Photos for site banner

03-08-2008

Close, except the subject is still too tall and the image quality is nowhere near good enough.

As a rough guide - if the main subject of the photo takes up more than about 25 - 30% of the height of the image, then it will be too tall for the banner.

03-08-2008

Hey Sim, would it be possible to see my chimpanzee image in a banner test?

Out of the banner tests that you've done, I do like the panda, chimp and elephant ones.

03-08-2008

You can see it down the bottom of that page now.

04-08-2008

Two from me:

Hyeana

Zebra

04-08-2008

Size is fine, but not sure the subject is interesting enough:


This one works well - I've added it to the banner test:

04-08-2008

maybe we could have a vote on all the banner tests that last for 1 week?

04-08-2008

I'm not really interested in running polls for stuff like this - I have to make the final decision on which images get used based on how effective they work as a banner and how they look on the site.

I actually have over 50 candidate images already from my own collection which I need to try out as potentials. I would like to extend that to include images from other people as well so we don't just have images from the zoos I've visited

If I get enough I may even make it choose a new banner randomly each day - not sure how well that would work though, would need to try it.

I am planning a fairly big site redesign in the next couple of weeks and I'll look at implementing the new banners then. The basic forum structure will stay the same, but I want to make the photo gallery easier to use. I will also be adding a new home page separate to the forum.

04-08-2008

ok, cool, i like the one iwth the 3/4 chimps the best

04-08-2008

I love that photo - it was at Wellington Zoo and it was probably only about 10 degrees Celsius that day.

The two chimps laying back trying to "catch some rays" just looked so relaxed and carefree

04-08-2008

yeah probably why i like it soo much! lazy lazy chimps but i spose those heated rocks are like my electric blanket!

04-08-2008

By the way - I do want to start running photo competitions so we can highlight the best photos from the gallery.

I'm just not quite sure how I want to run them yet. Winners will be selected based on a vote by members - I just need to think through the mechanics of how the whole thing is organised first.

04-08-2008

Cool, that's a great idea!

04-08-2008

There is a really good photo from snowleopard of an okapi at the Bronx Zoo. And it was put up on the 4th of August. It has the Okapi standing in front of a fake buttress root looking thing.

04-08-2008

I really like the current one, but the thought of having one of my own photo's would be a real honour . Sadly I can't really find anything suitable, the nearest I could get was this:


I had a trial run at cutting it down, but what I really don't like is that green thing in the background which is the top of the perimeter fence. It's ugly, and if I were you I wouldn't use it. It's maybe a bit wide too. Will keep looking though!

05-08-2008

The main problem is that the photos we would normally take aren't actually suitable for a banner like I want to use.

I've actually been browsing through the gallery and have found very few suitable photos so far ... that's not because the photos are bad - just that they won't work for the dimensions we need for the banner!