Common Sense and Whiskey

EarthPhotos.com Announces Digital Downloads

Today I'm happy to announce Digital Downloads on EarthPhotos.com. Just about all of the 18,691 photos on EarthPhotos may now be downloaded immediately. Two sizes are on offer.

You can buy a Web Size image, roughly 640x480 pixels in size, or 0.3 megapixels. This is suitable for web sharing on social sites like Facebook. Or you can buy a 1Mpix image, roughly 1 megapixel in size. These photos are for your personal, and not commercial use (Read Personal License). The 1 Mpix download is roughly 816x1224 pixels, about big enough to print an 8x12.

And we want to help with your commercial application. We're proud of our lion photo in Afar Magazine. It remains the Most Popular Photo on EarthPhotos.com, as voted by users. A couple of weeks back, we placed a photo on a kids' show for German TV. All these commercial applications are different, so please talk with us about what you need.

 

The Things You Miss When You're Away

Catching up on a few things, since we've been away:

- It seems that the archepelagic nation of Kiribati has bought 25 square kilometres on Viti Levu, the main Fijian island, in case, well, Kiribati disappears. Climate change insurance.

- Nice piece from photographer Tim McKulka on the two Sudans. He spent five years traveling and taking pictures there. That's dedication.

- The closest land is Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, 1,090 miles (1,750 km) away. It's the most remote island in the world.

- This looks pretty terrible, even outdoing Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World (which, by the way, is free on Kindle).

- Looks like the northern - and southern - lights were active while we were away from the internet in Cuba. It's hard to believe this photo is real.

New Camera Technology News

The Lytro "focus later" camera we first spotted back in June is now in production. I clicked the "buy" button and learned delivery is expected in March or April. Not just in time for Christmas.

I'm a little more skeptical after reading this piece about the science behind the camera, and after seeing the thing. They may be marketing it as revolutionary ("the only camera that captures life in living pictures"), but they've designed it to look like a silly little throw-away mass consumer item - albeit one that starts at $400.

Still, I'm in. I wish them well and we'll see.

•••••

Then there's this, the throwable panoramic ball camera. Ever want to see what's behind you without having to bother turning around? Okay, that's flip, if you'll pardon the pun. Actually, the thing's kind of neat:

Common Sense and Whiskey in Award-Winning Company

Exciting, delightful news: Common Sense and Whiskey has been chosen as an Iglu Travel Awards 2011 winner. It's our second year in a row to be so honored. The category is Travel Stories. Here's how they put it:

"Our dedication to sharing experiences makes this award one of the most important. Here at Iglu, we're absolutely committed to using detailed first-hand reports. However, we've also got to ensure that the experiences are relevant, accurate, up-to-date and interesting, not to mention well-written and well-presented.

There is never a story told that was not worth hearing, especially if it is relevant and might impact on your travelling plans. The last thing you want to do is fall victim of scams or miss out on a possible bargain. You might acquire knowledge from the first hand experiences that will give you the confidence you need to barter, negotiate, and properly explore a culture. First hand experiences allow you to escape the tourist rut.

Our travel stories blogs are detailed enough to capture you're interest, but not littered with arcane factoids like some of the many blogs which didn't make the cut. The Iglu team realises that when it comes to travel stories, some of them are warnings more than recommendations. We've made sure you get the truth about hundreds of destinations worldwide."

Many thanks to Elizabeth and her fine crew at IgluCruise.com.

Travel Website Award

Very nice of the folks at U.K.-based IGLU Cruise to choose Common Sense and Whiskey in their IGLU Cruise Website Awards, as one of nine "Best Travel Information Websites," right up there beside Lonely Planet.

How about that? 

They say their winners are

"truly excellent information sites to help you both in the planning stages of your travel and whilst on the road. We are sure you’ll agree that the efforts of the writers and webmasters behind the following award-winning sites are amongst the best out there, combining highly useful content with superb presentation."

Thanks so much, guys.

Here's a screen grab of their winners, which you can also see here on IGLU Cruise's site:

Bits and Travel Pieces

Around the web:

From View from the Wing: 100,000 Air Canada Aeroplan miles will buy a roundtrip first class award from San Francisco to Zurich. Or four blenders.

