Posting Photos — Has To Be An Easier Way

I agree completely. I have not currently signed up with a photo hosting site and I really don’t want to as I am partcular which sites I am willing to post any personal information; including my email address. I turst Lumberjocks to not give out my personal information; not so sure about others.

I’ve never had any difficulty with Photobucket with any info I’ve given including my e-mail address. I have hundreds of images stored there and it hasn’t cost a dime. They make it very easy to post images in forums by giving both pre-formatted HTML links as well as IMG links for forums that use those. It is dead simple to copy the HTML tag there and post it here on LJ.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

I agree it’s easy with photobucket. The problem is that you need to take it from the camera to photoshop or similar to make it smaller then open photobucket, download the images there, go back to lumberjocks and start the blog, go back to photobucket copy the link, go back to lumberjocks paste the link, then do it all over again. Easy as 1234567890101928938485867998890….....................So, even though its simple, cant there be a way that is simple and NOT time consuming? If I download it from my camera I should be able to transfer it from my pictures folder directly to lumberjocks blog and or forum, the same as I can a project.
Thanks for bringing this up.

-- ~ Inspiring those who inspire me ~

I agree DaveR. It is simple. But it is more simple to upload from my computer. If we can do it for projects why can’t we do it in other forums?
- JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

Exactly kolwdwrkr…........ Why can’t we upload photos like we do in the projects forum…....? Martin, is there a reason for this?
- JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

I use Picasa (which is free) to make smaller copies of images if needed. That can be done in a batch if desired. Generally though I just set Photobucket up to resize the images to 640 wide. No need to resize them before uploading at all that way. With two browser tabs open it is easy enough to go back and forth between a post here and the images on Photobucket. With Photobucket’s bulk uploader it couldn’t be easier to upload the desired images.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

Seems like a question to ask directly to Martin since he has control over the joint.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

I’m guessing it has something to do with Storage. Storage ain’t cheap and pictures take a lot of it. You will also notice that there is a limit to the number of pictures you can download to the site in a project. That controls the amount of storage used.

Like everything else, it boils down to COST.

-- Scott - Chico California http://chicowoodnut.home.comcast.net

You are missing my point DaveR. If we can upload straight from our computers in the projects forum, why can’t we do it in other forums? THAT is my point. It doesn’t have anything to do with how safe or reliable Picasa is.
- JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

I understand that Scott, but why in one forum and not another?
- JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

I for one like the fact that I can post as many photos in my blog as I like. I also have the freedom to change or remove them at my pleasure. By hosting them on my personal web server I ensure that they belong to me.

If Martin let us post as many as we liked, he could not control the storage usage and he would have to completely re-design the blog forum.

P.S. I am a systems architect by trade.

-- Scott - Chico California http://chicowoodnut.home.comcast.net

I’m not missing your point JJ. It just doesn’t seem like it’s that big of a deal to me. And as Scott mentioned, there’s a cost factor for Martin for the storage space required. It’s easy enough to copy the links from someplace that doesn’t charge Martin for the storage.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

Scott, do you speak for Martin?
- JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

Yes, DaveR, you missed the point. My question is WHY is one forum different that the other?
- JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

Empathy is the keyword, guys.

Storage space is costly and I don’t seem to recall Martin charging us a dime for using this site. He is kind enough to allow us to post up to 6 pictures per project now… because this is what feeds the business side of the site. Would he open the flood gates I bet you’d see the amount of useless crap increase exponentially… and that has to be stored somewhere. And, unfortunately, somebody has to pay for those servers.

I don’t have a Photobucket account but I do post images. Or, a as Dave very well said, you could also try that or Flickr. I understand the later even resizes the pictures automatically for you, so you avoid the Ps step and do the same as in the projects (i.e. upload to a website) and then post the link here. Or you can always get a free account on some servers and set up your own website (or image repository without a front end).

Obviously, another way to help convince Martin would be to graciously donate something to help maintain the site and then ask him for the new feature. :o)))

-- Jojo, shopless in Kyoto · http://twitter.com/kagushokunin

Did I imply that?

I’ll bet I think like him because I design systems.

Just offering a professional opinion.

-- Scott - Chico California http://chicowoodnut.home.comcast.net

try http://www.picnik.com for editing photos, its free! you can also store some photos there if your low on storage

I have never liked the inconsistent picture posting either. My issue is if the hosting source changes, then the forum pictures are lost from the post. My pictures are linked from different hosts because those pictures just happened to be on those servers (I’m consolidating from four down to one site). This week I changed one of my web sites to a new provider. After the change, I came to lumberjocks and checked all my forum posts and had to re-link a couple of pictures to point to the new site and directory structure. It is kind of a pain.

