large photos - PROPOSAL

[Julian Robinson <>]

David - yikes I was not detracting from the Photo Gallery, I saw them as
different things.  The need or desire I was promoting was a place to
share and compare and comment and in particular to discuss photos in an
informal and to-fro kind of way.  In contrast, the Canberra Birds
Photo Gallery (CBPG) is a repository for interesting photos that can be
used by people for ID, for information or, I understand, for personal
satisfaction (am I right?) or just browsing.  It is a very public
face for COG, in fact the only part of COG that most people in the rest
of the world know about.  (If you google on an Australian bird, the
COG Gallery is always very close to the top as I am sure you know). 
But partly because of the public nature of the thing, partly because of
the workload on you, and partly because of the pleasure and practicality
for the viewer, the number of photos you would want on the gallery of
each particular bird is very finite -- and selected.   

On the other hand I might, for example, want to post 6 of my boring
Thornbill or Corella photos as a mini-photo essay, or just to elicit
comparative comment ("the first one as a cracker shot, the others
are a bit ho-hum"), or to answer a question to someone, or to ask a
question (like today), or discuss photo technique, or just to display
them.  All this requires quick and easy posting directly by the
author, as well as a mechanism for related discussion.  This is
exactly what Flickr is designed for and in my opinion it works very, very
well.  I was envisioning that the COG Flickr site could be the main
source for the COG Photo Gallery, where you or any other
CBPG admin could see a particularly illustrative shot, and very simply
download it and put it on the Gallery very easily. 

The idea has another advantage. Instead of posting large photos in list
emails and clogging up the works and upsetting people, anyone can post
their photo to Flickr then insert JUST THE LINK in their email. 
Those readers who CHOOSE to look at the image can click it and see it
very easily, others can ignore it with no cost in time, download or
effort.  This would help the narrowband people to actually see MORE
photos, because they could be selective and choose to look at the
occasional larger image at a time that suits them. It would also
significantly reduce the bandwidth on the list with no detrimental
effect.  And it avoids disaggregation by placing all such COG photos
on one site in one location.



To summarise; two resources -

1)  The Canberra Birds Photo Gallery is a public resource
with filtered/selected photos that efficiently illustrate the birds and
behaviour, and is a prime showcase for COG, but has nothing to do with
discussion, either about birds or photography.  Photos for the
Gallery can be gathered as they are today, or even more easily by the
admin scanning the Flickr group page every now and again and selecting
suitable ones, then downloading them directly.  You suggested
previously that the gallery has probably reached the stage where you will
be substituting some old photos with new ones, then this would be made a
very easy process by the suggested mechanism.

2)  The proposed Flickr site or group (the word
"Group" is a Flickr term for a place where different people can
put photos on a related topic in the one place) is a place for completely
informal display and sharing of images and whatever image-related
discussion COG people want to pursue.  

Advantages - 

--- provides a place to satisfy COG members who want to discuss and
share photos and tips etc informally
--- makes collation of the CBPG easier.
--- provides a predictable resource for the CBPG.
--- provides an easy way for people to promote their images for use on
CBPG i.e. to request that an image go on the Gallery.
--- reduces load on the email list
--- eliminates unwanted "trivial" discussion and comments re
photos on the email list
--- eliminates unwanted large image downloads for email list members
while maintaining easy access to photos if desired.

Disadvantages - 

--- none that I can see, although it would be a shame if the
introduction of such an idea led to the banning of all photos on the
email list.    It seems to me that we should leave the email
list as it is, with limits on the size of emails but still allowing the
entertaining and relevant images that get posted regularly.  
--- ah yes, there is the cost for heavy posters, but it would be free to
most people - the more occasional users.  And everyone I know who
has joined flickr has found it to be a great resource, enjoyable and
worth every cent and every minute. 
--- you have to join Yahoo.  This is a once-only pain that soon goes
away.

Flickr is an unknown to most people and there will be natural
disinclination to pursue it by many people.  My suggestion would be
that we start it with a core of keen people, even only a few, and let
others become familiar with it by experience.  We could see how it
goes without breaking anything that exists at the moment.

What do you think?

Julian

At 04:46 PM 18/08/06, you wrote:
> We actually already have this
> Julian - Canberra Birds Photo Gallery, which costs you nothing.
>
> David 
>
>
> *******************************************************************************************************