Old images new tricks

I have been going back through my ever growing archive of images. Its something I have been meaning to do for a while but time never seems to be on my side recently.

Its amazing how many images I had forgotten about and how many more I still need to process!

The following sections have been added to the site, Architecture, Flora, Pets, Street Scenes, Water, Wildlife with lots more images also added into Landscapes.

Back to the images .............

SmugMug or Zenfolio

I have been using SmugMug for a couple of years as my main image hosting solution. However there seems to be a growing list of niggles that make me wonder if my images and money would be better off somewhere else.

Niggles, in order or nigglyness;

• Maintenance windows and Reliability - Over 4.5hrs (07:35 - 12:13) recently in "read only mode" as part of a weeks maintenance window meaning I can't sell, upload, edit anything. Half the working day gone here! Don't take my word for it, see their reliability here
• Download licensing terms not configurable.
• Inability to password protect categories, share groups or individual images.
• Payments in US$ only and no electronic transfer option.
• No UK printing option.
• Cost
• Hierarchy limited to three levels

So I gave Zenfolio an try ......

Feature wise I think it ticked every box and all the 'missing' bits from Smug are here.

• No sign of weekly maintenance windows.
• Change licensing Terms.
• Password protect just about anything and everything
• Payments in GBP and transfer into my PayPal account too.
• UK Printing options.
• Costs less too.
• No limit to hierarchy

I have to say I am impressed with Zenfolio its seems faster and there is alot hidden under the hood. Having only had a demo account with Zenfolio for the 14 days its not fair to compare performance/reliability between the two but it did seem better and no sign of the weekly maintenance nightmare that currently blights smugmug.

The Zenfolio control panel, management takes a bit of getting used to, its not as intuitive as Smugmug but it certainly seems like there is more under the hood. You just need to do a bit more digging to find it.

Customisation of your accounts 'public' look and feel is one area where the two differ. Smugmug allows you to change pretty much everything, Zenfolio is a couple of steps behind hind with some limitations. However you could argue that these limitations are there to keep Zenfolio's performance at a premium.

Its not an 'apples for apples' comparison, so its hard to say one is better than the other. A lot also depends on your image hosting needs 

However, as an attempt to summarise, if you want a sleek feature packed semi customisable image hosting solution, Zenfolio is for you. 

If you dont need all the features of Zenfolio but want to make it look your own then Smugmug is for you.

For me, there are two reasons for deciding to stay with Smugmug, for now. 

1. The ability to change/customise the look and feel of the site to something that suited me. I came close with Zenfolio but not close enough for me to want to shift just now.
2. Smugmug have an option to allow 'collecting' of images. This allows you to keep all your images in one account but collect/share them with other smugmug accounts. I will explain this in more detail on a later blog.

I'll be keeping my eye on Zenfolio :)

England Netball v Australia - o2 Arena, London

With the series drawn, this match was the decider.............

I had to top up my oyster card to get across London, seems the last time my card got used was this time last year for the England v Jamaica test!

The atmosphere in the o2 is always good and tonight was no exception. It didn't seem as full as I would have expected but you couldn't tell by the amount of noise emanating from the netball fans.

Those that know me, know I am bad at remembering names. I get there in the end but I do struggle. Worrying then that I can name the England Netball Team and now most of the Aussie players too as they take to the court.

The match was amazing, especially the last 15 minutes, I don't think I have ever been so gripped by any sporting event ever. The levels of panic creeping in as Australia pulled back England's lead to draw lever and then inch ahead in the last few minutes. The hope in the last ditch surge by England to try and pull it back level, the final whistle.......

England lost and I was gutted, along with all the England fans and players for that matter.

Images of the 3rd match can be found here from page 8 onwards.

Enjoy

England Netball v Australia - Nottingham Trent FM Arena

Sunday saw me up in Nottingham to cover this match. The players were marking each other so closely it made it very hard to get some good shots.

Good in netball terms is defined as two players, in isolation, colliding mid air, looking at you with the ball in hand.

OK so those shots don't come along very often but when you get two teams playing at this International level the 'in isolation' bit is very hard to come by. There is always a random leg/hand or player in the shot somewhere.

Images from this match from page 4 onwards.

Enjoy

England Netball v Australia - Echo Arena Liverpool

Before we go any further, wooohooo, England beat Australia! In the last 52 matches played between these two netball nations, only twice have England ever beaten Australia. Here's hoping that they can capitalise on this win going into the next two matches of the test series.

Images from the match here

I got to test two new bits of kit at this match, Manfrotto monopod and Sandisk 8GB (45mb/s) CF card. 

The Monopod was/is great but it didnt get used, I didnt feel it gave me the freedom of movement I normally had. Daft statement I suppose when you think about it! I need to do some further testing at a less critical match. Find out if the reduction in freedom affects the quality/quantity of images captured.


Smoking is the only word to describe this Sandisk card. I have hit the camera/card buffer limit before and then watched as I missed shots waiting for the buffer to clear. That extra bit of transfer rate certainly made the difference last night when needed.

Busy Busy

It all started with a spot of netball superleague action on Saturday night in Walsall and I haven't stopped since.

The netball was great and even better still was the fact that the match was being played here in the West Midlands. Covering a match normally involves a few hours round trip, so a match up the road in Walsall was most welcome and not to be missed. Images from the game here

After much deliberation I spent some of my Christmas money on a Manfrotto 680B monopod for my camera. It should see some action next weekend with a bit of luck and I will let you know how I go.

Scantastic

I have finally finished scanning the 1st family album!

Whilst down in London for Christmas I started to peruse the family albums in depth. To cut a long story short, in a moment of madness, I decided to scan the whole album rather than the couple of images that took my fancy.

Some six weeks later, all 260 images have been scanned, a few tweaks to levels and they should be ready.

Its quite amazing to look beyond the people in the images, those curtains, that toy or piece of furniture in the background. All stirring memories of childhood moments that you had almost forgotten about but that now come flooding back.

Its been a mission but well worth the memories.