Photos are incredibly useful

[james]

We are starting to tackle the design for our fireplace and oven, and it am really struck by how important photos are. We've been working with the same team of masons for months now (they did all the stone and tile in the house), so we know how to work together. Still, I try to explain things, and draw things, when it comes to the oven -- and you can just tell it isn't coming through.

But when I start with a photo, you can really see the light bulb go on. It works for both the installation phases (make the stand look like this), and now at the design phase. This isn't a breakthrough idea, but my experience really shows that you can tackle the oven and outdoor fireplace project with a skilled mason -- who has never done a pizza oven before. Use a couple of photos, and the mason's intuition takes over.

Interesting.
James

[McLane]

How true.

As I am combing this site, I am accumulating a wealth of new knowledge. The most helpful items that I have learned, come from the photos that people have included in the gallery. Having so many real live examples of how folks got it done is invaluable! I will also be able to steer my construction crew to specific threads and pictures on this site as a means to explain details.

Thanks to all who have posted photos.

[gjbingham]

I concur completely. I learn well from reading, but a picture is truely worth a thousand words.

The resizing issue discussed on another active thread talkes about an automatic resizing program for posts that are outside the maximum allowed. It seems to me that this would be a good program to track down. I certainly don't upload as many pics as I could simply because of the time I need to spend resizing and renaming each pic before I can post it.

Time is money.... oh wait, I'm retired. Time goes by too fast? No, that's not it. Wait a moment,,,,,, I don't have the patience to do mundane computer tasks over and over..... Ya! That's it!

[Xabia Jim]

A picture says a thousand words....

it took me a while to get the pictures right on FB, if I even ever did!

I like to take large detailed photos (large files) and it can be very time consuming to crop and reduce...

...now I did just notice that I can use the Microsoft photo editor to resize quickly....

[Frances]

I just changed the setting on my camera to lowest quality pics. Another advantage is I can fit a lot more photos in it like that. (Wait... could this be luddite-ish way of dealing with the issue, by any chance?)

On the other hand, if I ever want to make posters of the oven buld I'm going to have a bit of a problem

Talking of photos saying more than words, I've been meaning to put the photos of the angle iron doorway in the gallery for ages. I'll get on it right away... George and Sarah, why don't you put yours in, too? After all, we were glad to compare notes at the time.

[gjbingham]

Good idea Frances. I see that you already did. I'll find the least ugly ones and get them posted.
G.

[asudavew]

Google has a program called Picasa2.

It's free and it will let you take huge files and reduce them to smaller ones.
That way you can still print posters, and upload quickly.

Most files drop from around 1.5 megs to about 200k.

[james]

I agree that it is good to take photos in the highest resolution you camera will take, and then store then and re-size (and/or reduce quality) when you need to. That way you have a great source file to work from.
James