Information to help you enjoy this site!

New site features described on this page ...

Quick Search Field
Advanced Search Page
Galleries and Albums
Thumbnail View
"Your Favorites"
Large Image View Features
Slide Shows
Built-in PayPal Shopping Cart

So let's get started!!!!!!

Quick Search Field In the upper right hand corner of every page on my new site is a "quick search" field. Simply type in any word or two that you think will get you to your pictures. For example, if you type in "penguins", the powerful search engine instantaneously searches through the TITLE, CAPTION, KEYWORDS, and ORIENTATION (horizontal or vertical) to match your search term and deliver to you a page of thumbnails of every penguin image on my site. If you then realize that the space on your wall needs a vertical image. Simply do another quick search for "vertical penguins" and you will get only the vertical penguin pictures on my site. It is truly awesome! Like I mentioned already... this quick search will appear in the top right corner of every page on my site. It will definitely meet 99% of your search needs.

Advanced Search Page There may be some rare occasions where the quick search doesn't give you the results you want. Here is an example. The quick search narrows the search with each new keyword added. For instance, if you type in "frogs" you get all the frogs on the site. If you type in "red frogs" you only get the frogs that also have "red" as a keyword. And if you type "in red eye frogs", you only get those frogs with red eyes. Each additional word you add narrows your results. And that is how you really want it to be most of the time. But what if you wanted to broaden your search? Let's say you were interested in seeing all the birds and all the frogs. The quick search wouldn't be your best choice. That's when you would use the "Advanced Search." The "Advanced Search" page can be reached very easily. First, immediately beneath your "quick search" field at the upper right, you will see a link that says "Advanced Search." You can click that link to access the Advanced Search page. You can also get to it by clicking the "Search" button in the menu along the top of the page...or the "Search" button at the bottom of the page.

Once you are on the "Advanced Search" page, you will see that now you have even more options for your search. Simply check the fields that you think would give you the best results. Probably the most important feature of the Advanced search is the field where you select either an "AND" search or an "OR" search. The quick search does and "AND" search. That means an image has to match all the words in the search to be returned on a thumbnail page. But in the search example just described, where you might want to see all of the birds along with all of the frogs, you would make this an "OR" search. An "OR" search means that any pictures that match either keyword will be returned as thumbnails. It isn't very often that you might need the "Advanced Search," but nice to know it is there when you do.

Galleries and Albums My photographs are all organized into galleries, sub-galleries and finally albums. You can view the images in album fashion by clicking the "Galleries" button at the top or bottom of any page. You will be taken to my main gallery where you can select any sub-gallery or album to look through. Some folks prefer this type of search because they can see what types of images and products are available before they start looking.

Thumbnail View Whichever searching method you choose, you will be rewarded with pages of beautiful thumbnail images. If your search returns more results than one page can hold, it will build several pages for you and leave a trail of "breadcrumbs" at the bottom of each page. Breadcrumbs are the little numbers at the bottom that list the number of pages and let you know which page you are currently looking at. The breadcrumbs are at the bottom-right of the thumbnail page. The bottom left of the page tells you how many pictures met your search criteria. Along the top of the thumbnail page you'll notice something like this:

Home > Animals / Wildlife > ANTARCTICA > Blue Icebergs

This is an album list. Each word or words between the > and > is a clickable link that will actually take you back to that parent gallery.

There are two things you can do with your thumbnail images. You can add them to your "Favorite".. or you can click on them to bring up the larger view. Both options are described below.

"My Favorites" Light Box Whether you used one of the search features or you looked through the galleries yourself, eventually you wind up with a page of thumbnails. There is a small checkbox beneath each thumbnail that allows you to add that image to your "Favorites." By adding images to your "Favorites," you are actually building your own custom gallery on the fly. When you want to see what is in your own personal gallery, simply click the "My Favorites" button. All of the thumbnails you selected are now in your Favorites. You remove them with a similar check box from your "Favorites" page.

Large Image View So one way or another, you've finally arrived at your final page of thumbnails. All that's left is to click on them to open up the larger view. This larger view is more than simply a bigger look at the picture. There is a lot going on in this page. Below is an example of a typical Large Image Display.

Home > Animals / Wildlife > NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS > Deer

FILE 2/4

# 888 White-tailed Deer, Florida

White-tailed Deer in Central Florida

The embedded watermark is for copyright notification only and will NOT appear in your print.

You are looking at # Deer White-tailed Deer in central Florida file ref: deer.jpg. White-tailed Deer in Central Florida. Regardless of size, I print and hand-sign each print personally, one at a time, using only the very best archival inks and papers. Most images are avaiable both matted and unmatted (signed print alone). Some are available as note cards. Limited Editions are also noted on the list above. Follow the links below for more information about sizes, matting, etc...

Return to Previous Page

Return to Browse Mode

We'll start from the top. The first line shows the gallery path to that image. Those are all "clickable" links to take you to that particular gallery. The next line down gives you some options. The arrows on the right will let you scroll through all the images on your thumbnail page. The "File 2/4" tells you that you are looking at image 2 out of 4 images on your page. The three buttons on the top left of the big image are for you. The first will take you back to your thumbnail page. The "Image Info" button opens a panel of file information that most people aren't interested in, so this panel is closed by default. But all those album names and keywords and URL's are all "clickable" links as well. The final field in that info panel is "Favorites." If your image isn't already in your "Favorites" Light Box, you can click there to add it. If it is already in your Lightbox, you can remove it there. Next is the larger image itself. You can see that there is a transparent watermark on the image. This is for copyright notification purposes only and will NOT appear on any print you order. Below the image is the title and description.

Slide Show This is a really cool feature. The third button to the top left of the large image is a slide show. Click this button and you'll be treated to a slideshow of all the images on your thumbnail page. They dissolve in and out every 5 seconds. You can stop the slide show any time with a button that will appear beneath it.

Built-in PayPal Shopping Cart Next you will see a drop-down menu and two buttons. This is part of the built-in PayPal shopping cart system. PayPal is an industry leader in online commerce so you know their shopping cart is secure. If you purchase any items, you can use any major credit card or your own PayPal account to pay. You don't need to buy in order to see what sizes and prices are available. Simply click on the drop-down menu and take a look. There is a "View Cart" button on every large image page, as well as at the bottom of every page for your convenience.

That about wraps it up. The remaining links are pretty self-explanatory. As are the buttons at the bottom of the page. I hope this saves you a little time and helps you take advantage of all the new features.

Happy Browsing,

Mark