Bug IDs and online galleries

This morning I checked wildaboutbritain.co.uk and had got some IDs on the moths I had posted, so I updated them, then posted some bugs pics for id. Checked my email, dpreview (which again had quite a bit of news), hotukdeals, deviantart and redbubble.

After lunch I checked Flickr and digital photography blog, then wildaboutbritain.co.uk again and all the pics I had posted earlier had been ID'd. So I sorted all those out, then had a look at smugmug and alternatives for image hosting/licensing for my website. I looked at photoshelter archive, which seems quite expensive, and they limit bandwidth/storage space, so if your bandwidth goes over a certain amount you have to pay extra per GB. This would be the same problem if I hosted the images myself on my already paid for webspace. Zenfolio looked good if you want your gallery on their site, but not so good for integrating into your own site. Smugmug looked probably the best, although quite expensive at $150 a year. I would have to give it a trial to see how customisable it is when integrating it with your own site.

Also I'm not sure how useful it would be having the images hosted off my own webspace. The benefits of smugmug and the like are that they have built in handling of licensing your images and selling prints. However for licensing nature/wildlife images I expect there wouldn't be an immediate need to license the image straight away and it could be arranged by just having anyone interested in licensing email you to arrange license terms. With regards to prints of images, I think it is likely that the only people ordering prints would be friends/family or if you cover an event, so not really applicable to me (unless someone wanted to order a print of their scarecrow, unlikely, and I'm sure they would rather just take a photo and print it themselves anyway).

After dinner I watched Tattlestar with mac. Then I uploaded some caterpillar pics to wildaboutbritain for ID. Checked dpreview and John K's blog. I ordered the ID/photography books I wanted off Amazon and won a bid for one on ebay today as well. The only one I didn't get was 'Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland (Concise Guide) by Martin Townsend (Author), et al.', which was available from an Amazon Marketplace seller when I made my list for £6.11 + £2.75 P&P, but when I ordered the books just now the lowest Marketplace seller price was about £8, so I will leave that one until it is listed cheaper on Amazon marketplace or ebay. Most of the books I ordered from Amazon marketplace sellers as they were cheaper (even with the expensive £2.75 per item postage) than Amazon and ebay sellers (who were all shop sellers).

The books I ordered were:

• Insects of Britain and Northern Europe (Collins Field Guide) by Michael Chinery (Author) - £8
• Dipterist's Handbook by Alan Stubbs (Editor), P. Chandler (Editor) - £15.25
• Digital Macro Photography by Ross Hoddinott (Author) - £9.74
• A Key to the Families of British Diptera by David M. Unwin (Author) - £10.24
• Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects: Diptera Lonchopteridae (Handbooks for the identification of British insects) by Kenneth George Valentine Smith (Author) - £2.64
• British Lonchaeidae: Diptera. Cuclorrhapha, Acalyptratae (Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects) by Iain MacGowan (Author), Graham E. Rotheray (Author) - £13.86
• Close-ups in Nature (Practical Photography Books) (Practical Photography Books) by John Shaw (Author) - £8.84
• John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide (Photography for All Levels: Intermediate) (Photography for All Levels: Intermediate) by John Shaw (Author) - £10.54

Total damage about £80. Quite painful, especially considering that doesn't include the moths books, and the ID books (other than the 2 Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects) are probably pretty basic and will likely only allow you to identify an insect down to the family level (maybe not even that far in some cases). Anyway, a good start to increase my knowledge and hopefully teach me basic ID skills.

Food
Breakfast: Strawberry crisp cereal; cup o' tea.
Lunch: Mature cheddar cheese with iceberg lettuce sandwich; satsuma; flapjack; fox's triple; cup o' tea.
Dinner: 2x frankfurter sausages in buns with iceberg lettuce, mature cheddar cheese and chili relish. Pudding was 2x American style chocolate brownies. Coffee.