User:Ken Thomas

From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository

"You will come to learn a great deal if you study the insignificant in depth." - Buckaroo Banzai

Contents 1 The User 2 The Photos 3 The Camera 4 The Contact 5 The Images 5.1 New Additions 5.2 My Favorites 5.3 Animals 5.4 Scenery 5.5 Things 5.6 Panoramic Photos 5.7 Illustrations 6 The FAQ 7 The License

[edit] The User

Howdy. My name is Ken Thomas. I'm originally from Fayette County, WV - but nowadays I live in Lenoir, NC, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I've been hunting, fishing, hiking and kayaking for years, but I've just recently learned how much fun it can add to those activities when you carry along a good camera and keep an eye open for photo opportunities.

[edit] The Photos

Most of the images I've uploaded to Wikimedia Commons were originally taken at a resolution of 3648x2736. I generally crop them down to around 2000-2500 pixels in width (depending on the subject, usually) and tweak them a bit with The GIMP. None of them have been altered in any significant way, although I do normally make slight adjustments to the brightness, contrast and sharpness.

If you'd like a copy of the original, unedited version of any of these images, please let me know and I'll be happy to e-mail it to you. I also have photos of many of the subjects from different angles and in different positions, so if you need something specific let me know. I don't mind digging around on the hard drive to see if I might have something appropriate.

[edit] The Camera

Most of the images I've uploaded to Wikimedia Commons were taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50. I find it's a good, cost-effective and portable fit to my camera needs. Some have suggested that my photos would be better quality if I were using a digital SLR, and they may be right - but since I honestly don't know what the hell I'm doing I don't really see the point in spending that much money. If I'm going to be fumbling and inept anyway, I'd rather do it with something cheap and simple, rather than something complex and expensive.

[edit] The Contact

My personal website, blog, and photo gallery.

Feel free to e-mail me with comments, suggestions, or image requests at KenDThomas@Hotmail.com, or you can always just put it on my discussion page. Speaking of e-mail addresses, I really appreciate all the Gmail invitations I've been getting from Wikipedia readers lately, but I already have a Gmail address. I fully agree that Gmail is vastly superior to Hotmail in every conceivable way - it's just that I've had that Hotmail address for a decade now, I have to monitor it because sometimes people I know still use it, and it gets such a staggering quantity of spam already that I don't mind posting it on a public page like this.

[edit] The Images

[edit] New Additions

Six of the most recent photos uploaded.

Natural Bridge	Grayson Highlands Ponies	Red Trillium	Grayson Highlands Ponies
Williams River	Grayson Highlands Foal

[edit] My Favorites

Upper Creek Falls	Song Sparrow	Dogback Ridge in the Linville Gorge.	Mourning Dove
Linville Falls	Dark-eyed Junco	Red-bellied Woodpecker	A snowy day and an old mining road.
Tufted Titmouse	St. Mary Lake in Glacier National Park.	Cedar Waxwing	Sunrise on the island of Cozumel.
Children playing in Swann Fountain in Philadelphia.	Northern Cardinal	Sunrise over Table Rock in the Linville Gorge.	Northern Mockingbird
A tree in a blizzard.	Black Spiny-tailed Iguana

[edit] Animals

Arranged in alphabetical order by common name.

