE) operator agreed to such deal.
Far more successful is a practice of a fee based license: when you purchase your entry tickets you pay small additional fee to get a one off photo/video license. I think that is the most sensible approach and it works well for both sides.
Naturally, the point and shoot, small camera owners disregard all these signs and requests and fire away with blinding flashes playing ignorance. However if you own a DSLR no one treats you on the same level.
As I renew my ACMP membership for this year I wonder how many professional and amateur photographs face the same issues. Happy clicking and watch the “forbidden zones”. And please if there are paintings involved obey these directives. I want my kids and eventually grandchildren and generations after them enjoy the works of art I can look at!
I’ve reworked the website’s template to accommodate few new features. From the point of the viewer I am using now much bigger images on the home page to give a better representation for my photography. This was the most requested feature by many visitors to my photo blog.
Also there are some major visual changes such as fluid layout allowing for the page to stretch, depending on your monitor resolution. In addition there are some nice graphical touches to the album view. I hope you like the new look.
Who will be our first member? Are you game enough?
I have added Forum feature to the web site with a good selection of topics. I will add more features and subjects to match suggestions or requests. The forum is based on the one of the most popular implementations on the Internet – the phpBB.
