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Train Picture rejected on Railpictures.net

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Posted by Paul of Covington on Saturday, March 19, 2016 2:14 PM

Semper Vaporo
Google used to be very notorious for that... my son and I used to send messages via the G-Mail chat feature and we noted that if we mentioned "Cars" there were advertising windows along side that were for "cars", if we then mentioned "computers" the advertising changed to "computers". It tracked very closely with any subject that was menioned more than once.

   Many people worry about big brother government watching them but don't think about how they are being watched online.   Whenever I do a search on a product, I am swamped by ads for that product every time I sign on for the next week or two.  And the ads are not just on line.   About a year ago, my wife sprained her knee and sought information with her I-phone.   A day or two later I got a call on the house phone offering a deal on knee-braces.   When he asked if anyone had a knee problem, I said "no" (my automatic response to phone solicitation), and he seemed very surprised and asked again.   Sometimes I think we should be more worried than we are about the internet.

_____________ 

  "A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner

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Posted by Leo_Ames on Saturday, March 19, 2016 11:56 AM

I don't believe that this forum has an upload feature. You most host your picture somewhere and then link it to your post here (I use something that I believe is called TinyURL when the need arises at a forum like this to share something not already on a server). 

Never heard of what you mention in connection with sharing a photograph at a message board and I can assure you that virtually nobody has ever taken advantage of it for such a purpose. This it seemed much more plausable that you were just mistaken about how the upload feature of some forums work.

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Saturday, March 19, 2016 11:54 AM

Leo_Ames
 
Semper Vaporo

HostThenPost dot org is a web site that allows people to place files so they can then reference them in forums and not have to make their personal computer available to the world to fetch the image each time someone else views the forum posting.  

  

If you're talking about attaching a file, it doesn't work that way. The file is uploaded to the forum itself and they do the hosting. You only need a 3rd party hosting service like the one you mentioned if the forum doesn't have that feature. 

Been online for 20 years and spent far too many hours on forums during that time and don't know of a way to just share a picture where everyone that sees it is accessing my own personal computer. 

Yes, you can "Host" photos from your own computer, but you have to have a permanent IP address and your computer turned on 24/7 and expose ("Share") the folder the image is in to the world.  That can be expensive for us mere mortals piddling on the web.

This forum might allow uploading photos to the forum server, (I don't know, some do, some don't), but in this case the photo in question is hosted on a 3rd party server known as:

"HostThenPost dot Org"

Right-click on any photo and in the dialog box that appears click on "Properties" (at the bottom) and you will get a dialog box that shows the URL of the photo...

In this instance it is: (I added spaces to keep the forum software from converting it to a link to the photo and showing the photo instead of the text of the URL):

http // : hostthenpost . org / uploads / 58f2f5ccf834fb26697287f99558b37 . jpg

When anyone then visits the forum to read a posting, the text is downloaded to the visitor's computer along with the addresses of any images.  The user's computer then sends that address out on the web to the server the photo is resident on, and that server sends the photo to the user... That server could possibly substitute a different file for the photo each time someone access the site and everybody would see a different image.

The same thing happens to many of the "subwindows" of the page being displayed, most often associated with advertising.  The forum page contains markers of where to put some piece of information and a web address (URL or IP address) of what to put there.  The user's computer then sends that address out and gets back from some server what to put there.  It could be the same server that the rest of the page is coming from or it could be another one half-way around the world.

If the address is non-existant (the server is broke, disabled, unplugged or otherwise nuked) or somehow blocked (anti-malware might be filtering addresses that are sent out and won't let be sent the ones it flags as being suspect; even the ISP might not accept some addresses), then the user will see something like "Error 404" in the space.  Some web pages contain extra code that can detect that nothing came back and send a different address and keep doing that until it runs out of different addresses.  Some pages are coded such that the information that the user was really after won't show until all the extraneous subwindows have been filled and the poor user is frustrated with how long it takes to load the page.

Some servers even request info from the user's computer for location so it can send different advertising based on locale, or even filter it based on information in a database on what that particular computer has been looking at recently... so if you have been searching the web for "Cars" you might see more advertising for "automobiles" than "lipstick".

Google used to be very notorious for that... my son and I used to send messages via the G-Mail chat feature and we noted that if we mentioned "Cars" there were advertising windows along side that were for "cars", if we then mentioned "computers" the advertising changed to "computers".  It tracked very closely with any subject that was menioned more than once.

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by Leo_Ames on Saturday, March 19, 2016 10:51 AM

Semper Vaporo

HostThenPost dot org is a web site that allows people to place files so they can then reference them in forums and not have to make their personal computer available to the world to fetch the image each time someone else views the forum posting.  

