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 To the California page.

 To the Joshua Tree page

 

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, this is a Microsoft world. This elite sect of geniuses, with others, has advanced the technology far in advance of what anybody could have expected. Those that have worked with them, such as Intel, Symantec and Adobe, have benefited themselves and us enormously. Those that have worked against them, such as AOL, Sun and Netscape(now owned by AOL), have cost themselves with loss of business, quality and respect - and done so at our expense.

Microsoft is dominant in the market because they generally make a better product (with the exception of Windows ME). Where some individuals may be arrogant and annoying, the company and its products tend to be accommodating and helpful. Contrast that with AOL who dominates their market through intrusive, devious and controlling techniques; the AOL program is by definition a virus.

Netscape(NS) was once the leader of its domain but its managemant team dropped the ball through its own bungling and then tried to blame Microsoft.

However, there are still a few out there who are using Netscape. For them I have redesigned my pages. It is not easy; NS version 4.0 is temperamental, buggy and inconsistent. That is why many developers don’t even bother – it is way too frustrating. Microsoft allows some of its better enhancements to be turned off, for this reason. Netscape does not return the favor.

I have discovered various tricks that allow me to retain the integrity of my creations and that also work in NS4 – but just barely. Some things that work great in the Internet Explorer (IE6) do not even appear in NS4, no matter what I do. Keep in mind that NS is largely incompatible by design. You would find your internet travels much more pleasant if you switched to IE (I hear Opera is pretty good too), but until you do so, I’ll keep working on it.

·         Lest there be any real photographers out there taking a look at my work, let me make it very clear that in no way do I consider myself a professional photographer. Also, my digital camera does not compare to a 35mm. Also, I may rattle a bit when I press that button. (I have a tripod and have recently begun lugging it around but that’s too late for many of these shots. )


·         Though all of my photos are copyrighted and for sale, I make no claims as to their quality. Some are good, or even almost very good; some have been enhanced to the degree that they can be called “art”; but most are presented for their content, to tell a story, and that is their purpose.

·         Most of my pages display a collection of small images, each about one or two inches wide - sometimes even three or four. Usually it includes a label above or below the image. These small images are generally referred to as "thumbnails". The thumbnail and the label are called "links" because when you click on one of them, a much larger image will open to fill the screen. Links are also called "hyperlinks" - same thing.

·         Some of my earlier thumbnails were also labeled with the byte size of the full image. This was to give you an idea of how long it might take for the full image to open if you were using a dial-up modem. An image that is less then 50K should open fairly quick; greater then 150K may take awhile. Those less then 150K were intentionally set to a low resolution, meaning a slight loss in quality.

·         On the other hand, since mid 2004, I have been less concerned about file size & time because so many of you have gone with a faster internet connection, meaning that images load faster. Hence, I can allow a higher quality resolution even though the file size will also be larger. I need to do this. Low res images bother me because they don't show the subtleties that I need for you to say, "Oh! Wow!".

·         You may find it easier to open the full image in a separate browser window. If you are using IE, hold a Shift key down as you click on the link. In either IE or NS, you can also right-click the link and left-click “Open in new window”. Then you can go about your business in the original while waiting for the image to open in the new and you don’t loose your place in the original. The byte size of the image is one factor but the main thing is the amount of memory (RAM) your computer has. 256 Megabytes is minimally good these days but 1024M would certainly be better. Adding RAM is easy. Do it.


·        If you absolutely postively must confine everything to one window and you are connecting through dial-up, then get a cup of coffee or tea while you wait. When you are done viewing the full image, use the back-arrow in your toolbar to return to where you were on the previous page.


·         While an image is loading, if you loose your connection to the internet and reinstate it, and the image does not reload itself, then click “View” in your toolbar and “Refresh” (IE) or “Reload” (NS). (Right-click/Refresh also works.)


·          If you cannot see the full image, or the colors don’t seem right, or an image just will not open, read this document.


·         Be sure you have Java enabled (IE6: Tools / Internet Options / Advanced – scroll down to the Java section; check the box if it is blank; Restart your system).


·         After an image opens, if you are using IE, press the F11 key to get a full screen. Press it again to return to the normal window.  (Try it now.)


To Van's home page.

To the California page.

 To the Joshua Tree page.

  To the Joshua Tree gallery 2001.

To the JT 2001-2002 page.

To the Wedding gallery.

When you are done reading this page, you can use an icon on the left to return to the top of where you came from, or you can use the back-arrow in your toolbar (works better).