The old view:

The new view:

Things I dislike about the new Flickr preview.

• They removed the helpful url links when viewing “all sizes”.
• They no longer have a “browse” link to take you to the flickr stream page where that photo appears Looks like they fixed this, the photostream link now takes you to a specific page.
• The map on the side is way to prominent. Seriously, is the map more important than the other photos?
• They removed speed options, viewing of descriptions, and ability to see what’s coming up in their new lightbox mode (instead of slideshow – I don’t love flash, but I liked the slideshow feature.).
• They turned the quick links above a photo into pull down menus. One more click to get what you want is never preferable.
• The spacing between photos on the photostream view is too wide. Just because some people have large monitors, doesn’t mean that the photos should look unbalanced to fill up the space.
• Titles need to go above photos, not below them.
• “Click here to add a title” no longer disappears, but sits there cluttering untitled images. (At least for my own photos when I’m logged in.)
• The column width for comments is now wider making comments harder to read.
• The commenter’s icon is smaller and doesn’t look as nice. Ironic considering they could have used the icon to fill up the space so that the text column wouldn’t need to be quite as wide.

Things I like:

• I like the new 640px default size, though things load a bit slower.

I admit, when viewing the small images above, I like the look of the new version because the bigger photo is nicer. However, all the other concerns make me feel like this one positive is not worth all the other negatives.

In my opinion, Flickr should hire the type of people that started the company: people passionate about photography and user interfaces.

My “pro” account is expiring next week. I am thinking about migrating my photos to Picasa before then. That doesn’t leave me much time.

The most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth created to date. Using a collection of satellite-based observations, scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations of the land surface, oceans, sea ice, and clouds into a seamless, true-color mosaic of every square kilometer of our planet. Much of the information contained in this image came from a single remote-sensing device-NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS. Flying over 700 km above the Earth onboard the Terra satellite. (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center)

The article is available online (sans photos).

The Festival takes place in the most beautiful venue I’ve ever seen. It’s a gigantic amphitheatre called The Gorge. There were so many interesting people and so many great artists—check out some of the photos and videos I captured from the event:

[Sasquatch! Music Festival Slideshow - Flickr]

I have to admit turning off the lights for an hour won’t do much to save the environment. It does, however, stimulate a spirit of unity and puts the problem into the forefront of our minds.

The Boston Globe’s Big Picture has posted an inspiring collection of before and after shots from Earth Hour with the lights on and off at famous locations around the world. Don’t forget to click to see the images with the lights off.

Boston Globe’s Earth Hour 2009 Photos.

Enjoy the trailer.

(video by Michael Warf)

Here are a couple of composites I made from the photos I shot that day:

Also, San Fransisco’s Bush Street gets an update:

Sources 1 and 2.

See my Jamaica Flickr set for more.

I’m left to assume that after 40 years of the same songs, he tries to mix it up a bit. Personally I would have preferred to hear more of my “favourite” Bob Dylan songs (the ones that come up on my iPod for example) but having said that, it’s a rare and exciting event to see a living legend.

Update: I just read on wikipedia that after Bob Dylan’s 1979 conversion to Christianity, he decided he would no longer play any of his old material.

From the article: “Dylan refused to play any of his older compositions, as well as any secular material. Though Larry Myers had assured Dylan that his old compositions were not sacrilegious, Dylan would say he would not ‘sing any song which hasn’t been given to me by the Lord to sing.’ Fans wishing to hear his older songs openly expressed their disappointment. Hecklers continued to appear at his concerts, only to be answered by lectures from the stage. Dylan was firmly entrenched in his evangelical ways, and it would continue through his next album, whether his audience would follow or not.”

Here’s a quick video demonstrating one of Photoshop CS4’s amazing new abilities (which was foreshadowed here)—to scale intelligently based on the content of an image.

It opens up a whole new can of worms in the ethics of editing photos department, but at the same time, it looks REALLY fun to use.

Hit play or watch Content Aware Scaling on YouTube.

(via)

Speaking of my sister, check out her new Photography blog.

Posting has been sparse lately so it’s probably not particularly surprising when I say I may not be adding a whole lot while I’m gone.

He messaged me yesterday to let me know he found out it’s being used in a political ad created by Paul Andersen and Adrian Elton, This is what we Australi-Are. The video is the winning entry in a contest to create television ads that promote a better, fairer, more progressive Australia. A friend of his from London recognized him.

Update: I guess the photo is no longer for sale. The Aussie government now requires a release for photos of Uluru.

A security officer in Middlesbrough did not seem to realise it is legal to take pictures of people when on public land.

Flickr user i didn’t mean to go to Stoke posted his photo and story about this security guard in the process of detaining him and a friend for taking photos in the outdoor, pedestrianized area of Middlesbrough, UK.

I don’t know how traumatized the guy was after being detained but I hope some good comes out of it as people learn that there is nothing illegal or unethical about street photography.

His friend captured some video coverage of the incident.

Moments later as i walked away this goon jumped in front of me and demanded to know what i was doing. i explained that i was taking photos and it was my legal right to do so, he tried to stop me by shoulder charging me, my friend started taking photos of this, he then tried to detain us both. I refused to stand still so he grabbed my jacket and said i was breaking the law. Quickly a woman and a guy wearing BARGAIN MADNESS shirts joined in the melee and forcibly grabbed my friend and held him against his will. We were both informed that street photography was illegal in the town.