Life Posters / iPhoto Mosaics

A while ago I saw a cool link on Lifehacker about putting together a collection of images from your iPhoto library into a large format mosaic ( for printing through the built in Kodak printing service). The crux of the method is the fact that you can print a contact sheet at up to 8 columns wide into a PDF in iPhoto, which can then be converted to a jpg (or whatever), re-imported into iPhoto and then sent off for printing. This is fine, but the contact sheet ends up looking pretty bad if you have portrait *and* landscape shots, which I would assume most people do (also, 8 columns is the max width). Also, the Lifehacker protocol called for constraining the proportions of all the photos, which kind of sucks. Anyway, I figured there was a probably a better way using Imagemagick and with a little fiddling, I got more or less what I was looking for.

I should also mention that I found a piece of software called Posterino which looks nice, but also doesnt seem to do well with combining landscape+portrait (And charges $25 for a single user license! This isn't frickin rocket science here!).

The biggest problem was just installing Imagemagick on my Mac. As far as that goes, here is what worked:

1)Install MacPorts
2)sudo install ImageMagick
3)sudo install GhostScript
4)add /opt/local/bin to the PATH
5)grab type-ghostscript.xml type.xml
and install into /opt/local/share/ImageMagick-6.3.7/config/
6)edit the paths in type-ghostscript.xml to point to /opt/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/

e.g.
metrics="/opt/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/a010013l.afm"
glyphs="/opt/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/a010013l.pfb

and voila: ImageMagick installed. If you can install it in a more starightforward way, more power to you and you can skip all that.


Now the easy and fun part.

1)Export 96 of your images from iPhoto in File->Export, File Export tab into a folder.
2)Open a Terminal window and go to the directory where you exported
3)montage image_names -background black -geometry 650x650 -tile 12x8 ../poster.jpg

and you whould get an image called poster.jpg one level up.

now import into iphoto and order your prints.

Another trip to tilden

We headed up to Tilden park to try out the new jogging stroller today. We started the outing on the Nimitz trail, but it turned out to be way too smooth for our bump and offroad loving baby, so we headed for the Skyline trail instead:

A day trip to Alta

Kenji and I headed up to Alta to check out some of Roy the arborists handiwork


We walked around to try to find the property line posts, and in the process found a huge pine tree that is definitely within the lines.

Royksopp

a cool video By a band I had never heard of.

A trip to Tilden

Katie, Taras and Lucy visit

meet Zoe, give us even MORE cool stuff, and try out the climbing wall

Thanks guys!

more baby pics

Death valley

an article on Death Valley in todays sfgate.

climbing wall complete

Finally! I had wanted to put a dead vertical section on the right hand side of the wall (just to cap the structure), but chloe convinced me to try out an idea I had drawn up for a full extra 4 foot section which makes a 30-45 degree angle with the 50 degree overhang. The advantage of this vs. and end cap is more climbing area and a very cool overhanging blunt arete. The disadvantage is that it requires a lot of careful measurements and cutting (for me, at least), so I drew up plans on google sketchup to avoid calculating angles and where to cut the plywood. After getting my next door neighbor tom to put a 30 degree bevel on two 2x6s, measuring everything three times and finally cutting the plywood it came time to get the damn sheet up into the overhang. Tom was sick and unable to assist or lend me his clamps, so I attached it with a rope and Christa and Stephanie's help. The end result was well worth the effort, so now it's route setting time!






The framework is actually kind of cool to play around with behind the wall -- I guess we could use it for storage or something.



a Sketchup file of the wall (without a lot of the framing) can be downloaded here

halloween

The realization that it was Halloween barely registered in our sleep deprived zombie brains today. I'm sure the parents out there can understand how low on the list of priorities finding a costume for a six day old baby who sleeps during the day and parties all night is. Nevertheless, it seemed a shame to let the opportunity go to waste, so without further ado, I give you ... FUTURE ZOE

Christa and Stephanie coming to help!

And to continue the much appreciated work of bringing us food (oh and to play with snd coo over the baby of course). I actually hadn't anticipated how helpful it is to have people (friends, family) bring meals by .. it really helps a lot, especially with chloe out of commission and requiring upped caloric intake. I'm definitely going to do that for any friends who have babies in the future.

Doctors appointment

Zoe is gaining weight after losing a bit in the first few days (normal) and she is back up to 8 lbs, 8 oz. Here's some pictures of the little butter ball from today

Zoe's first earthquake

and she maintained admirable sangfroid

ergh

first night alone with the baby, and the little thing is still apparently on a nocturnal schedule.

Just got back home

We got kicked out of the hospital this afternoon, laden with diapers, ointments and a lot of frequently contradictory advice. We got home to discover that the grandparents had put up balloons and welcome posters at out place, and our neighbor had even built us a table and left me a couple of beers! I've been running around trying to find places for all of the little baby-related things.

Also, I'm not sure if this is normal, but I'm feeling a tad sleepy now.

some photos

OK, I promise this won't become the Zoeblog, but here are a few more pictures:

More zoe

Zoe