American Black Vulture	American Goldfinches	American Goldfinch (male)	American Robin
Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail	Bald Eagle	Black Bear	Black Widow Spider
Blue Jay	Blue Jay	Boat-tailed Grackle	Brown-headed Nuthatch
Brown Pelicans	Brown Thrasher	Brown Thrasher	Carolina Chickadee
Carolina Chickadee	Carolina Wren	Carolina Wren	Cedar Waxwing
Cliff Swallows	Cliff Swallows	Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored subspecies)	Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored subspecies)
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored subspecies)	Downy Woodpecker (male)	Downy Woodpecker (female)	Eastern Bluebird
Eastern Bluebird	Eastern Fence Lizard	Eastern Grey Squirrel	Eastern Towhee (female)
Eastern Towhee (male)	Eastern Towhee (male)	Elk (North Carolina)	Elk (North Carolina)
Elk (North Carolina)	Flying Squirrel	Flying Squirrel	Flying Squirrel
Great-tailed Grackle	Honeybee	Honeybees	Honeybees
Honeybees	House Finch (male)	House Finch (male)	Keel-billed Toucan
Mourning Dove	Mourning Dove	Mourning Dove	Northern Cardinal (female)
Northern Cardinal (fledgling)	Northern Cardinal (male)	Northern Cardinal (male)	Northern Cardinal (male)
Northern Cardinal (male)	Northern Cardinal (mated pair)	Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)	Orbweaver Spider
Orbweaver Spider	Otter	Pine Warbler	Ponies (Grayson Highlands)
Ponies (Grayson Highlands)	Ponies (Grayson Highlands)	Ponies (Grayson Highlands)	Pony (Grayson Highlands)
Pony (Grayson Highlands)	Raven	Red-bellied Woodpecker (female)	Red-bellied Woodpecker (male)
Red-bellied Woodpecker (male)	Rose-breasted Grosbeak	Royal Terns	Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Song Sparrow	Tree Swallow (female)	Tree Swallow (male)	Tree Swallow (male)
Tree Swallows (mating)	Tufted Titmouse	White-tailed Deer	White-tailed Deer
White-tailed Deer	White-throated Sparrow	Wild Turkey	Wild Turkeys
Willet	Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (juvenile female)	Yellow-rumped Warbler

[edit] Scenery

Arranged in chronological order by the date when the photo was taken.

Coggins Bridge on the Uwharrie.	New River Gorge	Cathedral Falls	Greenbrier River
Johnny Mercer's Pier in Wrightsville Beach, NC.	Neuse River	Kanawha Falls	Cliffs near Gauley Bridge.
Cathedral Falls w/snow.	Mount Mitchell	From Craggy Gardens on the Blue Ridge Parkway.	Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
Cameron Falls	Waterton Lake	The sun setting over Ptarmigan Ridge.	Grinnell Peak
Going-to-the-Sun Road	Going-to-the-Sun Road. (under construction)	McDonald Creek	McDonald Creek
Bow Falls	Bow River and Hoodoos.	Bow River	Logan Pass
Snow coaches on Athabasca Glacier.	Athabasca Falls	Maligne Lake	Lake Louise
New River Gorge	Highway 16	Laurel Creek Waterfall	Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh.
Edgecombe County sunrise.	Pond at Flowers Planatation	Jordan Lake	Linville Falls
Blue Ridge Mountains	Benjamin Franklin Parkway	Sunlight in the forest.	Linville Gorge
Wrightsville Beach sunrise	Wrightsville Beach sunrise	Linville Gorge	Wiseman's View overlook at the Linville Gorge.
Timbered Branch	Griffith Branch	Laurel Hell	Table Rock
Half-moon Bay at Akumal.	Half-moon Bay at Akumal.	Cozumel beach.	Punta Sur lighthouse.
Cozumel reef.	Cozumel from Coconuts Bar & Grill.	Sunset on Cozumel.	Cozumel
Upper Creek	Upper Creek Falls	Upper Creek Falls	Upper Creek
Upper Creek	Lenoir, NC	View from Blowing Rock.	Gauley River
Gauley River	Summersville Lake	Blue Ridge Parkway	Wilson Creek
Hibriten Mountain	Wilson Creek	Blue Ridge Mountains	Linville River
Linville Falls	Linville Falls	Watauga River	Gauley Bridge
New River Gorge	Coal Run Creek	Johns River	Johns River
Linville Gorge	Linville Gorge	Cold Mountain	North Carolina Arboretum
Carolina Beach Sunrise	North Toe River	Spruce Pine	Cataloochee Valley
Clingmans Dome	Joyce Kilmer Forest	Joyce Kilmer Forest	Joyce Kilmer Forest
Silo w/Tree	View from Mount Jefferson	Price Lake sunset	Grandfather Mountain
Brushy Mountains	Wilson Creek	Black Mountain sunset	Apple Orchard
Black Mountains	Black Mountains	Little Fork Meadow	Cone Park
Natural Bridge	Natural Bridge	Williams River	Grayson Highlands

[edit] Things

Arranged in chronological order by the date when the photo was taken.

