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ATPM 7.05
May 2001

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Desktop Pictures

Hawaii and London

Hawaii

These pictures were taken in September 2000 on the island of Kaua’i, Hawai’i by Christopher Turner with a Nikon CoolPix 950. All pictures were taken at normal settings, and no filters were utilized.

Kaua’i is still largely a tropical paradise, with approximately 90% of the island, mostly the interior but also the northern Na Pali Coast, unreachable by automobile. The only way to get to these areas is to go in on foot, by boat, or by helicopter.

These pictures include shots of Hanalei Bay, made famous by the song “Puff the Magic Dragon” by Peter, Paul & Mary; Opaeka’a Falls; Waimea Canyon, which rivals the Grand Canyon in beauty and bests it in depth; the Na Pali Coast; and the most sought-after shot in all of the South Pacific, the Kalalua Valley.

All of these pictures are provided as desktops at 1024 x 768 resolution for your enjoyment. To learn more about Chris’s Hawai’i trip, you can point your browser to his Hawai’i page.

London

John Miller contributes his photographs of London. He writes:

The pictures were all taken in the early 90s when I was aspiring to be an architectural photographer. London was less congested with traffic, and the shops were closed on Sundays. They were all taken on a 4x5" Sinar camera and the original transparencies were scanned using a Linotype Hell (now Heidelberg) Jade flatbed scanner. Because of the size of the originals, a flatbed scanner is good enough for preparing them for my Web site. A critical look at some of the original scans leaves a lot to be desired (newton rings, flare, high and low density). The originals are, of course, of a very high quality. I still occasionally sell the shots through a photo library called Collections, based in London, but I earn my living as an architectural assistant with the London Borough of Enfield.

He then describes the photos:

  • Buckingham Palace, London home of the Queen. A policeman came and told me to be gone by the time he returned in 20 minutes. There were also five armed soldiers about 100 yards away looking very twitchy. We’re not used to guns here! You need a licence to take photographs in the Royal Parks. This doesn’t apply to tourists, only people with old fashioned cameras on tripods with black cloths over their heads!
  • Harrods, Knightsbridge, large posh and very expensive (it costs £1 /$1.40 to go for a pee).
  • Houses of Parliament, seat of British government, the clock tower houses the bell known as Big Ben.
  • National Gallery, houses some of the most famous paintings in the world. The fountains were off when I set up my tripod, but a friendly chap who looks after Trafalgar Square asked if I wanted the fountains back on, promptly disappeared underground and obliged!
  • St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, a quiet little oasis away from the busy market place of the same name.
  • Tate Gallery, modern art, 19th c. onwards, Turner and Constable, that sort of thing.
  • Tower Bridge, built between 1886-1894 by J Wolfe Barry and Sir Horace Jones engineer and architect respectively. Open to the public, the view of the City from the upper walkway is excellent. The bridge still opens (the centre sections pivot from each tower) for large ships passing up and down the river. The original steam-driven engines are now housed in a museum at the South end.

Downloading all the Pictures at Once

iCab and Interarchy (formerly Anarchie) can download an entire set of desktop pictures at once. In iCab, use the Download command to download “Get all files in same path.” In Interarchy, use HTTP Mirror feature.

Contributing Your Own Desktop Pictures

If you have a picture, whether a small series or just one fabulous or funny shot, feel free to send it to editor@atpm.com and we’ll publish it in next month’s issue. Have a regular print but no scanner? Don’t worry. E-mail us, and we tell you where to send it so we can scan it for you. Note that we cannot return the original print, so send us a copy.

Placing Desktop Pictures

Mac OS X

Switch to the Finder. Choose “Preferences…” from the “Finder” menu. Click on the “Select Picture…” button on the right. In the Open Panel, select the desktop picture you want to use. The panel defaults to your “~/Library/Desktop Pictures” folder. Close the “Finder Preferences” window when you are done.

You can also use the pictures with Mac OS X’s built-in screen saver. Choose “System Preferences…” from the Apple menu. Click the screen saver button. Then click on Custom Slide Show in the list of screen savers. If you put the ATPM pictures in your Pictures folder, you’re all set. Otherwise, click Configure to tell the screen saver which pictures to use.

Mac OS 8.5-9.1

Go to the Appearance control panel. Click on the “Desktop” tab at the top of the window. Press the “Place Picture…” button in the bottom right corner, then select the desired image. By default, it will show you the images in the “Desktop Pictures” subfolder of your “Appearance” folder in the System Folder, however you can select images from anywhere on your hard disk.

After you select the desired image file and press “Choose,” a preview will appear in the Appearance window. The “Position Automatically” selection is usually fine. You can play with the settings to see if you like the others better. You will see the result in the little preview screen.

Once you are satisfied with the selection, click on “Set Desktop” in the lower right corner of the window. That’s it! Should you ever want to get rid of it, just go to the desktop settings again and press “Remove Picture.”

Mac OS 8.0 and 8.1

Go to the “Desktop Patterns” control panel. Click on “Desktop Pictures” in the list on the left of the window, and follow steps similar to the ones above.

Random Desktop Pictures

If you drag a folder of pictures onto the miniature desktop in the Appearance or Desktop Pictures control panel, your Mac will choose one from the folder at random when it starts up.

DeskPicture

An alternative to Mac OS’s Appearance control panel is Pierce Software’s DeskPicture, reviewed in issue 5.10 and available for download.

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Reader Comments (1)

kubra batool · September 29, 2006 - 15:21 EST #1
This picture is the best picture I have ever seen.It is captured so perfectly.Best of luck

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