Digital Photo Albums: Metadata

Digital photo data can be stored either imbedded in the photo file (usually jpg) or as part of a database created on the computer by your photo editing program. The advantage to having it stored in the jpg is that it stays with the picture if moved to another computer or something, or if read by another program, or if your database becomes corrupt. The advantage of a database is fast indexing (searching). The information imbedded in a file is called “metadata.”

An analogy might be an old-fashioned photo album where information is written on the back of the picture and when put in the album transcribed to the album (written above, below or to the side of the picture). The “database” information is most readily seen as written on the album (you don’t have to turn the picture over). If you take the picture out of the album to send to a friend, the “metadata” info is still there on the back.

Audio files contain metadata also: mp3 players (I-tunes/I-pod) read the metadata from the music files and adds it to an audio database for search of artist/album/favorites etc. and creating playlists & shuffle.

Jpg file metadata is stored in two sections: EXIF is mostly where “hard” data like many camera settings is stored (put there by the camera itself) but also can contain some other fields like a title or comment, and is where the camera puts the date taken. IPTC is more personal data (Title, caption, who, what, where, when etc) that is put in by yourself. Some software is able to edit either EXIF, IPTC or both.

Free/low cost photo album/editing programs, with some recent exceptions, would read file metadata for placing into a database, but would not have metadata editing capabilities. Check the help in your photo album/editing software for “metadata” or “IPTC” OR “EXIF” to see if editing is available . I use an old standby, Thumbsplus, one of the original shareware programs. It is available at www.cerious.com for free 30day trial to at least try things out. I found out, however, wheras it would edit IPTC, it wouldn't edit EXIF. I found a nice free EXIF editor at reputable www.download.com called Exifer (currently v2.1.5). While I was there I found a neat viewer/slideshow program, also free, called FastStone Image Viewer. Do a search at download.com. But there are a zillion programs out there for graphic albums/editing, most quite capable.

Note: There is another way that text information can be part of a photo file: “stamped” onto the graphic itself. Usually this is the date. On a digital camera, this is when the “Time Stamp” function is turned on. Usually, this function is off by default. This function actually puts the date on the graphic, just like film cameras can do with prints. If this is the case, the date has to be “Photoshopped” out: much time & expertise required. But possible for that “special photo”. I recommend turning it off on your camera. A good photo viewer/slideshow can optionally read the data from EXIF metadata and display it.

One Day, One Circle. Arctic or Antarctic?

Big, Bigger, Biggest

Click on Photo and wait a few seconds ... it's an animated GIF.

Old Tales from the Military

I received an e-mail from Dennis (POG) saying Hi. Dennis is Sgt Maj, USMC Ret. It got me reminiscing those days way back when ...

I’ve got a couple Marine stories …

1970-71 I’m stationed at George AFB, California in the upper desert. Our base had fighter jets (F-4E Phantoms) & I was in weapons. Occasionally we’d pull end-of-runway duty to pull safety pins from fuses & pylons and do inspection. Our AF planes would come out in groups of four and they’d often be sitting there at the ramp waiting to take off after other planes landed, touching down near us. The Air Force pilots would “flare” on touchdown much like a commercial jet, smooth as can be. We would occasionally get Navy & Marine planes come in. The Navy pilots would land a bit hard … after all, they were taught & practiced “planting it” on aircraft carrier decks. You don’t want to screw around on such little real estate, especially pitching to some degree or another. Need to catch that wire! And the struts were beefed up on their planes for it. The Navy pilots would at least, however, give it an honest try for a “normal landing” at the AFB. Oh, but not the Marine Pilots! Oh, No! They liked to have planted themselves half way to China. It got so we couldn’t watch … avert our eyes and sing “la la la”. Every time they’d land we expected to find bits and pieces strewn all over the runway. But, then again, us grunts, what did we know about flying? So we glanced up at the cockpits of our waiting jets and our Air Force pilots were shaking their heads and covering their eyes too! I figure the Marine pilots thought they were still out to sea, but it just turned a sand color of brown …


The following isn’t so much about Marines as an association I had:

I got out of the Air Force 1973. In 1985 I was living in Eugene, Oregon and thought I might try the “Guard” for a bit of extra money. There’s an Air Guard unit in Portland 120 miles up I-5, but an Army infantry unit was right in town, just down the road. What the heck, I thought, for just 1 weekend a month & 2 weeks a year, it isn’t worth the trip. The Army Guard had a “try 1 year” sign-up program and they’d take me in at my AF discharge rank (E-5, Army Sgt)”. Nothing to lose, right? I found out there is a HUGE difference between Army, Marines and Air Force! After that year I made the trip to Portland!