From Loyalty Traveler: Whoops.

From The Cranky Flyer: The government is here to help.

From Charles Bremner's blog for the London Times: A list of excesses of The Police Service for the Protection of High Personalities in France.

From Reuters: Try to get on down to that Antarctic vacation pretty soon.

From Foreign Policy: Meanwhile, might pass on Guinea for now.

A Talk with the Creators of AudioTripper

The new service AudioTripper begins with an offering of audio tours for about a dozen big U.S. and European tourist destinations. Common Sense and Whiskey asked AudioTripper co-founder Garren P. Givens five questions about the service:

*****

1.    Tell us about AudioTripper, and why we'd want to use it.
AudioTripper is a service dedicated to providing high quality yet extremely affordable self-guided tours for your mp3 player.  AudioTripper is aimed at tech-savvy travelers, but you don’t need any fancy technology—you just download your tours then go, simple as that. 

The main advantages offered by AudioTripper over traditional travel books and guided tours are the cost and the convenience.  At roughly a dollar per download, you can travel at your own pace and on your own schedule.  Plus, you get many of the same insights into these landmarks you would otherwise, but without the heavy guidebook or expensive local tour guide. 

New RSS Feed Link

Just a note that, in addition to the Common Sense and Whiskey RSS Feed link at the top of this blog, I've added a new link to the AlphaInventions.com Travel RSS Feed in the Travel Tools list here on CS&W. You might take it out for a spin and see if you like the content they aggregate from like-minded blogs.

Trends in Vewing Photography on the Web

Try out the free, downloadable plug-in called CoolIris. It works with your browser to provide a more 3-D viewing experience, or as they put it, "a lightning fast, cinematic way to discover the web."

EarthPhotos.com is compatible with CoolIris. In fact, it works right away, soon as you download the plug-in from the CoolIris site, and it works great. Compare these screen shots. The original, traditional version first, and then the EarthPhotos.com Landscapes Gallery via CoolIris:

There's a discussion of  the state of 3-D on the web in 2009 here.

Technical Problems This Afternoon at EarthPhotos.com

Our apologies. Our host at EarthPhotos.com reported DNS server problems earlier this afternoon, but things appear to be getting back to normal.

What Will Become of Your Travel Photos?

Common Sense and Whiskey is the blog companion to EarthPhotos.com, our photo site, which at the moment contains nearly 10,000 photos from travel destinations around the world. An item from the photo side of things:

Everybody takes pictures when they travel. More and more of us have all kinds of content on line these days, so here's a good question: What happens to your on-line presence, in our case those 10,000 photos, when you die? The short answer is, whatever you want - and arrange for in advance. This article on TechRadar.com has a discussion.

(Photo from the EarthPhotos.com Greenland Gallery - a cemetery at Iliminaq, Greenland.)

The Virtual Forbidden City

 If you've got the time and inclination to download nearly 300 megs, which will expand to a little over half a gig, The Forbidden City, Beyond Space and Time is, well, imposing. A collaboration between the Beijing Palace Museum and IBM, Beyond Space and Time is a 3-D replica of the square-kilometer palace grounds that they call "The Virtual Forbidden City." I've just gotten it installed and at first glance, it looks like it might be fun. I'll come back with more after I've taken a spin around, talked with the tour guides and so forth.

PhotoShelter stock collection to close

Sorry to read that PhotoShelter is closing their stock collection next month. It was a noble idea. Until then, apparently, you can still see our contribution, which was only beginning.

Solar Backpack: Future Green Power on the Road

Via Travel Gear Blog, the Voltaic Solar Backpack, with little solar panels on the back that charge your small electronics. Kind of looks silly now, but watch this idea. Imagine how revolutionary to carry your own power into the outback on your back.

EP is back

Smugmug has cleared the problem and EarthPhotos.com is back. They ran into trouble while installing a new shopping cart, so next time you shop, everything will look all fancy and fresh. Sorry for the probem this morning.

EarthPhotos.com Technical Issues

EarthPhotos.com has some technical problems this morning. You can still navigate, but things don't look as they should. I apologize, we're working on it, and I hope everything will be back to normal shortly.

Update: It appears to be a problem with EP's host, Smugmug, and they're aware of the problem.