Category — Photography

A while ago, I wrote an article on how to put a Picasa slideshow into WordPress.  It helped some folks, so I’ll post more information here.

First of all, I should mention that while the original method still works, as of WP 2.6.2, the “normal” method of embedding Picasa slide shows into a web page seems to work just fine.  This involves getting the embed URL directly from Picasa and adding to the post.  A word to the wise though – you have to add the embed code in HTML mode in the editor.  If you do it in Visual mode, it doesn’t seem to work too well.  Oh well, its a small price to pay, and much easier than my original posted method.

For example if you copy this code from Picasa:

< embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf"
width="288" height="192" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com
&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2F
picasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi
%2Fuser%2Fmilowerx%2Falbumid
%2F5053811777489218721%3Fkind%3Dphoto
%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com
/go/getflashplayer">< / embed >

it becomes:

when it is in your post.  Nice!

Alternative Methods for a simple Slideshow

I’ve written a plugin to help folks with this task. Welcome Postcasa, a simple WordPress plugin to add the slideshow directly from the album RSS feed. Its easy to use and works regardless of if you are in visual or HTML mode.

Other Fancy Picasa Plugins

That said, there are many WordPress plugins that have been created that work well in their own right.  Most of them put album thumbnails directly into the post (instead of having one picture location that cycles through all the pictures).

Some of my favorite are:

• kPicasa Gallery – this great plugin is extremely simple to use and has a lot of configuration options.  The one downside to the plugin is (supposedly) that the gallery must be by itself on a page (i.e. it can’t be inline, meaning resident on a page with other information).  A second downside is that the plugin only supports one Picasa username for the entire blog.  You ARE able to specify which albums go on a page, etc. but they must all be from the same Picasa login.   Darn…
• KB Easy Picasa Web – this plugin is exactly as described.  Its easy.  All you have to do is put the hyperlink to an album in a post, and this plugin replaces the link with the album contents.  Very nice for certain situations.  The only problem is that it puts EVERYTHING in that one post, doesn’t paginate at all, and you can’t set the number of columns to use.  There are some formatting options, but they are fairly limited.  This is nice for someone who doesn’t need a lot of sophistication, and simply wants to “get to it” without having to add any shortcode to posts, etc.
• GoldenGate – this plugin doesn’t allow you to add an entire album at a time, but it DOES do something that is very unique.  It adds all of your Picasa photos to the MediaLibrary portion of the WordPress post editor in real time using Google APIs.  This is great for allowing you to store your photos on Picasa, but use them in posts in WordPress.  Very slick.
• Shashin – this is one of the members of the Picasa plugin Royal Family.  Its a great plugin and has a bit different behavior than many of the other plugins listed here.  It displays albums as well as the photos themselves as most do, but it also allows you zoom in on any picture using Highslide, which is free for non-commercial use.  The neat thing is that this zoom is in context of the page, not in a page covering popup viewer.
• altPWA – One of my favorites, this plugin allows using albums from multiple users and also has a bunch of settings to allow you to make the galleries look the way you want them to.  There is one challenge though – it uses the PHP function file_get_contents(), which isn’t allowed by many web hosts.  Since it is made available under GPL, I’ve modified the code to use CURL instead, which is allowed by most hosts.  I’ve sent mail to the original author offering the changed code to him so that his great plugin will be accessible to more people.  Its a very nice piece of work!  A few feature requests: 1) allow a page that displays a number of album roots (i.e. NOT the actual photos, but the actual listing of available albums) to also allow a column display rather than just one after the other and 2) add more CSS around the photo thumbnails so that they can be more easily stylized.  Minor, minor stuff, but desirable in my opinion nonetheless.

As you can see, if you are a Picasa / Google Fanboy like my brother, there are lots of options for integrating your favorite image manager with WordPress.  Life is good again.

I took these about a week ago, when our pool was still open.  I so enjoyed swimming with Emily this season.  It was like watching pure joy every day.  I didn’t want to forget a single detail, so I bought an Underwater Housing for my wife’s Canon IS700 camera.  The results were pretty fun!

I can’t wait until next year!

Wow, these are really beautiful!

Amazing what a 4th generation, 15 megapixel CMOS can do…  I love to shoot ambient light, so the low-noise of these really makes me drool!

These photos found on Canon Rumors.

Well, the wait is finally over.  The age old question of “What’s Next” for Canon’s non-pro digital SLR lineup has finally been answered.  In a fairly odd way, I might add…

Behold, the Canon EOS 50D:

Canon EOS 50D

Canon is a leaky product company, and the 50D is no exception.  Apparently someone inadvertently put up a Chinese web page a few days early, only to have it taken down shortly after.  Then, a scant three days after the first blunder, test shots and product pictures started showing up on other web pages that disappeared fairly quickly.  What could Canon do but finally clean up the mess and make an official announcement?

Mistake or Marketing?  Who cares, as long as the product is real! And, this time, it is…

Here are the specs:

• 15.1 megapixel APS-C sized CMOS sensor (not a full frame…)
• DIGIC 4 image processor, up to ISO 12800 support
• 3.0-inch LCD with face detection Live View
• HDMI output
• 6.3fps burst mode
• same AF system found in Canon’s 40D with new Microadjustment feature

Apparently it will be ready for the holidays (shipping in October) for an estimated $1,599 with Canon’s EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM zoom lens and in a body-only package of $1,399.

Now that this is cleared up, how about something similar happening for the long rumored Canon EOS 7D? Apparently, it is supposed to be a full frame $1900 body-only beauty.

Rumored EOS 7D

Just when I thought it was safe to upgrade… *SIGH*  Still, $500 more for a full frame sensor MAY be worth the extra price and the wait.  The final specs will tell.

Too bad these other items seem to be going on the fritz at the same time:

• Our video camera
• Our main family room 65″ Mitsubishi Widescreen Television
• Our Logitech Harmony 880 Universal Remote that makes all of the techno magic happen with a single press of the button.

Oh, yeah, and I’m supposed to be building a new home office in one bay of my 3 car garage, buying new furniture for our master bedroom so that we can give our older stuff to my baby boy who is due late in October (just like the EOS 50D), AND resurface our pool after this summer season, because the plaster is falling apart right before our very eyes.

Just like me, when I think of all these things we have to pay for.

Oh well… To quote a good friend of mine: “It’s just money.  I can make more.”

**caps off the bravado with a sheepish grin**

Meet Eye-fi.  Its an SD card plus Wi-Fi, so that your camera automatically downloads photos to your computer, sans wires.

A pretty cool idea if you ask me!  I hope they come up with a CF card soon, as my Canon 10D doesn’t speak SD.

Hmm… I wonder if a brand-spanking new 40D can take an SD card?  I wish!