Complements of the Oregon Army Guard I had some adventures. First was the bit about guns … I hadn’t touched a gun in my life until the M-16 at Air Force basic training in San Antonio where in all of no more than about 30 minutes I got some sort of “Expert Marksman” medal(?!). (Note: I since found out that the instructors were successful in accomplishing their main goal: survive the day. The less time a new recruit is on the range that day, and if they don’t return, the greater the chance of not being shot!) I didn’t touch a gun the rest of my AF four years, including 1 year in DaNang and 6 months in Thailand. And I hadn’t touched one since. So now I’m a Sergeant in the infantry … supposed to know a bit about the M-16, I think … Luckily they found an out-of-the-way place for me: mortar platoon, trajectory figurer. I pretty much stayed out of trouble except for the time I accidentally left my rifle lying around. Got about half a mile down the road towards home before figuring it out … boy, was Top mad about that!

Our two week duty was at Coronado (San Diego), the Seals training base. The main goal was to learn “storming the beaches” (mothership to landing craft to beachhead) But we had lots of other adventures … rafting, boating, swimming, climbing, repelling, helicopters, hiking(!), atv’s, and judo, jujitsu, karate and all that shit! All with genuine Navy & Marine Seals instructor’s stamps of approval. (Reference a zillion movies out there).

Luckily, the instructors were tipped off that we were Guard members and maybe some consideration and respect (Ha!) ought to be paid to our age & backgrounds. After all, kill us all off and the mail might not go through, cars might not get fixed and what not. They “pretty much” got it. It was a bit tongue-in-cheek, a bit holiday for them. There was plenty enough in-your-face hollering at us, but we were better able to handle the verbal abuse now that we were older, more mature and hardened (married). And we were pretty much given “opt out” privileges on the more challenging/dangerous things. But, there’s always the male pride …, even for us “old farts”. A couple of us (not, me luckily) ended up in the Med Clinic for casts.

These exercises were for real … I especially remember the obstacle course. I had excelled at the obstacle course in the AF Boot camp. Lots of Laughs! There was a place you walked along a rope bridge: lower rope for feet, upper rope for hands. If you fell off, it was about 3 feet to a bit of a swamp. Nice dirty fun! The Marine Seals obstacle course had one rope 20 feet above sand. The rope was maybe 50 feet long and slightly downhill. They taught us how to do it: you don’t hang on underneath with your arms (never make it), but rather keep on top of the rope by hugging it with your chest and hanging a leg down for counterbalance. Then pull yourself along on top. With confidence and discipline, it works: you don’t flip over. Some didn’t listen too well … reference the above about “Med Clinic casts”.

I mentioned near the top about going back to the Air Guard after 1 year. There was a very specific time at Coronado that I made that decision: We actually had an exercise where we affixed bayonets and en masse came up over hill shouting KILL! KILL! KILL! I knew then that that just wasn’t “me”.

(to be con’t)

Old Motorcycling Era Photos

Tom Early Motorcycling Era

More tech drivel on Picasa Web Albums

Well, apparently I was wrong about having to autohide the task bar for F11 to go to "full" fullscreen in IE7, or something has changed. I tried it at work without autohide and it works.

When first uploading my last batch of photos to Picasa Web Albums, I forgot to check the "largest size" box for original sized uploads (by default it uploads "Large Size", which is smaller than the originals). Luckily I did a check. But I discovered a strange thing...I had no captions. By way of explanation, I'll give a little spiel on metadata...

Photos (usually jpgs) can have text information "fields" embedded in the files that can be read by software (and edited by some). I've put metadata in most of the photos I've uploaded.

Picasa Web Albums reads one of the data fields ("caption" in Thumbsplus7, but really confusing is that different programs can use different names for the same field!) Picasa Web Albums then displays the field as a caption when displaying the photo. Well, I found out it only does this when uploading "biggest size" photos!

It is nice to learn basic features of a good photo album program on the computer (there are a zillion out there); for instance how to view and slideshow fullscreen with "stretch" for small photos and "shrink" for large ones. And how to zoom in and out. Some of my recent uploads include magazine text that I've scanned at pretty high resolution so it's readily readable, but probably not at fullpage on most computer screens. Zoom in on individule paragraphs or columns. I'm referring to viewing the file after downloading to your computer (full filesize download).

Tom

New Picasa Album Uploads (scans)

I gave a phone interview via telephone for a biography for the American Motorcyclist Hall of Fame Museum in the Columbus, Ohio area. (to be posted online at their website). I was asked for some photos from way back. I warmed the scanner and started stripping some photos from old albums I hadn't cracked open for some time. I uploaded into two folders to the "Thomas Penton Picasa Albums" link: "Early Motorcycling Era" and "Tom, Julie, Danny, Spencer & Friends".

Tom