Go to Onafhankelijkheidsplein, Paramaribo, Suriname

I want to share some photos I shot while in Suriname this year. These photos and more photos of Suriname photo can also be accessed through the Panoramic Photography page and the Google Earth file where you can get a better idea of the locations on which they were shot.

These photos was created using multiple exposures and then combining them using HDR technology.

Go to Dominee St, Paramaribo, Suriname

Go to Overbridge River Resort, Suriname

Go to Overbridge River Resort, Suriname

Go to Overbridge River Resort, Suriname

Go to Republiek, Suriname

I decided to put a little pitch for my custom designed maps and panoramic photography into video format so that I can describe what I can offer without having to be sitting right in front of a client. I have a lot to offer and I thought this might be an easier and faster format for some folks to use than browsing around my website. This also allows me to show my services as I perceive them pretty clearly. I hope you enjoy it. If you don’t see the controls, don’t worry…just mouse over the video and they will appear.

If you want to read the transcript here it is:



TRANSCRIPT:

Hi. I’m John Potter. I work under the title Escape Key Graphics.

I want to describe some of my favorite services and how they can be tied together.

I do a lot of different things, but one of my specialties is designing and illustrating maps. These maps can work great for campuses, factories, museums and lots of other stuff, but I am going to refer to them in the context of parks and attractions.

These maps are fun, colorful and informative. They are easy to follow and make it easy for guests to find what they are looking for.

I usually start a map design by collecting GPS data that ensures accuracy. By using GPS I can also create accurate maps at sites where tree cover is an issue, and using aerial photography isn’t very helpful.

Initially I map everything out from above like a road map to ensure that placement and scale are correct. From there I take the overhead layout, turn it into a perspective drawing, and turn it into a real work of art. The artwork is fun to look at, but retains the practical details established in the first steps.

The maps are perfect for printing as guest maps and a lot more. They can potentially serve double duty as lobby brochures as well.

The maps are vector based, which means you can enlarge them as much as you want without the image degrading. As a result they can be used for signs, posters or even billboards. The methods I use also make revisions relatively easy and cost effective should they be necessary in the future.

The maps can be displayed on your website as JPGs, GIFs, PNGs or PDFs. Maps can also be used as wallpapers for download. Before I describe how these maps can be used on your website too much I would like to describe another service I offer…Panoramic Photography. Some people call them virtual tours, but whatever you call them, they’re really cool.

Panoramic photography takes still photography and turns it into something more like a video, but you, the user, can control it. You can look from side to side and up or down just by using your mouse. This very immersive experience makes you feel very much like you are there, but still wanting to stand there in the flesh. Unlike video, panoramic photography allows users to move at their own pace and concentrate on what interests them the most. Panoramic photography is also a great tool to show off your gift shop, museum exhibits, real estate, RVs, yachts and/or just about any other environment.

Once you have the panoramic photography on your site you can link to it with simple text links or thumbnails, but if you also have a map, they can be integrated into it. The map can be made clickable so that visitors to your site can see the map and just click on points of interest and be sent right into a panoramic photo as if they have been transported there. This could also be done in a PDF if you needed something that you could, for instance, email while still retaining the links.

If you prefer, the information initially collected for the creation of the map can be used to overlay clickable points of interest through Google Maps on your site. Once again, clicking on the points of interest can send visitors right into a panoramic photo as if they have been transported there. Any paths established in the initial stages can also be overlaid through Google Maps on your site.

Of course, either of these techniques of linking from maps could be used to link to anything else, for instance, conventional photos or articles.

So, you’ve got maps that can be used for handouts and brochures. They could be used for lobby flyers as well to reduce your printing costs. They can be used for signage, posters in your gift shop and billboards. They can be displayed on your website and made into monitor wallpapers for people to download, and they can also be used on your website as a way to navigate panoramic photos. They can be linked to other information and or linked in a PDF you could attach to an email or burn onto disk. The data initially collected and created for the maps creation can also be integrated into Google Maps on your site in multiple ways. That’s at least nine possible uses for your map and several possible uses for the data involved.

The panoramic photos serve as the perfect compliment to the maps. If someone has taken the time to visit your website while planning a vacation, panoramic photos will convince them they HAVE to visit your venue.

