Don't laugh! I know it only took 5 months, but yes the Christmas photos from 2007 are finally posted. The problem with taking several hundred photos at a time is that the process of culling through them becomes daunting and well, I fell down on the job. Never-the-less they are up now, as well as Easter 2008 and Mother's Day 2008. Plus some other photos as well.

Tags: Photos, Christmas

Today I added links to both Tracy's .Mac Web Gallery and my .Mac Web Gallery. They are very simple to use and look extreamly pretty. Why .Mac, well, Tracy was already using and as it is part of our whole Apple experience; why not? It plays very friendly with all modern web browsers, works with the iPhone and the Apple TV. I still have my Flickr and Smugmug sites and only time will tell if I make the total switch; but for now it is really easy for me to publish from Aperture and it's just as easy for Tracy to publish from iPhoto.

.Mac isn't state of the art or super fancy, but it fits the need. You can download individual photos or entire albums if you like. There is also the option of adding your own photos to the albums if the feature is turned on for that album. I've not played with that feature much yet.

....................
Tracy's Gallery.............................................Kelly's Gallery

Tags: Photos

I've posted more photos to Flickr. They are not recent photos, most are from last year. I've been very bad about doing anything with the photos I take. I get them into Aperture, but fail to do anything with them after that. That has been a bone of contention with my wife as this means she has no access to the photos I take. Since I don't use iPhoto she can pear into my computer and see the photos I have and because of the mass amounts of photos that I do have there isn't an easy way to make them available to her. So I'm exporting the photos and both uploading them to Flickr as well as moving them to her computer.

One of the tricky thing about both Music and Photos is how to share them between members of the same house. iPhoto, for those that use it, does offer a sharing method; but while I love iPhoto, I don't like the destructive way in which it edits photos. If they would move iPhoto to a similar non-destructive format as Aperture and Lightroom i might move back to it.

Never-the-less, you are interested in seeing photos and not my personal workflow. So check out the link below. Next weekend I will work on uploading more photos from 2007 and 2006.

Flickr Photos

UPDATE 5/6/08 - I've added more photos and will continue to do so over the next several weeks.

Tags: Photos

Tracy has created a couple of web galleries using .Mac and iLife '08. I have to admit, they are pretty amazing tools. The look of the galleries is simply fantastic.

They may not as be as functional as Flickr, nor have the same amount of inexpensive storage; but Apple graphical and design prowess are undeniable. When viewing photos you have several different views: Grid, Mosaic, Carousel and the ubiquitous slideshow. In "Grid" and "Mosaic" you can reize all the photos on the fly, with Grid being the default mode and Mosaic probably being the mode folks will enjoy the most for finding the photos they want to see. Then there are the two modes best for just watching photos, "Carousel" and "Slideshow."

Slideshow works exactly as you might expect, with play and pause. The look is fantastic. Then in Carousel you view the photos from left to right with the photos zooming into view; as if you were scanning through them on your desk. It's a view you have seen in photo programs, but not much on the web.

The entire album gives you a great deal of ability to customize your view, more so than Flickr or any other photo website. So check out Tracy's photos and enjoy the exceptional "Apple Experience."

Links to her web galleries are below:
Photography - Architecture
Photography - Nature
Photography - People

Tags: Photos, Tracy

This is a cool feature that Picasa offers. I can embed a slideshow of photos right into this blog or any other web page I want. You can see the results below.

Another cool feature of Picasa is a visual link to the photo album. As seen below.

Carlos Jr. - Favorites

Tags: Photos, Picasa

I'm testing out two different photo sharing services. I've used both and recently started using Flickr again; but thought I would take a look at Picasa Web again and have been pleasently suprised. The sites do the exact same thing, but no surprise Google has done a great job with Picasa; although as with all Google sites it does lack a certain "splash" quality; but the same is true of Flickr.

