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Yay, our own thread to share news and answer any questions from you exceptional people!!
We kicked off on The Commons on 27 November 2008 with about 100 historical New Zealand photos, and a set of about 20 shots of WWI victory parades in London. We were lucky enough to have George over here in NZ at the time of the launch, keynoting at a conference I helped organise, and we flipped the launch button at the end of the first day.
The title of George's Sweet Suxteen blog post was a collaborative effort between her and me, with Seb Chan from the Powerhouse adding a gentle poke at the mellifluous Kiwi accent.
Right now I'm working on some images to add to the set of panorama negatives by Robert Percy Moore. I'm trying to geo-tag the photographs as accurately as possible, using a mixture of Simon Willison's Get Lat Lon and Google street view (which has only just been launched for NZ). It's pretty time-consuming (for example, trying to exactly map a 1924 photo of the 'business centre of Cambridge', a small town in North Island, by identifying the names of businesses I can see on the buildings, then researching to try to identify the modern street address). But it's utterly worth it: firstly, it's creating valuable new metadata; secondly, and far more interestingly, it powers this great Then and Now mashup built by Paul Hagon of the National Library of Australia, which puts the photos we've loaded alongside the current street view.
We're aiming to load another 6-12 images every week or 10 days. It would be great to know what people are interested in seeing from us, to help us guide our choices.
all the best,
Courtney
Posted 42 months ago.
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I've just loaded our first batch of images for 2009 - a set of car trade show photos (and a beach rally) from the 1920s by Samuel Heath Head.
Part of the reason for picking these images is that I love the curved roof of the building (the King Edward Barracks in Christchurch) that some of the shots are taken in, like this one:
You can see a pic from 1905 of the building's skeleton during construction on the Christchurch City Libraries' website.
I also love the image of the beach rally
and here's photo of the beach in 2006 by J F W N T N Z
We're aiming to add about 10-12 images to The Commons every week this year - a mixture of new sets and additions to the existing ones.
Posted 41 months ago.
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Well it must be noted that the KG Barracks were demolished to make way for...
A carpark.
Why is it so many places I live in do this? There's a fair bit of the Brighton shots isn't there from the archives?
Posted 41 months ago.
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that curved roof is stunning, Courtney!
I was amazed to read on the Christchurch Libraries website you linked to that the building only took 25 working days to complete.
Ice Nine- did you read the bit about it being relocated to Hornby in 2000 and re-erected as a distribution warehouse?
: )
Posted 41 months ago.
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Ice Nine wrote Well it must be noted that the KG Barracks were demolished to make way for...
A carpark. Now *there's* a then-and-now series to be done :(
(Even if not exactly for this image)
Originally posted 41 months ago.
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Lú_ edited this topic 41 months ago.
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When I went to Google Maps to get the coordinates to put the images of the barracks on the Flickr Map, I did have to shake my head sadly at the carpark ....
You can see this 'before and after' on the mashup that Paul Hagon has made.
Posted 41 months ago.
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I just came across this comment on this photo on the National Library NZ stream:
Robert Louis Stevenson's birthday party, at Vailima, ca 1893
The National Library of Scotland added a cool link to their set of Robert Louis Stevenson images.
Isn't that a cool link-up?
Posted 41 months ago.
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That is so awesome!
Posted 41 months ago.
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National Library of Scotland got in touch with me and we talked about how to join up our respective RLS content better - glad you like the results!
I dropped our birthday party pic onto the National Galleries of Scotland (kia ora National Galleries of Scotland - haere mai ki The Commons!) RLS portrait
and am going to drop my Scottish friends a line suggesting they do the same with their set.
-- Courtney
Posted 41 months ago.
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that's pretty cool, Courtney
: )
I love seeing those link-ups forming across the Commons.
Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and connected-like.
Posted 41 months ago.
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National Library of Scotland got in touch with me and we talked about how to join up our respective RLS content better - glad you like the results!
NOW, we're making some custard!!!
...that makes me very happy. :)
Posted 41 months ago.
