:: In a Small Dark Room ::

:: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 ::

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

:: Mez 23:47 [+] ::
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Links to my Online Photos
Because of my health problems and other related suckers-up of time, I don't know whether I'll be putting up more links and displays in this image blog, though I'm trying to keep up a few entries in my general blog, Hello Cruel World.

Link to my Flickr Photos
I'm putting most of my photos up on my 'pro' (paid) Flickr site account, Sketches by Mez (www.flickr.com/ photos/ sketchesbymez). There are collections of my scanned historic family photos — a bunch from World War II, including the Japanese surrender in the Philippines, and earlier, right back to the early 1900s — as well as sets from my 2005 trip to Tasmania, visits elsewhere, hospital stays, Pyrmont and my general imaging.

Outside Flickr, there's a couple of Tabblo pages I've experimented with (www.tabblo.com/ studio/ person/ Mez). This site gives a way of creating a picture layout and display, rather than Flickr and many of the other online galleries, which are like slotting your images into an existing plain 'album'. You can use the Tabblo layouts to publish a paper book (also possible with Blurb, and in different ways, Lulu [e.g., my blog books], and CafePress [blogbook vol 1]), ≈ other users create image displays designed for online, or at least screen-based, viewing.

There's also my 'hub blog' here on Blogger, Sketches by Mez, which is just a place to collect together links to my other blogs, image displays and other online presence.

Labels: books, flickr, links, self-publishing, tabblo

:: Mez 09:40 [+] ::
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Testing HTML text colour samples
Purple/Indigo/Violet colours for text & such in templates


Sample TEXT for colour comparison XXX — 443266
Sample TEXT for colour comparison XXX — C3C3E5
Sample TEXT for colour comparison XXX — F1F0FF
Sample TEXT for colour comparison XXX — 8C489F
---
Sample TEXT for colour comparison XXX — 692DAC
Sample TEXT for colour comparison XXX — 9D538E
---
Sample TEXT for colour comparison XXX — 484452
Sample TEXT for colour comparison XXX — F8F2DA
Sample TEXT for colour comparison XXX — C7AFBD
---
Sample TEXT for colour comparison XXX — 4C50A9
---
Sample TEXT for colour comparison XXX — AF4FA2


Taken from sample colour schemes at www.colorcombos.com

And from elsewhere

Sample TEXT for colour comparison XXX — 4B0082
Sample TEXT for colour comparison XXX — 8A2BE2
Sample TEXT for colour comparison XXX — 6600FF

Now trying the non 'font' declaration version of changing colours, using whatever this editor does to change text colour.

(Note: I checked the HTML codes and they're hideous! But it is possible to extract the RGB values for the different text colours in the sentence above.)

Labels: colours, HTML, references, resources, web రెసౌర్చెస్

:: Mez 15:19 [+] ::
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Down by the River

Exultations & Difficulties
exultationsanddifficulties.blogspot.com
Martin Stannard's Blog-Zine
Saturday, April 23, 2005
River Photos, Paterson, New Jersey USA (January 2005)

These photos were taken … on a day when the city was shrouded in a deep winter fog. The river seemed to disappear ... The trees reflected on the mirror surface of the water … and the colors were so subdued that the effect is almost black and white.

Images and Text © Mark Hillringhouse, 2005

Labels: nature, pix

:: Mez 14:37 [+] ::
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A Friday Cat-blog Illustrated Interlude
RECHARGEABLE CAT � Lolcats %u2018n%u2019 Funny Pictures - I Can Has Cheezburger?: "RECHARGEABLE�CAT"

Labels: cats, humour, pix

:: Mez 03:11 [+] ::
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Smoky Moon
Raph’s Website — The smoke does help some things (26 October, 2007)




Full-size 1280 x 780 pixels

"this is the moon over Rancho Bernardo tonight. You can see where there is an absence of lights right below the hills; that is where the fire came through."

Labels: city, nature, pix, skies

:: Mez 13:51 [+] ::
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Shadows of Motion – Ocean Beach

Shielded with smoke, bedazzled by mirrors
Originally uploaded by Mezza.

Labels: Australia, beach, pix, sand, Tasmania

:: Mez 23:00 [+] ::
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Catalina Flying Boat & Man

Catalina Flying Boat Fam3_14-5-flyboat-man
Originally uploaded by Mezza.

Old-style flying boat plane (PBY Catalina) that can also land on solid ground with the wheels. I think it's Ron standing by it. There is a framed photo (which I think another family member has) showing his father standing by a similar aeroplane.

