Photos of Peggy's albums

I have put together a discographical page for which I'd really like to receive feedback from you guys. The page contains photos of every original LP that Peggy recorded for Capitol Records, along with selected reissues, EPs, and other curiosities:

[www.jazzdiscography.com]

It is just the beginning of a "photo project" that, if finished, would also include most every Peggy Lee album cover out there.

But before I continue working on the project, I need to know if this initial page is a failure or a success:

Can you see the photos in your computer?

Does it take a long time for the photos to upload?

Other problems?

I'm new to the process of uploading photos on the net (and also new to what is called htm language). From what I've been told, something that looks good in my computer (a Mac) could look awful in an IBM, or just when using a different browser. (I'm using Safari.)

I do know that the information under the photos looks a bit scrunched, but my main concern right now is whether the photos are viewable. If you guys tell me the photos can be seen without major difficulties, I'll proceed to prepare similar pages for Decca albums, compilations or anthologies, etc.

Ivan

Hallo Ivan!

I must download some of them to see what format and size you have. The best is to have same format, light and size for all pictures. Just now I have much to do just now before Christmas but I have also planned to take photo copies of all my Peggy Lee discs and records. Wait to upload but download all you find from Internet and I help you to create the format, size and light. Maybe I also must repair or clean up some photos.

We start that project as soon the Christmas is over. If you like you also can send me some (3-4) of your files as you used and uploaded to your discography. All files must be in jpeg format, not bmp, png or other formats. Send me a photo file as you have on your Mac computer and I see if I open it easy or if I must transform it to jpeg-j or jpeg-je or other jpeg versions.

From snowy Sweden!

Jarl

absolutly gorgeous ivan. youve done a superb job! no tech problems i pressed the link and there was peggy in all her glory! great format too. looking forward to the decca covers. thanks for all your hard work.

monty

Ivan,

All I can say is that though Peggy is our treasure, you are a close second. Thanks for you dedication and intensive work.

Looks great using Windows with the Chrome browser! I really enjoyed seeing the new (to me) photos of Peg, too!

Iván,

It looks great overall, and a very impressive and welcome addition to your already incredible work. There are some individual images that could be improved upon in terms of color, contrast, and sharpness using Photoshop or other image editor, but that's a minor quibble (and something with which I could help you in the new year). I also found one or two places where the text didn't display properly (in Safari 4.1.3), appearing on top of the image rather than above or below, but resizing the window forced a redraw that fixed it, so it might have been anomalous. I'll check it again when I have more time. I found the load time to be quite brisk.

The only thing I'd have done differently is to display the covers chronologically rather than alphabetically, to give more of a sense of how Peggy's image (and also graphic art conventions) changed over time. Links to the corresponding discographical entries would be a great bonus, but only if you feel up to the grunt work.

Thanks, as always, for service above and beyond the call!

I love it! Thank you so much!

Kelly

Thanks Ivan,

This is great to look at, some photo's are new to me , I especially like the alternative "If You Go" photo.

Greetings , Theo.

Ivan,

What a treat to see! It comes up on my computer quickly and clearly. Can't thank you enough for all your work and dedication to preserving PL's legacy.

George K.

Ivan

Is the signature and note on the photo included in the boxed edition of "Beauty and the Beat" authentic? To me it doesn't look like PL's genuine writing.

I ask this because I have the signed photo and long suspected that the autograph and note do not look like other Peggy autographs I have. Can you shed any light on this?

Thanks and best regards,
George K.

What a pleasant surprise! I just pressed the link and the beautiful photos came up in a second. Very impressive! All the work you put into this. You're the best, Ivan.

Richard, Holland.

What a fascinating display -- seeing the alternate photos from specific cover shoots and seeing the misleading covers, with pictures from the 1970s on material recorded much earlier.

One suggestion is to label the individual album photos (1,2,3,4...) so it is clear which notes refer to which album covers.

Thank you, as always, for your hard work and dedication!

Jarl, Monty, Ron, Ernie, Peter, Kelly, Theo, George K., Richard, Kevin,

Thank you so much. I'm thrilled that the page is receiving such an enthusiastic response, and quite grateful for the warm, kind, and encouraging comments!

