Bonus & Wendy's Big Adventure . . . .

[Bonus]

They said I was doing a good job . . . . . 

 

 

[Kranswurm]

Yesterday I had time to pop up to one of my fav viewing points.

 

Ainsa Old Town, with the New Town below it and the Mountains behind it in the distance. There was some morning mist over the rivers and the dam...

Very nice.

You need to get a proper camera to do justice to the scenery.

[Bonus]

Very nice.

You need to get a proper camera to do justice to the scenery.

 

Actually the original pic was pretty good but I shrink everything down to post on here, so I lose a bit of quality . . . .

 

Edit: I'll post the original later and you can tell me if the difference is noticeable.

Edited December 19, 2020 by Bonus

[michaelbiker]

Awesome pics and thread.

 

FYI: If you want to shrink images while losing the least amount of quality try Squoosh: https://squoosh.app/

[ChrisF]

Bonus I was given the following advice by a pro photographer, that loads a lot of photos to social media for his clients.

 

 

If you use software like Lightroom, export your photos with the following settings, for use on social media:

- file size .. limit file size to 500kb

- resolution .. 300 pixels per inch

- resize to long edge ... 2048 pixels

- sharpen for screen

 

 

Exceed these settings and the social media platform software auto reduces the file .... and mess up the quality of the photo

[SwissVan]

Actually the original pic was pretty good but I shrink everything down to post on here, so I lose a bit of quality . . . .

 

Edit: I'll post the original later and you can tell me if the difference is noticeable.

Meh... I thought the pictures you already posted where just fine...

 

Normally I just post screen shots of my original pics... usually don’t have time to fiddle with apps n stuff.

[Kranswurm]

Meh... I thought the pictures you already posted where just fine...

 

Normally I just post screen shots of my original pics... usually don’t have time to fiddle with apps n stuff.

They are great,but, like with my pics, there is always room for improvement.I don't fiddle with apps and stuff.And use the original only with sizing for internet etc.I suppose it depends where your interests lie, and what you do with your time.

[NC_lurker]

Back in the Autumn I had the use of the company bakkie for a week while our car was in the garage for some repairs and I took the opportunity to hunt for stones/rocks suitable for wall building.

 

Almost everything built here - houses/barns/boundary walls are built from rocks just laying around in the veld.... you just have to make sure they have at least one good "face" on them. Thanks to the local geology, the way rocks are formed here makes that pretty easy.

 

Picking up rocks . . . . . it's not work - it's cross-training!

Great thread, I've really enjoyed following your adventures.

Out of interest, I'm assuming you're collecting rocks on private property, sort of 2nd hand rocks?

Are you allowed to "harvest" rocks from public land? Here in CT trying to grab even the odd stray rock off Boyes drive mountainside is a big no-no.

[RossW]

Awesome pics and thread.

 

FYI: If you want to shrink images while losing the least amount of quality try Squoosh: https://squoosh.app/

This is amazing! Bookmarked and already used  

[Bonus]

Awesome pics and thread.

 

FYI: If you want to shrink images while losing the least amount of quality try Squoosh: https://squoosh.app/

 

Bonus I was given the following advice by a pro photographer, that loads a lot of photos to social media for his clients.

 

 

If you use software like Lightroom, export your photos with the following settings, for use on social media:

- file size .. limit file size to 500kb.......

 

 

Meh... I thought the pictures you already posted where just fine...

 

Normally I just post screen shots of my original pics... usually don’t have time to fiddle with apps n stuff.

 

They are great,but, like with my pics, there is always room for improvement.I don't fiddle with apps and stuff.And use the original only with sizing for internet etc.I suppose it depends where your interests lie, and what you do with your time.

 

I had a look at the original photo and it was just under 3mb in size. Most of what I take - generally with my phone while we're out walking or I'm out riding - are between 2.5 and 5mb in size, way too big to post directly onto here.

 

I copy everything from my phone into a Temp folder on the laptop, open it with "Windows Live Photo Gallery", select "Properties", "Resize", "Resize & Save", and use "Medium: 1024" to create a copy of the photo about 500kb in size.

 

I whizz through and do this to all the photo's I need to shrink, then save the original "big" files into my backed-up personal Photo's folders (to keep forever) and use the smaller ones to post on here before deleting them . . . .

 

It takes a little while but it's been a pretty good get-around of the file size problem.