Lastly, if you need a website built to tie this all together I can do that too. Just let me know what you have in mind and we can go from there.

I hope this gives you some ideas for marketing your business. I can bring creativity and expertise to your marketing plan that helps you achieve your goals. You’re spending the money on printing. You’re paying for web hosting and domain registration. Make sure you’re getting the most out of both and open up to new possibilities by working with me, John Potter of Escape Key Graphics.

Visit my websites, AttractionMaps.net and EscapeKeyGraphics.com to see samples of my work, more videos and lots of other stuff.

Go to The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum – B17

I want to share some photos I shot at The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum in Savannah, GA. The B17 photo can also be accessed through the Panoramic Photography page and the Google Earth file where you can get a better idea of the location.

I really enjoyed my visit to the The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, but I will allow myself more time on my next visit. The museum is top quality and features numerous artifacts as well as films and interactive exhibits. The museum also features a memorial chapel and gardens as well as a B17 in the process of restoration, a B24 nose section, an F4 Phantom, a Mig 17, a Messerschmitt ME 109, the cockpit of a Mig 21, and a B47B among other things. If you’re even vaguely interested in this type of thing you will love this place.

The photos was created using multiple exposures and then combining them using HDR technology. I played with the HDR a little more on the B 24 nose.

Go to The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum – B24

I want to include one photo of an exhibit area just to show the high quality of the museum. Be sure to view these in Full Screen also. It’s an impressive feature.

Go to The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum – Exhibit Area

Go to The Children’s Museum of the Upstate

I want to share a photo I shot in The Children’s Museum of the Upstate in Greenville, SC. It can also be accessed through the Panoramic Photography page and the Google Earth file where you can get a better idea of the location.

The Children’s Museum of the Upstate is a great asset to the local community and well worth visiting if you’re in the area. My kids were both well entertained for hours. Exhibits are all very hands on and well maintained. There is a great cafe on the ground floor. It is conveniently located next to Greenville’s wonderful art museum.

The photo was created using multiple exposures and then combining them using HDR technology. It shows a large climbing space in the center of the building. Kids can climb to the top of the three story building safely. The levels are created using a transparent material that gives the structure an interesting, delicate appearance. Be sure to view it in Full Screen. It’s very cool.

For the Plant City, Florida Dinosaur World map project I made a full six minute time lapse video of the creation process. Now that I’ve moved on to the Cave City, Kentucky map I decided to make a more compressed video more like a slideshow that is actually less than a minute long.

Although the project is not yet fully complete we are far enough along that I can share this video and a detailed image or two.

Dinosaur World is a great attraction featuring hand crafted, sculpted dinosaurs. Located right off of I65 in Cave City, Kentucky, the park is great fun for kids and adults featuring a museum, a huge playground, picnic areas and of course tons of dinosaurs. Lovingly created by the Svensson family, the park in Cave City is one of three parks with the other two Dinosaur Worlds located in Plant City, Florida and Glen Rose, Texas. Be sure and visit their web site at http://www.dinoworld.net and visit the park in person. Dinosaur World in Cave City is right down the road from Mammoth Cave National Park and and centrally located to many more attractions. I have come to love Cave City and can’t wait to return.

This video is also available on Youtube. I hope you enjoy it.

I am pleased to announce that Flamingo Gardens will be releasing their new map as well as a new brochure of my design within the next few days to weeks.


I’ve posted a lot about the map already, but I haven’t mentioned the brochure that is the other side of the printed map.

It is highlighted by an illustration I did in Adobe Illustrator in kind of an Art Deco style to fit with the historic and classy nature of the venue. The font used in the title is “Potter Slim Deco”, which I designed and is available for sale from the downloads page. The spot illustrations are largely made from pieces of the map, thereby tying it all together. The final brochure was constructed in Adobe InDesign.


A larger image of the main illustration alone can be seen in the illustration gallery.

Can you get cable TV for free from the internet? Not really, but you can watch a lot of stuff for free and there’s no reason not to watch it on your regular TV.

If you want a quick, simple and relatively cheap method of connecting your computer to your TV so you can make a presentation or watch online content like free TV shows on Hulu this will get you up and running without breaking the bank or getting too complicated.

