Digital Photo Repro and Digital Asset Management (DAM)

2016-10-07T11:38:00.003-04:00

Trees have feelings, too.

2016-10-07T11:38:00.001-04:00

Botanically Accurate Paper Flowers from Bloominary

2015-05-11T08:59:00.001-04:00

Check out the latest from Bloominary.

Export Image File Info as CSV

2014-12-30T12:13:00.000-05:00

Using Adobe Lightroom I have a simple taxonomy checklist for tagging my photos (more on that later). However, exporting the metadata from multiple files has been challenging.

CSV Data Collector II is an easy way to export embedded image metadata from multiple images into one CSV file from Adobe Bridge. Click here to download as a zip file.

To install:

Unzip the file
Start Adobe Bridge
Select Edit - Preferences -Startup Scripts
At the bottom of the prompt, click the "Reveal Button" to open the folder where the script should be placed

To use:

Select the image or images from which you want to extract metadata
Right click and select "CSV Data CollectorII" from the menu
Select a folder for the output file
Create a filename for the csv document (make sure to include ".csv" in the filename)
Check the boxs of the fields to be extracted

History of earth as told by trees

2014-05-07T22:58:00.001-04:00

YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo.

RGB Color Settings for Adobe Photoshop and Illlustrator

2014-03-07T10:13:00.003-05:00

Click here to download

Often designers and photographers are surprised to see that the color of their RGB images changes when viewed online or sent to print. One easy way to prevent this is to make sure that your color settings are set to convert incoming files to sRGB and to export files with sRGB embedded.

Here's a step by step guide to setting up your color settings in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator that I put together.

Science Talk - Featuring NYBG Plant Specimen Images

2013-10-24T09:11:00.001-04:00

The New York Botanical Garden has launched Science Talk - a blog featuring botanical insights from members of the Science Department.

It features images of plant specimens from the Virtual Herbarium, like this specimen, recently identified as a new species, Swartzia schottii, by Benjamin Torke.

Science Talk is updated frequently.

2 Millionth Plant Specimen Digitized - Rare Native Carnivorous Plant

2013-10-03T13:01:00.001-04:00

The New York Botanical Garden recently added the two-millionth plant specimen to its digital research collection - Sarracenia purpurea - a purple pitcher plant, a very rare native carnivorous species that was collected at a highly protected preserve in Dutchess County, New York. Read more here.

Sarracenia purpurea

The purple pitcher plant is in decline in much of its range.

(Photo by Robert Naczi, Ph.D.)

The History of Botany - by Tom Park

2013-07-26T22:27:00.003-04:00

How did we transition from simply using plants to studying them? View a short history of botany in this video by Tom Park, one of our interns at The New York Botanical Garden Herbarium.

by Tom Park

For more videos, check out our youtube page.

Monocots V at The New York Botanical Garden

2013-07-09T15:23:00.001-04:00

This week, The New York Botanical Garden welcomes Monocots V, the 5th International Conference on Comparative Biology of Monocotyledons.

Click to view the Conference Schedule and Presentation Abstracts

Crowd Sourcing The New York Botanical Garden Herbarium Plant Database

2013-06-25T12:16:00.001-04:00

Help Contribute to Our Understanding of Biodiversity, the Environment, and Global Climate Change

The William and Linda Steere Herbarium at The New York Botanical Garden houses over 7 million plant specimens gathered from around the world for over the past two hundred and fifty years.

Plants supply most of the world’s food, fuel, shelter and medicine, and plant specimens help us answer the most critical questions facing our planet. Questions such as: “How many species are there and how are they related? What environmental factors control their growth? And how do plants respond to climate change?”

Now you can help scientists to better understand our planet by transcribing plant specimen labels in our newly released crowd sourcing effort, hosted by the Atlas of Living Australia.

Choose an expedition studying the Oaks of North America or the Plants of the Caribbean. Click the “Start Transcribing” button to log in and get started.