Hearing that no one is having trouble seeing the photos is a BIG relief. I was very worried about that, in particular.

Not to bore everybody, I'll reply to the more technical matters in a separate post.

Thanks once more,
Ivan

Reply to Jarl, Peter, and Kevin, on TECHNICAL matters.

As both Jarl and Peter mention, there are images that need to be cleaned. I have not learned how to do that yet. (As I said in the original message, I'm a beginner in the areas of html and image uploading.) I just ordered a book, recommended to me by my friend Steve Albin (webmaster at jazzdiscography.com), which should help me move past the beginner's stage. But if I don't quite figure things myself, I might contact you next year on this particular matter. I thank you both for so kindly offering to help.

Jarl, you mentioned format and size. All my images are .jpg , indeed, and I'm using 300, which is the standard at Amazon and other sites. (Some pictures, obtained from other sites in the net, are smaller than 300. Of course, I am not using 300 for those. I would particularly like to find a better image of the EP All Aglow Again, because the one I have is impossibly small.) A few images originally were .png or something else, but I changed them all to .jpg .

I probably will not need help with the format and size, but I know that you have photos of some CDs that I don't have. Next year, I will send you a (new) list of CD photos that I'm missing.

Peter, I take your point about arranging the covers chronologically. That was my original intention. Eventually, however, I decided that an alphabetical order would benefit the greater number of users. My thinking is that the alphabetical arrangement will make the search of any particular album easier, especially for casual fans. (Big fans of Peggy will of course know their way around, no matter the arrangement of choice.) I also took into consideration the fact that, here at peggylee.com, we have the option of looking at the main album covers in chronological order. My page thus offers an alternative order. That said, I don't discard the possibility that I might change my mind in the future, and hence end up re-ordering the pictures chronologically ... I'm constantly debating whether to arrange things chronologically (which is generally the direction in which my mind leans) or in ways that may benefit the greater number of casual users.

I completely agree about having links, too. There are a number of reasons why linking is not an immediate possibility for me right now -- including, as you intimate, the substantial amount of tedious work involved. I think of the links as a "second phase" of the project -- or, in other words, as something that I would like to undertake in the distant future.

Kevin, yes, absolutely: putting a placement number under or on top of each image would be ideal, and something that I would have liked to do. But this possibility also goes into the area of things that, as a beginner, I can't quite yet handle. (Generally speaking, once you try to place more than one image side by side, the task of placing any written text exactly where you want it becomes a challenge.) In short, numbering photos is also something that I hope to learn and use in the future. But for now, I'm not terribly worried about this particular point: after a quick glance, I think most viewers will probably figure out which pic goes with which text.

Many thanks for the help and recommendations!

Ivan

Quote:

George K.
Is the signature and note on the photo included in the boxed edition of "Beauty and the Beat" authentic? To me it doesn't look like PL's genuine writing. I ask this because I have the signed photo and long suspected that the autograph and note do not look like other Peggy autographs I have. Can you shed any light on this?

I can't really shed much light on this particular topic, George, but I wouldn't be surprised if your suspicion is right. As we know, the whole album project was tricky. Since producer Dave Cavanaugh was the man who orchestrated the whole thing, perhaps he took care of signing the pictures, too, presumably with Peggy's and George's permission. But I really don't know..

Ivan

Iván,

With regard to alphabetical vs. chronological sorting, remember that it's easy to search for an album title in a web browser. So, chronological listing wouldn't make finding an album much more difficult. I think it adds more than it subtracts, but, again, that's just me. What do other folks here think?

I like Peter's chronological listing suggestion to show how Peggy's look changed through the years.

ivan, i hate to quibble after your back breaking efforts but i have a thing about chronology myself. the pictures are great as they are.

monty

I'm happy to announce that the page dedicated to Peggy's Decca albums is now ready:

[www.jazzdiscography.com]

Also, by popular demand, I have chronologically re-arranged the albums in the Capitol page:

[www.jazzdiscography.com]

(Leaving the organization aside, it's basically the same page, with a few additional alterations -- most notably, 3 or 4 new album covers, as well as some deletions which will re-appear in a forthcoming page.)

Next up: a page dedicated to Peggy's later (post-1972) albums.

Ivan

Ivan. Great job. Now I know you love her as much as I do.