 

Edit: If we were posting photo's to advertise our place etc, then we'd look for a way of posting much higher quality for sure.

Edited December 21, 2020 by Bonus

[DJR]

The closest my adventures brought me to Ainsa was a couple of years ago when we climbed Montserrat, about halfway between where you are and Barcelona, where we were based. It was stupendously beautiful and I regretted not renting a road bike to ride up to the monastery. Next time, looking at your recent pictures, perhaps we should venture a little further North into the bigger mountains. 

Edited December 21, 2020 by DJR

[Bonus]

The closest my adventures brought me to Ainsa was a couple of years ago when we climbed Montserrat, about halfway between where you are and Barcelona, where we were based. It was stupendously beautiful and I regretted not renting a road bike to ride up to the monastery. Next time, looking at your recent pictures, perhaps we should venture a little further North into the bigger mountains. 

 

Would be great to see you! :-)

[ChrisF]

Bonus hang in there    

 

You are in photography heaven     Most "togs" pay big money to get to such locations ....

 

Every sport has a natural progression.  In photography it starts with the "gear", and the "composition", .... and just as you get the hang of it, your hard drive fills UP 

 

So the next evolution in the sport of photography is D.A.M.'s ..... Digital Asset Management.

 

 

This is probably one of the main reasons photographers end up using Lightroom, or similar "asset management" software.  YES, the bulk photo editing of Lightroom is simply brilliant.  But its true value comes out in its bulk exporting, and catalog functions.

 

Make no mistake, this is journey .... even very experienced togs continue to tweak their catalog.

 

 

Think 2 year, 5 years down the line.  You remember a special photo showing the snow line along a certain slope ..... IF you use key words when downloading and storing your photos, it takes SECONDS to pull up all your "snow" photos, a few more seconds if you want to narrow it down to a location.  (the search is as effective as the keywords you enter)

 

 

YES, you will take very special photos "of your place" when the time comes to advertise it.  But every single photo you take now, are potential add pics of "the area" when you are ready for the next step.

 

Also, your photos showing the improvements in your place are valuable when the next potential investor knows on your door .... 

 

 

 

Back to "photo size" for a moment.  Most of the packages now allow you to resize many photos at a time, so it should only take a minute or two to do the days photos.     

 

 

ENJOY !!!

 

 

PS - NOT knocking your photos !!  Just passing on some lessons that I have learnt on my journey behind the lens.

[Bonus]

Great thread, I've really enjoyed following your adventures.

Out of interest, I'm assuming you're collecting rocks on private property, sort of 2nd hand rocks?

Are you allowed to "harvest" rocks from public land? Here in CT trying to grab even the odd stray rock off Boyes drive mountainside is a big no-no.

 

Glad you're enjoying it!

 

Re the rocks for our wall building . . . . 

 

Initially, we used the rocks/stones from the original little wall that existed when we arrived. We dismantled the wall, firmed it up and then re-used anything that was the right size/shape. That only got us about 40cm's of height though!

 

Then we got permission from the person we bought the barn from - Ramon the Farmer - to harvest rocks from on his land. He's got plenty of land with plenty of rocks, including some good stone from a small building that fell down when his mother was a child - so about 100 odd years ago.

 

Additionally, we find rocks/stones on local land who's owners we also know or occasionally stuff that's just out in the countryside in the middle of nowhere. There are literally so many rocks that the few we need are not an issue.

 

If somebody were to try and do it on a "commercial scale" I'm sure it would be a problem and be stopped quickly enough, but we're fine.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Bonus

[NC_lurker]

 

 

Glad you're enjoying it!

 

The we got permission from the person we bought the barn from - Ramon the Farmer - to harvest rocks from on his land. He's got plenty of land with plenty of rocks, including some good stone from a small building that fell down when his mother was a child - so about 100 odd years ago.

 

Additionally, we find rocks/stones on local land who's owners we also know or occasionally stuff that's just out in the countryside in the middle of nowhere. There are literally so many rocks that the few we need are not an issue.

It's quite cool that you're repurposing what could've been part of someone else's house etc. Like bringing history back to life.

[Bonus]

It's quite cool that you're repurposing what could've been part of someone else's house etc. Like bringing history back to life.

 

Yeah the old building was a small shepherds "shelter" for him and any lambs in bad weather apparently.