S-Video Cable

S-Video Connection on the TV

S-Video Connection on laptop

RCA to Mini-stereo Y Cable

I know there are many appliances, wireless solutions and who knows what else that accommodates this type of connection. I am sure they all have their strengths. This is just a simple and quick solution.

The first thing you need to determine is what type of video connections both your TV and computer or laptop have in common so that you can use a connection cable. Once you’ve determined that, the instructions are basically the same.

There are five common types. Starting from best to poorest in quality they are HDMI, DVI, VGA, S-Video and Composite RCA. If you have a newer TV and computer, they may have HDMI or DVI connections. These cables (and VGA) are a little pricier than the others (at around fifteen dollars) and are probably less likely to be lying around your garage. VGA is common on computers, but not always on TVs. S-Video is common on both TVs and laptops and it has been around long enough that you may already have a cable and if you don’t they are only around six dollars. When buying cables remember to make sure if they are male to male, female to male etc.

First let’s get the video working.

1. Make sure your computer’s aspect ratio is set to a 4:3 ratio. 1024X768 should work just fine. If you don’t know what I’m talking about see these articles about “Why Does My Website Look Different On My Other Computer?” and “Screen Aspect Ratios Illustrated“. If you don’t have one of those wide monitors you’re probably good to go anyhow. If you get this wrong the image will still appear but look distorted on the screen.
2. Connect the video cable (whichever you chose) to both the television and the computer.
3. Select the correct input on your TV. You do this the same way you switch between your TV and DVD player and or VCR.
4. Select video output to TV on your computer.
   This step varies among operating systems, video cards etc. so it may require you to do some Googling or look in your computer or video card’s manual. Regardless…it isn’t rocket science.
   That having been said, this is how it worked for me in Windows XP with a Radeon brand video card.
   Go to Control Panel, Display, Settings, the Advanced button and then the Displays Tab. You can then select TV and go back and forth between the image being on you computer monitor and TV by clicking Alt+F5.

If these steps don’t work you may have just selected the wrong input on the TV, or the cable could be loose.

As for audio…all of the cables I just discussed are for video only. You will still need to connect audio. The easiest, cheapest and simplest way I have found to connect audio is with a Y cable with RCA connections on one end and a mini-stereo plug (like for headphones) on the other end. They are available for around eight dollars.

Connecting the audio…

1. Turn down the volume on the amplifier.
2. Plug the RCA connections into the audio in jacks in the back of your amplifier. Usually you will have a set available called AUX that you can use. White is traditionally left and red is traditionally right.
3. Plug the mini-stereo plug into the headphone output on your computer.
4. Raise the volume.

You should be ready to watch online videos on your TV now and for cheap.

One of my recent large projects has been the new visitor’s map for Dinosaur World in Plant City, Florida. Dinosaur World is a great attraction featuring over 150 hand crafted, sculpted dinosaurs. Located right off of I4 between Tampa and Orlando, the park is great fun for kids and adults featuring educational exhibits, a huge playground, picnic areas and of course tons of dinosaurs. Lovingly created by the Svensson family, the park in Plant City is one of three parks with the other two Dinosaur Worlds located in Cave City, Kentucky and Glen Rose, Texas. Be sure and visit their web site at http://www.dinoworld.net and visit the park in person.

The management at Dinosaur World contacted me back in mid February inquiring about a redesign of their visitor’s map. We reached an agreement and I went up to see the park and collect the data needed to create the map. I had a great time and the data all lived up to expectations. Partially due to the panoramic photography I shot there weren’t a lot of revisions based on incorrect placement or that sort of thing.

The project moved quickly and efficiently and I ran an ongoing screen capture as I have done with the Flamingo Gardens Map and the Snow Scene for Foreign Trade Zone Corporation. As with the Flamingo Gardens Map I did not include every single thing that I did in the interest of not putting anyone to sleep. The speed is doubled six times over giving you the ability to see how I work and the thought process behind it without being burdened by specifics of technique. The project was done primarily in Adobe Illustrator, although I do jump to other programs for a second every now and then as you will see in the video.

This video is also available on Youtube. I hope you enjoy it.

For more about Attraction Maps visit my site…attractionmaps.net