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Kia ora koutou (hi everyone)
I've just uploaded a dozen more Robert Percy Moore panoramic photos, a mixture of rural and urban views.
As a Wellingtonian, this photo of Courtenay Place (one of our main drags) is a personal fav.
The Paramount Theatre is still there: here's a 2007 photo by Velvet Android
Posted 41 months ago.
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I'm loving the batch of early panoramas uploaded recently. Caught them in the RSS feeds. Yum! (also it's amusing how there are "Paramount Theatres" everywhere. I work at a historic one still operating in Austin, Texas.
Originally posted 41 months ago.
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clickykbd edited this topic 41 months ago.
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Thanks clickykbd. I've totally fallen for those panoramas - we have about 85 digitised, and I plan to dripfeed them all onto The Commons.
And the name thing is interesting; I think 'Majestic' and 'Empire' must also be widespread names ... maybe 'Olympic'? The grand days of movie theatres, huh?
Posted 41 months ago.
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I've just loaded another dozen panaromas to our collection of Robert Percy Moore's work. I think my favourite is this shot of the entrance to Pelorus Sound
Excitingly, I got to use the new "circa" dating option on all the images we have catalogued as having been taken "between 1923-1928" - thanks Flickr team!
Now I'm looking forward to playing with the "nearby" toy ....
-- Courtney
Posted 40 months ago.
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woo-hoo!
Those panoramas really are beautiful!
And yay for circa dating!
Posted 40 months ago.
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These are wonderful!
The gardens, Masterton, between 1923-1928
Brenda Anderson even posted a nearby shot of this location!
Posted 40 months ago.
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A new batch of photos on The Commons by a new photographer - William Hall Raine.
I've started off with "crowds & groups" a theme I chose because this ...
... is one of my fav WHR photographs. Enjoy!
-- Courtney
Originally posted 39 months ago.
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National Library NZ on The Commons edited this topic 39 months ago.
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Courtney, I enjoyed looking through this set! I love the theme of repetition throughout WHR's photos and there are some gems in this collection. :)
Posted 39 months ago.
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Tangent for developer types. I was just made aware that National Library of NZ also has it's own API for accessing their digital collections!
It was mentioned in conjunction with a blog article about the Brooklyn Museum's efforts in this department.
Digital NZ, API Docs
www.digitalnz.org/developer/api-docs/
If other institutions have such things please do share! The flickr developer community is strong and the ones that already enjoy the Commons would be likely to contribute to the spectrum of exploration toys built against your content.
Posted 39 months ago.
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Hey, thanks clickykbd. Now I know your interest, I'll definitely keep passing on any relevant information.
The DigitalNZ API offers access not only to some of the National Library's collections, but to aggregated metadata from approximately 30 New Zealand organisations and growing. We'd absolutely love to hear about anything the Flickr developer community might make with it, and welcome feedback and suggestions for improvement.
all the best, Courtney
Posted 39 months ago.
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Courtney did a great interview on NZ National Radio this past weekend about Flickr and the Commons (with a giant surprise for me when she mentioned my name! Cheers Courtney!) The second part of the segment was with Sue Tyler aka ellipse on her craft work using Commons photos. Link radionz.co.nz/thiswayup and you'll see a blurb and a link to listen.
Posted 39 months ago.
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Just popped up another batch of William Hall Raine photos - ships & water scenes this time round. Browsing through his work, I liked how stately images like this shot of the Wanganella (which at one point in its life was a floating hotel)
were interspersed with more homely shots, like this scene of the popular tourist and holiday maker's destination, Lake Taupo
Posted 39 months ago.
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These are terrific B&Ws. Thanks for calling out attention to them!
Posted 39 months ago.
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Kia ora everyone
Just added 18 more photos to our William Hall Raine set this time photos of inner-city Wellington from the late 1920s through to the 1940s. It includes this shot of the Hotel St George under construction in 1930
34 years later, the Beatles would stay there, and attract a massive crowd
I think the next set we load will be of stereographs, hopefully in the next 2 weeks.
