WordPress Image Wrap-arounds

Most WordPress users will know what I mean when I say that the “Tree” has been taken from us.

I was a great user of the tree whenever I wanted to show an image from another website (normally news sites).

Ok. It has gone and it doesn’t look like restarting so let’s find another way of doing what we want.

I am assuming that there are no problems with the media button and its effect.

To get the above image into the text I made sure the cursor was between the words “the” and “media” then simply Uploaded an image using the media button. I checked the alignment button “None” (which I think was actually the pre-set) and the size button “Full Size” then hit “Inset in post”.

Which is fine for small images which don’t disrupt the text flow to any large degree.

I enjoyed using the tree when I wanted to wrap text around an image.

So now the work around to give us magazine-like layouts. I will use my little dunce from the BBC Quiz. I want to have text wrap around it.

So, I find the image and right click on it, then choose “Properties”on the pop-up menu. As you can see, this is not doing the wrap around thing that I want it to do. But bear with me.

OK, I click on “Properties” and up comes another little window. Oh, I do know that most of us already know this but I am trying to help the beginners who may not have this stuff at their fingertips. The really hard, complicated stuff comes next. No, No, beginners, I’m joking – it isn’t complicated and it isn’t hard. Well, no more so than riding a bike. Anyway, you get a window that looks like this. The first line is the location – but make sure you copy the whole of that location line – it probably goes over the edge of the little window. So ctrl C it.

Now comes the interesting part. The part where everyone who has a mind which goes blank whenever “HTML” is mentioned, starts to get nervous.

Don’t. Get nervous that is. This is a heck of a lot easier than learning French.

Click on the HTML button and find just where you want to insert the image. As in – between which words. Ignore all the odd stuff you see in there. It is that dreaded “HTML” but it isn’t something we need to know about. ##So we want to put our image between the two hash signs. Put the cursor between those hash signs and “paste” (ctrl V) that image location you just copied. so it looks like this –

Sorry it is so small. I had to reduce it down so it would fit in the 470 pixels width I have available in this theme. Anyway, you can see where it goes. Now this is not going to work because the HTML Editor doesn’t know what to do with it. so we have to use those backwards and forwards pointing brackets which are probably on the keys with the period and the comma. I cant show them because that editor is very literal and would think I was telling it something – it is very easy to confuse him.

Anyway, we are not going to confuse him because we are going to give one little and easily remembered command. Things must be done in order – firstly you have to put in an opening bracket. Then you need to give the command – we want to tell the editor where to find that image. The source of the image. So we need to learn a simple HTML command. “img src=”. It is a sort of txt speek. that is it – that is all you have to add. Other than to put a ” straight after the equals sign and another after the end of the “http” stuff – and don’t forget to close with an ending pointy bracket. So now it looks like this. Again, sorry about how small it is.

Of course I have only used those “#” symbols to make it easy to see where I am putting the image.

So – let me do that – I’ll copy  the previous paragraphs and put them in italics.

Sorry it is so small. I had to reduce it down so it would fit in the 470 pixels width I have available in this theme. Anyway, you can see where it goes. Now this is not going to work because the HTML Editor doesn’t know what to do with it. so we have to use those backwards and forwards pointing brackets which are probably on the keys with the period and the comma. I cant show them because that editor is very literal and would think I was telling it something – it is very easy to confuse him.

Ok, it is now in the text but it needs a final touch to make it wrap around. First click on the image so that all the sizing dots and stuff appears, then choose either the right or left alignment button at the top of the composition window.

Sorry it is so small. I had to reduce it down so it would fit in the 470 pixels width I have available in this theme. Anyway, you can see where it goes. Now this is not going to work because the HTML Editor doesn’t know what to do with it. so we have to use those backwards and forwards pointing brackets which are probably on the keys with the period and the comma. I cant show them because that editor is very literal and would think I was telling it something – it is very easy to confuse him.

Ok, it isn’t perfect and while it IS possible to get the neat space between the image and the text by using more html stuff, I don’t think it is worth it. This is a reasonable work around until we can get a big time petition up and running to try to convince the powers-that-be to return our tree. Although I feel there may be a touch of self preservation for WordPress in this action – the tree made it far too easy to jump all over the copyright thingo.

Photo Hunt #104; Glass

This was again an interesting challenge. We often photograph through glass, sometimes we use a reflection on glass but I had nothing in my collection which was satisfying. So I found another source of Glass.

I have quite a collection of dragons. Most of them are regulation dragons, of pewter or gold or stone. Amongst them are three glass dragons.

These first two are laser-created inside glass blocks. Very hard to photograph because the glass keeps attracting any dust in the air.

This is my pugilistic glass dragon. Floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee. Hark, I hear the bell for round one. He is ready for a dust-up!

This is my stary starry glass dragon who has quite a hoard but is always looking for more gems to steal from any unwary dwarves.

Lastly, here is my sinuous Eastern dragon. He is a white dragon cut into the surface of a glass block. The White Dragon [Bailong 白龍] aids spirits and virtuous kings. This is a virtuous, vitreous White Dragon.

And while I may sometimes be virtuous, I am never royalty.

Fish-eyed Tree

I have recently purchased a “Fish-Eye” lens for my Pentax istDS.

Having been concentrating on teaching my eye to see the small details with my 28mm-300mm lens now I need to begin seeing the larger picture. To find the unusual and the spectacular in the larger vistas now available to me.

Bear with me while I practice.

Photo Hunt #103; High

High is all a matter of perspective.

The Shaw River in Australia’s mainly desert Pilbara region was a little high after a cyclone had passed through.

The bricklayer who added the final bricks on this brick kiln chimney was pretty high up.

Torn between two cultures, this Martu tribesman from the Great Sandy Desert was high up on one of the landmark hills of his ancestors as he looked across his “country”; the land to which he belongs.