For many years there was a Flying Boat Base at Rose Bay in Sydney Harbour, and my childhood home was under the flightpath of the large Catalinas coming in to land. We were some floors up in a block of flats, and at night sometimes they were so low I could see the people behind the lighted windows in the passenger cabin. My memory is they flew to Norfolk & Lord Howe Islands.

The base closed down a few decades back, but has since reopened for much smaller planes. They run a more local service, e.g. to the Hawkesbury River, and probably joy flights around the Sydney area. I saw a similar small plane in Strahan, Tasmania (see TAS_4212).

Labels: aeroplanes, airplanes, black and white, history, monochrome, pix

:: Mez 12:06 [+] ::
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om …

omega.jpg
Originally uploaded by Doctor Swan.

'omega' by Doctor Swan

A simple purity of vision

Labels: pix

:: Mez 01:15 [+] ::
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Tabblo: Manila after the Rain
Link to www.tabblo.com Manila after the Rain: A Tabblo
Manila at the end of World War II — Photos taken by an Australian sailor

Flickr link
Originally uploaded by Mezza.

Testing this as another way to use my images. In this case, displaying wartime family photos in an album page style like the one around at the time they were taken.

Labels: history, pix, tabblo, war

:: Mez 20:33 [+] ::
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Tabblo Test — In the Depths of the City
Link to www.tabblo.com — In the Depths of the City: A Tabblo


In the Depths of the City: A Tabblo Test (Flickr version)
Originally uploaded by Mezza.

"By night, and under cloudy skies, still I strive to see what joy in perceptions may happen yet to pass across my ken."


Testing this as another way to use &/or display my images

Labels: city, pix, tabblo

:: Mez 02:03 [+] ::
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New Year's Eve Fireworks in Sydney
Video taken from my rooftop here near St Vincent's hospital.
Google Video version

Midnight fireworks over Sydney harbour for New Year's Eve (2006/2007). Rather dark & blurry, I'm afraid, but I like the atmosphere. Seen from the roof of a block of units in Surry Hills, close to the party scene around Oxford Street and Taylor Square, and with lots of other blocks of flats around, nearly all with parties of people on their balconies. Taken with a Canon A80 (original size 320 x 240).

YouTube Version

Labels: Australia, celebrations, city, fireworks, Sydney, videos

:: Mez 17:37 [+] ::
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Party Night in Town: New Years Eve 2007 (IMG_5503)

Party Night in Town: New Years Eve 2007 (IMG_5503)
Originally uploaded by Mezza.

Labels: city, pix

:: Mez 11:20 [+] ::
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ITemplate File Toast — Hope I can fix it
Haven't done anything to it, but the template file has been damaged (a chunk of the end is missing). This may have to do with the beta-Blogger shift going on.
I have other urgent things to deal with, but did a quick fix. Hope everything looks OK now.

Sorry.

If you're desperate http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif<ahem>, have a look at an 'emergency backup' photo blog, smalldarkroom.blogspot.com, or my photos on the Flickr site at flickr.com/photos/87756698@N00.

Alternatively, feast on other photos, such as those of Ingeborg Tyssen (tysseneye.net)

Or search out others at Luminous Lint (www.luminous-lint.com), or www.photogravure.com.

:: Mez 12:16 [+] ::
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It isn't summer yet (more than a month to Christmas)
Crisp black gumleaves have floated down onto Sydney's ocean beaches, with dusty ashes and embers.

A Multimedia Newspaper Report
www.smh.com.au/ multimedia/ ringoffire/ index.html

Photos from general people of scenes around the Blue Mountains fires
www.smh.com.au/ ftimages/ 2006/ 11/ 22/ 1163871454375.html
www.smh.com.au/ ftimages/ 2006/ 11/ 22/ 1163871453791.html
www.smh.com.au/ ftimages/ 2006/ 11/ 22/ 1163871450834.html
www.smh.com.au/ ftimages/ 2006/ 11/ 22/ 1163871454187.html


Preview
Originally uploaded by Mezza, using fd's flickrtoys.

