View Full Version : Johnston photo collection
teddybear1873
21-Oct-10, 20:57
I'm sure this website has been put on here in the past, but here it is again, for the folk that didn't know.
http://www.johnstoncollection.net/default.aspx
Yep, got that web-site courtesy of the "photograph forum" - absolutley brilliant, great web-site , and fantasically put together !!
Interesting site.
I like the photo of the curlers at the rink in Bilbster. When was it last played in Caithness? I ask because I wanted to learn to play it when I first moved to the county but was I told it was a Gaelic game and as such there was no curling ever played in Caithness.
rheg. curling is played in brora, and its no more gaelic than caithness!
but on the orig. note the pics are lovely and how little the town has changed!
Interesting site.
I like the photo of the curlers at the rink in Bilbster. When was it last played in Caithness? I ask because I wanted to learn to play it when I first moved to the county but was I told it was a Gaelic game and as such there was no curling ever played in Caithness.
Who ever told you that was pulling your leg, if it were a gaelic game, would it be played in the winter Olympics. It even has its own FB page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Outdoor-Curling-Winter-Spiel/222895304557
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonspiel
Great stuff.
Anybody got any stories on the "worthies" from Thurso?
Kevin Milkins
22-Oct-10, 00:06
A great website with some fascinating quality images of years gone by.
Wick is very lucky to have had a family such as the Johnstones that were at the cutting edge of technoligy with photography that has left a wealth of interesting and informative pictures of what life was like in the county over an 150 year period.
A great website with some fascinating quality images of years gone by.
Wick is very lucky to have had a family such as the Johnstones that were at the cutting edge of technoligy with photography that has left a wealth of interesting and informative pictures of what life was like in the county over an 150 year period.
And you looked like one of the guys in a photo pushing a fishing boat! There can be only one!!
achingale
22-Oct-10, 15:37
It's absolutely brilliant. I've spent ages going through the photos they've uploaded and just revelled in the past. Well done to everyone involved and thank you so much.
redeyedtreefrog
22-Oct-10, 18:51
The website's not great, I can't open anything in new tabs or find a way to just browse photos.
But the photos themselves are really good, i love seeing how Wick used to be and how it's changed.
Does anybody know where Johnston's studio was?
George Brims
22-Oct-10, 20:51
There's a biography section on the web site that tells you where they used to be located (Brims's Buildings, the part of Riverside House next to the Bridge St church) and later on the Market Square, between the Crown Bar and Weatherspoons. I remember going there to have family pictures taken, as I bet many people do.
I also found the web site hard to work from the point of view of browsing and searching.
I love old photograhs and these are a treasure!
Thank you, :) C
lynne duncan
23-Oct-10, 17:09
lovely found my pals greatgranny and great grandad so ordering the picture for their christmas. so a big thank you for posting this
minerwilly
26-Oct-10, 12:31
The website's not great, I can't open anything in new tabs or find a way to just browse photos.
But the photos themselves are really good, i love seeing how Wick used to be and how it's changed.
Does anybody know where Johnston's studio was?
Hi all, it's great that you're enjoying the website. With the negatives having been locked away in storage for the last few decades, it's nice that they're finally available as a public resource. I think it will be an excellent tool for the local or family historian, or even just people who like to look at old photos.
As for navigation, I wouldn't have thought we could make it any simpler, but if you have any suggestions then feel free to send them through the form page on the site and I'll take a look at them.
With more than ten thousand images on the site already, and another forty five thousand to come, simply browsing through them all from the start is not really a practical option. Using the search page you can search (and browse) through the images by date, location, subject, keyword, etc. We'll soon be adding a feature which will filter out studio portraits for those interested only in landscapes, and vice versa for those only interested in portraits.
