Photo Mechanic Keywords

In the last post I mentioned how useful Photo Mechanic (PM) is for adding keyword information to your images. Keywords are important for anyone who posts their images online either to a personal web site, photo sharing, stock or wire service. They assist search engines be it a local site search or an entire web search via Google when people are trying to locate images of a particular object or person etc.

 I'm not going into details here about adding and applying keywords to your master list or to your images using PM, the user manual explains how to use the keyword dialog just fine. I will however try to explain one feature PM provides that is beyond the basic functionality of a simple linear keyword list. PM allows you to use a nested vocabulary or a hierarchy lists of keywords which builds out keywords based on parent / child relationships as well as synonyms.  For instance a "Cow"  is a "Farm Animal" and could be referred to as a "Bovine". So the keyword phrase "Farm Animal" is the parent keyword of "Cow" the child, and "Bovine" is a synonym keyword for "Cow". The more descriptive and inclusive your keywords are the better the chance a search engine will locate one of your images over another.

 PM comes with a basic vocabulary of keywords, it's intended to illustrate how the hierarchy menu of the "Structured Keywords Panel" works. You can also look at the supplied keyword text file behind it to see how to build your own. The Keyword Panel comes with a list of Regions from around the world and another for Animals, which I soon discovered was very incomplete. I decided to look at their text files to see how I could build my own, ones which would relate directly to the subjects that I normally photograph. I'll try to explain how the text files behind the "Structured Keywords Panel" dialog box work and how you can build your own custom structured keyword menu.

 Start by opening the main Structured Keywords Panel which is accessed on the menu bar through "Image / Structured Keywords Panel". I highly recommend that you first make a copy of the vocabulary file that ships with PM this way you can revert back to the factory list that shipped with PM. This is done by hitting the "Save' button located in the lower right area of the panel, a typical save dialog box will ask you where to save this file. The "Merge", "Load" and "Save" buttons are very important going forward when modifying the vocabulary files create outside of PM with a standard text editor and I'll explain their use later in more detail. 

 With any text editor that allows you to save files in the UTF-8 format (ex: Windows NotePad) you can now open the file you just saved.  You will notice that the menus are displayed based on the order of top to bottom and the amount of indentation for of each column of text. The columns must be indented by using the TAB key only, if there are spaces used to offset your columns you will find that the menus you're trying to build won't line up properly. Each indented column represents the child of the previous column of data or its parent to its left. The keyword menus are ordered left to right the same way the columns of text appear in the text files, left most data appearing in the 1st or left most menu column, followed by the next column etc.. The flyout or expanding menu to the right is determined by the order in which the text appears in the file top to bottom. Note, PM will automatically sort your data alphabetically within the parent/child relationships after you import it so do not worry about the order in which you entered in your text. Synonym words that appear in bold in the menu are encased in curly brackets {} and should appear in the same column of data that they represent for a group of keywords, or indented one level to the right if they are representing a single object. 

 One thing that needs to be covered is how to added keyword files into PM and how to save or backup the ones that you use and may wish to share with others. This is where the "Merge", "Load" and "Save" buttons are used:

 Save - Always do this first before making any changes to your structured keyword list menu. This is your backup and the only way to return to the previous version before you initiated a change. You can also use this if you wish to share your keyword list(s) with another PM user.

 Load - Overwrites the current structured keyword list or lists that appear in your Structured Keyword Panel menu with the contents of the keyword text file you are importing. Only the contents of the text file you are adding will appear after load has completed.

 Merge - Will append your current structured keyword menu with the contents of the new text file you wish to add. If you want to use the lists that I've created you can select only the ones that interest you and use the merge button to add them into your structured keyword menu one at a time.

Using the FREE files that I have supplied is pretty simple. Go to my  Photo Mechanic Keyword Vocabulary page and download the zipped files that interest you. I suggest that you 1st make a backup copy of your current structured keyword list using the "Save" button before you  "Merge" the contents of my file(s) with yours.

I have created keyword list of the following Flora and Fauna with their Common and Scientific names:

North American Birds, Canadian Insects, North American Dragonflies and Damselflies, Canadian Butterflies, North American Mammals, North American Reptiles, North American Amphibians, Ontario Wild Flowers.

Also available is a list of Canada and US nature areas, which includes:
National, Provincial and State Parks, Nature Preserves and Conservation areas, Wildlife Management Areas and Bird Sanctuaries, National and State Forest, Arboretums and Botanical Gardens

Another more localized list of my area: The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Golden Horseshoe parks is also available, it includes parks from: The City of Toronto (amalgamated), Niagara Falls, Grimsby, St. Catharines, Hamilton,  Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga, Pickering, Ajax, Oshawa, Milton & Halton Region

Adorama and Canadian Orders

 If you intend to order something on line with Adorama to be delivered to Canada, STOP! DON'T DO IT!!