Pictures from staff photographers
www.smh.com.au/ ftimages/ 2006/ 11/ 22/ 1163871450823.html
www.smh.com.au/ ftimages/ 2006/ 11/ 22/ 1163871450828.html
www.smh.com.au/ ftimages/ 2006/ 11/ 23/ 1163871526028.html
www.smh.com.au/ ftimages/ 2006/ 11/ 23/ 1163871526026.html
www.smh.com.au/ ftimages/ 2006/ 11/ 23/ 1163871526030.html
www.smh.com.au/ ftimages/ 2006/ 11/ 23/ 1163871526082.html


This is the westering sun seen behind Anzac Bridge, which is just down the hill from us.
www.smh.com.au/ ftimages/ 2006/ 11/ 22/ 1163871451200.html

Fighting fires
www.smh.com.au/ ftimages/ 2006/ 11/ 22/ 1163871451202.html
www.smh.com.au/ ftimages/ 2006/ 11/ 22/ 1163871451500.html
www.smh.com.au/ ftimages/ 2006/ 11/ 22/ 1163871451054.html

:: Mez 23:13 [+] ::
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Kitty v Porn: Another Grain on the Balance Pan
Janet Lafler & Matt Austern have cats they call Randy and Oliver:



(lafstern.org/matt/cats.jpg)

From Matt Austern's Home Page (lafstern.org/matt)

Labels: pix, కాట్స్

:: Mez 22:05 [+] ::
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:: Mez 22:33 [+] ::
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coming and going - catblogging ella snoozing ( April 15, 2006)

:: Mez 05:07 [+] ::
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To match with the green apple, here is a quince

I love eating quince raw slice by raw slice—the knife is my favourite quince treatment. All of the quince's unique smell is retained. The sound of the knife going through the flesh is something I enjoy, as is holding the fruit in my hand. It is a wonderful feeling fruit, having a quite human skin.

The mouth-feel of raw quince is wonderful, too, if you like it (and I love it).

On cold days, though, there's nothing to beat baked quince and oatmeal with cream.

from Medlar Comfits, by Anna Tambour.

:: Mez 03:28 [+] ::
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Crest Theatre 20051203 (on Flickr - Photo Sharing!)

It's not really that difficult, although it took me a while to get the hang of it. On automatic settings, you will usually overexpose neon (because the camera reacts to all the darkness around it), and you won't get the rich colors. So now I use shutter speed priority mode. I usually start at ISO 200, 1/80 of a second (which was the setting for this photo), and then re-shoot it once with a faster shutter speed, and once with a slower shutter speed, just to make sure I get one shot that comes out well. — tspauld (Tom Spaulding)

:: Mez 16:56 [+] ::
...

Tasmania 2005 (Some photos from my holiday to Tasmania, a Flickr Photoset - work in progress). I'm not sure if I should break this down into smaller sub-sets, such as all the ones taken around Macquarie Harbour and Strahan, all the ones around Hobart and those around Devonport, plus a set of ones taken while travelling between the three main places I stayed; or breaking them down into landscapes, cityscapes, seascapes, plants, places, people; or whatever.

I will have to find a different place to store the video clips I also took with the digital camera.

By Sea between Sydney & Tasmania (A Flickr Photoset - work in progress) This will include both the journey down and back, scenes of Sydney and Devonport as well as of the ship itself and sea-scenes from it.

:: Mez 18:37 [+] ::
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Is this what was needed in major-league bulk supply in the banana plantations before Cyclone Larry hit?

From http://www.bananabunker.com

I am making no other comment at all. Whatsoever. Not even about the date.

:: Mez 19:35 [+] ::
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Girl from Ipanema
Originally uploaded by neloqua.

Check out the other bird photos here.. Some really lovely ones.

Labels: flickr, pix

:: Mez 20:20 [+] ::
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composed
Originally uploaded by Vanita.

Vanita, Vanitas, Vanitatas?
How pre-Raphaelite. Considerable gorgeousity, especially in the textures.

:: Mez 19:46 [+] ::
...

No. I haven't put any of the photos from my time in Tasmania here yet. I've loaded quite of a few them up to flickr.com, but not by any means the majority yet, or sorted. Here's a link to the set page (www.flickr.com/photos/87756698@N00/sets/1529859)



The first batch was a chunk of nice scenes that would make good desktop backgrounds for computers, but only at 640 x 480 size, I'm a bit thingy about trying to leave some kind of ID on them so if people use them there's an acknowledgement (I do try to put something so that you can find the original &/or the originator of photos here.)

So many other things to do, I haven't had the time & energy to do much sorting, labelling & heavy uploading.

:: Mez 20:39 [+] ::
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qofd - Quizzical Kitten (breakfast)
www.flickr.com/photos/37649656@N00/100492554

Wild Neighbors at Dharma Bums (another type of cat)
newdharmabums.blogspot.com/2006/02/wild-neighbors.html

Nadar - on the beach static.flickr.com/21/98422655_e1a77384ba_b.jpg



This rather remnds me of some of my Ocean Beach photos from the west coast of Tasmania — the dark sand, wide beach, mountains in the distance up the coast beyond the mist of spray above the waves.

Have I posted them here? Must check how many of my Tasmanian photos are up here.

