Somewhere among the collection of black and white photos in your family's 'shoebox' or in an old family album there must be a picture or two of you or your parents or family taken at a lighthouse.

How about digging up some of those photos and sharing them here?

If you remember visiting a lighthouse and taking your own 'snapshots' as a child, let's see those as well.

Looking for pre-1982 photos (25+ years old) but what's "old" depends on how old you are, so all are welcome.

My sister will have a screeming fit when she sees this.
Funny you should ask for old family photographs with lighthouses John.
My Mum just sent me this one. It was taken on a family holiday in 1964 on the island of Borkum off the German Coast. My youngest sister Beate is just 18 months old.
The lighthouse in the back is the "Electric Lighthouse" on Borkum.

PERFECT! - just what I was hoping would turn up. Now I bet you've got some modern day photos or a link to some of the "Electric Light"?

Margret, that picture is just to to precious. How could she get mad over this. :rolleyes:

John, your bet is not so good this time. But if you give me a few days ... I am actually writing an article about the lights on Borkum. Watch this space That was the reason my Mum sent me the picture. We used to spend a lot of holidays there and I asked her if she ahd a picuter of the light at that time.

And, Ruthie, my sister did not think this to be a good impression. She was blushing real hard, when she saw that picture again. But I agree ... it is "just to to precious"!!

ohh ... alright ... here is a picture of the "electric light" which I took in summer 2006


The nickname came from the fact that this little lighthouse was the first German lighthouse to have been built for use with electricity. They never used coal or oil here. The lighthouse was originally built together with a steam plant, which generated the electicity for the light. The buildings for that are long gone though.

Am I really the only one that has an old family picture with a lighthouse????
C'mon folks ... get posting...

No Margret you are not the only one.
I have several, but don't know how to post one.
HCS

How to upload pictures...

Hilary, have a look at the link! Hope that helps! If not ... holler

OK Hilary - here's your photo. Edit this message and delete my comments. John

HCS, Keep trying.

I had a hard time the first few times I tried to upload, and I was a software engineer for almost 20 years.

If you will email me the photos or your email address, I'll upload them and send you back links you can paste into a thread.

I must admit, I find the "CF way" a little difficult too.
I have managed it, but I understand where you come from Loon.
I actually use our own webspace to host the pictures I use and just insert the link. But of course you can only do that if you have your own space.

I find the "CF" way difficut too, but managable. To use the CF upload, I have to go back and resize an already saved photo, and also usually rename it because you can not have any spaces.

It's a lot of extra effort, plus I have no record of what I've uploaded for future use.

I think we'd have more members sharing photos if we had access to an easier method of uploading.

Judy

The system used to upload images really isn't complicated; people make it that way, especially when they edit information on the browse line (real big no-no). The no spaces thing is an internet requirement - all addresses have to be without spaces or most special punctuation. Some programs may take the spaces and invalid characters out for you without telling you. If anyone knows of a FREE program that allows for uploading images let John or I know and we will take a look at it.

The resizing thing is our choice - experience tells us that most people enjoy images more if they don't have to scroll left/right or up/down to view an image. It also helps to keep the file size manageable which helps those on dial-up, allowing a page to load faster. That is also why we ask you to compress the image to at least the medium setting to help keep file size down. For those who use the Forums to store images they share with others here in the Forums, this also means we are able to offer the space for all members at no cost.

If you have a digital camera or a printer chances are you received a program with it that allows you to perform basic editing and manipulations of your images. There are also a number of programs out there for free or at minimal cost that give you a fair amount of capability.

Nothing is complicated once you know how to do it. Getting to that point is the difficult part.

The Upload Instructions do an excellent job to inform the user WHAT to do. But what is lacking is HOW to do it.

I tried many times to post photos a long time ago and failed miserably. It was only through the assistance by Dave and John that the photos finally got posted. I tried several times to post on my own and finally just gave up.

For 12 years I taught classes to teach telecommunications engineers how to design and plan communication systems using on-line computer systems developed by AT&T and Bell Labs.

