Thoughts on my pics

Actually, 21,614 views and 1163 downloads to all my albums! 6 days ago my weekly stats report from Webshots indicated that I had 8,742 total views and 254 downloads. For those of you who don’t use the Webshots Desktop, the download figure means how many times images have been downloaded from my collection into the Webshots Desktop for the purpose of displaying on their desktop and/or screensavers. A week ago I had figured that at the then current rate of views of 400 to 600 a week I was figuring on breaking 10,000 views in 3 or so weeks. Instead the albums blew past 20,000 in less than a week!

I had kind of figured that the National Arboretum album might pick up the pace a bit, but I had no idea what was in store for me on the 10th when Amy M made the National Arboretum album her Staff Pick. The first day after that the National Arboretum album got more than 1100 views and the view rate increased steadily since then with just over 2000 views yesterday for a current total of 11,500 views and 859 downloads as of today. By itself that one album blew past any and all personal statistic records I had. I will have the official 7 day tally tomorrow, but this goes way beyond any record in terms of views that I had gotten. My previous high views for a week was the week ending February 12th where I had gotten 879 views that week. So as things stand my view count across all albums for the past 6 days is 12,899 and 909 downloads. Since the National Arboretum album started at 281 views in the last statistic reporting period that means it has gotten 11,219 so far this week and all other albums put together got 1680 views and 50 downloads. This by itself would smash any previous personal stats records, but it would not have happened without the Staff Picks as the increase in views to the other albums are largely residual visitors. But I am happy that some people are hanging around and enjoying my other albums.

I will now bore you with even more information of interest only to me. Whereas National Arboretum is at #1 with both views and downloads, Horseshoe Curve is #2 in views with 2211 and #3 in downloads with 44, BNSF & UP in Illinois is #3 in views with 1844 and #2 in downloads with 126 (which it has been accumulating since July of 2003). #4 in views is CP & SOO Line in Northern Minnesota with 739 which it has also been accumulating since July of 2003. Howard University currently in 5th place with 680 views will probably overtake it in a few weeks. #4 in downloads is Roanoke, VA and Skyline Drive which has 26 and surprisingly got no downloads this past week. I do not really have any complaints about the view and download rates of the other albums with the exception of Wye Island 01-16-05 which currently has only 115 views. Some of my favorite shots are in that album.

The number of folks who have added my albums as Favorite has shot up from 3 last week to 15 as of this writing. All of these things really make me feel good. I am happy that people are enjoying the photos I have taken. I wish there were better facilities for communicating with people on my albums at Webshots. There are good facilities here at Blogspot when one replies to a blog entry, but so far the only person who has done so is a fellow from Qoop. I do not know if this means that not many people are viewing my blog or if they just don’t have anything to say. In any event, I am writing to the blog mainly to expand the descriptions of the various albums and to comment on other things related to the albums so technically if the only person that sees these is me, it is fulfilling its purpose. But I would encourage anyone with questions or comments to reply to any of my blog entries.

This past week has been a big learning experience in terms of views. I had previously not known how some people were apparently getting so many views per day. I did not realize there were that many folks looking at Webshots images on a daily basis. I would like to hope that I will someday make the Staff Picks again and experience this kind of balloon in view statistics. I realize that to get the really big numbers you need to be in the spotlight. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. Not everyone can be in the spotlight all the time. I have also seen that to get bigger numbers you need to do two basic things: Have good photos that cater to a relatively narrow field of interest (in my case I have some Trains related albums) and two, advertise your album in a place of interest. In my case when I have a railroad related album I post the link to it to the railroad related BBS I check a few times a week (http://www.trainboard.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi). Otherwise you are basically competing against an ocean of very talented people and you have to rely on luck to get something like the Staff Picks. The people who are really talented wind up on Webshot’s front page. Albums with high views wind up on the Top Downloads page (which apparently has a bug in it since even though the National Arboretum has 766 views, it is not located on this page). You may be fortunate to have someone do some advertising for you. With that in mind I ask that you please check the following album and blog: Eugeneinthemiddle’s album and his blog.

I would like to thank everyone who has stopped by to view and download my images and I am very happy that you are enjoying them!

Click Here for photo album.

[Photographs posted under the approval of the B&O Railroad Museum.]

I went to the B&O Railroad Museum on March 19th but just recently got permission to post the photos from the museum. The delay is my fault due to not following up on an action. I had been asked by someone on Trainboard about copyrights on images I had taken but of subjects owned by someone else and I had intended to put a brief thing up here about relevant copyright law, but I was not able to find anything. I am fairly certain copyright law covers this and even if it doesn’t I would prefer to abide by a facility’s policies. Otherwise I would not have bothered to A) check for the policies (as I do prior to going to a place so I don’t wind up getting a “nastygram” from someone’s lawyer) or B) ask for permission as this museum’s policy requires. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dave Shackelford, Chief Curator at the museum, for his assistance and patience in providing me the permission required to display these photos here and at the webshots album.

