I'm finding it hard to believe that I have been blogging almost FOUR years! and I really had no idea of the structure or process of blogger. Now don't get me wrong, I have absolutely no desire to learn how to write html code. That's what great people wrote great point and click software for. All I wanted to do when I set out on this little journey a few days ago was to figure out how to make my photos just a little larger without losing resolution.
Like Holly, I quickly found the photo sizing code under the html menu in my blogs dashboard layout and was pleased when I thought it would be that simple. Then I went to my graphics monitor and to my dismay, saw that my enlarged higher resolution photos (I keep them at 144 dpi so they look nice but aren't a huge download issue) looked like blown up 72 dpi images!
I did a little research and found out that anytime you upload a photo through that cute little blogger photo icon, it doesn't matter what resolution it started out as, blogger 'downsizes' it. Okay...so what to do? I know other people put larger good resolution images in their blogs and I started searching.
The first thing I figured out was how to go into the html menu and make the margins of my blog larger. There is a great series of free tutorials on just those kinds of things here. Now what I'm about to talk about is based on spending 20+ years of my life as a successful and sought after graphic designer. There are mistakes novices make in design because they don't understand what it takes to get someone to actually stop and read something, and keep reading. Just because you have 1,000 fonts doesn't mean you should use them all!
These days people have many different ages, sizes and kinds of computers. Old monitors are much more narrow and with lower resolution than what is being bought now. A friend in the northeast helped me a lot while I was creating the foundation of my Wild Hearts, Willing Spirits website by telling me how things looked on her old monitor. Just because you suddenly figure out how to make your blog wider doesn't mean you should!
There are some blogs out there I really like but find tedious to read because the text portion is so wide it's hard for my eyes to follow back and forth and keep track of where I am. I also get very frustrated when I am on my netbook computer and I not only have to scroll up and down but back and forth to read or look at something. So that was my first decision: make it wide enough to have a larger photo but not too wide to not be easy to read.
I experimented with placing a faded back photo image in the background and while I thought it was really pretty, it made the blog hard to read so I scraped it. I don't think I'm completely done with that idea, I just have to come up with the right photo that adds interest to the background but doesn't distract from the text. See? Once a graphic artist, always a graphic artist.
Back to the nuts and bolts of photo enlarging. I found a great simple little tutorial here and in the process learned that all of my blogger photo images are stored in google Picasa! That was reassuring to know they were actually sitting in folders somewhere. I also discovered that in almost four years of blogging I have used about a third of my free storage. Who knew there was a limit? That means I might make ten years of blogging before I have to 'upgrade' and pay for storage.
So that's the whole deal...to get good resolution photos on your blog you must first, enlarge your margins to allow for them. Second, do NOT upload your photos through the blogger uploader. Third, edit your images to about 20 pixels less than the body margin of your blog and upload them to a photo storage site. Fourth, when you are creating a post, paste the 'embed image' text provided on your photo storage site into the 'edit html' menu where you want it to be in your final post. An extra step or two but worth it I think.
That same friend in the northeast sent me an email saying she liked my 'Navajo Horse Song' on this post. I was kind of surprised that no one else commented on the song that was in the photo captions and meant to be read in sequence separate from the other text. So since I was experimenting with photos this way, I decided to repeat those photos in their new and enlarged beauty along with Mio's song.
While I was thinking along those lines, I feel that writing a song or poem about the things you respect and love about your horse is a good way to begin to have a deeper and more conscious connection with him or her. So if you have managed to get this far, I challenge you to go out and write something to honor your horse, then come back here and let me know and I will link back to your own post and even include your song or poem on my blog if anyone takes me up on this challenge. Even if you don't have a blog, email your song to me and I will post it here to honor your horse. I think I might even create that 'you don't have to do a darn thing except accept this award' award to give to those who take this challenge.
One of these days I'm going to write about the years when I 'ran away with the Indians' as my friends said, and committed myself to working with Shoshone medicine people doing healing work with horses. That's a long story in itself. Now here is my 'Song of Mio'.
Mio, Mine...my horse.
My horse has the elements of earth, wood, wind and spice.
My horse is made of polished walnut, black onyx and milky quartz.
My horse has the spice of cinnamon, turmeric and cumin.
The Navajo Nation claimed him...but I believe his ancesters walked in Spain.
My horse has the wind in his mane and his hooves can walk on air.
This is my horse. The one who will carry me through troubled times and times of joy.
My horse has the elements of earth, wood, wind and spice.
My horse has the elements of earth, wood, wind and spice.
My horse is made of polished walnut,
black onyx and milky quartz.
My horse has the spice of cinnamon, turmeric and cumin.
The Navajo Nation claimed him...
but I believe his ancesters walked in Spain.
My horse has the wind in his mane and his hooves can walk on air.
This is my horse. The one who will carry me through troubled times and times of joy.
This is my horse. The one who will carry me through troubled times and times of joy.
PS ~ now wouldn't you like to win this award by writing something to honor your horse?
5 comments:
Carmon...I love the enlarged photos, but I don't think I have the staying power to figure it out. Yours are beautiful!
I like your poem. I wish I could write poems but can't. My sisters do it and it amazes me.
The quote from snowbush was a comment he left on my blog about Pat Buchanan and I don't avoid such blogs i like to agrue and I take them on with glee.
snowbush writes well but at times he posts really dark thoughts about his life and I wonder if he is as miserable as he seems.
that quote he used is not his I have read it somewhere on the net and it tickled me that tho' he writes well he had to use another persons words to dispute me.
I was not truthful when I emplied I hated to dispute him cause I loved the fight of a good debate.
So very beautiful and touching, Carmon. Thank you.
Those photos are fantastic Carmon.
Thanks for the info about the photos and Blogger. I've been having loads of problems with mine. Sometimes they enlarge when you click on them and sometimes they don't. I just haven't figured out why. I spent ages researching it and I did see that the images are loaded on Picassa. I'm going to go through that tutorial you showed.
I have problems reading things on a patterned background. So I like your plain one with the pattern on the edges. At work I was involved in developing a website that had to meet high accessibility standards. We used the Royal National Institute for the Blind Guidelines along with the Dyslexia Institute's. I hadn't realised that 1 in 10 people have some form of Dyslexia. Again they advised against patterned backgrounds. So you're in good company, your standards make your site highly accessible.
Your blog is looking wonderful with all your larger photos, Carmon. I hope you aren't having problems with my blog and it's wider stance and large photos?
I prefer visiting blogs with very large photos and tend to visit more photography focused blogs over those that are text focused.
I don't use a lot of words on my blog for the same reason. I find that many people just skim over the words, or just look at the photos, anyway. So I just include a brief caption under my photos and that's about it.
I've been blogging for almost 4 yrs, too. I started off with a family blog and then refocused my efforts onto my ranch blog because it seemed to reflect who I am.
I've had to pay for photo storage twice, because, like I said, my blog is more of a photography blog. But I'm ok with that, because it's my creative outlet and I do have fun with it. There are worse ways for me to spend my money, I think.
As for all the graphic design and html tips you shared and found on the internet, I didn't bother with all of that when I decided to change my blog.
I went the simple route and downloaded Windows Live Writer. No html to bother with, no copying and pasting, no re-sizing....and I never even have to visit Blogger anymore to post anything. It's all done from my own computer. And it's easier than using my simple point-and-shoot camera (another thing I love).
~Lisa
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