I have the same sets of photos on both sites. Take a look at the public galleries of Carlos jr and tell me what you think. You can e-mail me at my primary address.

Picasa - Carlos Jr. Flickr - Carlos Jr.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts, and if you would suggest some other service. One of the main reasons for looking at either one of these sites is that there are plugins for Aperture 1.5 that allow me to post directly to their sites without the use of a secondary program or doing web-uploads.

Tags: Photos, Flickr, Picasa

As I continue to play around with Flickr, I've added photos of Carlos Jr. from 2006 and 2007. I basically pulled my favorite photos and uploaded them to Flickr. A link to the photos is available below. I will also find a way to add a link to the photos Gallery page. Remember, if you like one or more of the photos you can either download the photo or order prints. You have to be a Flickr member, but that's pretty easy and if you use Yahoo already, you are basically a member of Flickr.

Photos of Carlos Jr.

Tags: Photos, Flickr, Carlos Jr.

While I don't have photos of every part of the house, these photos should give you a good idea of what our new home looks like. The photos are not in full color for two reasons: 1) I like the look, 2) the color versions had a red tint to them that I couldn't remove. I've also tried something new, I'm linking to Flickr direclty. So if you click on the photos you will be taken to Flickr; from there you will be able to see a slide show of the photos are select the ones you like. Flickr also allows you to order photos.
You will find these photos a few different ways. One, click on the photo to the left, click on the text in the left column that states "New Photos of Da Vinci House in Wylie" or click on the link below.

Photos of Da Vinci House

Tags: Photos, Flickr

This evening Tracy and I attended the Couple Wedding Shower for Jessica and Chris. Their wedding is in a few short weeks, that's right my best friend and my brother are getting married only weeks apart; and a few thousand miles. The theme of the wedding shower was "Beach Party" and Chris' parents really did a great job. The food was great, the games fun and the atmosphere just like it should be; warm and friendly.

I brought my camera along and just felt compelled to take photos. I love photography and just don't take enough photos, although Tracy would probably disagree with that statement. Tonight I got a few good shots, of course I took nearly 300 pictures. I'v haven't culled through them yet, but did quickly choose about 30 or so that I liked and put them up on Flickr. The link is below, if you are interested in seeing them.

Photos of Wedding Shower

Tags: Wedding, Party, Photos, Flickr

Okay,

I have heard through the grapevine that some of our regular visitors (we have regular visitors????) have complained that the photos Tracy and I keep telling people are on KellysWorld are not easily accessible. For all of you, please know that I have learned the error of my ways. I have made finding the photos of 427 Da Vinci Lane so easy, Gracy (that's my dog) could do it.

Wait, you wonder how easy is it? What have I changed? Well, if you are reading this article shortly after publication then all you need to do is look directly to the left of this text (and a little up) and you should see a simple link that will take you directly to the photos.

But wait, there's more! For those that need it really, really easy, I MEAN REALLY EASY.

CLICK HERE
(If you are currently looking for the "HERE" button, please turn off your computer and throw it away.)

Here at KellysWorld we strive to offer our visitors the very best in customer service and satisfaction. After all, you, our readers pay the bills.

Wait, no you don't..... Okay, so why am I making this easy?!?

Oh yeah, my wife threatened to raise my voice two octaves if I didn't. See honey, I do as you ask me.

Tags: KellysWorld, Photos

On Saturday Tracy was a proud and happy mom, she watched her son, Javier, graduate from Universal Technology Institute ("UTI") with various honors and an excellent GPA. He had been attending UTI for about 18 months learning to get a technical degree in auto mechanics. With his graduation from UTI he is on his way to being a Master Mechanic.

This course was designed to take individuals with the necessary skill sets and improve them well beyond the days of the traditional grease monkey. They learned the inside out of nearly every aspect of automobile repair for ALL the major makes including the likes of BMW, Mercedes, Ford and Toyota. The end result is an individual who could probably field strip a BMW and have the knowledge on how to put it back together again. Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Children, Graduation, School, Photos

If you visit the Photo Gallery you might notice a slight organizational change. Nothing big, but trying to create a structure that might be more scalable than what I was using before. I've also increased the size of the photos in the flash slideshow. No need for all that white empty space right!?!

