 |
| Euryops, Chrysanthemoides monilifera, Felicia Euryops Dimorphotheca jucunda and pluvialis South African daisies |
 |
| SA Gazania on a winter morning |
My pictures are a visual way of telling a story. A ‘cartoon’ that runs, sometimes in parallel with the words, and sometimes on another road. Today’s pictures are for Gail at Clay and Limestone’s Wildflower Wednesday.
 |
| Melasphaerula, vlei lily Boophane Chasmanthe yellow and orange, arum lily SA bulbs |
 |
| SA pelargoniums |
 |
| Halleria, restio, Salvia, Tecomaria in yellow, apricot and red autumn Ruttyruspolia with Buddleja garlic buchu SA shrubs |
 |
| Bulbinella, ??, Crassula ovata Euphorbia mauretanica Aloe speciosa, Aloe marlothii SA succulents |
 |
| Foreign flowers Rose, nasturtium, Argyranthemum lavender Argyranthemum, Dianthus |
Knowing that most people, including me, will click onto the next blog, if the pictures come thru in painful strips, like ripping off sticking plaster. I deliberately try to keep my individual posts quick.
 |
| Euryops at Ungardening Pond |
Now is the winter of our discontent, the garden is green, very green, winter grass roars up so fast and high and thick - you can hear it growing. Weed 1 for me, leave 5 for the weaver birds to build their nests. Christina in Italy shares my mediterranean climate, but her garden has been stamped by global weirding in a fierce hot dry summer. Sending some leafy green memories of winter to her Garden Bloggers Foliage Day.
- wildlife gardening in Porterville,
near Cape Town in South Africa
near Cape Town in South Africa
(If you mouse over brown text, it turns shriek pink.
Those are my links.)
Those are my links.)
Well you may not be a photographer, but many of your beautiful pics look like some you'd see in a well known nature magazine. Very nicely done.
ReplyDeleteMy wife knows more about the Picasa and it's tools. She has remastered some photos to look really kool.
I'll have to visit that forum you've mentioned. Never been there but sounds interesting and who knows, perhaps there is something I can improve on.
Thanks for this story.
Kevin
-
Thanks for all that info and for the great pics and collages.
ReplyDeleteI'm a point and shooter with my little Canon PowerSot A650. There is a lot it can do, I've just not taken the time to learn it all.
FlowerLady
Hi Diana, thank you for the mention and providing an interesting place to elaborate on the technology behind Picasa and Blogger. Your page loaded quickly, including the images, and this blog post I wrote will explain why.
ReplyDeleteWhen you add an image into your blog, Blogger asks you which size that you want, small medium or large. While you're looking at that information for sizing, what Blogger is doing is rewriting the URL to your image within Picasa and putting that sizing information into the URL.
Take this image URL from this post: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qCFFH_hR2cM/UDYHg2XnWTI/AAAAAAAAE1c/mbBfI0Thn-A/s640/3+SA+bulbs.jpg
Do you see towards the end of the URL where it says /s640/ ? That's telling Picasa "create a version of this image that has a maximum dimension of 640 pixels. Picasa/Blogger is automatically creating a version of your image resized down to fit optimally in your blog post so it's not returning an image bigger than is being used. Clever, right?
Open that image URL in a browser window. Change the numerical value from 640 to... 1000. You'll see that the returned image is now bigger. You can also change the 640 to 64 and you'll see it downsize.
In this way, Blogger/Picasa is able to keep your pages loading fast.
Just a note: I have a sneaking suspicion that when you upload images through Blogger that it might be re-compressing the graphics. Instead of adding them that way I recommend adding them directly into a Picasa album via http://picasaweb.google.com, then using the image insert functionality in the Compose tab that enables you to add an image "from picasa web albums" or "from this blog".
By the way, to access the FULL image via those links, you would change the 640 to be 0 (I know, very weird) like so:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qCFFH_hR2cM/UDYHg2XnWTI/AAAAAAAAE1c/mbBfI0Thn-A/s0/3+SA+bulbs.jpg
-David
Just as well I moderate comments, and check the spam folder - which is where Blogger put your comment. Thanks for helping me to a greater level of understanding.
DeletePhotos looks great.
ReplyDeleteSo many lovely blooms! I love those aloe--wish I could grow them here.
ReplyDeleteI had no trouble viewing your post--your photos loaded immediately. I don't understand all the technical aspects of posting and photos; I just want things simple so I can focus on gardening:) Glad to know there is someone helpful on the Blogger forums--when I've searched there for an answer, usually I find people with the same problem as I have, but no answers.