If you're talking about attaching a file, it doesn't work that way. The file is uploaded to the forum itself and they do the hosting. You only need a 3rd party hosting service like the one you mentioned if the forum doesn't have that feature. 

Been online for 20 years and spent far too many hours on forums during that time and don't know of a way to just share a picture on a forum where everyone that sees it is accessing my own personal computer. 

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, March 17, 2016 6:03 PM

Benchedthatpiece

I think Railpictures is overrated. I was looking at some of the shots on there a few years ago and was like man these are awesome. Then I would see some and wonder how they made it on there? I take pics for me and me only. If I share them and people like them that's fine and if they don't that's fine as well. The main thing I want to do is stay trackside as much as possible and if I can improve my photography skills in the process that's a nice bonus. : )

Jay

All photo screeners don't have the same eye.  Art and it's acceptance or rejection is in the eye of the beholder.  On a day to day basis even the same screeener may see things differently.  There are no absolutes in subjectivity.

If you like you photos, that is fine for you.  If others don't like your photos, this is fine for them.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by DavidH66 on Thursday, March 17, 2016 4:42 PM

nycstlrr

 

 
DavidH66
 
nycstlrr

 

 
tree68
 
DavidH66
...like this one.

 

Pretty run-of-the-mill 3/4-ish roster shot - but clear, sharp, and with excellent lighting.  And those seem to be requisite requirements on such sites.

 

 

 

Yeah but 95% of the people just starting out with a $50 point and shoot can get a shot like that. Railpictures is a joke.

 

 

 

 

This is Sid Vaught, he's been photographing trains longer then I've been alive.

 

 

 

 

 

I don`t care if it is the pope. It is a shot any beginner can take. A name does not make the photo!

 

 

Exactly, Sid's done better, but because he has a name, a lesser quality photo of his got by the screeners.

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Posted by Benchedthatpiece on Thursday, March 17, 2016 12:23 PM

I think Railpictures is overrated. I was looking at some of the shots on there a few years ago and was like man these are awesome. Then I would see some and wonder how they made it on there? I take pics for me and me only. If I share them and people like them that's fine and if they don't that's fine as well. The main thing I want to do is stay trackside as much as possible and if I can improve my photography skills in the process that's a nice bonus. : )

Jay

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, March 17, 2016 9:44 AM

BaltACD

There are artists with a camera and there are picture takers.  The artist sees the 'story' in what is shot - subject, background, meaningful human interaction, light and shadow.  The picture taker sees the subject - and that is all that is seen. 

I'm a big advocate of the "rule of thirds."  I regularly share that concept with folks simply because it can turn a routine snapshot into a keeper.  After a while, it becomes automatic.

Some years ago, when an aunt owned a waterfront cottage on Lake Ontario, family would visit for vacations.  My sister (and others) made a nightly pilgrimage to a beach that had a nice view of the sunset, and would take pictures.  One evening I was with the group and decided to take a few steps back, framing the setting sun with a tree and a bench.  Turned a boring shot of a bright dot on the horizon into a framable image.  It's all about the composition.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Thursday, March 17, 2016 7:30 AM

I agree with Zug in this matter.  I've been taking pictures since high school, starting with an Argus C-3.  I always wished that I could shoot photos even half as good as those of Richard Steinheimer, but even in my youth, I knew that I wasn't in his league and it just wasn't going to happen.  Nevertheless, his work provided a goal to aim for and I would like to think that I'm better than I was in 1969, even if not by much.

The question that you need to ask yourself is:  Why am I taking these pictures?

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Posted by zugmann on Thursday, March 17, 2016 7:10 AM

DavidH66
This is Sid Vaught, he's been photographing trains longer then I've been alive.

Age doesn't really matter.  I've known guys that have been shooting 50+ years and still suck, while there's 12 year olds that take mind-blowingly awesome photos. Either you have the photographer eye or you don't.

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, March 17, 2016 6:52 AM

There are artists with a camera and there are picture takers.  The artist sees the 'story' in what is shot - subject, background, meaningful human interaction, light and shadow.  The picture taker sees the subject - and that is all that is seen. 

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by nycstlrr on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 10:49 PM

DavidH66
 
nycstlrr

 

 
tree68
 
DavidH66
...like this one.

 

Pretty run-of-the-mill 3/4-ish roster shot - but clear, sharp, and with excellent lighting.  And those seem to be requisite requirements on such sites.

 

 

 

Yeah but 95% of the people just starting out with a $50 point and shoot can get a shot like that. Railpictures is a joke.

 

 

 

 

This is Sid Vaught, he's been photographing trains longer then I've been alive.

 

 

 

I don`t care if it is the pope. It is a shot any beginner can take. A name does not make the photo!

