John Champion

Well I told you a couple of months ago that I would give you some additional information regarding online photo storage and there has been a little movement in the market as prices have come down a little bit and services have become easier to use and access. So let’s review my top five online digital photography storage sites.

First let’s review my criteria for selecting someplace to store your images online:

1. Provides you with tools to upload multiple images off of your PC/Camera at one time
2. Provides you with access to your images regardless of platform (PC/Phone/etc)
3. Provides you with quality service around the clock
4. Provides you the ability to have backups of your image collection
5. The service does not automatically resize your images or provides you with tools to restore their original size
6. The service gives you control over who looks at and downloads your images

With that in mind, here are my top 7 online image hosting services. These are in no particular order. I do this because I want you to go to each site and maybe look up one or two of your own and see which ones you will think can work best for your needs.

1. Adobe Photoshop.com starts you with 2GB of storage for free but that’s not this site’s strength. Oh no…this site’s strength is in its editting
   tools. These tools allow you to make basic image edits like remove red eye, crop the image, or make some basic changes. For $20/year, you
   can buy 20GB of space. And you can expect to pay $1/GB for each increase above that.
2. Flickr’s free account provides you with a monthly upload/download limit which has changed and continues to change. For $25/year you get
   unlimited photo and video storage.
3. Smugmug is service geared at semi-professional and professional photographers. For $40/$60/$150 a year you can have more control over the
   site that presents your images. All plans have unlimited storage and allow you universal access to your images. The high end plan gives you
   complete control over the page that displays your images plus the way you sell your photographs.
4. Photobucket is an Internet staple. Free accounts get 500 MB of online storage and you are allowed up to 10GB of downloadable bandwidth per
   month. There is a 1MB size limit per photo so if you use a Canon Mark V with the 77MB raw files, this is not going to be the solution for
   you. However for $25 a year, those limitations are removed and you get to post images up to 4000×3000 plus access to their technical support
   team
5. Webshots by American Greetings, is a service that comes with the ability to use your images or the predefined images of other photographers
   into your projects. What this means is that there is also a likelihood for others to have access to your images for things like calendars, coffee
   mugs, and the like. They give you a 1000 image limit and then boost that with 100 extra images for every month that you remain a member of
   their free plan. For $20/year, those restrictions are limited but this offering is among the least favorable ones for photographers looking to post
   the thousands of images they generate a year.

Now there are some prominent sites that I left out. I left them out for a reason. Either I am not a fan of their policies or I do not like the software they ask the user to use for their site. However everyone is different and I urge you to research these other sites as well.

If you have any additional questions, just ask.

Bluebonnets in a field

Originally uploaded by jachamp

Here we are with another April and another wildflower season. This is turning out to be a great season with lots of heavy pockets of bluebonnets and these purple things (sorry…not big on names) all over the place.

If you live in S. Central Texas, you probably cannot drive ten minutes without finding a pocket but as a person who loves looking at these things and photographing them…can I ask you for one favor?

Please do not trample the flowers. I am running into large patches where I see up to 1/3 of the flowers schmushed down by whole families who get into the patch trying to take their picture. I know…you want to get the perfect shot of your family but when you do that no one else gets to enjoy them too.

Second…respect other people’s property. When shooting photographs of flower patches, please respect the property that they are located on. Do not get photographs of someone’s house or personal possessions.

If someone, like the homeowner who has this display, has taken the time and care to maintain such a wonderful scene…you should respect their property rights while sharing this beauty with others.

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Originally uploaded by jachamp

I took this photo of the Easter Bunny getting his last minute details for deliveries in McAllister Park. I promised him that I would keep his hiding place a secret. Happy Easter everyone!

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Originally uploaded by jachamp

This shot was taken with my Nikon D40 using my Tamron 70-300mm in macro mode. It tooks many shots to get this right as this web was floating in the breeze. Add to that the fact that I didn’t have my tripod, and you have this soft focus shot that has some wonderful shots around the edges of this crab spider. This shot was one of many I took Thanksgiving afternoon and made for a good dessert treat (and no…I didn’t eat him).

So ARod tested positive for steroids five years ago when it wasn’t a punishable offense in the major leagues. Here’s my thoughts…Alex’s test is only another reminder that the only people our society rewards are cheaters.

If you aren’t cheating, then you aren’t trying and it’s only cheating if you get caught. Those are the mantras our children get to hear daily on the television or radio.

Fourteen year old boys are having Tommy John surgery on their perfectly healthy arms just to give their curve ball a little more snap or add a couple of MPH to their fast ball.

As a society, we need to decide…do we want to reward cheaters or punish them and we need to quit sending a message that we’re shocked or dismayed when we clearly are not.