Try taking your problem to David. He's looking for blogspot questions to answer today.
DeleteHi Diana, thank you for joining GBFD; it is lovely to see some beautiful greens, even if many are in the background - that's what foliage does, gives a great background for your flowers. As you know I use wordpress rather than blogger and I think my images are imbedded into the post, but I’ve heard that others store their photos elsewhere and add links to them (doesn’t seem to load any differently). Your post loaded as quickly as usual, but the image size you’re talking about is still quite small. I don’t use larger images because we have a satellite line or the internet and upload isn’t fast and I have problems uploading very large files.
ReplyDeleteThe first image on my foliage post is 750px × 562px (scaled to 510px × 382px) –whatever that means! So I’m assuming that wordpress scales my images; didn’t know that so your post has informed me about something I wasn’t aware of.
Christina
Love the pics - aloes as always and Euryops, Chrysanthemoides monilifera, Felicia Euryops pics - understated beauty I think. Forgot about the canola in the Overberg, should be looking good now on those rolling hills. LT
ReplyDeleteEverything was very quick, photos are super as usual, will my aloe have a fantastic flower like yours one day?!! Any problems with my blog and I go to my son who fixes it for me as I am completely ignorant about the workings of a computer.
ReplyDeleteReally interesting Diana - although none relevant to me. I work entirely in Windows Live Writer when writing (Jean from Jean's Garden introduced me to it years ago in an excellent tutorial). Then I work in Wordpress which I believe is more user-friendly than Blogger, though I know Blogger not. I process my photos using Microsoft Office Picture Manager, free software that has always come with my computer, and I also use Photoshop5, but with no knowledge of layering, which cuts out much of the more sophisticated manipulation. I've never shot in RAW. I must admit: I have often wondered why you publish so many of your lovely photos so small, and I enjoyed the bigger ones in this post. One day I will change to a theme that allows for bigger in-blog photos than the current 510 pixel max(they can be enlarged by clicking on them)- but as that will almost certainly affect existing posts, I've never tried. Frances at Fairegarden has a particularly photo-friendly Wordpress format/theme, but I know that she paid for a custom upgrade. As for Wildflower Wednesday.... actually it IS possible to find something local in flower now! Jack
ReplyDeleteI also followed Jean and used Live Writer, but it didn't suit me. I have read that it is going to be discontinued.
DeleteMy photos are Large or X-Large (full column width), for variety and emphasis. Sometimes Medium for an iffy photo, that serves the purpose.
Someone once told me that the beauty of shooting in RAW is that you can modify everything and that the bad thing about shooting in RAW is that you have to modify everything. So I never shoot in RAW. I have no time (am too lazy)to modify everything.
ReplyDeleteThe photos are splendid as always and they load quickly. The last three are especially beautiful, very nicely composed! The yellows speak to me. Like Jack, I love seeing your garden in larger photos. You know, I never think about Picassa~I use an online editor to add my watermark and appreciate that Blogger stores them for me! I have friends who swear by raw shooting but, they have expensive software programs and spend hours on a few photos. gail
ReplyDeleteDifferent strokes for different folks. I'd rather garden, or read blog posts, than coax a photo to digital perfection.
DeleteYour post loaded quickly and easily for me. No trouble whatsoever. I'm afraid I'm very much in the dark when it comes to all the technical aspects of photography and adding photos to blogs. I simply save mine using Picasa and then upload from my computer onto my blogspot. While I was lost reading the information, I certainly appreciated your beautiful images. Adored the Daisies and the Pelargoniums, but the Vlei Lily caught my eye.
ReplyDeleteI use Picasa 3.9 software to resize my photos to 1024 px wide, which I think was a previous storage limit prior to 2048 px when exporting to Blogger. It's the default export setting in Picasa.
ReplyDelete(that default is now 2048)
DeleteYour images seem to be loading for me with minimal time delay, so the larger file sizes doesn't seem to be a big issue, at least for someone with my sort of connection to the net. To go with your larger images you seem to have some bonus-sized plants and flowers. The chasmanthe in particular surprised me by its size. It wasn't until I compared it to the bookcase behind it that I realized how truly large the plant and blooms are. Very spectacular!
ReplyDeleteRemember, those are the volunteers that get topheavy and lasso unwary gardeners. I've cut the flowering ends and tucked them down among the sheaves of leaves. 3 or 4 times as long/high when growing in the garden! Think of it as a 'yellow Watsonia'.