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Posted by DavidH66 on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 10:16 PM

nycstlrr

 

 
tree68
 
DavidH66
...like this one.

 

Pretty run-of-the-mill 3/4-ish roster shot - but clear, sharp, and with excellent lighting.  And those seem to be requisite requirements on such sites.

 

 

 

Yeah but 95% of the people just starting out with a $50 point and shoot can get a shot like that. Railpictures is a joke.

 

 

This is Sid Vaught, he's been photographing trains longer then I've been alive.

 

 

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Posted by nycstlrr on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 9:36 PM

tree68
 
DavidH66
...like this one.

 

Pretty run-of-the-mill 3/4-ish roster shot - but clear, sharp, and with excellent lighting.  And those seem to be requisite requirements on such sites.

 

Yeah but 95% of the people just starting out with a $50 point and shoot can get a shot like that. Railpictures is a joke.

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 8:51 PM

DavidH66
...like this one.

Pretty run-of-the-mill 3/4-ish roster shot - but clear, sharp, and with excellent lighting.  And those seem to be requisite requirements on such sites.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
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Posted by DavidH66 on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 8:30 PM

zugmann

 

 
DavidH66
You have to be the cream of the cream of the crop to get on that site. and frankly this photo is nowhere even remotly near that.

 

Umm.. nah... you have to offer what they want.  While there are some great photogs there, there's also a lot of stuff that is not exactly "cream of the crop".  

 

 

The older submissions are  nothin to sneeze at, but the newer photos are tougher to get through.

 

then again you get an occasional mediocre one slip through the cracks like this one. (Don't get me wrong I am a big fan of Sid's work, but this just seems like such a pedestrian photo)

http://www.railpictures.net/images/d2/3/9/0/3390.1455055616.jpg

 

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 9:33 PM

any photos on that site that might be less than spectacular still might be the 'Cream of the crop' because it is the best they have of the particular subject.

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by zugmann on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 9:14 PM

DavidH66
You have to be the cream of the cream of the crop to get on that site. and frankly this photo is nowhere even remotly near that.

Umm.. nah... you have to offer what they want.  While there are some great photogs there, there's also a lot of stuff that is not exactly "cream of the crop".  

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any

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Posted by DavidH66 on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 8:31 PM

rpnet contributor here.

 

You have to be the cream of the cream of the crop to get on that site. and frankly this photo is nowhere even remotly near that.

 

First off it's soft

 

secondly there shadows galore

 

and pretty much anything else thats wrong with it has already been said.

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Posted by cv_acr on Monday, March 14, 2016 1:25 PM

UnumProvident101

It was rejected because of poor image quality

Sorry dude, but I have to agree with that assessment. The photo has the following knocks against it, any number of which I'd expect the screeners to consider grounds for rejection:

- photo has issues with extremely high "noise" (graininess) and low resolution

- poor sharpness

- it might just be the steam, but there appears to be a bit of fuzziness or glare through the cylinders/smokebox area, or a dust cloud has blurred the photo

- *several* items including multiple people, a platform light and the large tree are obscuring portions of the main subject, the locomotive, and none of them seeming to tell a particular story - just people hanging around a railroad museum

- sun angle appears quite high or straight on the nose of the engine or even slightly back lit, darkening the subject

- it's obviously a modern shot of a preserved engine at a museum or tourist line, so no intrinsic historical value (anyone can go back tomorow and retake this shot without the issues mentioned above)

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Posted by schlimm on Friday, March 11, 2016 8:23 PM

Perhaps so.  But Webroot is pretty cautious about warnings.  It seldom happens. Over the three years I have used it, the number of times that warning has appeared is small.  So when it does, it means the site in question has had files to upload in the past that contain all sorts of trojans, spyware, malware, viruses, worms and  extortion bugs.  Safety first.

C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Friday, March 11, 2016 8:03 PM

HostThenPost dot org is a web site that allows people to place files so they can then reference them in forums and not have to make their personal computer available to the world to fetch the image each time someone else views the forum posting.  Similar to other photo hosting sites.  This is where the photo is now that is being displayed in this forum posting thread.

Apparently that site has a reputation (to the anti-malware program suite that schlimm is using) that some people have posted files there that are "Trojan Horse" type files (look like something you want, but contains malware).

It does not say exactly what it found to be bad, or even that it did find something bad, only that the site is known to host malware (albeit unwittingly or otherwise).  It is just a warning to be wary of downloading things from the site.  (i.e.: be sure to run an anti-malware check against any files you download)  It does not mean that the photo itself is bad.

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by schlimm on Friday, March 11, 2016 6:50 PM

NO.  Only this one.  But this picture was not on RailPictures.net as it was rejected by them.  It was on hostthenpost.