Unless you don't mind paying extreme shipping charges. I recently ordered a DVD from them which cost $99 their cheapest shipping fee was via UPS for an additional $30 a little steep but since this item wasn't available elsewhere I had no other choice. Other shipping methods Adorama made available were through FEDex $50 or $60 depending on speed of delivery. I was naive to think that the $30 would cover some of the duty/tax etc..  I mean I can order a DVD via Amazon in the US and only pay $8 for shipping.
  So the item makes it to Canada and an attempt to deliver was made, and like most people I work thru the day and received a yellow missed delivery slip, which notified me I owned them an additional $25 for their brokerage fee. I expected some fee but 25%, so duty plus how much? I tried to arrange a 2nd delivery, and like most couriers they couldn't provide a set date/time. So I thought lets have it delivered to a UPS store right across from my office downtown, I'll be able to pick it up on the way home. UPS can't do that automatically, YOU the customer must to call the store directly to see if they will even accept the package. If you can convince them, you then call back UPS and advise them of the new UPS Store address What? The UPS store was kind enough to accept the package, but they were also kind enough to charge another $5 for accepting it, lovely.
 So I called the store back the next day (they had closed by the time I got off with UPS central) to instruct them that I'd gone ahead with the redirected delivery only to find out that they don't accept packages with brokerage fees, I'd have to pay in advance. I said fine I'll be right over to pay you, oh no you can't pay us directly you have to pay UPS directly. Are you not UPS? Yes but we are an independent agent we can't accept payments. I call back the REAL UPS and paid the outstanding overpriced brokerage fee over the phone and they were to contact the driver who at this time is already on the road to tell him that the COD charge has been paid. Later that day I get a call from both the independent UPS store and the driver telling me that they cant accept/deliver the package because of the outstanding COD. I tell them that I've paid it, but the driver hasn't heard from UPS central nor can he call to confirm he is just a driver. So that high tech scanner/clipboard thing they carry around must for angry birds because it's linked to absolutely nothing of use to the driver. The UPS store being independent and all can't check the UPS system cause they have no access to the UPS system, What? So I call UPS central, they tell me that the payment information should make it to the dispatch center tomorrow and the driver should be able to deliver the package to the UPS store, sorry independent UPS store. I now understand why they charge so much with drivers who do nothing but drive and have no contact to their dispatch center, and with stores that beyond having a pretty UPS sign in the window and a drop box have nothing to do with UPS they need to recover all of the costs for the extra gas used for truck rolls to actually deliver a package.
 So UPS is useless that much is confirmed, stay away from them, but Adorama is sticking it to us also in their own little way. Say you need a new SD card for your camera, and you're dumb enough to go to them because they have them on sale real cheap $8 for 8G pretty good... Oh but wait they'd never charge $30 to deliver to Canada on something so small would they... Oh yeah you bet they would... Stay away from Adorama unless you can't find it elsewhere... If you must go to the USA for camera stuff B&H or Midwest Photo Exchange have both provided great service for me in the past.

Comparison of a product picked at random that all three stores carry at the same price:

Nik Sharpen Pro 3.0 Plugin $139.99
Store	Shipping	Customs	Total	Method
Adorama	$30.60	$35.00	$205.59	UPS
MidWest	21.25	18.20	179.44	USPS
B&H	$8.62	$20.30	168.91	Purolator

Note: I didn't provide a direct URL for Adorama because I don't want to assist them in any way in taking you to the cleaners.

Online Nature & Wild Life Reference Resources

Trying to identify a new bird, bug or wildflower that you photographed can be a challenge, here is a list of some online resources that should help out:

Birds of North America (BNA): Comprehensive reference covering the life histories of North America’s breeding birds.
Ontario Field Ornithologists: Ontario Canada Birding resource central. Contains information on recent sightings, Ontario species check lists which includes images useful for identification. 
 eBird Canada: A Canadian subset of the On-line checklist project where you can enter and store your bird observations in a central database, track your personal records, and share your observations with other birders and scientists.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology: A world leader in the study, appreciation, and conservation of birds.
Encyclopedia of Life: Database for every one of the almost 2 million species that are named and known on this planet.
eNature: Web site for information about the wild animals and plants of Canada and the United States.Ability to search or browse thru the field guides of more than 5,500 North American species.
Animal Diversity Web: Database of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology at the University of Michigan.
BorealForest.org: Online resource of the plants, insects and animals of Boreal Forest of Northwestern Ontario.
Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: Detailed information from the Patuxent Research Center and collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
New York State Mammals: Housed inside the NYFalls.com web site has information on animals and plants of upper NY, which shares much of the same climate and geographic makeup of southern Ontario.
Bug Guide: community of naturalists who enjoy learning about and sharing our observations of insects, spiders, and other related creatures.
Odonata Central:  Online resource for dragonflies and damselflies from around the world.
Ontario Wildflowers: all about wildflowers that grow in Ontario (Canada).
Ontario Trees and Shrubs: Same format as the Ontario wildflower site. 
Mushroom Expert: Everything mushroom and fungi.