DeleteYou are so much more technologically savvy than I am. I am always amazed at all you know, and that I don't! All your flowers are pretty, but the photo of the Eurypos is magical.
ReplyDeleteThose pictures look just great to me! I'm trying to learn to use our new camera...Beautiful flowers.
ReplyDeleteI am not too sure what you guys are talking about, being new to blogging but i get the gist of it, iv'e had to crop my photo's as i am having trouble loading them from blogger onto my blog. Do you have to store your photo's somewhere after putting them on your blog? Oh i'm not very computer literate either i have only been using my pc for a couple of months, first time ever computer user.
ReplyDeleteOur blogspot photos are stored on Picasa by default. I use my computer to store photos where I can find them easily.
DeleteThanks for the info Diana.
ReplyDeleteYour photos loaded easily for me. I love all the collages, though I often wish the photos were larger. I do like how I can click for a larger view. I wish I could do that with my own photos but have no idea how to do it. Is this a feature offered automatically by Blogger, or do you have to do something special to make that happen? I use Squarespace, which may be a bit different from Blogger or Wordpress.
ReplyDeleteMy browser is Google Chrome, and I rightclick Open image in a new tab. Let me try on yours ... Either you have set it that way or Squarespace itself will only allow me to download, but not open in a new tab.
DeletePerhaps ask Bom http://www.plantchaser.com/main/2012/8/7/another-year-2012.html, who is my other Squarespace blogger? (but Bom has disabled rightclick)
This loaded just fine. I think it may have been faster. I need to reduce the size of mine as I upload but never have time...so I will experiment more with Picasa....I still have not really learned enough about it. I am also a point and shoot photographer with my non DSLR camera....I may someday get a DSLR but maybe not. I adore the photo of the canola and the snowy mountains in the background. I finally have my Dozen for Diana post coming on Monday. Life and work have been too busy and I had to move some things around. Hope you like it. It goes live at 5am EST.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous sky, Diana--both the cloudy one and the sunny one! The Euryops is a beautifully composed invitation to wander over and admire Ungardening Pond. Thanks for this really helpful info on the pixels. I've been creeping ever closer to the storage limit and wondering what to do. My photos are all larger than the 2040 pixel size, so it's good to know there's an easy (and free!!!) fix. (Easy once I figure out how to do it again. Only done once in a blue moon, and just as quickly forgotten.) David's info is helpful, too--a big "aha" re: the photo sizing.
ReplyDeleteYou say you aren't a photographer but your knowledge of jpegs and pixels far outweighs mine. I can sometimes take a pretty picture but manipulating it to size confounds me beyond words.
ReplyDeleteI start with the Canon software that came with the camera. The fun bit is pruning off the excess and framing what I want to see.
DeleteWhatever you are doing, these are wonderful SA flowers. thanks.
ReplyDeleteOn my PC it loads very quickly, and most of the photos are sharp. Way to go, Diana.
ReplyDeleteJen @ Muddy Boot Dreams
Hi Diana, I must admit I found it hard to take in the technical info in this post as well as appreciate the plant photos. Like multi tasking - does my head in! But thanks for good info. I'm still experimenting with camera and photo storage on computer, an endless learning curve. I like picmonkey for playing round with photos and for collages.
ReplyDeleteand I am still wrestling with pixels and kilobytes!
DeleteI love your clear, sharp and very colourful images. I use iPhoto for storage and manipulation and Flickr and Facebook for sharing. No problem loading. Horrible summer here on East Coast of Scotland.
ReplyDeleteDiana, they are lovely photos, worth the extra load time.
ReplyDeleteYou do live in a truly beautiful part of the world :-)
It is such a lovely place with such diverse wildlife, I would love to visit the country again sometime.
The gazania photo looks the best quality on my computer screen. The post came up OK, but it stalled a bit on the first scroll-down , no stripping though.
ReplyDeleteI hit the picasa limit - I was deleting photos in draft posts instead of "removing" them, which left the unwanted photos in the picasa album wasting storage space. I deleted all those by going into the picasa album and have since reduced the pixels in my photos to a quarter (to about 200kb) by editing in MS Paint.
I agree gazanias never looked so good. I do so enjoy lushness right now hailing from the drought stricken prairies of Kansas. My kid stomping ground was in Sydney so I do appreciate seeing gardens from climes as your own. Don't apologize for auto settings with today's digital cameras.
ReplyDelete