The Work Beyond the Photographs

Some people may believe there is not much work involved in taking photographs and throwing them up on Associated Content as a slideshow. I am sure there are people who do that, no thought into the photographs or slideshow. While that is fine and may work for others I would like to share my own personal process, struggle, effort, I put into my slideshows.

My process for creating and publishing a slideshow:
Take the photograph!
Download from Camera to Computer!
Select photographs to use!
Size down selected photographs!
Decide on a title for the slideshow!
Write titles and captions for each photograph!
Upload photographs and publish!
Share with my friends and the World Wide Web!

Before we get into details of my list I will warn you throughout this article I reference many, most, of the slideshows I've created to this point. If you have not viewed them please feel free to click on the links to take a look and come back here afterwards.

Take the photograph:
Taking the photographs is the easiest part for me. I love taking pictures and love my digital camera with extra memory - I can take 750 photographs without having to download pictures. My favorite subjects are my grandchildren, nature seines and flowers of any kind.

To this date and time my flower slideshows include: "Lovely and Amazing Iris", "Meanings of Pink Roses", "Snapdragons", "Marigold Flowers", "Mixed Flowers for Your Garden", "Daffodils", and my all time favorite flowers "Peonies". I take my camera with me most every place I go and have even been known to take pictures of flowers at the grocery store.

Download photographs from Camera to Computer:
Some people may think this a silly or stupid step but it can be very frustrating and time consuming. After having drained two sets of rechargeable batteries it sometimes take hours of trying different batteries or waiting for batteries to charge. When taking several hundred pictures it also takes time just for the transfer. Such a day was when I took the pictures to go with my article "Ella W. Sharp Park Jackson, Michigan". Three slideshows were the result of that day: "Ella W. Sharp Park Activities", "The Ella W. Sharp Park Flower Gardens", and "Ella W. Spark Park". Another day resulted in "Hot Air Balloon Landing and Loading" - I took over 500 pictures and 3 videos on that one day.

Select photographs to use:
Obviously selecting the photographs to use can be another pain-staking process. Particularly for someone who has just taken 500 pictures. I tend to want to use only the best even though I am not nor ever claimed to be a professional photographer I still do my best to show the public only my best. I keep the 'youngest son picking his nose' and 'grandson scratching his butt' for family and friends to laugh at. I also delete over half the pictures I take for various reason: too dark, blurry, no idea why I have a picture of my foot on there. "Monkey in the Tree"
and "Kayaking on Clarklake" are two of the slideshows where you get a glimpse of my family.

Size down selected photographs:
Anyone who has used a digital camera before and downloaded photographs to a computer will most likely be aware of the fact that the actual picture sizes are far greater than the pictures or photographs that appear on the computer screen. If you don't size down pictures it can cause problems when you upload them to the Associated Content web site. Many web sites have a restricted limit of how large pictures can be.

During this process I also often crop pictures - cut out that corner of the picture with my hair over the lens or my grandson's shoulder along one side. In the slide show "Fall Foliage Fog" there are two pictures I cropped to take out the car roof tops that were driving down the road between me and the spot I wanted to photograph.

Decide on a Title for the slideshow:
I must admit I am still struggling with slide show titles. "Snapdragons", "Daffodils", and "Peonies" make it clear what the slideshow is about but certainly do not do a lot for the search engine traffic.

The slide show that continues to draw the most hits even after a year is The longest or largest slide show I've published, "McCourtie Park Somerset, Michigan" (Published 8/7/2009). I am sure one reason for this is the fact that there are very few photographs online of the park but also figure the specific but more detailed title also helps.

Write titles and captions for each photograph:
My thinking on this is you are only allowed 255 charaters for each caption so if you expect to get any hits (views) down the road you want to use what space you have available. I try to include my keyword in each caption although I don't always succeed.

Writing captions can be the most time consuming and difficult part of publishing a slideshow. The longest or largest slideshow I've published, again I refer to "McCourtie Park Somerset, Michigan" was actually the easiest for my 17 photographs of 17 different bridges. My passion and love of 'The Bridge Park' played a huge part in making this an easy task.

At this point the most difficult slide shows to write captions for has been the Michigan Wildflowers series. These have involved hours of researching not only to figure out what the flowers were but to learn what I can about them. I knew what "Black-Eyed Susan"s and "Milkweed" were but knew nothing about them. The "Arrowhead" and "Cup Plant" I didn't even know what they were except they were 'pretty flowers' and I took pictures of them. At this time I have over 700 'flower' pictures on my computer that I do NOT know what they are.

This is work but I am determined to not only use these many photographs but learn about them myself and share that knowledge with others who may also not know. These are times even more than ever I wish my Grandfather ("Grandpa, the Ice Cream Parlor, and the Swing" Published 12/8/2008 is one of several stories about Grandpa) was still alive. He knew every single plant, flower, tree, animal marking in Michigan.

Upload photographs and publish:
All it takes is doing it one time and uploading and publishing a slideshow becomes the simplest part of the process. The basic process is the same as for an article on Associated Content and the steps are simple to follow. I've done enough now I almost do a slideshow in my sleep when it comes to AC. Of course I do need to keep my eyes open though because we all know things can change without notice.

Share with my friends and the World Wide Web:
There are no upfront payments for slide shows on Associated Content so the pay-per-views are the only financial rewards I receive. I do however get great joy and pleasure from comments praising, recalling their own past, or getting a laugh. I do believe the slide show that contains in my opinion the worst pictures I've published yet has as of July 15, 2010 45 comments (the most of any of my slide shows I believe) is "The Traveling Peanut Butter Cup".

I love taking photographs but then do no one any good buried on my computer so by making the slideshows I can not only share my pictures but hopefully provide something for others.

The work is done, that is what I go through to provide a slide show. Ok, for those readers who have been loyal followers and viewed all of my slide shows on Associated Content you are I'm sure aware that I have at times put next to no effort into a slide show. My series of slide shows starting with "Oddball Photographs 1" ("Oddball Photographs 2" and "Oddball Photographs 3" followed) had some thought but honestly very little. I just liked the pictures and wanted to do something with them.

If you haven't gotten your fill of slide shows feel free to visit a few of my non-flower favorites: "Morning Golf Course", "Sunrise Over Jackson, Michigan", "Clarklake, Jackson County, Michigan", and "Sun Set over Big Wolf Lake, Jackson, Michigan". It may mean a lot of work creating a slideshow but for me it is worth the effort I hope my readers/viewers feel the same.