:: Mez 20:17 [+] ::
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The Photography Channel

The Digital Journalist - A Multimedia Magazine for Photojournalism in the Digital Age
Changing the Face of Power: Women in the U.S. Senate Gallery - The Digital Journalist

Angry Monkey Photography

and also one of my favourite amateurs, as seen in the sidebar, from top left pixel, the Daily Dose of Imagery

:: Mez 13:14 [+] ::
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Buddha in the Banyan

wat phra mahathat,
originally uploaded by iamtonyang. (on Flickr)

:: Mez 00:40 [+] ::
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Cleek: Monday Cat Blogging (Monday, January 23, 2006 at cleek.blogspot.com)

:: Mez 02:52 [+] ::
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Green Girl
Originally uploaded by singingpixel.

From the "floraporn" group at flickr.com

There's some rather nice pix in there.

:: Mez 21:17 [+] ::
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Due to much clamour & wails of despair & loss from the thronging crowds of my distressed blogfans, <ahem>, I am just dropping this note in to say that this hiatus is just one of those gaps that strike blogdom. I have every intention of continuing — there is even some material I've been collecting in my blogpile for entries. "Life" tends to get in the way sometimes (& sleep & all that other stuff).

:: Mez 15:24 [+] ::
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Good News on Restoration of Hilton Memorial

UPDATE 2008
Even better news, on the 30th Anniversary, 13th February, 2008, they restored the plaque to a stele or pillar back on the footpath. With all my changes and troubles this year I haven't been on that part of George St, so I only saw it in December 2008 while I was doing Christmas shopping, without a camera. I'll try to put up a picture of it.


Hilton Memorial (IMG_3924a-crop)
Originally uploaded by Mezza.

Hilton Memorial (3924a-crop)

"To the memory of Alec Carter, Arthur Favell and Paul Burmistriw, two city council garbagemen and a 1st class police constable, who were killed here as a result of a bomb explosion on 13th February, 1978. Forever in our thoughts. Your workmates."

Hilton Memorial (3924a-crop480),
originally uploaded by Mezza.

Restored memorial plaque to the 3 dead in the Sydney Hilton Bombing, after major refurbishment of hotel.

"To the memory of Alec Carter, Arthur Favell and Paul Burmistriw, two city council garbagemen and a 1st class police constable, who were killed here as a result of a bomb explosion on 13th February, 1978. Forever in our thoughts. Your workmates."

Labels: anniversaries, Australia, history, memorials, pix, Sydney

:: Mez 21:35 [+] ::
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Yahoo's Kitten pictures search result (currently about 636,876).

Aussie Google's kitten image search result (currently about 339,000)

If you add up all the cat pictures, or maybe all the cute kittens and puppies and dogs and cats (other mammals?), would there be more pornography or them?

:: Mez 18:55 [+] ::
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flickrzen.blogspot.com - a collection of someone's favourite images from flickr.

"Flickrzen spotlights exceptional photographs, be that subject, technique or rarity, found on flickr"

:: Mez 02:49 [+] ::
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Catseyes at the Zoo
At the Zoo on Yahoo! News Photos: "A Siamese cat looks out at Arab Gulf tourists at Jordan Zoo near Amman July 13, 2005. Many Arab Gulf tourists visit Jordan during the peak of the summer season. REUTERS/Ali Jarekji"

Caged Eyes

The resigned gentleness of the leopard I saw in the cage was in sharp contrast to the fires of napalm, yet its orange fur and basic nature called it a great predator. One of the most disturbing stories I have read is With Folded Hands by Jack Williamson, about a race of androids that imprison humanity in a cocoon of safety and idleness. All the captive generations descended from the one leopard father have been resting with folded forepaws for too many years, their world stolen from them by human curiosity.

:: Mez 01:11 [+] ::
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Giancarlo Zema Design Group Innovative Semisubmerged Architecture Studio
In partnership with the SAS Ltd Semisubmerged Architecture Studio Head Office in London (UK) - www.sas-projects.com

:: Mez 03:03 [+] ::
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A female orb weaver spider wraps up a dragonfly in its web in Sopchoppy, Florida, USA. (The Sydney Morning Herald: Snapshot gallery)

:: Mez 16:27 [+] ::
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excellent
Originally uploaded by Doctor Swan.

Well, it's certainly quite good :)

I love Doctor Swan's photos of nature; beautifully composed and shot. His/Her vision is close to what I'd like to be able to do, so perhaps that's why I respond to it so strongly.

:: Mez 00:15 [+] ::
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shroud
Originally uploaded by Vanita (Grave photoset).

