Rarely do we have the opportunity to have a glimpse into the past. One of the eras that I am fascinated by — the Great Depression of the 1930s — is one that continues to peak my interest over and over again ever since I was a high school student.
I ran across the news at TechCrunch today that Flickr was working with the American Library of Congress to share colour photographs taken during that area. This initiative is through The Commons program. There are a wide variety of photographs to check out and I highly recommend browsing through all of them. I’m still going through them right now!
I can’t say that I usually support Flickr but the project that they are working on with the Library of Congress is definitely worthwhile and truly makes history(I’m a history major) that much more accessible to the world. And it’s not a bad thing to be able to look back at the challenges, failures, and accomplishments of fellow human beings.
It is very rare that I find a company that I am loyal to but the folks at Smugmug have yet to give me a reason not to be. Not only have I been a loyal customer of about 2 years (more or less), but I am a customer that consistently recommends them as a photo sharing service to anyone I know. Not everyone listens to me but that’s beside the point. Despite the fact that I pay more for a subscription with them than I would have if I went with any other photo sharing service out there, they have been able to constantly remind me that going with them was a the BEST decision. To provide a quality product is standard, same goes for the service, but to give your customers reminders and new reasons why choosing and sticking with them was the BEST decision … that is going beyond good customer service.
Recently the folks at Smugmug began to offer free camera straps and stickers. I didn’t really need the stickers or have any place for them so I just requested a camera strap. I wasn’t sure if they had enough but I would not have even minded to pay for one! My reasoning was that I’d rather carry around my camera promoting Smugmug than the signature Canon EOS Digital logo. You might ask, “Aren’t I loyal to Canon?” Not quite, I think Canon has manufactured and designed a great camera, and I think their cameras and lenses are superior in technical specifications to other manufacturers but ultimately the loyalty that I carry is to the product, not the company and the people working at the company. I would recommend specific cameras to different people, but in general I don’t feel the urge to go out and tell people to buy Canon.
Recently Smugmug sent me the camera strap, and it gave me yet another reason why I love them — the camera strap was absolutely more comfortable than the common strap that comes with the pricey Canon SLR camera. Now that is going beyond good service and simply responding to your customers. It’s about identifying things that your customers may not notice or be aware of in the present, but would definitely appreciate in the future. Take a look at my own Smugmug gallery.
The new smugmug camera strap (photo courtesy of Smugmug)
Disclosure: The links to Smugmug in this post are affiliate links with my referrer code (RbSbhKjJlwh4k) — yes I will receive commission and yes you will receive a discount by using the code or link.
I just ran across Earthbound Magazine, and I noticed a photograph of mine was being used (they asked for permission). Surf on over and check out their latest November/December issue.
I often look for photographs that inspire. There are plenty of photographs online that are great and technically near perfect, but I rarely see photos that inspire me. I subscribe to Smugmug’s service and part of their online community involves a contest called Last Photographer Standing. Here are some of my favourites from the bunch but visit the gallery and see some of the most inspirational photographs you’ll encounter online. I hope to take photographs as good as these below in the future! Still learning as always…
I’ve been playing with Macromedia Adobe Flash lately. Check out what I’ve made! Fun stuff … but time consuming. Let me know what you think. Is it worth it?
Simply for the fun … here’s a masterpiece from 1979 — The Warriors.
I will be leaving in a few days for New Hampshire with a couple of my friends. The last time I was in New Hampshire was with my family in 2003. We didn’t really hike, my family being primarily non-hikers, but we did see a lot of the White Mountain Region including Mt. Washington of course. Ever since I felt the clouds rushing past me on the summit, I’ve yearned to return — but by foot rather than by car. It’s not going to be an easy hike up, but I am persistent and this is something that I’ve wanted to do for myself since 2003. While most people were much less enthusiastic about the idea, I’m glad that I have a couple of friends who are coming along whom I can share the experience with.
For the past month, I’ve been hiking up and down Rouge Park with my insanely heavy pack and new boots, eager to wear them in. A lot of people wonder about the big hill that I talk about in Rouge Park (or more specifically Glen Rouge), so here are a couple of photographs that I took in order to show how big the hill really is. I haven’t seen anyone mountain bike up the hill, but then again I don’t know if bikes are allowed anyways.
Notice how the hill just drops down and how small the trees are down there? Nothing compared to the mountain of course. Nevertheless going up and down the hill got me gasping for air … tough stuff nonetheless …
I really admired this elderly gentleman who hiked up the hill. It’s not an easy task. One time I encountered football teams using this hill for training!
No one said reaching the summit was going to be easy … next Tuesday is when we start hiking up. Packing and gearing up right … now …
So I am in the middle of recovering from my hike yesterday. I said I would provide an opinion on the pack and the boots I got a couple weeks back and I’ve come to the conclusion that the pack is of an excellent make, although I think I am still getting to used to carrying such a huge bag. The boots protected my ankles well along the way down some steep slopes which is important for all hikers, especially for novice hikers whose ankles are not strengthened enough for the rougher trails. My only concern for the pack may be that I have to adjust the waist belt a little as I felt it wasn’t firm enough around the hip bone. As for the boots, they were really comfortable and most likely saved my feet from the 8 hours of hiking or so yesterday, but oddly enough I got bruises in different areas of my feet … I don’t know if this is due to the boot or just the way I walk. I will test everything out again next weekend.
The hiking party of seven people including myself had travelled to Battlefield Park in Stoney Creek, Ontario where we hiked a number of trails, only to find ourselves hiking through the suburban neighbourhoods of Hamilton! I have to say that concrete just makes the temperature feel that much higher. My friends and fellow hikers did enjoy a good laugh on my part since I was the only one carrying a huge pack, hiking shoes and all through the streets of suburbia. Nevertheless we survived. One of our stops was the bottom of the Devil’s Punchbowl which unfortunately did not have any water flowing down, not that you’d want to get near that water anyways. It was amusing to see all sorts of garbage (i.e. computer parts) lying around. Apparently people can’t seem to figure out the difference between a conservation area and their garbage can.
I thought this was pretty neat … despite it being in the wrong place
I will have more photographs posted soon enough. On another note about testing … I think I am going to try out Ubuntu on a test computer. I am impressed by its capabilities and relative user-friendliness. I don’t mind the command (DOS-like) interface as I grew up with it when my dad got us the first 386. It was a sad moment though as our Commodore Amiga 500 was no longer the main family computer.
Take a look at this video clip of what Ubuntu can do …
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