After the appropriate introductions, my first class was about begin. All students were at their terminals eager to begin. My first statement was something to the effect “Turn on your terminal.”

A hand immediately went up and the student asked one question, “HOW do I do that?” I felt like an idiot. But the student was totally legitimate. The entire course had been based on “WHAT to do step by step” but failed in many instances to answer the question “HOW?”

Remember when you first learned how to drive a car? Many of us are old enough to relate to a stick shift. The instructor may have asked you to start the car and pull away from the curb. But what was missing? HOW.

Then you were taught where the gears position were and what they meant, what the clutch, brake and gas peddles were for, and HOW to use them. See what I mean?

If I stepped on any toes by creating this post, I am extremely sorry and I apologize. But the WHAT without the HOW when providing instructional information is almost useless the recipient knows the HOW.

bobo

I so understand this thing with "what" and "how" ...
Still the HOw depends on the software you use to edit your pictures, so there is no easy way of describing that.
But if anyone has troubles with it and still wants to post pictures. I am happy to resize and upload pictures for anyone who wants to post pictures. I can - like John - provide the required text so you can post the message and put the picture into it!
So long as you are not in a hurry, I am happy to do that! Just email me the picture!

Margret,

I sincerely appreciate your kind offer. But I want to know HOW to accomplish this objective. There must be programs out there that will do this almost automatically. I just don't know what or where they are.

Thank you for your kind and generous offer to do it for me.

bobo

I have no problems with posting photos I store at "My FTP Space" on AOL. Once you have the file stored there,(don't forget the file extension of .jpg or whatever for your pics), you can go to a photo you've already posted, copy and paste the language from the successfully posted photo to your new post, and just change the file name.

Example:


(Note I purposely put a space after http: so you can read this rather than have the photo appear.) Now all I do after pasting the above language into my new post is to change "pomham" to another photo file name such as "nauset". I would imagine you could do this with any photo storage area. Copy, paste, and then just change the file name to another photo you have stored at your site. If you were successful one time, there is no reason you cannot be successful every time as long as your file names are exact with the proper extension, such as .jpg. Be aware that your storage area may recognize case sensitivity. Just store all your file names in lower case and don't use upper case. Be consistent, and you will find it easy to get those photos on the CF for all to enjoy!

Does this make sense to all of you? I'm not a computer wizard but I do manage.

Bob

Thanks John.

This is me with my mum and brother at St. Mary's Lighthouse in Northumberland England. I'm probably not even three there, so I've been lighthousing a long, long time.
HCS

As for posting photos. I have the instructions but somehow still cannot get it to work, have tried a number of times with photos of different trips and in the end just gave up as it just wasn't happening. Someday when I have unlimited free time I may have anothe go.... till then sorry you won't see photos from me.
HCS

Hilary, did you grow up near St. Mary's or was that a holiday trip?

I can also do it with Flickr, which is pretty painless and fun to use. You can store as many photos as you want for free (though after 200, they don't show up in any accessible way - thus I paid $25/year for a "Pro" account that is pretty much unlimited).

Other similar services (Webshots, Pbase, etc.) should work the same way.

I grew up in the greater London area, with a Mother from Vienna, Austria and a Father from the north of England. We went every summer to visit my grandparents in Low Fell,Newcastle, so spent many days at the seaside on the north coast of Northumberland. Went to the Farne Islands almost every year too.

Looks like you and I are the only ones brave enough to dig out the old photos!
What about you John, it was your idea. Now it's time to ante up!
HCS

You are right Hilary, John should step up with a picture ... think he is brave enough?

I have thought and looked ... that is the only picture I have "of old" with a lighthouse.

I have no "old time" lighthouse pics. I never thought that much about taking lighthouse pictures in my younger years.

My earliest lighthouse visit I can recall was going in the abandoned North Light on Block Island in the mid 80's. It was in tough shape back then after many years of neglect. It sure looks a lot better now.

Bob