John Henry	Plane landing at RDU.	NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher.	NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher.
New York Public Library	Fortitude	Times Square	The main entrance lobby of the Empire State Building.
Ellis Island	Boy Scout Memorial	Enola Gay	Enola Gay
Coal Miner	The US Coast Guard cutter Diligence.	The USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial.	Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
Jammer	Fort Steele Heritage Park	Leatherworker	Radium Hot Springs
Peachoid.	Joyce Kilmer	Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier	The Washington Monument in Philadelphia.
Swann Memorial Fountain	Swann Memorial Fountain	Fire Tower on Gauley Mountain.	The Mast General Store
Cobá pyramid.	Cobá pyramid.	Cobá ballcourt.	The Tyco Responder.
Mexican Navy patrol boat.	Tree	Confederate veterans memorial.	Blowing Rock
Summersville Dam	Birdsfoot Violets	Mile-High Swinging Bridge	Fort Defiance
Fort Defiance Cemetery	Kerr Scott Dam	Valle Crucis Community Park	Gauley Bridge
Railroad Bridge	Retired Astronaut	Saturn V	Saturn V
Saturn V	Blue Angels	Blue Angels	Blue Angels
Golden Knights	Golden Knights	Golden Knights	Fireworks
Fireworks	Fireworks	Linville Falls Visitor Center	North Carolina Arboretum
North Carolina Arboretum	Bonsai	Bonsai	Bonsai
Bonsai	Ferry	Sign	Fort Fisher Memorial
Spruce Pine Park	Spruce Pine Signage	BRP Sign	Mingus Mill
GSMNP Sign	Joyce Kilmer Memorial	Fire/Cell Tower	Mount Jefferson Sign
Paintball player	Paintball player	Paintball player	Wright Brothers Memorial
Wright Brothers Memorial	Warning Sign	Tunnel	Discovery Place
Statue from Pompeii	Statue from Pompeii	Sculpture from Pompeii	Cast remains from Pompeii
Cast remains from Pompeii	Cast remains from Pompeii	Cast remains from Pompeii	Sign at Cone Park
Flat Top Manor	Carriage House	Sky Lift	Red Trillium
Grayson Highlands State Park

[edit] Panoramic Photos

Arranged in chronological order by the date when the photo was taken.

[edit] Illustrations

American Goldfinch range map.	Blue Jay range map.	Brown-headed Nuthatch range map.	Brown Thrasher range map.
Carolina Chickadee range map.	Carolina Wren range map.	Cedar Waxwing range map.	Dark-eyed Junco range map.
Downy Woodpecker range map.	Eastern Bluebird range map.	Great Blue Heron range map.	House Finch range map.
Northern Cardinal range map.	Northern Flicker range map.	Northern Mockingbird range map.	Pine Warbler range map.
Pileated Woodpecker range map.	Red-bellied Woodpecker range map.	Rose-breasted Grosbeak range map.	Ruby-throated Hummingbird range map.
Tree Swallow range map.	Tufted Titmouse range map.	Yellow-rumped Warbler range map.	California Condor range map.

[edit] The FAQ

1. "Can I use one of your images in my newspaper/website/magazine/book/thesis/newsletter/whatever?"
Of course. Please do. That's what the whole 'public domain' bit means. Use them for anything you want. Credit me, credit your preferred deity, take credit for them yourself if you'd like. I'm serious about that. The only request I ever make (and this would strictly be a matter of courtesy on your part) would be that you drop me a line and let me know what you're using them for. I love it when people do that. Nothing makes me happier than knowing that a photo I took or an illustration I created is actually getting used by someone.

2. "Why such a big deal about making all your images public domain?"
I think most copyrights are an unenforcable absurdity and an anachronism in the digital age. After all, when half the people on the planet are capable of making a million perfect copies of virtually any media, and distributing them across the globe in an instant, what exactly does a copyright do? It's the equivalent of the candlemakers suing Edison for inventing the lightbulb. Reality is shifting, but it will take awhile for our culture and our legal system to catch up. In the meantime, all I can legally do to speed up the process is my little bit to undermine the existing system, and that's the real reason why I put these images here. The way I see it, every time someone uses a photo of mine in a publication, free of restrictions and free of charge, then that's one less person who will buy an image 'license' from some stock photo clearinghouse.

3. "You've got some talent. Why don't you get a REAL camera?"'
I'll probably breakdown and shell out the cash for a dSLR eventually. Maybe. I have to admit that I've been lusting after an Olympus E-510 pretty badly lately. It's just that so far a big part of the fun in this hobby would be the fact that I think I'm getting decent results without having invested a ton of money in it. I truly believe that a person should be able to have fun with photography and not have to max out their credit cards in the process, so part of me really likes using a low-midrange camera and free software. Especially when you consider that the things the 'experts' get so worked up about (noise, etc.) are things that the average viewer online would never even notice unless it was pointed out to them.