Tags: KellysWorld, Photos

Do you use a Mac? Do you shoot tons of photos? Then you need to take a look at PhotoReviewer. This application has only one real job, digital photo selection. What does that mean? Well, let's say you are on say your honeymoon and taking some 200 photos every day. You know that not all of those photos are keepers, do you really want to import them all into iPhoto? Probably not since iPhoto doesn't really handle choosing which photos you want to keep. It's a perfect shoebox, but not great for getting them into the shoebox with any kind of eye to storage limitations. At 1 to 3 megs per photo when you shoot at 5 megapixles, 200 photos can take up a great deal of space and if you are shooting as you should, there will be photos that you don't want to keep. PhotoReviewer will take care of you, and do so for only $15!

Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Apple, Mac OS, Photos

Tracy and I leave in a week for St. Thomas and we are very much looking forward to it. While we are there I hope to regularly post photos to EternalMagic for each day of the trip. You can find that section of the website located here. We are also taking our video camera and if I am lucky and my knowledge of iMovie allows me to, I will post some video of our Honeymoon local as well. See you on the web!

Tags: Photos, Wedding, Honeymoon

I've added more photos under the Family Archives section of the site. For now I am just pulling all photos of Mom, Dad and Brion; my eventual plan is to limit these photos to the more distant past. I'm still going through and dating photographs and creating various albums in iPhoto. I will add more photos hopefully over the next several days. Trying to get a bit more work done on this site and EternalMagic. You should be able to view the photos just fine regardless of the system you are using. The photos will show-up in a Flash slide show that should play in most browers, including Dad's.

Tags: KellysWorld, Photos

I've added a photo montage of Tracy and myself growing up. This video will be used at the wedding, but is available now for you to see. It isn't anything fancy, just whipped it up in iPhoto and added a little music. Took longer to encode that it did to create. The photos are basically in order of date, taking you from Tracy's birth all the way to our couple's shower last week. So enjoy! Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Photos, Wedding, Holidays

Tonight I finished my first video in a long, long time Baby Carlos. It isn't a long one, less than 4 minutes, but I believe I have done a fair job. I made use of iMovie and Garageband to make the video. While it was relatively easy, it still took an awfully long time to put it all together. I hope to do many more of these family videos in the coming weeks and months; and do plan on creating a video of the my upcoming wedding. Not sure how well that will work out as we are short on someone to take the video and editing whatever video we do get; will take a very long time. Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Grandkids, Video, Carlos Jr., Baby, Photos, KellysWorld

This father's day was one big trip for me, not in the we are going to Seattle kind of trip, but more like the "acid" variety. I'm not even married yet and I am not just a step-dad, but a grandfather and my dad and mom are both grandparents and great grandparents. When you think about it just a little ways, you come to the unmistakable conclusion that my future as a great grandparent myself is all but certain in well less than three decades. My friends will all be learning to be grandparents while I am learning how to be a great grandparent.... it boggles the mind. Stars help me, if little Carlos tries to drag me into great grandparent mode in 20 years or less. I really can't imagine being a great grandparent at 55. Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Photos, Holidays, Tracy, Carlos Jr., Dad

I would suggest not bookmarking any of the photo pages on my site, at least not for the time being. The file structure is not what I prefer at the moment, so it the coming days I will change it. I wanted to get the site up and live, but the photos were added at the last minute. While they all work fine, the file structure needs work. Nothing major, but I wanted to warn those that might be inclined to bookmark individual albums. In any event, it is best to just go to the main page and then work your way to the album of your choice. I seldom keep things very stable and love to move things around. I get that from my mother.