Now that we’ve gotten that fun stuff out of the way I can talk about the museum itself (aerial photo). This is the first time I had been to the museum since prior to the collapse of part of the roof of the roundhouse dome on February 16th, 2003 as a result of heavy snow (Baltimore Sun article, and another). It was a massive snowfall. The result to the museum is damaged and smashed exhibits (see the image in the first article for a view into the damaged roundhouse). Another result was the cancellation of the Fair of the Iron Horse which was to mark the 175th anniversary of railroading in the US. Prior to this the Baltimore & Ohio Museum was an excellent museum in my view. However, they truly made lemonade out of lemons and not only repaired the roof but took the opportunity of the museum’s closure to make several changes to the layout and to exhibits which have made this place truly a world class museum. The reorientation makes better use of space inside the museum and provides a glimpse into the Mount Claire (the site of the museum) station, the first passenger railroad station in the United States, several collections including clocks and timepieces, scale replicas of railroad equipment including a cutaway view of an FT diesel locomotive and other excellent additions and changes.

Outside the roundhouse they have constructed a pair of covered raised walkways which gives you access to enter some of the railcars and views through the windows of others. There’s a caboose you can enter and climb up into the cupola, a “reefer” (refrigerated car) that appears to be oriented towards kids and is mainly a theater – a movie about model railroads was showing when I went into the car. Another car has their brand new HO Scale layout which shows scenery from modern downtown Baltimore to the mountains of Western Maryland and is quite spectacular. It is not the level of quality that I had expected given the availability of techniques and skills that are available, particularly here in Maryland, but it is still very much worth seeing. I spent quite some time inside there looking at the scenery and watching the several trains that were running. The area where the old layout that had been inside the museum building is no longer accessible and I believe it had been dismantled. Still another car has access to a World War II “troop car” which is a fascinating exhibit about how GIs were transported to where they needed to go. The diesel shop is now also open from time to time and there is quite a bit to see in here including some equipment (such as the C&O Streamliner and the Allegheny) that had been outside previously. There is quite a variety of equipment on the grounds and in the roundhouse. Since there is limited space at the museum they had to carefully pick and choose what goes where for best display effect. Some equipment has been moved around and probably will continue to be moved around over time. The result is that your favorite equipment might not be in the place where you can get the best view of it. For example, the BL2 was placed next to a fence so while I could get a good look at it, I couldn’t get a good picture of it. But I feel they have done a great job with the space they have, especially with the equipment in the roundhouse and other buildings. Of the equipment in the roundhouse they have on display three locomotives that had been damaged in the roof collapse protected by a clear plastic barrier both to protect the visitors and the equipment. There are signs in front of each locomotive describing the cost to repair it. The roundhouse also houses some of the oldest equipment on the property and some interesting types of equipment such as a Shay type locomotive. Signage around the museum describing the exhibits is good. There is a G scale model railroad outside the roundhouse the kids will love. There are train rides along the first mile of commercial (or “common carrier”) railroads tracks in the United States from April to December and is included in the price of admission.

What really makes this museum special goes beyond the fact that it is a collection of equipment. This museum has good focus and definition of purpose. It is also attractive, clean and well staffed with attendants willing and eager to answer questions. It takes the time and space to explain various aspects of railroading and has reached out to people of varying ages and interests levels. This is a fantastic place to take kids whether they have an avid interest in trains or if they have shown no particular interest. There is not a lot of walking involved here so short legs won’t get worn out yet there are plenty of things for kids with short attention spans to jump between various exhibits. This is also an excellent place for adults to visit whether a railfan, a fan of American or industrial history, or are just looking for something new and interesting to see. The wide variety of different kinds of exhibits and equipment will satisfy any level of interest in railroading.

Tragically and confusingly the “Donation Info” page on their website provides no information at all of any of the projects that require funding, what funding level is needed and what the progress is. This is most confusing because following the roof collapse there were near weekly photos and updates being made to the website on repairs being done to the dome and what other projects they had in mind. I don’t understand why they don’t follow this same basic philosophy in order to make people aware that there are specific projects needing funding. I don’t think a weekly update is needed, but maybe an update monthly or quarterly would be good. Ideally in my view would be a blog so people could create RSS subscriptions and get updates as they occur. In this way they would be able to generate excitement about the projects they have. Fortunately they have facilities for making online donations. If you have the ability and desire to give to the B&O Railroad Museum, please do. The museum facilities are also available for event rental.