As for opening in a new tab, why would you want to do that? You can have as many instances of the website in as many tabs as you like. The only reason you would want to open an image on its own in a new tab is if you were wanting to print it - which is a clear infringement of copyright. Remember, funding for projects like this is always limited, so go easy on the people involved. The Wick Society is a voluntary, charitable society, and relies on donations and other sources of income such as the sales of prints from the collection in order to remain active. Please support the society as best you can or resources like this might end up lost forever.
Cheers
Marc
NHC Online
mrs_inkstack
26-Oct-10, 14:56
Well said Mr Miner Willy :D
Bill Fernie
26-Oct-10, 17:33
I want to record my congratulations on a fantastic resource of old Caithness photos.
www.johnstoncollection.net/
Although many of us were aware of the collection the fact that it is now being digitised for the web is a tremendous boost in making it available for all to see in a way that was not possible in the past.
Well done to all concerned. I look forward to seeing some of the other photos as your work progresses.
Bill Fernie
George Brims
26-Oct-10, 20:35
As for opening in a new tab, why would you want to do that? You can have as many instances of the website in as many tabs as you like. The only reason you would want to open an image on its own in a new tab is if you were wanting to print it - which is a clear infringement of copyright.
Opening just a few images in new tabs rather than whole instances of the web site probably uses less resources on your computer. If you want to stop people making illicit prints you should put a "watermark" across the pictures rather than just the copyright notice at the bottom. Of course that's a bit intrusive and will spoil the enjoyment of the casual browser somewhat, so I can understand why you haven't done it so far.
redeyedtreefrog
26-Oct-10, 21:10
As for opening in a new tab, why would you want to do that? You can have as many instances of the website in as many tabs as you like. The only reason you would want to open an image on its own in a new tab is if you were wanting to print it - which is a clear infringement of copyright.
No, not the image on it's own, just the page that is linked to from search results so you can open several results without repeatedly clicking the back button.
Kevin Milkins
26-Oct-10, 22:37
And you looked like one of the guys in a photo pushing a fishing boat! There can be only one!!
That's scary,:eek: and I thought you were kidding me.
I just had another browse through the site and when you get used to the layout I found it very user friendly with some fantastic images of yesteryear.
:Razz
No, not the image on it's own, just the page that is linked to from search results so you can open several results without repeatedly clicking the back button.
Having perused the site for the last half hour I agree with you and with George Brims about its functionality.
The resource is fantastic and most of the site is very good but the way search results are displayed is pretty awful.
Most of the page is wasted. The descriptive text takes up far too much room in the middle of the page, especially for captions of three or four words. This results in the double problem of each page having very few thumbs and having to scroll a lot to see them. One good practice is to have narrower columns in that sort of 'caption'. An alternative would be to display the caption on mouseover but that reduces functionality to some extent.
It's hard to see details in the thumbnails and this doesn't encourage further perusal. Increased contrast in the thumbs might help.
Having the thumbs on the extreme left and a separate 'View Image' button on the extreme right is plain silly. People expect to click on the thumbs or to at least click on something much closer to the thumbs.
As redeyedtreefog says, it's annoying having to click on the back button every time. Having both 'back' and 'next' buttons would be great. If the display-photo pages are dynamic this might be easy to do. Dynamic pages with both 'back' and 'next' buttons would be great though. :)
Given the long list of credits and the evident technical competence of those on the list, there is surely some scope for improvement.
Having said all that..... Great credit should go to all involved for making this fantastic resource available to all. My intention was to offer constructive comments only but to do it briefly and perhaps bluntly but without platitudes.
Many thanks to everyone that made this great project possible.
Can I suggest the address of the Johnston collection is put on the Wick Photos section on the photography page?
Trinkie
Bill Fernie
01-Nov-10, 17:04
Can I suggest the address of the Johnston collection is put on the Wick Photos section on the photography page?
Trinkie
I have set up a Caithness Photos Web Sites Links Thread and made it a sticky
http://forum.caithness.org/showthread.php?t=126171
Thank you, good idea.
Trinkie
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.