Windows to the World

New and Improved

Posted by: Ylee, 12:55 AM GMT on December 29, 2011

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Today starts a new chapter in this blog. With your advice, I'm using WU webcams on this blog. To say that this has been a bit of a challenge is a bit of an understatement! There are around 3900 cams on WU; the vast majority of them are not good enough to be featured on this blog. Having WU cams gives me the advantage of going back a few days or hours and seeing what the cam looked like at another time, or whether or not it is reliable.

If you want to know what I'm looking for, it's really no different than grading photographs. First, is the cam pic clear, or is it out of focus or dirty? Size matters; 640x480 is minimum. I've thrown out several cams because they were too big; the cam owner made the pic bigger via software so you can see graininess in the image. Clarity is the most important thing about me choosing a cam.

Subject matter also is important. Although a cam owner might think his back yard is a worthy subject to share,(and it is his/her right to do so; if they want the world to see their red storage shed, who am I to argue? :)) it's not what I want for this blog. It has to be interesting for me, and I'm assuming for you as well. There were quite a few potentially nice landscapes that were ruined because the cam owner aimed the cam up too much in the sky, and all there's left is a small strip of land or ocean on the bottom of the image. I know that for the most part the owner wants to show the weather here, but if it doesn't look good, it doesn't look good!

I hope you enjoy the new cams! I'm still using a substantial amount of the old cams; several folks around here have become attatched to the "regulars", lol!

Courtesy of OPRDWeather, the Silver Falls cam!

Courtesy on New Zealands' Horizons Regional Council, the Akitio cam!

From webcamsdemexico, the Acapulco cam!

From Milos, Greece, the Pollonia cam!

Thanks to vandi90, the Mooresville, N.C. cam!

From Castletonite, the Castleton Valley cam!

Courtesy of guido85, the B&B La finestra sul Conero cam!

Updated: 10:20 AM GMT on December 30, 2011

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Merry Christmas!!!

Posted by: Ylee, 12:55 AM GMT on December 12, 2011

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Well, it's officially been "The Season" for a couple of weeks now. No, not THAT season, you caneheads, lol, you know, the season to be jolly, falalalala, lala, la, la!

The blogs are awash in things Christmasy: Recipes, photos of home decorations, favorite utubes of Christmas songs, and lots of good stories of Christmas' past. Me, on the whole, from a webcam point of view, only have a few cams to share of the Christmas-Winter Wonderland type. First of all, lights tend to get blurry and wash out with webcam optics. second, there may be a lot of Christmas cams out there, but I only have access to a few, so you gotta use what you have, right? Right!

I hope these look good..... BTW, I recommend to go directly to the link I supplied for the Ocean City cam to properly see it, as it updates about every 10 seconds, and you may get a capture of a trashcan, and wonder "What the heck?".:)

From Ocean City Maryland, the Northside Park cam!

From Adelaide, Australia, the West Beach cam!

From Utah's Alta Ski Resort, the Sunnyside cam!

From Milos, Greece, the Pollonia cam!

Thanks to Chapman's Mille Lacs Resort, the Isle Bay cam!

From Point Reyes National Seashore, the Point Reyes Beach cam!

The United States Capitol Christmas Tree cam!