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Click here for our pictures: St. Martin 2004 Photos

The associated write-up which provides details about the events pictured can be found here: Ed and Sandra’s St. Martin 2004 Travelogue

We think some explanation is in order with regard to the “simplicity” of this year’s photo presentation and the length of time it has taken us to prepare it. Our initial efforts were nothing short of disastrous – just no other way to put it. We had wanted to provide a really innovative and, hopefully, entertaining presentation, and our initial testing looked very encouraging.

Basically, we were trying to produce both a movie version of a slide show with video clips embedded and also an enhanced automated “still” slide presentation. Once we had about half the material developed for both and were doing live testing from our website, we realized neither method would be practical – the file sizes were much too large and the “streaming” wasn’t effective. They would have worked great (quite spectacular) from a CD, but not over the internet, even for those with very high-speed connections. Consequently, much to our chagrin, we had to abandon those methods and start over with 100’s of hours of effort down the drain. Rather than keep you waiting any longer, we put together a very basic, manual presentation.

On a positive note, we were able to make the manual slideshow useable for both those with high-speed internet access and those without it (if they are willing to be patient for the pages to load). Screen formatting has been improved for those with their resolution set at 800 x 600 (the pictures are optimized for a higher screen resolution with 32 bit color). Another improvement is that the larger version of each “thumbnail” can not only be accessed by clicking on it, but the slideshow can be begun at that point, if one so chooses. In practical terms, this means segments of the slideshow can be chosen and viewed according to one’s preferences. Consequently, if for example you’re not interested in seeing lots of photos of us enjoying ourselves in the evenings, which are there primarily for family and friends, it’s a simple matter to scan the thumbnails and skip that section in terms of viewing the slideshow.

We do apologize for the long delay and the “low tech” presentation.

Most sincerely,