Hey Y’all—Just a Merry Christmas to you from all of us down here in S. Texas.

Merry Christmas everyone

We love big and shiny things but mostly we love time with family, friends, food and drink. We don’t care much about gifts but they are helpful to endear you to me.

Everyone, please have a happy, healthy, and safe Christmas!

Merry Christmas from John, Ann, Critter, Cujo, and Bailey

HurricaneIke_091108_0178

Originally uploaded by jachamp

The things that idiots do. Okay..I admit that I have done some dumb things in my day. I have taken unnecessary chances that could have led to my death or some bad injury but this..I’ve never done that. Surfing, or attempting to surf with those strong waves is not only dumb…it can kill the people who have to try to rescue you.

This is the ultimate definition of selfishness. These surfers think that they are only hurting themselves but the truth is that they are putting the lives of their rescuers at risk as well.

Wow…when did I become an old man? Oh..and get off of my lawn!

That word sold me. Although I have long said that I would have few qualms about supporting John McCain previously, I have to say that this guy accepting his party’s bid this week is not the same John McCain I have admired in the past.

He has gone from maverick to panderer; from a man we could respect to a man who picks a woman with a special needs child to one up Obama’s claim of being the first African-American selected by a major party to run for office. Is this what our politics have become, who can be the more politically correct? Who can be the more disadvantaged?

Since everyone has to bite their tongue, I’ll say it for everyone. She’s a branch off of the white trash tree. I mean how much more like the RoseAnn character in the 80′s-90′s sitcom does someone’s family have to be before we can acknowledge who they really are?

So with that…I have to say that I have no choice but to support Barack Obama for President.

The Jedi Obama

Do I agree entirely with his platform? No I don’t. Do I think this nation would be headed in a better direction under his guidance than McCain’s? I have no doubt.

Idon’t avoid white elephants in the room and I’ll just say this and get it out of the way too. I don’t trust the evangelical right. Any group of people who mold their belief system in order to accomodate their lifestyle is not a true follower of Christ.

Yet these are the same people that McCain called out in 2000 and these are the same people he is pandering to today. I supported him because he did not like their ways and now he has done the ultimate flip-flop in embracing them and giving them a radical right-winger who supported the seccession of Alaska.

As someone who has long purported that Texas could be its own nation, I would never advocate secession, except in jest, but this shows the out-there mentality of his pick to secede him. In my opinion, Sarah Palin is a scary and probably mean-spirited person who would make Hillary look like a court-jester.

And those are the main reasons why I am supporting Barack Obama.

For the past week, I and a friend, have been trying to reach someone, anyone at image hosting site Picoodle and surprise…no one ever replies and they do tell you that it may take them 3 weeks to reply to any inquiry.

So with that attitude, I think it’s safe to say that if you’re a malware purveyor or spammer, this is a great site to post your stuff. If it does take them three weeks to remove a post, think of all the infected/conned people you can generate.

For reference, Picoodle is part of Funky Llama Productions. Funky Llama has many sites and is one of the companies responsible for many MySpace layouts. They no doubt provide Picoodle to help MySpacers with their image hosting needs which isn’t a bad thing.

However, the number of spam posters on Craigslist and other major board sites whose images are tied to Picoodle are no greater than the number that come from Flickr, ImageBucket, and other image hosting sites. Picoodle’s advantage to spammers is how slow they are to act to remove spam images.

So spammer, malware purveyor, and other ne’er do’wells…if you want to have your images hosted and not removed for at least a month, I suggest you try Picoodle. They don’t seem to want to remove anything.

I have spent the last 10 years devoted to fighting people who abuse the internet for their own personal gain. I cannot stand people who protect them.

Tony tags the Giants runner but the umpire calls him safe

Wow..this withdrawal thing is pretty weird. I’m not sure what to do with my weekends anymore since our season ended, albeit dismally, with a late inning loss to the first place team in our league. I guess it’s like being back in school in a way. Yes..I like playing but I also like the commaradery. The teamwork.

Ken scores the first run of the SAMSBL 35+ Nationals 2008 season

The seasons fly by like school years. It seems like it was yesterday, it was a cold January morning and we’re out there bundled up trying to pretend it’s not cold when it’s 38.

Aldo warms up before practice

Some of the guys on this team are moving up next year to play with the 45+ guys, and I’m staying with the 35+ guys because I’m not 100% sure I’m ready to move up just yet. I still have things that I want to prove to myself. In fact…if I could find a good trainer..I’d like to try 18+ and see if I can still hang with the big fish. Speedwise…that may be a problem. Patience-wise..I got them beat.

You really need to click on the top photo of the running sliding and see it in its original size. It’s pretty cool.