The point is someone does an excellent post with good pictures, a year later they delete or change their Photobucket or Flickr account and now there are no pictures to go with their post and the original poster doesn’t know about it. Over time, the posts that should be historical and good on-going information for searches will become unusable because of no pictures.

Other than this, I’m as happy as a dead pig in sunshine…..

-- I don't make mistakes, only design changes....www.dgmwoodworks.com

consider that there are far less “projects” posted then forum topics. and blogs, and it makes sense, since you can have 10 blogs about progress of a certain project, but you only post the actual project once – when it’s finished and done. LJ just doesn’t (and shouldn’t) have the storage space to hold too many photos, and thus limits photos storage only for projects. LJ is not a photo storage server, but a Woodworking site, photobucket, and a bunch of other sites ARE photo storage servers… and should be used as such.

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

juniorjock there is reason behind the madness of the so called inconsistencies. Project photos must be always here because this is what fuels the business side of the website, ads and all. The fora and blogs are a nice addition necessary to create a community but without them the site could very well survive (look at Taunton’s FWW Gallery, there you’ll find project pictures isolated from the rest of the fora). Alas, without the project pictures there would be no LumberJocks.

As I said, if we all paid a monthly/yearly subscription fee like one does when creating a Pro account in those hosting sites, we could request unlimited(-ish) storage. Meanwhile, I’m grateful for what we’ve got because when it comes down to it, you can’t beat FREE as a price.

PS: If you create a dedicated account in Flickr for your LJ stuff you won’t need to pay and I can’t see the reason to close it at anytime. It’s been years, Flickr has been bought over and the links still work. And no, I don’t use it.

-- Jojo, shopless in Kyoto · http://twitter.com/kagushokunin

If you want a stable image server, subscribe to (or provide) one! Don’t piss and moan about lack of stability from free sites.

Excuse me? Who were you addressing grumpycarp?

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

Jj,

all of you. Or some.

If you’re complaining about the wonkiness of free services like Lumberjocks, Flickr, Photobucket, etc., then I would remind you that you get what you pay for.

Otherwise. STFU.

With smiling regards,
GC

Good discussion, boys. Now I know a tiny bit about how the web site biz works :-))

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

I don’t remember complaining about anything. Usually when I post a question of this type in this forum, I eventually get an answer from Martin. I respect Martin and admire him for the great job he does of operating and maintaining this web site. I appreciate the information about how this web site works but I never thought I’d get attacked by other LJs for asking the question. I have not made a donation to LumberJocks yet, but I plan to in the near future. It may be a free site, but I feel that it is our obligation to pledge something in exchange for the wealth of information we are privileged to have available. If I have said something that I shouldn’t have, I apologize. But please remember, I only asked a question.
- JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

Lots of forums on LJ’s. My guess is that in the first month, pictures to the forums would fill up the server’s capacity equal to or greater to all the info in LJ’s now. Pictures take up some serious megabytes compared to text. Other places do this but then after awhile they have to charge a yearly or monthly fee just to purchase more hard drives for picture storage. Then as added servers/hard drives go down, the system becomes flukey and has lots of on and off downtime. Let the big boys like flickr take the load then tap into their database of picts. That’s a pretty good system. Martin has designed it to be clean, reliable, and less expensive to run and maintain.
Now, Does your computer have a photo collecting program. On our Macs we have iphoto built in were we can collect pictures in groups, brighten them up and other fixes, and export them for web with a click. There must be some freeware open source programs for PC’s that do that. I’ll bet that if your camera came with a CD it had a program much like iPhoto on a Mac that does the same thing. So, converting to web friendly sizes would be just as easy. Photoshop does that but it’s pricey and complex.

Junior jock, you asked a good question and here and with a few other comments you got good reasons why it must stay the way it is. Thanks for the question. I’ll bet many others who’ve battled with picture insertion have had the same questern but didn’t ask. Your questions has let people know the reasons behind it and they have to know now that it’s for the best interest of all on this site. You’ve done a service.

-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful. http://web.me.com/deceiver6/Deceiver/Craftsman_on_the_lake/Craftsman_on_the_lake.html

YES IT WOULD BE EASIER Ah life just isn’t fair. You had trouble uploading a photo to a forum piece? Welcome to the club. I was a member of that club too. After karson and David set me straight a year ago … it’s now a breeze. Yes you do need a photo host such as Flickr or Photobucket. They’re free and easy to get. I’ve been using Flickr. With them I just “right click” on the photo and a menu pops up. (If your using a Mac … it’s “ctrl/click”.) In the menu there is a line that says “Copy Image Location”. Click this and go back to the forum and type ”!” (then paste image location) ”!” and your photo appears in the article.

