Pictures, pretty please!

I know many of you are busy submitting your best images to the annual photo contest, but I hope everyone will still remember to contribute to the Plants Database. We're starting to see the usual "fall slump" in image submissions, and I just wanted to remind everyone that now is a great time to capture beautiful images of things like..

leaf color changes on trees, shrubs and groundcovers;
ornamental grasses (in all their glory)
seeds you're collecting (very helpful for ID purposes)
fall flowers (mums, asters, goldenrods, rudbeckias, sunflowers, etc.)
fall/winter squashes, late-season veggies
...the list is limited only by your imagination ;o)

You don't have to submit all your images all at once - in fact, having some of these glorious reminders of seasons past is extra-nice when the winter doldrums set in. Just a note of encourage for everyone to capture these fleeting images will they're still with us ;o)

Terry, I'm not real computer literate. How do I get my photos from my camera to my computer and from my computer to the garden?

sylvi74, if you have a digital camera, you should have documentation that explains how to download, edit and save your images. If you have a non-digital camera, you can have a CD with your images made when you have the pictures developed. Most walk-in places offer this service, as do the mail-in photo developers (Snapfish among others.) The CD or online storage (sometimes called a "shoebox", you'll be able to view and save the images to your hard drive or retrieve them from the CD.)

Submitting a digital image anywhere on the site works pretty much the same all over. You'll find a browse button next to a box titled "Image" - when you click on the browse button it will open a separate window that allows you to see the files on your computer's hard drive. Once you locate the correct file, you'll click on it, press "okay" and then preview a small thumbnail-size version of it on our site. If it is the right one, you'll press "submit" to upload it. Each area of DG has an FAQ (link is at the top) and it will give you additional pointers on uploading images to the forums or your journal, or the PDB.

Thank you. Hubby lost the manual for the digital camera, but I think I can download one. I already have some photos on the hard drive, so I'll give it a try! This is hubby at his knighting ceremony last weekend.

I am on winter, nothing is blooming right now (nothing that I hadn´t registered before)... Oh well, I still have a few orchids that I have no info about, just the pictures and a doubtful ID. I am slowly sending them to the PDB.

Terry, thanks for the reminder. I usually feel like I'm posting too many images and bogging things down, but if there is a window of opportunity out there, I'm goin' for the gold! Let me check my summer pics and see what I have missed.

Something that occured to me this summer as I was working on trees.....most trees have a unique profile when the leaves are gone. Oaks, Maples, Birch, Elms and Hickories all have a silhouette that is distinct to the species...as do most other deciduous trees. These would also be helpful in the PDB...and can be done when everything is dormant. Keep that in mind when the flowers fade.

Laugh if you like, but I've been known to go to places that sell houseplants and take photos to post. Nobody has ever arrested me for 'shop-lifting' photos!

... some security guys tried to get my camera because I was taking pictures of other people´s plants once. It happened to be the plants outside those people walls, though. I think they thought I was a paparazzi taking pictures of those people´s cars, houses, objects, whatever. Quite a situation.

Since then, I have been avoiding taking pictures in my neighborhood. I don´t want to explain that I am not selling pictures to the media or anything every time I go for a walk.

Yes, I can see why you would be hesitant! However, I'm talking about taking pics of plants in Walmart... don't think it's a problem there... unless of course, Sam Walton is standing in front of it! LOL!

Given the antipathy I recieved from security guards only by taking pictures of plants on the street, I wouldn´t even dare to try to take pictures inside somewhere like Walmart :^P

How unfortunate. Well, I guess this is an example of one of the advantages of living in a huge state with so few people.... trust.

Yep, I guess so. Only this city has 6 million people living in here, you can imagine the stress.

My break in submitting is due to the kids going back to school and dealing with the open houses, curriculum nights, meet the teacher nights, getting the rest of the supplies etc and still trying to pretend I can still do summer things like go away for the weekend. I have been so darn busy. You'd think with them being back in school for 4 weeks now that I would be back in the groove, but I am not. I just have to get out there and get some pictures taken soon.

sweezel, I hear ya 100% (I think we're leading parallel lives.) Between two kids' soccer practice schedules, carpool twice a day, Bible class teaching, (next week 4th grade choir and basketball practice start) I meet myself coming and going most days. (I'm usually the last to bed, and 2nd to rise, except on Saturdays, when I might be 3rd to be up and about, *grin*)

I have been as the rest of you very busy. Also my daughter came from VA to visit for 10 days. My computer has been in hosp. for a week. Just got it back today, most of replaced, and now I am trying to get used to the new look and location of everything. Also most of my mail is still in the old computer. Hope I can retrieve most of it. Hopefully will get to take some pictures soon, but have to reinstall the Camedia before I can send any photos. Donna

Isn't it fun Terry! ;) All this running around almost makes me wish winter would get here faster. ...but of course then there will be even less to photograph.

I keep trying to figure out my "new fangled" digital camera but its just not sinking in. I have a bad feeling that #@*&! camera is going to make me have to read the dang instruction manual. If only it was as simple as my old manual Canon that I wore out. Of course that wasn't simple at first either, but somebody showed me how to use it properly!! DH keeps saying read the manual, the creep. Sigh. I will persevere!! One of these days I'll get pics to come out clear....lol.

ceedub, if your pictures look fuzzy, it could be that you are trying to do closeups using the zoom. Alas, I have found that it is best to step away from the flower, then zoom in during editing on the computer. Zooming in with the digital, unless you've got one with special lenses, can make the pictures blurry.

Thanks Weez I'll try that; thats a great solution. Are you all ready for winter up there? Of course, I think of Alaska the way the US thinks of Canada - all ice and snow!! But I'm sure you still have some green up there, just your growing season is short.

Yes, you are correct, Ceedub. We still have some green up here. However, the growing season is over and fall is turning colder. The temp was 32.8F this morning. I hope my herbs are still harvestible. Ah, well, it's a wakeup call.

Brrrr, here I think it was about 65F this a.m. I'm in a fairly temperate part of Canada though on the north west end of Lake Ontario, and we don't generally get really bad winters (of course even that staetment is relative...lol). Once every 10 years or so though, we'll get so much snow that the kids can make snow forts. Good luck with your herbs!

Terry...I'm looking forward to submitting a LOT of photos to the PDB. I have several years worth of picture collecting I've done of wild flowers...the only problem is I haven't identified them yet! :-D

Maybe DG's PDB needs a spot for "What Am I?" pictures. LOL

Seriously, I do have a multitude of plant photos in my personal collection and I'll be happy to share them with the PDB users.

~julie~

Julie, it sounds like your first stop should be the ID forum. If you haven't availed yourself of the wonderful advice available in that forum, I heartily recommend it. Once your plants are ID'd it's easy to move 'em on to the PDB.

As to "what am I" pictures in the PDB, I don't know whether to chuckle or wince. At least once a month, a non-subscribed member tries to create a "what am I" entry and submit their image(s), all of which has to be deleted out, along with an email to them explaining that un-ID'd images can't be submitted to the PDB...