-- Courtney
Posted 37 months ago.
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Looking forward to them!
Posted 37 months ago.
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Stereographs! Anyone know if there's a way to view those online stereographically?
Posted 37 months ago.
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Ha, this reminds me of the time when I took the card holder off one of my Holmes type viewers to try and view some stereos on screen and nearly stuck a hole right through my monitor!
Anyway, I have since discovered the very cheap and absolutely wonderful 'disposable' viewers from Loreo - see www.loreo.com/pages/products/loreo_lite_3d_viewer.html. I loved these so much I used to buy in bulk and sell them on eBay - not at a profit but just so others could get hold of them! I have a few left over laying around so if you wanted to PM me a mailing address I could pop one in the post to you. I see they have now launched a version with elastic ear straps that they market specifically for on-screen viewing. Haven't tried one, but they claim they are better for viewing full screen versions. The original ones are best when you open up an image on screen about the same size (c. 7") as a standard printed stereo card, which on an average monitor equates quite nicely to the normal screen view on Flickr.
If you want to view them online without a viewer, and assuming like me you haven't learnt to free-view (something I've never mastered, but then again I can't even see those trick images made up of coloured dots - I think my mind works too technically), the only thing I know that gets remotely close is Wiggler. Here's one set up for one of my modern stereos of Kew....
original | Wiggled
And here's one I've just created for the LOC stereoview of Abraham Lincoln...
original | Wiggled (wow, that one's spooky!)
It's neat, but takes rather a lot of fiddling, and more often than not it's nowhere near as good as the 'real thing'.
Edit 10 minutes later: have just seen that striatic beat me to it on the Lincoln stereoview, by about 4 months - www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/3266411174/
Not sure how that one was created, but at least with Wiggler you can take any Flickr hosted stereo and see what it looks like.
Originally posted 37 months ago.
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whatsthatpicture edited this topic 37 months ago.
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The wiggling is awesome!
I've also heard that you can mock-up a stereograph using two iPhones (which is probably not that much more practical than trying to get your hands on an old-fashioned viewer).
The photos I'm working through are quite lovely in their own right (and some feature banjos!) so hopefully viewer or no viewer, they'll be well received.
-- Courtney
Posted 37 months ago.
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I can't wait to wiggle a banjo.
: )
Posted 37 months ago.
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And stri's 'Jiggly Lincoln' video was made from this wiggly Lincoln animated gif:
www.flickr.com/photos/plong/3265323999/sizes/o/
Abe looks like he might be jiggling to some rockin' banjo music, come to think of it.
Posted 37 months ago.
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If anyone wants to get their jiggly software out, our first dozen stereographs are up. A number of them are lovely domestic scenes, featuring Lydia, the wife of the photographer William Williams, in the garden of their cottage.
Lydia and her circle were clearly banjo enthusiasts!
I'm also intrigued by this image
which to me has overtones of the Wild West, only set on the East Coast of our North Island
-- Courtney
Posted 36 months ago.
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Lydia and her banjo wiggled!
Posted 36 months ago.
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That's quite, quite spooky - and a lot of fun - thanks!
-- Courtney
Posted 36 months ago.
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Note sure this train can make up its mind which way it wants to go...
Originally posted 36 months ago.
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whatsthatpicture edited this topic 36 months ago.
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Seeing Lydia wiggling away with her pooch makes me want to go and find suitable Swedish banjo music to wiggle to.
Posted 36 months ago.
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Kia ora all
Another dozen stereographs just added, including this cutie
-- Courtney
Posted 36 months ago.
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The final small group of stereographs, a clutch of photographs by Isaac Henry Bowen Jeffares
I love photographs of photographers working (or posing as if they're working!). This photo by Jeffares
got me searching the Commons, and I loved these two from the Nationaal Archief
and State Library & Archives of Florida
-- Courtney
Posted 35 months ago.
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That's a great theme going on there!
Posted 35 months ago.
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