 

C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan

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Posted by Norm48327 on Friday, March 11, 2016 5:46 PM

Schlimm,

Have you received that warning on any other pages on Railpictures.net? I haven't.

Norm


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Posted by schlimm on Friday, March 11, 2016 5:13 PM

Semper Vaporo
It would be nice if the anti-malware program that gives the warning would narrow it down to which URL was the culprit... then it could be added to the "HOSTS" file on the local computer and the suspicious site could be permanently blocked.

http://hostthenpost.org/uploads/58f2f5ccf834fb26697287f990558b37.jpg

Webroot Content Classification and Web Reputation

This site might contain links to viruses or other software programs that can reveal

personal information stored or typed on your computer to malicious

persons, i.e., malware.

Web Reputation is in the danger zone, 10 (out of 100).

As to the picture, my hunch it was rejected because of poor composition (busy and

stereotypical) and the smudgy area at the front of the loco.  

A defective lens coating, perhaps?

C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan

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Posted by Euclid on Friday, March 11, 2016 2:02 PM

Wizlish
 
Euclid
Incidentally, I am told that science has determined that a viewer’s attention enters a rectangular image from the lower left corner. So that is where the magic carpet ride begins. From there, it is up to the artist to shape that ride. Often times, a clockwise circle that returns to the starting point works fine.

 

This is fascinating - can you provide hard references or the original sources for this science?  I'd like to read up on it.

These issues of graphic composition are covered in many art books.  One of the best is LANDSCAPE ILLUSION A SPATIAL APPROACH TO PAINTING by Daniel Chard published by WATSON GUPTILL in 1987.

Much of the book is on the topic of composition. 

 

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Posted by Wizlish on Friday, March 11, 2016 11:36 AM

Euclid
An important rule in graphic art is to have only one subject in the image. This can be somewhat of a judgement call about exactly which details comprise the subject, but generally a determination can be made. In this photo, the locomotive is the intended subject. An engineer oiling around could easily be part of the locomotive subject because his attention is clearly on the locomotive. But there is a second subject in the photo. It is the drama created by the interaction of the five people, all with attention strongly focused on some particular mystery, which has nothing to do with the locomotive. Whatever it going on there, it must be significant because it has captured the attention of the two guys in the foreground who seem to have been frozen in mid stride.

See, I look at this a bit differently, considering the photograph as if it were 'art' instead of a pictorial reproduction of a scene.  Here, the longer you look at the image, the more your perception sees and begins to associate, and you start to get a story out of the progression.  (One example of this 'in action' is the last scene in Otto Preminger's movie version of 'On the Beach')

When I look at this picture (as a railfan who likes steam locomotives) my view goes straight to the 'face' and then takes in the general lines of the locomotive (annoyed slightly by the fellow blocking the valve gear) until I have had my initial fill of looking at the locomotive.  Then I start to notice what the people are doing -- and this rapidly involves following some of the sightlines to the 'secondary composition' here, which involves four of the people I see.  Two people are looking to the right and down, drawing the eye to the two 'lumps' of workers on the tender truck, an interesting composition in space.  It is impossible to ignore the female railfan blissfully ignoring anything to do with maintenance/railroading, as she whips her camera up for a photo.  There's some interesting commentary implicit here, all without a word spoken or obvious posing.

While yes, this isn't something a railroad picture site is likely to value, it is a well-established aspect of art history and art interpretation (a couple of da Vinci paintings are commonly used to illustrate how it works).  It is interesting to see it here, even if perhaps not consciously intended...

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Posted by Wizlish on Friday, March 11, 2016 11:25 AM

Euclid
Incidentally, I am told that science has determined that a viewer’s attention enters a rectangular image from the lower left corner. So that is where the magic carpet ride begins. From there, it is up to the artist to shape that ride. Often times, a clockwise circle that returns to the starting point works fine.

This is fascinating - can you provide hard references or the original sources for this science?  I'd like to read up on it.

Schlimm - if you are reading, what's the current state of the art on this?

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Friday, March 11, 2016 9:26 AM

I think the site passes advertising on from other sites and the selection of what is passed on is random, so accessing the site multiple times may not get the same data downloaded.  It is possible that one of those advertiser sites has something suspicious on it and it got flagged.  Go back to the site and it may not pass on that same advertisment and so nothing gets flagged (or something different gets flagged).

People that are using ad-blockers may not see these sorts of things happen because those 3rd party URLs get blocked completely.

It would be nice if the anti-malware program that gives the warning would narrow it down to which URL was the culprit... then it could be added to the "HOSTS" file on the local computer and the suspicious site could be permanently blocked.

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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