Having a camera I'm willing to take anywhere is a big part of the appeal, too. I decided early on that if I paid so much for a camera that I wasn't willing to stuff it into my backpack when I'm climbing up and down mountains deer hunting, or strap it into my kayak, or lug it around on dirty construction sites or something, then there wasn't any point in buying it at all. A reasonably-priced camera in your hand at the key moment is infinitely better than the expensive one you left at home because you didn't want to take a chance on wrecking it.

4. "Why do you put the number '27527' on the end of all your uploaded files?"
One of the first images I ever uploaded to Commons was a photo of a bird that I wanted to add to a particular Wikipedia article that I'd been tinkering with. I gave it a standard filename with the bird species, and uploaded it to Commons, but when I went to add it to the Wikipedia article a completely different image was displayed. Turns out that two completely different images can be stored on Wikipedia and Commons with the same filename, and unless you check both before you upload, you can end up with one on Commons that can never be used in a Wikipedia article or in any of the Wiki sister projects. It was pretty frustrating.

So in the end what I decided to do was tack some kind of random number onto the end of all my images to pretty much ensure that I never encountered that sort of conflict again. The zip code where I was living at the time seemed sufficiently random for my purposes, so I used that, and I still do. And yes, I'm fully aware that this goes directly against Commons guidelines that suggest plain, descriptive filenames, but I'm not particularly interested in complying with a guideline that will make my contributions unusable.

5. "Some of your photos are really good. Why don't you nominate any of them for Quality Image or Featured Picture status?"
I actually did nominate a few of them a long time ago, mostly just to see how the process worked. Once I saw how the process worked, I decided that I would rather not have anything to do with it.

If you spend a little time watching the voting process for Quality Images and Featured Pictures, you'll notice that some of the best images nominated either get voted down or ignored altogether, while some pretty average ones get approved. It's a very inconsistent process, and that seemed really curious to me, so I watched it awhile and came to some rather ugly conclusions. Specifically, there's a strong anti-American bias reflected in the voting, and it became clear rather quickly that an image uploaded by an American photographer has to be truly stunning in order to overcome that. You'll also notice that some users only vote for nominated images that were taken with certain brands or models of camera. That's probably not all that shocking when you consider how many photographers become rabid fanboys of their preferred gear, but it's still a lousy criteria for judging the quality of a photo.

Let me be clear about this - I'm not against Quality Images or Featured Pictures (or what have you) at all. If that's the sort of thing that interests or motivates photographers (and it sure as hell seems to motivate a lot of them) then that's great. It's kind of like religion or professional wrestling, I guess. I'm certainly not against it, but the process alienates me and the results don't interest me, so I prefer not to participate. Therefore, I won't nominate any of my own images, and I would prefer that no one else did either - although since my images are all released to the public domain, and in a very real sense become public property the moment I donate them, I really don't have any control over it if someone else nominates one.

[edit] The License

For this page and all my contributions:

I, Ken Thomas, the copyright holder of this work, hereby releases it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible: I, Ken Thomas grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law. Afrikaans | Alemannisch | Aragonés | العربية | Asturianu | Azərbaycan | Беларуская (тарашкевіца) | Български | Català | Cebuano | Soranî / کوردی | Česky | Cymraeg | Dansk | Deutsch | Ελληνικά | English | Esperanto | Español | Eesti | Euskara | Estremeñu | فارسی | Suomi | Français | Galego | עברית | हिन्दी | Hrvatski | Magyar | Հայերեն | Bahasa Indonesia | Ido | Íslenska | Italiano | 日本語 | ქართული | ភាសាខ្មែរ | 한국어 | Ripoarisch | Kurdî / كوردی | Latina | Lietuvių | Latviešu | 文言 | Македонски | Bahasa Melayu | Plattdüütsch | Nederlands | ‪Norsk (nynorsk)‬ | ‪Norsk (bokmål)‬ | Polski | Português | Română | Русский | Slovenčina | Slovenščina | Shqip | Српски / Srpski | Svenska | ไทย | Tagalog | Türkçe | Українська | Vèneto | Tiếng Việt | Walon | 吴语 | 中文 | ‪中文(简体)‬ | ‪中文(繁體)‬ | 粵語 | +/−

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