Jim Regan -- Site Reviews
Kodak's 2000 Olympic Games
|
Now, chances are that most of us won't be going to Australia for the Olympics this year. (It would be nice, but then who would feed the hamster?) Naturally, once the Games are underway, there will be ample print, television, and Web coverage to tell us about the sporting (and other) events taking place in Sydney - but perhaps you'd like to get fully acquainted with the Olympic host before the Games begin. Well, let the virtual acclimatization begin, at Kodak's 2000 Olympic Games home page.
The first collection offered at the Kodak site is the Sydney Photo Tour, a creation of Global Photo Tours which offers more than seven hundred images of Sydney and its environs.
Divided into eight categories (Sightseeing, Culture, Nature etc.) which are then subdivided into 'Decks' of thumbnails, the Photo Tour effectively uses Flash to keep this huge collection from overwhelming the visitor. Once a Deck is loaded, surfers click on a thumbnail to open a 'preview' sized image (accompanied by a relevant fact or two) - along with links to a full-size image and a map indicating the location of the photograph's subject matter.
While the preview images are - not surprisingly - pixellated, with nary a sharp edge in the bunch, the full size copies are, by and large, high quality. Though in an apparent attempt to keep file sizes down and prevent longer download times, a number of the larger images show the effects of 'posterization' (banding in sky shots, 'grainy' textures) - a common problem in online galleries. (More surprising are the occasional images, such as a 'Deck 6' shot of the Sydney monorail, that are liberally sprinkled with dust and hair spots.)
Meanwhile, just in case you are one of the lucky ones actually going to the Games, a Travel Tips section hosts several vacation-related forums, and audio clips of inside information offered by eight Sydney natives. Occasional audio clips also appear in the photo collections to help visitors perfect their 'strine (Australian slang), while other areas of the site offer access to photo search pages and a Map-based tour of the country.
Which brings us to the second feature on the Kodak site, the Photo Walkabout. While the Sydney Photo Tour appears to be an outside exhibition hosted by Kodak.com, The Walkabout is a Kodak creation, co-produced with Journal E. Also Flash-based, The Walkabout is a photo tour as well - but in this case, the images (provided by Australian Tourist Commission) are used to inspire the photographer within every surfer viewing the collection.
Navigation is by interactive map. Clicking on a state brings up a text introduction and handful of thumbnails. Selecting a thumbnail opens a larger image, (comparable to the Sydney Tour's preview size) with relevant tips opening into a separate text box. Though we may never visit the locations in the photographs, the lessons taught are universal. For example, you don't really need to be shooting crocodiles to know the importance that timing can play in a successful image.
And if you decide that the lessons learned are worth keeping, dedicated Photo Tips pages gather all Kodak's advice into one spot. (Though some pages had broken image links when I visited, fully intact PDF versions of the tips are also available for download.)
The Walkabout is one of four Olympic exhibits that Kodak plans to have online before the Games open. By the time you read this, Olympic History (historical pictures from the Olympic Museum) should be posted. The Athlete (a black-and-white exhibit that will be on display in Sydney during the Games) and Shooting Sports (another series of online photo tips) should be up by the 7th and 15th of September. In addition to the exhibits, an Olympic variation on the PhotoQuilt 2000, e-postcards, and a single exc eptional photograph from each day of the competition will also be available.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that these image-laden sites might test the endurance of dial-up downloaders - in fact depending on your connection speed and Internet traffic during your visit, you might come to the conclusion that it would be faster to fly to Australia and take the pictures yourself. If you do arrive during rush-hour, try the Kodak presentations first - they have fewer images than the Sydney Photo Tour, and consequently won't keep you waiting as long before rewarding your patience. Still, if you desire a thorough survey of the host city, keep trying the Sydney Tour and hope for a break in the traffic. As they say, "It's the next best thing to being there". Kodak's 2000 Olympic Games site can be found at http://www.kodak.com/go/olympics.