Category Archives: Site News

Commentary, Community, Site News

Format Problem with Blog Search and RSS Solved?

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Earlier today I posted:

A week ago, after having recently updated the theme for this blog, I became aware that search results returned by the blog do not include images. That is a problem on a photography web site! Earlier today, several people emailed to point out that the images have also disappeared from the RSS feed for the site.

The loss of images in search and RSS was certainly not intentional! I’m going to try to figure out why this has happened and correct it as soon as I can. (“Thank you” to readers who alerted me to this!)

I have a bit of an update, and I also have a quick request if you have a moment…

One problem was that images were not showing up when visitors searched to site using the search box that appears near the top of the sidebar on each page. Only text was being returned in the search results. I believe that I have fixed this problem – my own searches now include images incorporated in the original post. That is pretty darned important on a photography blog!

The other problem was that several readers who subscribe to posts via the RSS feed reported no longer seeing images in the feed. This has proven a bit more complex. I checked my Google Reader feeds, where I had been monitoring two versions of this blog’s feed. I discovered that the photographers were, indeed, missing from one version of the feed. I cancelled both feeds and resubscribed and… now they both work correctly. I also checked the php files for the RSS page and it looks like it should include the entire posts, images and all.

So, if you have encountered a problem with images disappearing from the RSS feed recently, I would like to suggest the following:

  1. Try to unsubscribe from the feed in your feed reader. The subscribe again, as if you were doing it for the first time.
  2. If you do this and the images are still not visible in posts that follow your completion of this step, I would be grateful if you would let me know a bit more about how your subscribe.
  3. You might also consider using Google Reader as your RSS feed reader. That is what I now use, and I’m pleased with the interface… and the images seem to show up correctly there.
Thanks!
Commentary, Site News

Mouse Over Images to See EXIF

3 Comments

The discussion on my earlier post asking whether people wanted to see EXIF data or not was interesting, but no clear conclusion emerged. Many felt – and I tend to agree – that the posts are generally more about the photographs as images than about the photographs as technical exercises. However, quite a few – even some who don’t want the viewing experience interrupted by technical stuff – did say that there are at least times when they are interested in knowing about some of these matters.

With this in mind, I have added a small plugin to the site that will display very basic EXIF data if you mouse over images in posts. Move your mouse over one of them and you should see the basics: camera model, aperture, ISO, focal length and so forth.

This plugin seems like a reasonable compromise until I (or someone else?) can find something even better. Let me know if it works for you. And, as always, if you want to know more about a photograph just leave a comment and I’ll try to reply – and I’m happy to try to respond to the wide range of possible questions, not just the technical issues.

Commentary, Site News, Technique

A Question: Data or Not?

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Until recently I included some basic exposure data with each of my daily photographs, listing the camera and lens used, the focal length, ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. When I switched to a new blog format a week or so ago, I made a few other changes at the same time. One of these was to eliminate the technical shot data from the posts.

To explain my thinking a bit, there were two reasons behind the decision. First, the shot information included links to a vendor with whom I had an affiliate relationship. The equipment listing allowed me to help readers who were looking for the very equipment that I used to make the shots to locate it online and make a purchase through this vendor. When the vendor abruptly cancelled its affiliate relationships with all California-based blogs at the end of June, it obviously no longer made sense to include those links. Second, I like to think that there are more important things about the photographs than the aperture, shutter speed, and camera/lens used to make them. In some ways, I have always thought it was just a bit odd that photographers have historically often included this technical information – while musicians rarely list the instrument they play and I’ve never seen a painting include data about the brand of brush used to make it! :-)

However, I get email. And several readers have very politely asked what happened to the exposure information, and some have asked that I again include it.

What do you think? Would you like to see it included again? Let me know by leaving a comment on this post. Thanks!

Site News

Fasten Your Seatbelt – I’m Going to Try a New Theme… or Two

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The blog theme that I’ve been using here for some time is so old that it apparently does not support some current wordpress features that I want to use. While there might be ways to work around this situation, given enough code hacking and patience… I think I may just try moving to a more modern theme.

Over the next day or so, things may change in strange and complicated ways. I hope that any problems are temporary, and I’ll keep the current (or old, if you are reading this after the update) theme around in case I need to make a hasty retreat!

And, no, the photograph of a lake shore that shows up by default in the header is not my photo – I hope to fix that very soon!