Lightboxes and Picture Searching
You no longer need to be registered to create and use lightboxes.
Whilst searching for pictures or browing our galleries you will be given the option to add the picture to a lightbox. At any time you can review the contents of your light boxes and remove those pictures you no longer need. These "rejects" are moved to the Rejects Lightbox. This allows you to change your mind and quickly find them again. Whilst viewing your lightboxes you can send an email request for them.
The light boxes make use of cookies which we do not store on our server. This means that they do not migrate between devices but should be preserved on the device they were created on - that will depend on your web-browser and your security settings. We do not record any information about you or your use of our website.
You may use and access your lightboxes from within a Picture Search, from the Galleries and from the Picture Sets. The same lightboxes are used by all three picture collections.
Picture Searcher Introduction
A quick overview of our picture searcher:
- To search for the picture you require, choose the appropriate keywords,
the search option, press enter or start search and matching pictures
will be displayed. (More on keywords)
- The picture searcher will display the "thumbnails" of the pictures that match the
keywords and search options. These are displayed in groups, the size of which depends on the width of the browser window.
- For all of the thumbnail pictures there is a larger image,
called a preview, available. Click on the thumbnail to see the preview. The captions for each picture will also be displayed. (More on Previews)
- Select any pictures that might be of interest as a preliminary choice.
- Selected pictures are held in "lightboxes". You start
with a lightbox called Main. You can add additional lightboxes at any time.
Pictures can be moved between lightboxes. This can be useful when making the
final selection as you can sort the pictures into groups before making the
final decision.
- One lightbox is refered to as the "active" lightbox. This one receives any new additions when selecting "Add to Lightbox". If you have move than on lightbox you can choose which on is the active lightbox at any stage. (More on Lightboxes)
- Additional keyword searches can be performed at any time.
- Your "active" lightbox is shown in the left hand colum.
- Pictures can be discarded into a special light box called "Rejects".
The Rejects box can be viewed at any time and pictures recovered back to
your "active" lightbox.
- Having selected the pictures you want you can send an e-mail request
to Bryan and Cherry Alexander Photography ordering them.
- All the information about your current search such as the number
and names of your lightboxes and the pictures they hold are stored in an internet
"cookie". This continues to exist after you end the session. Unless
you delete it this cookie it is available when you return to the picture searcher.
This means you start the session with the same lightboxes you finished the
previous one with. You are given the option of continuing the search or starting
afresh. The cookie will only exist on the device you used and will not be available on other devices.
- If you can't find what you're looking for, then you may request a search by
submitting a Search Request form.
Copyright
All images on display are protected by European copyright law. Rights
to reproduce these images may only be acquired from Bryan and Cherry Alexander
Photography. They may not be used, copied, transmitted or reproduced in whole
or in part in any form nor may they or any part of them be stored in a retrieval
system of any nature without written permission from Bryan and Cherry Alexander
Photography. Photographs may not be linked to or used on any other web page.
Each of our images is protected by copyright of the individual photographer,
(who have allowed us to use the blanket copyright of © www.arcticphoto.co.uk
as a watermark) and cannot be used in any way without permission.
Keywords
The keyword search criteria is NOT case sensitive, so you can use or
not use capital letters as you wish. Type in keyword(s) to describe the
type of image you are seeking. If you type in two or more keywords you can choose
whether your search will return images with all the words (the default) or any
of the keywords. In addition it is possible to group words using double quotes
("). Some keywords come in groups of two or more words (e.g., "reindeer
herder" will return images that are only reindeer herders). If you use
just one keyword, such as reindeer, you are likely to get many images. Using
more than one keyword will help to narrow your search.
Using the search option of 'all the words' will only offer you pictures
that contain all the keywords, so inuk building igloo will give you just that,
an inuk building an igloo, using the search option of any of the words will
offer you all the pictures with the word, inuk, building or igloo in them, so
could include birds building their nests and an inuk in his kayak!
If you clear the check box "Only show pictures for which there
is a thumbnail" it will search ALL our pictures. As there may well
be pictures for which we currently have no scans you will see the caption rather
than the thumbnail. However, it is a good way to check if we have more obscure
subjects such as plankton on the underside of sea ice or pictures of reindeer
feet.
We have designed the search order to always display the scans most
recently loaded, this ensures that you will always see the most recent additions
first.
Lightboxes
At any moment one of the lightboxes is "active". By this
we mean that it is the target for any activity you are carrying out on the other
lightboxes. For example, when looking at the results of a search the "Add
to Lightbox" button will add the picture to the active lightbox. The first
active lightbox is called Main but you may choose any of your other lightboxes
instead. You can open, name and add to as many lightboxes as you wish whilst
using the main Polar Search window or the Lightbox Manager window. You can only
add to the lightbox you have designated as active, the name of the active lightbox
is displayed at the bottom of each window.
Pictures may be moved from any lightbox into the active lightbox, you
will find your own way of working with them. Separate lightboxes can be used
to select pictures for different projects or chapters in a book. Pictures can
be removed from a lightbox into a special Rejects Lightbox. This gives you
the opportunity to change your mind and retrieve them back to the currently
active lightbox. You can also empty lightboxes and even throw them (except Main and Rejects) away.
When you have finished work for the day you can close down our site
knowing that providing you, (or your web-browser) do not delete the cookie to our site from your computer,
the pictures you have stored in the lightboxes will still be there next time
you visit us using teh same device. When the job is complete you can email your picture selection
to us.
Because the contents of the lightboxes are stored in a cookie there
is a limited amount of space, when this space is almost filled you will be warned
that if you wish to continue adding pictures you will need to forfeit the captions,
without captions you can store over 100 pictures in your lightboxes. If you
need to see the captions there is a button available to view them but they will
only remain with that lightbox until it is next refreshed.
Previews
The results of a search are displayed as "thumbnail" pictures.
You can see a bigger version of the picture, called a preview, by clicking on
the thumbnail. You can do this in any of the light boxes and on the main search
window. You do not have to register to see the previews or use lightboxes. When viewing Previews you can navigate to the next picture by "swiping" the picture with your mouse or finger (depending on your device).
Picture Request
If you would prefer that we searched our files for the pictures you
require then please email us or use the Search Request form.
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