| Vol.
I, No. 1 | Oct.
20th, 2000 |
What
Surrounds Us: Photos from the First Day of Fall
{continued ...}
Previous
... *** You can click on any of
the images to see a larger version. ***
{Also see "Some
Notes About the Images" at end of photo journal.}
***
| Did
we say distracted? Before we finished with those burritos,
we realized we wanted to get a picture at New Haven Junction. So
we turned and went back on 17. At the Junction, we got this shot
of the old Train Depot. ... |
| From
the junction, we continued south on 7 into Middlebury. There, we
were tempted by a shot of the Green. But instead, we turned and
saw the light just right on the Congregational Church. {We also
have to confess. We didn't like the power lines that were arcing
across the picture ... so we took them out.} ... | 
|
 | We
left Middlebury on 30 heading west, then took 74 back out to 22A.
We wanted a picture of the Shoreham Apple Co-Op. By the time we got
there, the sun was already low in the sky. What we got was this
silhouette of the Co-Op after hours. |
| From
Shoreham, we headed on over east by some back roads, toward 30 and
Whiting. ... There, we got this one of the Post Office ... Zip
Code 05778. |  |
 | From
Whiting, we continued on some back roads heading east to Route 7. We
were starting our trek back home, and got this one ... a sunset in
Leicester. |
| When
we got back to Bristol, it was dark. ... But there was still
plenty in sight on this first and still-nice autumn night. ... |  |
*** Previous
... *** Some
Notes About the Images: For Those Interested in Such Things
As some of you may be aware, on-line images are usually in one of two
formats: either *.jpg or the old Compuserve format, *.gif. We use *.jpg,
primarily because they can be compressed to download more quickly. Of
course, with compression, you lose some of the image quality. But that's
the trade-off, and it seemed a good one in comparison with having you wait too
long for the image to download to your screen.
For all of
our pictures here, we had two things in mind: First, all of the larger
images were modified from the originals to be optimized for viewing on a screen
resolution of 800x600. For horizontal images, the maximum width was set at
720 [90% of 800], while for vertical images, the max was set at 540 [90% of
600]. This reduction allows room for your browser's title and navigation
bars, as well as for the Windows Task Bar below. What that means is that, if
your screen is set to 800x600 {or larger}, the entire image should fit on
your screen. If your screen is set to 640x480, you will have to scroll
to see the entire image.
Second, in order to decrease
download time, none of the larger image files are more than 50k, and most
are 32k or smaller. That means that, even at the slower 28.8k modem speed,
the largest image file should take no more than 15-18 seconds to download, and
most will download in 10 seconds or less. Though most images are only
compressed at 75% or so, we could only achieve this by increasing image
compression when necessary. That means that one or two images may be
compressed by as much 36%.
The reason for this
difference? All of the images were shot with a digital camera. A
few were shot at 640x480 {a supposed standard format for on-line images},
while others were shot at twice that, 1260x960. In other words, we've been
playing with the new digital medium. At this point, though it's still too
early to give a definitive answer, we like the originals at the higher
resolution. It seems to allow for the retention of a higher quality image,
even after the image size has been shrunk and compressed.
|