Buried my mother on Friday, 3rd June, 2005.

:: Mez 23:22 [+] ::
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Happy Furry Friday - prayer
Originally uploaded by Britta_585.

Two black velvet paws on textured cloth (with apologies to Dario Argento)

An Ennio Morricone~Dario Argento Trilogy
Morricone, Ennio
Price: $16.95
Audio CD
Product Description Includes music from: "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage", "The Cat O' Nine Tailes" [sic], "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" and an Interview between Dario Argento, the Maestro of Horror, and Claudio Fuinao about the trilogy.
16 Track total (Including Interview)
Footlight Store: 113 East 12th St. NY, NY 10003
New Hours: Monday-Friday 11-7, Saturday 10-6, Sunday 12-5
Phone: (212) 533-1572 Fax: (212) 673-1496 E-Mail: info@footlight.com

A Fistful of Dario
www.mediaroach.com/fistfulofdario
Welcome to A Fistful of Dario: The Dark Cinema of Dario Argento, my tribute/homage web page
Links page

Cinequest Tribute
www.cinequest.org/2000/guide/dario.html
Dario Argento: Master of the Macabre

Alan Jones
International Film Journalist
www.alanj.dircon.co.uk/Argento.htm
Dario Argento
(Alan reports all things Argento related on the darkdreams.org Dario website run by Nick Dawe)

Dario Argento: Master of Horror
www.houseofhorrors.com/argento.htm

Dario Argento: Master of the Macabre
www.giallo.dsl.pipex.com/main.html
Quentin Tarantino adores him. Clive Barker wants to be him. And John Carpenter directed 'Halloween' in homage to his work.

Master of Colors
www.argento.vervost.de

GoreZone
www.gorezone.net

Horror-Web
horror-web.com

Caged Eyes
The resigned gentleness of the leopard I saw in the cage was in sharp contrast to the fires of napalm, yet its orange fur and basic nature called it a great predator. One of the most disturbing stories I have read is With Folded Hands by Jack Williamson, about a race of androids that imprison humanity in a cocoon of safety and idleness. All the captive generations descended from the one leopard father have been resting with folded forepaws for too many years, their world stolen from them by human curiosity

:: Mez 02:05 [+] ::
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Lady Kira - a photoset on Flickr with a lovely black cat in it.

:: Mez 01:51 [+] ::
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was ist das?
Originally uploaded by Britta_585.

mmm ... can think of several possibilities

:: Mez 01:45 [+] ::
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Sorry, haven't been able to get into writing anything much except relating to the elbow-deep drifts of forms & legal documents that needed to be fixed up by this week or a large chunk of the house of cards laughingly known as my life will lose its insubstantial grip on reality, or at least a working facsimile of same.

Some forms still demand a typewriter. I was able to unearth my old Spanish manual (not Manuel) one. With working ribbon. Ha! Bureaucracy foiled again.

:: Mez 18:15 [+] ::
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HPIM0872.JPG
Originally uploaded by haiyan.

HPIM0872.JPG — one of those

:: Mez 21:55 [+] ::
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Still working on the method to not have lots of pictures on this home page. Dunno. It looks like most people DO have something like that.

I'm quite fond of the look of the layouts where you have a scrollable row or column of thumbnails, with another space on the page to display the full-size image of the thumbnail image you click on. Unfortunately they seem to depend on using frames. I really dislike HTML frames.

So, here's a portfolio of different moods, showing Sydney Town Hall and the World Square Tower that spoilt the original view of its outline against the sky from all along York Street. This is a sample preview of one.

:: Mez 05:16 [+] ::
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Shame that this has gone missing now.


P0002542
Originally uploaded by RickMacMerc.

NOT MINE
I'm still working out what this one is. Several possibilities. Kinda pretty, tho'.

:: Mez 13:48 [+] ::
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I had originally hoped to put links to separate album pages on the front blog page, so that loading the main page would be quick, but that isn't how most of these services work. At least something is getting up online anyway.


Dusk at Railway Square, with Central Station clock tower 

:: Mez 05:45 [+] ::
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Pyrmont - Harris St - traffic under Fig St overpass, with footbridge 

:: Mez 05:44 [+] ::
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Pyrmont - work rooftop view south - St Benedict's church with palm, grass & rooftops 

:: Mez 05:42 [+] ::
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Pyrmont - work rooftop view north - Sydney Harbour Bridge beyond Scar City on sunny day 

:: Mez 05:40 [+] ::
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Pyrmont - work carpark north - grass, asphalt, airconditioner, shadows 

:: Mez 05:39 [+] ::
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