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| PC Today: CD & DVD Drives, Palm & Windows CE Software, Online Photography | |
| May 2001• Vol.9 Issue 5 Page(s) 108 in print issue | |
Five Of The Best Online Photo-Viewing Sites Sites Worth A Thousand Words |
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[BEST]
[ONLINE]
[SITES]
[RICH]
The World Wide Web might have started as a predominantly text-only medium, but times have changed. Faster Web connections and digital cameras have made online photographs more accessible. Many sites concentrate on specific photographic areas, such as lighthouses and more pictures of friends and relatives than we care to think about. Larger, professional-quality photo-viewing sites are more difficult to come by, but we’ve listed some of the best. Remember as you peruse the pictures that you should make sure you’re not violating any copyrights when you take a picture from someone else’s Web site. (For more information, see Use Photos On Your Web Site in this issue.) NASA Photo Gallery The NASA Photo Gallery is the first of two U.S. government sites that prove that American tax dollars are occasionally spent wisely. This site offers a unique view of our world . . . from space. The NASA Photo Gallery is a massive warehouse of hundreds of thousands of images from 10 NASA Centers such as the Ames Research Center, the Goddard Space Flight Center, and the Langley Research Center. In addition to a wealth of Earth-from-space pictures, including declassified spy satellite photos and oceanography and ozone research images, you’ll get detailed studies of our solar system and the far reaches of the universe with the Hubble Space Telescope gallery. Those more interested in the mechanical rather than the natural marvels of quasars and white dwarves will find a comprehensive photo collection of flight vehicles and robotic devices; collectors will love the section on mission patch photos. Special sections include an Astronomy Picture of the Day area, and Skyview, the Internet’s Virtual Telescope, where you can use a number of different interfaces to enter coordinates and view select slices of the heavens. There truly is a little something for everyone on this site. http://www.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/index.html NOAA Photo Library The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration site is another site courtesy of the U.S. government. Agencies such as the National Ocean Service, National Weather Service, and the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, store thousands of weather, oceanographic, and marine species images here. The site offers over 16,000 images, many of them in the public domain. All are stored in “albums” or collections with full descriptions, dates and location, credits, and more. A number of special sections here let you view “treasures” from the 1,000,000-piece NOAA Central Library and an etching/illustration collection with images of aquatic mammals, fish, and shellfish. Those with a taste for network television reality programming will love the collections dedicated to severe weather phenomena such as tornadoes and lightning. http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/ PhotoServe PhotoServe operates as a self-promotional vehicle for the professional photo industry. It also points to a great collection of contemporary professional photography. Visitors to the site can browse through such categories as Action, Americana, Beauty, Lifestyle, Nature, and Sports. Visitors can also check out portfolios arranged alphabetically by name or geographic region. Special sections include a featured monthly gallery and new talent sections. Regardless of whether you’re looking for landscape images, still photos of models, or pictures of the deepest corners of space or the oceans, these sites will introduce you to the scope of photography and give you a window into worlds you could never hope to visit. http://www.photoserve.com/ The Schankman Image Server At George Eastman House The Schankman Image Server is the Web component of the Rochester, N.Y. George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. Named for the founder of the Eastman Kodak Company, the GEH is dedicated to displaying “. . . the art, technology and impact of photography and motion pictures over 150 years,” and the Schankman Image Server follows that philosophy of offering a series of selected collections online. Included here are still photography collections arranged by photographer, subject, or stereo views; technology collections; and precamera collections that feature early photography equipment and the history of the medium from 1839. The site celebrates film and picture heritage well. http://www.geh.org/ UCR/California Museum Of Photography The UCR/California Museum of Photography also pays tribute to the history of photography with collections such as Kodak Brownies (pictures of 114 Brownies and the original ads that were used to sell them), The Sports Page (great historical moments in sports), and the 1,761-piece photo collection of rare 1960s Ansel Adams photos. A special collection celebrating Women Photographers is also currently online, with works by 30 major artists spotlighted. In addition to the photograph collections, you can find a number of other sections here that explore various aspects of photography as an art form. One of these is Webworks , where text and photos are combined with multimedia elements to really take advantage of some of the artistic techniques available through the Web. http://www.cmp.ucr.edu/ by Rich Gray |
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