Jungle Photos Technical Notes
Information about how Jungle Photos was created, or...
How the Web Was Won!
So you want to know how this site was made? If you're looking for trade secrets, we're not giving anything away! If you have questions that are not answered by the information below please contact Jungle Photos. If you have specific suggestions, you are invited to complete our on-line survey. We respond to all e-mail enquiries.
The following information provides basic facts about how Jungle Photos was created. All the work was done by Roger Harris. No formal training was necessary to create the website although Roger has degrees in science that came in useful in creating the content.
Photography
How were the images made?
All images on this web site were taken by Roger J. Harris during travels to the Amazon rainforest, Africa and the Galapagos Islands from 1992
to 2003. South American countries represented include Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. African countries include Kenya, Malawi, South
Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Most photographs were taken with a Pentax SLR ME Super or Pentax KM, on 35mm color transparency film (Fujicolor:
Velvia 50, Sensia 100, Provia 100 and Kodak: Kodachrome 65, Elite 100). More recent photos were taken with a Pentax autofocus ZX-7. Digital
images were taken with a Sony Mavica 550. Lenses for the ME and KM include the original Pentax 50mm, Pentax 70-210mm zoom lens and Samyang
28-70mm, whereas the ZX-7 uses AF lenses including Sigma 70-300mm and 28-80mm zoom/macro and Pentax 50mm. The only filters used were Hoya
daylight (UV) and polarizing filters. For some close-up photos I used Vivitar extension tubes. Some pictures (prints) were taken using a
Pentax IQZoom 80-E.
How are images prepared for the website?
Slides and prints were developed through commercial developing services and then scanned with a Epson 1640SU scanner at 1200-800dpi, then
processed to 100dpi with Adobe Photodeluxe and Adobe Photoshop 6.0. Image processing is minimal, although some adjustments are made to
improve sharpness, and in a few cases image contrast. (We are in the process of rescanning at 3200 dpi to prepare photographs for
commercial usage via a planned on-line gallery.)
Website
How was the website created? Most of this website was constructed on an iMac DV Special Edition (2000) running Mac OS 9.1. Web layout software used includes Adobe PageMill 3.0 (early versions), and Adobe GoLive 4.0. For uploads to the server, I used Fetch 3.0 and BBEdit 6.0. Quicktime is used for the audio files (these are under revision). Since Jungle Photos first went online in November 2000, it has changed considerably. You can see the changes with the Wayback Machine. Present equipment to maintain the site is an iMac G5 running Mac OSX 10.4. Software versions are Fetch 5.0 and BBEdit 7.0.
Who hosts the website? Web hosting services are provided by DreamHost who rank among the best web hosting providers. (Click link on the left for details.)
Who has helped with making the website? Technical assistance for the search engine was provided by Patrik Bohm of APB Systems. Lots of free advice has been given over the years from too many people to thank individually. Several forums have proven invaluable. Macobserver is a community of friendly, helpful Mac enthusiasts who are happy to answer almost any question Mac-related. A lot of the scripts to enhance the usability are taken from websites that kindly provide Javascript free-of-charge. In particular, the Javascript Source and Java-scripts.net have been very useful.
Please let us know if you have any ideas for improving this page! Send us your suggestions for more technical notes you'd like to see on this page: contact Jungle Photos.
"At the present rate of progress, it is almost impossible to imagine any technical feat that cannot be achieved—if it can be achieved at all—within the next few hundred years."
— Arthur C. Clarke