Tags: KellysWorld, Photos

If you look at the Family Archive section you will now find several sections based on individuals to make finding the photos you are wanting to see easier. I have many, many, many more photos to scan and upload so we haven't even begun to see what there is to offer. I still have a whole box of photos to actual look at and sort through and more than half a box of photos I have already sorted through but haven't yet scanned. This is by no means a small project, but it is a really fascinating one.

If you have any old family photos you think should be added to the collection, please forward to me of if you can scan them please do. Contact me and I can instruct you as to the resolution and size.

Tags: KellysWorld, Photos

I thought I had all the photos in the media room. I have about 100 or so on my desk and a few hundred more in a box under it. Well, apparently there are more... much more. Tracy was in one of our closets and noticed another box. She pulled it out only to discover that it is filled with photos. I'm not sure how many, but I am guessing upwards of 1000. I haven't even begun to sort through those yet. I have looked at every photo in the first bunch and have an idea of which I will scan, but with this whole new box the big job just go that much bigger.
I also learned that mom has several boxes of Fox family photos with her that I will get to sort through when Tracy and I get up there sometime next year. From what she says, she has many more photos than I thought she did; some going back to my great grandparents. While I love the idea of more photos... that's just a lot of scanning.

Tags: Photos, Tracy

I now have video working on the site, not that I have any content to show. The two videos I have are just samples to prove to myself that it would work. In the next few weeks I hope to add a few short videos of my own, possibly from Christmas. Maybe a few photo slideshows with music. Keeping coming back, who knows what will happen next.

Oh, I added a new entry to my personal blog over at KellysWorld Times. No rest for me.

Tags: KellysWorld, Video, Photos

If you haven't visited KellysWorld.net recently, you may not have noticed that it has a whole new look and feel. I call is KellysWorld 3.0; as this is the 3rd major revision to the site. What you are reading now, KellysWorld Times, is a sub-domain of KellysWorld and not actually the primary site. The actual domain of KellysWorld was pretty much stagnate for much of 2005. It was just unwieldy to work on and not much fun. I had more fun working on KellysWorld times and wrapping my brain around CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) in Blogger, the tool I use to make edits and changes to KellysWorld Times. I enjoyed working in it so much I created a few other "blogs" for the family plus one for our upcoming marriage. Those sites though aren't KellysWorld and as someone who enjoys doing a little web editing and playing with new features and tools, I really need to have a fully functional website.

You won't find any fancy features and while the look is new and much improved over the old site, it isn't anything super special. I won't lie to you, it is a template. You may actually see other sites on the web sporting a similar look. Who knows, they may make better use of it.

You will find in KellysWorld the standard fair. There are links to the various family blogs, there is a gallery of photos, a place to send me a quick e-mail, a place to store useful files and even upload some you feel are useful and even a page dedicated to just telling you what's new with the site itself. The gallery is especially cool making use of Flash technology so that all you have to do is sit back and watch the slide show. Having videos on the site should be great in the near future once I have produced a few.

All-in-all it should be a much better site and I hope updated more often than before. For the most updates you can continue to come here, so feel free to bookmark KellysWorld Times; but to say you have actually been to KellysWorld, you will have to go to http://www.kellysworld.net. It's really not that hard... go ahead... you know you want to!

Tags: KellysWorld, Photos, Re-Design

I'm finally done with the basics of rebuilding KellysWorld. I finished adding back what was missing, the Christmas lists and added in some more photos. I still have some more albums to add and spruce up the text some, but the basics are complete. Not really saying much it is a pretty small site. Of course the next step is the recreation of Eternal Magic, if I indeed decide to recreate that site. A lot of work went into it, but since I am using a different HTML editor, not sure how I will proceed. I can continue to use the HTML editor I did to originally create it, but that would be a bit of a serious pain since I will have to keep updating it from time to time for a full year. I will have to think on that.

Tags: KellysWorld, Photos, Re-Design