But for really, really high, I guess you have to look at something like this.

Succulents in Close-Up

Wandering around Buff’s garden the other day, I was struck by how her succulent collection looked close-up.

I find succulents to be boring and often ugly when viewed from a distance yet looking closely, there is beauty in their form and delicate colours.

Photo Hunt #102, Metal

After spending days looking through my photo collection and finding many images which included metal, nothing really caught me as being “Photo-huntable”.

In the end I decided on another form of metal.

HEAVY METAL

I just happened to be wearing this T-Shirt.

One of my favourite bands. Loud, uncouth and lots of fun!

Photo Hunt #101; I Spy

Another subject with different points of view.

Firstly, one I took in the desert some time ago. The well camouflaged Rainbow Bee Eater in flight. Normally they are seen from below and beneath their wings they are a brilliant green. In early mornings and evenings they provide sudden flashes of colour as the sun catches their wings in insect-hunting flight.

This one, I spied from above.

Then, as I looked through my collection, I spotted several eyes and I began to wonder at just what they were spying.

Tikaani the Siberian Husky did not look as though she approved of what she was spying.

 

This pigeon was probably eyeing me off and wondering if I was dangerous.

 

Peregrine Falcons enjoy Pigeon Pie and this one was waiting for some lunch to fly past. She had spied me but had decided I was not a suitable dining companion.

 

Yachting on the Swan #5

As the race neared its end, I moved from the jetty to the finish line.

I looked along the riverbank and spotted someone enjoying a different version of the river life. One which predates the arrival of sail on the Swan.

Looking down, I was struck by the  water’s edge which changed with every small wave break.

Looking up I was able to capture the moment of victory. Just before I jumped out of my skin as the finish horn “BLAAAPPPED” behind me.

As the fleet passed through the finish line, they prepared to leave the water and wash down their boats, prior to the post-race boastings.

They will be back again next week, weather permitting, and they will do it all again.

Yachting on the Swan #4

For teh spectator, there are long gaps in watching a sailboat race.

Although, with a camera in hand there is never a moment wasted.

There are always challenges and unusual angles to find as well as surroundings to frame.

I happened to glance down at the jetty I was standing on and was struck by the different surfaces on which I was standing. Thirty, fifty maybe even eighty years worth of old and new wooden planks. With the river glinting between. I was also struck by the different screws and bolts used as fasteners.

 

The water was always changing and I am fascinated by the shape of the waves left in the wake of the larger power boats.  These had passed me and were heading for shore.

Then I wondered about what was underneath the jetty, so I walked back to the shore and looked. The reeds  made a great reflection in this sheltered little space.

 

All the while, I was keeping an eye on the racing and they were getting closer to the finish with their second-last turn, back into the now very strong sea gale. This was the middle of the fleet and some were having difficulties.

Hidden Beauty

The modern concrete and glass skyscrapers which dot our city skylines may be impressive but they are oh so boring!

We no longer see the wonderful embellishments which were a part of the tradesman’s skill set in years gone by.

Unless we look above street level and ignore the plastic and glass frontages.

How does your city rate in hidden beauties?

 

Haven’t Done This For a While

SUNSET
Refractions burned red through suspended soot
Blood dripping from the upper reaches of Hades
Pollutant mingling with pollutant –
In such things men may see beauty

Photo Hunt #99, Party

I’m not much of a party animal. I tend to avoid crowds. Or do crowds tend to avoid me?

Whatever, I found I had few party photographs, except for one memorable night when I braved the crowds and watched the Perth Christmas Pageant.

Perth’s biggest street party.

So here is a pageant collation, showing a little of the diversity of the parade.

And what party would be complete without fireworks.

These fireworks were from last year’s Chinese New Year celebrations.

So for all my Chinese readers, while it may be late, this gives me the opportunity to wish you all,  “Gung hei fat choi!”

 

Photo Hunt #98, Wood

What an interesting challenge this week’s Photo Hunt is.

Wouldn’t it be boring if all the Hunts were easy. Still, I think I have nailed this one.

Here is the view under the Pinjarra Bridge. Built around 1840, completely wooden in those days, it has had some renovation work done on it to show that we have reached the iron age.

 

Of course, not all wood ends up in such imposing structures.  Sometimes it ends up as woodchips in a mulch.

 

We should never forget just where wood comes from and the many forms it takes in the natural state. This tree is not very modest as it keeps shedding its skin but always the tree regrows its cover.  Every time I see it I think of two of my favourite European composers – – –

But then so do noisy dogs, although they are nothing to do with wood.

I Love Coleus

Photo Hunt #97, Free

tnChick has set us a very hard task this week.

We have to find images of “Free”.

Free is a state of mind and that can be hard to photograph without an MRI machine.

I decided to begin with this little guy who is a total freeloader.

The Pallid Cuckoo has a catchy little song which runs up the scale but she is not at all popular with other birds.

She steals their nest for her own egg, then leaves the unsuspecting nest builders and owners to raise a cuckoo nestling.

Then I thought about the free things which BIG Business has yet to find a way to place a price upon.

Like nice fresh breezes for kite flying. You don’t have to buy an expensive kite. You can make it from sticks and old paper. And the wind-power and enjoyment is free. As is the delight of a young child seeing his first kite fly.

Of course the sheer beauty of a Dawn or a Sunset is also free. This is a sunset I took about three years ago across a salt lake in the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia. We may have been remote from most of the “Mod Cons” but we had a surfeit of free beauty.

Then there is something we often feel costs a fortune but in reality is absolutely free.

Friendship.

 

This week, I truly thank you, tnChick, for letting me reassess my values in life. We are rich in what we have which is free.

If only we recognise it.