It would take too much storage space for the site to store all of the blog and topic photos. I hope this helps.

-- Odie, Confucius say, "He who laughs at one's self is BUTT of joke". http://woodstermangotwood.blogspot.com/ (my funny blog)

Thanks odie. Yesterday was the first time I’ve had trouble uploading a pic. I’ve been using Zoomer. Maybe I should try one of the others. Let me say that just because I had one instance where I had trouble uploading a photo, it doesn’t mean that I don’t know how. I think I can handle that pretty easy. But thanks to everyone for your suggestions. Yes, I’m on a Mac. That’s all I’ve ever used. I’m running OS 10.3.9 which is a fairly old system. But to upgrade, I would have to buy a new machine. That is not in the budget right now. My computer is used for graphic design and photography (and a little surfing). I am aware of the cost of PhotoShop. But it is a must have when trying to accomplish what I have to. I started using PhotoShop when Adobe put out their first version of it.
- JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

Hey Odie is this a Mac fan-puppy pissing on a PC? I love it! :o)

Daniel, you are right. Although I doubt there is a PC equivalent of iPhoto I remember from the very, very old days, while I was still enduring Win, that the best software for light edition and such tasks (all but organizing) was, and still is, Irfanview. As a bonus, is a freeware.

-- Jojo, shopless in Kyoto · http://twitter.com/kagushokunin

juniorjock I don’t know which Mac are you using but Leopard does run perfectly on very old Macs. I skipped Tiger altogether and went straight from 10.3.9 to 10.5 on a PowerBook G4 17” 1.5 GHz. It is almost 5 years old and runs smooth as silk, believe me.

Obviously is slower than the iMac 24 alu of my wife but I do a lot of CS3 with a big Wacom tablet without any worries.

An easy alternative is to select your pics in iPhoto and press the “Mail pics” button. This will open a new e-mail message with your images reduced to the size you choose. You may then drag them to the desktop or the website directly and erase the draft message afterwards.

I could also work out an Automator action to create an script that would automatize the process of resizing them for you but I’m afraid it wouldn’t work in Panther.

-- Jojo, shopless in Kyoto · http://twitter.com/kagushokunin

Thanks Jojo. I’m running a seven year old G4….... and OS 10.3.9. I’ve checked around and any kind of software upgrade would mean making the move to 10.4 or higher which would mean I’d have to buy a new machine. I’ll try Zoomer again and see if I have any problems. If I do, I’ll just try one of the others.
- JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

In the beginning of Lumberjocks. We only had Projects, and Martin allowed us to post three pictures. He was paying all of the costs out of his own pocket.

I remember him coming on two or three different times stating that he had to go to different servers and having to upgrade the servers because of the traffic we were generating. When he changed the site to have blogs he changed the way that pictures were posted and let us link to other sites where the pictures were stored. He didn’t have to pay for that storage.

This was all before there was any advertising on this site and his paycheck was funding our fun. I had never used an photo site before and it was a learning curve for me.

I’ve now gotten to the place where I will write my blogs on my computer and post the links from flickr in the word processor and then copy and past into lumberjocks. That way I can do all of the reviewing that I want on my computer.

I use Flickr and I never modify my photos for size. I upload the picture that i take and post it to LJ. Flicker has an unloader that you install on your conputer. You just highlight all of the pictures on your computer and click post to flickr. They all go up at one time.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Just look at the Interesting Trees thread or gone to the dogs thread….

I have been using Flickr and it automatic resizes into 3 or 4 different sizes and has a very small light weight client you can install that makes uploading very painless, plus I have seen anything from flicker disappear like I do with Photobucket.

-- //FC - Round Rock, TX - "Experience is what you get just after you need it"

junioejock. Your computer would run 10.4 well but it might need more memory. Your older iMac is fine with 10.3.9. Every version of the Mac OS is stable especially with the updates to each version number 10.3.9 is the last version of 10.3. It’s extremely stable and has a good version of iphoto in it. You can export or share and specify if it’s for mail or web etc. It will resize the photo’s automatically for you to an optimum size for uploading.

-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful. http://web.me.com/deceiver6/Deceiver/Craftsman_on_the_lake/Craftsman_on_the_lake.html