The bottom line is this is a great place to spend some time. I am a member of the museum and have museum license plates on my van. (The photo to the left was taken in Galesburg, Illinois where I was taking the first sets of pictures I uploaded to webshots almost 3 years ago. It was taken with a point and shoot film camera instead of the Canon S2 IS I have been using since summer 2005.) I don’t go here nearly as often as I want to, but I intend to make a return visit fairly soon so I can give some specific exhibits closer attention and take another ride on their train.

Something terrific has happened for me today. Amy M over at Webshots has selected my Cherry Blossom photo has a Staff Pick for today, April the 10th. There were two Staff Picks today; the other is quite spectacular as well. The staff picks some very amazing pictures out of the ones that have been taken by the members, and there are some very talented members at Webshots and I am excited to be among the ones selected for this special honor. There isn’t much else to say except that I am very excited! Thank you Amy M and thank you Webshots!

I have been negligent in writing this particular blog entry. Back on March 23rd I wrote a blog entry regarding a photo book I ordered from Qoop and how DHL botched the job. Hugh Folkerth, Director of Consumer Relations at Qoop, responded to that blog entry and said Qoop would send a fresh copy even though DHL damaged the book and was no fault of Qoop's. As promised, a fresh (and pristine) copy of my photo book arrived on March 31st. It was packed even tighter than the previous one (which itself was very well packed). Packing these books is kind of a subjective process since you can have a range of pages and therefore not every book is going to be the same thickness. I am very happy with Qoop and plan to have books made every few months based on some of my photos for the benefit of my grandmother who has no access to see my images online. And come the end of the year, I will be making calendars. It will be very exciting to have a calendar with my own photos on it! I am enthusiastic about this company because they deliver great products and stand by it to the hilt.

Click HERE for Album.

On Sunday I went to the National Arboretum (see also: Friends of the National Arboretum) in Washington D.C. This place actually has a fairly decent website for it. The main improvement I would make to it is a map of the trails. There is a map, but each area of interest is indicated by a symbol and description page. This is good, but there should also be a trail map, probably a separate map. It was a nice warm day with a bit of a breeze. Quite comfortable.

Early spring is one of my favorite times of the year. The budding leaves and the explosion of color in the flowers give me a feeling of hope and optimism. So the logical place for me to go on this bright sunny day was the National Arboretum (aerial photo). I went hoping to see some Cherry Blossoms and boy, did I ever. The Cherry Blossom trees were absolutely thick with flowers and it looks like pink snow to me. On the grounds near the visitor center there is a very large one and you can sit on a bench under the canopy.

The visitor center is definitely the place to start. It has a bit of a moat around it with some fish in it. It seemed to be a hit with the kids. The center itself has some flowers and flowering trees around it. Being early in the year not all of the flowers have come out to play yet. I am sure this place will be even more interesting in the near future. Not far from the visitor center is the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum which is very fascinating and is not to be missed. I did not see the entire Arboretum, in fact, I saw very little of the property and this is still the album with the largest number of images to date. I got there around 1pm thinking it was about noon since I did not know it was daylight savings time. I still managed to spend about 4 hours and 20 minutes here. With that in mind, if you plan to see everything I would suggest two 8 hour days – at least.

There are plenty of roads from one parking lot to the next, but most of them are rather small and even though it is not permitted to do so in most places, people also parked on the sides of the roads. These roads are too narrow for this kind of behavior, especially considering that the roads are two way and also expected to be used by bikes and pedestrians. Please, people, don’t park on these narrow roads if you go there. Park in one of the lots and walk. Your experience will improve drastically this way. That being said, part of the fault is that of the Arboretum. Some of the lots are absolutely tiny and if people are going to see some of the things there are to see, there’s no choice. There is a very large parking lot near the New York Avenue entrance, but it does not appear to be anything and I did not notice any trailheads there (although that does not mean there isn’t one). What I would suggest to the Arboretum is to first make the roads ONE WAY and make parking spaces along some of the wider and straighter stretches and to also have shuttles going from the large parking lot to the various points of interest in the Arboretum. While they have a tram, it is seasonal and is not intended to serve this function. They provide a tour with no stops for the passengers to get off and look. The good news is that it can accommodate two wheelchairs. Speaking of which, they made this place about as wheelchair friendly as they could, but there are some places where a wheelchair would not fare too well.

There is a variety of different kinds of scenery here as well as different and pleasant smells. It is a very pleasant place to be. The signage is good, although not consistent. I think this is a result of different organizations working on different areas and various work being done in different eras. There is even once place in Fern Valley where the signs encourage you to rub the leaves and smell them. Very interesting! One great thing about this place is that even though there were a good number of people there, there were plenty of places where I did not see anyone else. I suspect this will change when things warm up some more and more variety of flowers bloom. I will definitely be returning here in order to see (and photograph) more of the park.