Stiletto's blog/

The censorship situation at Flickr has become intolerable to me; things have dragged on for too long and gone from bad to worse.

Since my protest on Flickr entails only participating in anti-censorship threads and uploading anti-censorship photos, after a week I am frustrated and bored (it is not what I signed up for). So, my only alternative is to start up somewhere else and see where this takes me... I've also signed up with Zooomr but so far prefer ipernity; I'm checking the features on both sites out.

Incidentally; I was not affected directly by safety filter settings (ironically I had it set on safe until the whole hoo-ha erupted, at which point I changed to the full Monty!) but the whole censorship escalation (removal of photos, tags, manipulating Explore hits) is unacceptable and unpalatable to me in principle and cannot just be ignored.

 

 

Well, I like this blog feature thought I get the impression its as if I were talking to myself!

Having played about here at ipernity I've reached the conclusion that this cannot replace what I had at Flickr. The lack of groups (for now?) means I can't find others with similar interests (breed of dog, same camera, etc.) though even if there were groups I don't think there are enough people for this to be viable. I did a search for "Rhodesian Ridgeback" tags and came up with 2 hits... The other factor is that many of the Flickr refugees here are German and I don't speak the language, which is an additional disadvantage to me.

At Flickr I felt I was learning a lot about photography but I don't think it'll be the same at ipernity. It's a great site generally, I'm just not sure I'm going to be able to do all the things I want to do. :-(

Saturday night was "La Quema de San Juan" when there’s a large bonfire lit at the beach, fireworks and a nice atmosphere - but it was freezing! Some of us had made plans to go further afield this year to a larger event and have sandwiches by the shore but it was such a windy evening we decided to go to our usual spot and have a bite at one of the chiringuitos by the beach. A good thing too, we needed the shelter, it was windy! Unfortunately, we had to vacate the table early and spend the rest of the evening exposed to the elements, which would have been marvellous on a milder night as you can have have a drink at various places, enjoy live music, browse stalls and catch up with people you bump into.

We had arrived early (later on parking becomes a nightmare) and it was soon clear that none the usual suspects were up for their customary midnight dip in the sea. I've been doing it for a number of consecutive years and it seemed a shame to break the tradition, but I really didn’t fancy it at all and also said I’d pass. Even those with northern blood and usually more resistant to the cold succumbed to extra sweatshirts and layers, I drove back to get more! Usually it's a bathing costume and pareo night for me but I huddled under an ankle-length skirt, bathing costume, sleeved top, large sweater and a pashmina round my neck; one of my friends didn't even recognise me! Still, we had fun though we were all rather keen for midnight to arrive and the bonfire to be lit - for warmth!

Quema de San Juan 07VI24 53 [C…

By midnight most of us had managed to meet up and had a great spot upwind opposite the bonfire. Wow, what a difference! Once it got going I started shedding layers and taking photos with my usual Labrador-like enthusiasm and by the time I’d finished with the bonfire ones I almost felt my eyelashes and forearms were getting singed! ;-) At this point, two of my friends decided to go down and dip their feet (Southern gals, they feel the cold and traditionally opt for this instead of immersion!) and on the spur of the moment decided to join them and go for a swim after all. My friend’s 14 year old nephew had also just changed his mind and he ran down and dived in ahead of us. The air got a lot cooler closer to the shore but I just went straight in before I could even think about changing my mind... Once in it’s not so bad (I’d felt colder earlier in the evening) and back by the bonfire it was lovely and toasty! What a result!

It is said that going for a dip on this night makes you beautiful the whole year round, so my friends should have gorgeous feet, I’m taken care of up to the neck and the nephew gets the whole treatment – it was his “Saint’s Day” after all :-)

You can see photos of the fireworks and bonfire in my Quema de San Juan Album.

Well, I’m adjusting to the no Groups scenario and finding it quite interesting. Consequently, what remains top of my wishlist would be to have the info on the original photos on my PC (caption, description, keywords) uploaded with the photograph as having to add them manually/individually is a pain for me.

Photomotion puts it much better than I could and explains it very nicely on his blog here: http://www.ipernity.com/blog/14690/13096

Hopefully once this is up and running more tags will pop up?

I read somewhere that Ipernity Team are going to look into this; judging by their proactive reaction to other things so far, this augers well!

PS - A little things that makes a difference; I love the way the "back" function works on my browser here taking me back to the page I was on previously as opposed to the "edit" page if I'd just left a comment - unlike Flickr's which is rather annoying! Makes it far easier to move around. :-)

 

** Addition Edition! ** I've now found the link where Ipernity Team said they'd be looking into this: www.ipernity.com/blog/15352/12504

Ipernity Team has opened a "Post your wishes here" list (other than Groups, witch they say are coming soon) and there's now a Greasemonkey Plugin Flickr.Importer "which makes it possible to import *all* your photos from Flickr"! More details here.

Wow, speedy reactions! I'm really impressed with the Ipernity Team for being so welcoming, receptive, responsive and pro-active!

My top "wishlist" items as posted are:

1. Automatic import of the EXIF/IPTC tags of a photo:
keywords - preserved filename - description - title - copyright - author

2. Change upload dates for photos (or an alternative to chronological order for stream management)

3. Improved Album organisation
Sub-albums or equivalent to create more "Sets" within Albums
Change the Album order (so new ones don't automatically appear first, etc

These are great ideas and get my vote:

- Any improvements to track comments I've made, that have been replied to etc. will be much appreciated
both in terms of seeing more and accessing these in a more direct manner.
- Replace this picture function
- Camera finder
- Languages spoken/understood on the user's Profile page
- More than 20 tags
- Hear the member's shared music on other pages; not only the main one
- Password protection for Albums/sub-Albums (for non-members also)

It was a little after eight o'clock when I arrived at the beack to walk the Hounds last night so I made it a brisk one, not wanting to be caught out there after sundown. On an extremely rare impulse I even ran the last bit back; thinking I'd go for a quick dip before leaving - and that's when I noticed I'd dropped both leashes... drat!!! So much for that great idea - back up again to retrace our steps, to young M's delight and the older O's befuddlement. I managed to find one of the leashes but the other has been lost to the sea.

F31 07VI28 028

It was almost ten when we finally left, having added a few extra clicks and some hanging out time - it was well worth delaying... The moon was particularly bright, almost full and hung in a cloudless sky of hazy blues and pinks above the sea; the sunset left a beautiful orange glow on the other side above the distant hills. The beach was all but deserted, I only passed a couple of other solitary walkers the whole time which is quite rare this time of the year, especially on such a warm and temperate night.

That's how I love the beach, when you look around you and don't see another human soul...

 

Tonight is a Blue Moon in the Eastern Hemisphere and I hope to see it rise over the sea...

Not quite a Blue Moon

Last night the moon was gorgeous! We had celebrated the first evening barbequeue of the year and Selene did not disappoint; I'd jumped at the idea after seeing how beautiful the moon was the night before. Apparently, the moon is particularly bright this month - you can find more in Spanish here: El cielo nocturno de junio. It was a windless, hazy evening and rather damp last night and tonight seems even more humid... I'll keep my fingers crossed.

So I'm off now to catch the moon and then to a small local Feria, which is perfect for tonight as I'll be able to look up at the sky... :-)

I always say I dance once in a blue moon, but I'd never meant it literally! Well, maybe tonight's the night! Hee hee!