I am going to try something different here, I have set up the pictures to come up at 50% of actual size, hoping to speed up the image loading for those with Phone connections. I am guessing that there are still more phone connections here than high speed connections.
You can click on any picture here to open it in a new window at full size. These pictures are all from a 4 day weekend trip I took to the Upper peninsula of Michigan in mid October of this year

I am curious to know what everybody thinks of this type of image loading, good idea? Bad idea? Don't care either way?
(I have taken down the clickable image links and just left links to the images, 11-21-02)

http://members.aol.com/wackoslugo35/1005.026.600fr.jpg
Bete Grise Lighthouse, Lake Superior

http://members.aol.com/wackoslugo35/1002.027.600fr.jpg
Sand Point Lighthouse, Lake Michigan

http://members.aol.com/wackoslugo35/1001.014.600fr.jpg
Munising Falls

http://members.aol.com/slugo35/1005.008.600fr.jpg

http://members.aol.com/wackoslugo35/1005.009.600fr.jpg
edited to put image links to further speed up the loading (11-20-02)

Nice pics, Mark! The "click to view larger image" thing works great and was very quick on my dial-up.

Many of my friends keep trying to talk me into road runner or broadband or whatever you call it. I will continue to resist the change because I have great luck with my dial-up connection. Your pics loaded up in approximately 5 seconds. That's fast enough for me.

Keep them coming!

Bob

Works Great! I like it!

Stephanie

I'm not sure if this actually will speed up the process of loading this page. You are not resizing the actual image -- just the size it displays at.

The first image is 258,423 bytes both in the small size and the larger size.

The larger size does load quickly when you click on the smaller size one because that image is already in the cache because it loaded up at the smaller dimension.

> 60 seconds and the second picture is about done. As much as I want to see everyone pictures, when something takes this long to load I tend to back out and go to the next thread I need to read. I believe that any file > 75k or so loads too slow for a dial up, and multiple pictures multiplies the issue. How about using a highter compression on the jpeg to bring down the file size?

Great pics, but the only reason I got to see them was that I posted this response while they kept loading. And, yes, I expect there are more people on dial-ups than on cable or other fast lines.

Dave

Nice pictures Mark. I love the Munising area. I realize the pictures are a smaller physical size, but it took me a while to be able to see them. One photo didn't appear in time (timed out and recieved the little red X). I did see them until after refreshing the page. I don't know if that helps, but I am willing to bet some might bypass them due to load times. I would try to keep the photos right about 100kb. I enjoyed the pictures.
JB (dial up modem)

Loading Okay. The pictures are great. Man, could you imagine a 2500 piece jigsaw of either one of the "tree shots"? Now that would be a challange

The pictures are taking forever on my work dial-up. When pictures take too long to download, like these are, I usally just wait until I get home and view them on my home computer where I have Roadrunner *beep! beep!* It only takes about 20 seconds to pull everything up on Roadrunner.

Great pictures - they really would make great puzzles.

I think they are slow loading because of AOL, where they are hosted. Even when I tried to bring them up to put the image address into the html they loaded slow with my (supposedly high speed connection)

If John is correct that the reduced posted size is not speeding up things (I'll assume he is, it sounds logical) then I was just wasting time with my experiment.

You could create thumbnails of the images and actually resize them to perhaps 150 pixels wide, then link to the full size image. Those with slower connections could choose which ones they want to take the time to load and view.

John

That thought had occured to me, to create thumbnails and link them the same way, also since they are set up to open in a new window one could read any text while waiting to load.

I was going to upload the images to the LighthouseKeepers web space (just to speed up the loading) but forgot the 600 pixel length limit (most of my stuff has been at 600 + 20 for the frame for the past couple months. Maybe I'll switch to thumbnails when I get a chance.

Is anyone really interested in smaller images like thumbnails to then decide if they want to see images in full size?

Instead of small thumbnails, why not keep the 50% size you have shown here, but you first need to create an original seperate version of the picture at that size to start with. You would then upload a full size version and the 50% size version as different original files.

With the way you are doing it now, even if you size the pictures here on the forums through your posting html tag all the way down to 1 pixel x 1 pixel, you are still referencing it from the original larger size picture. No matter what size you call it out as here, it will still load up as the same amount of memory, even though it is smaller looking. So it hasn't sped up anything at all. You have to start with a smaller picture on your uploaded end to keep the memory down on this end.

Munising Michigan is one of my favorite places to be. NOt only for the lighthouses, but Pictured Rocks and all the waterfalls in the area...

Lower Tahquamanon Falls...



Lower Miner Falls...



Miners Castle...



Au Sable Falls...



And lastly, the walk from Mosquito Falls to Chapel Beach/Rock.



I really enjoy the Munising area. I am trying to plan a trip to the UP here in the next couple weeks, but really need to wait until the hunters are done. Hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed taking them.
JB

Those were great John (and Mark). Munising was a place my parents took me to several times. It looks like I should plan another trip on my own to the UP.

John C., I think I could spend an entire year in the U.P. and never run out of photographic subjects, I think John B. already knows that. Unfortunatly there aren't enought good paying jobs up there to support my collecting and photographic habits.

I still have alot of pictures to scan and post yet from my trip, the past couple weeks have been hectic to say the least. But I have a few more weeks before I am due back at work, so maybe I'll get some more up before then.

Here's a few more from the trip

Canyon Falls in the U.P.

The canyon part of Canyon Falls

End of the road range lighthouse, Near Christmas, MI.

Eagle Harbor lighthouse as the sun was setting

Seul Choix, MI.

Sand Hills

Nice pics! Sand Hills is certainly a different looking light. I've never seen that one before.

Thanks for sharing!

Bob

Bob if you came to the photography seminar at the last reunion, you have already seen Sand Hills... I included this image of it in the Great lakes Lighthouse presentation. It is a Bed & Breakfast like Big Bay on the Upper Pennisula.. It is built like a fortress to withstand the Winters on Lake Superior... The next time we go, we probably will stay two nights instead of just one since you can drive to a couple of other lights from there in just a few minutes...



Shot in April of 1997.... if we go back it will be in the Summer, Sue insists on that!

Also, Paul if you were there at sunset on a clear day you were treated to a great sunset location. We camped about 3-4 miles to west of there a couple summers back and that shore line running to the south west is a wonderful sunset watching spot. It was also a great place to watch a lightning storm across the lake one night it was clear and you could see the stars above us but a powerfull storm was over the Candian side of the lake with lightning every few seconds and the thunder rolling across the lake, we draged a picnic table down to the waters edge and watched for an hour and a half, What a sight it was.

Mark and JB- great photos! I wish I could try shots like that of waterfalls around here, but nothing like that really exists around here....
Oh well....

Are there any fountains around you, Jakers?

Hey Jake, Paul is saying something here that makes a lot of sense. I have to drive 7 hours to hit waterfalls. I have practiced on corporate ponds to figure out how to do it right. It's well worth the time to run out to the local corporate giant and photograph their cement falls before you get to the real thing. Mark, great pictures, keep them coming.
JB

April 1997...

One reason why Sue wants to go back only during the Summer...

That is Lake Superior that you see through the grove of Birch trees on the front lawn of the Sand Hills lighthouse...

Instead of the Frozen Tundra, it is the Frozen Aqua!!!