Click here to start transcribing Oaks of North America or the Plants of the Caribbean

To learn more about the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium, make sure to watch “Treasures of New York: The New York Botanical Garden” this Thursday, June 27th at 10:30pm on channel Thirteen.

SPNCH 2013 - Image Archiving Principles and Practice at The New York Botanical Garden

2013-06-20T21:14:00.001-04:00

Click here to view the full presentation

Herbarium - The Movie, by Alister Sanderson

2013-06-05T16:10:00.000-04:00

Herbarium - an Alister Sanderson film with music by John Stone and the Queens Chamber Band.

Finally, the answer to "What is an Herbarium?"

Digitizing Herbarium Specimens in Vietnam - From Isolation to Integration

2013-05-23T18:19:00.002-04:00

Pictures from the digital imaging station installation and training at the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology in Hanoi, Vietnam. In less than a week, the students and staff were producing over fifty high resolution images per hour.

Nguyen The Cuong, Ph.D. showing specimens in the herbarium.

The digital imaging station is assembled.

Digital imaging training with: (standing, left to right)Do Van Hai, MS., Tean Thi Thanh Huong, Vu Anh Thuong (seated, left to right) Duong Thi Hoan, Ph.D. Nguyen the Cuong, Ph.D., and Nguyen Van Hieu.

Do Thi Xuyen, Ph.D. digitizing specimens with Nguyen Van Hieu.

Vu Anh Thuong preparing a specimen for Nguyen Thanh Huong, Ph.D. to digitize.

Full specimen image

100% detail

Label

Irish Potato Famine Mystery Solved Using Herbarium Specimens

2013-05-22T13:30:00.001-04:00

Scientists at the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich have used plant samples collected in the mid-19th Century to identify the pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine.

Read more here

Taking the Vietnam Flora from Isolation to Integration - JRS Foundation Grant

2013-05-10T06:39:00.001-04:00

I am in Hanoi, Vietnam visiting the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology as part of Doug Daly's "Taking the Vietnam Flora from Isolation to Integration" grant funded by the JRS Foundation.

I have just concluded installing a digital imaging workstation and three days of digital imaging training, including the Nikon D800E and tethered capture via Adobe Lightroom 4.3.

The staff and students at the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources are already producing impressive images.

Hibiscus sagittifolius

100% detail

Herbarium Vietnamensis

Conserve Useful Plant Resources - Wild Medicine: Healing Plants Around the World

2013-05-07T20:05:00.001-04:00

Dr. Ina Vandebroek recently shared a Global Call for Action to Conserve Useful Plant Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge that was developed during a workshop held at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

A perfect introduction to the upcoming exhibition at The New York Botanical Garden about healing plants like the cinchona tree, the source of quinine, which treats malaria, and white willow, whose bark leads to the production of aspirin.

Wild Medicine: Healing Plants Around the World May 18 - September 8, 2013

Help conserve plant resources - join one of our online expeditions.

Copystand Tutorial - Lightroom Tethtered Capture - Nikon D800-E

2013-05-01T17:48:00.001-04:00

Here is a page from a step-by-step illustrated guide to assembling a copystand and how to use Adobe Lightroom's tethered capture feature with the Nikon D800-E camera.

You can view or download the complete guide here

Click and Drag This Picture - Lytro Photography at The 2013 Orchid Show

2013-04-22T13:44:00.001-04:00

Here is another fascinating attribute of Lytro photography (lytrography?). In addition to allowing post-capture selective focus (click the image below to see what I mean), you can also shift the perspective of the image (click-and drag).

Click This Picture - Lytro - Light Field Photography at The New York Botanical Garden Orchid Show 2013

2013-04-20T11:14:00.002-04:00

I received the Lytro camera yesterday. While I am interested in using it for photographing plant specimens that require broad depth of field, I could not resist giving it a test drive at the 2013 Orchid Show.

Click the image to change the focal point. Double click to zoom in and out.

Fungi Responsible For Most Carbon Sequestration In Northern Forests

2013-03-30T12:55:00.001-04:00

Cortinarius armillatus forms mycorrhizal symbiosis with roots of birch trees.

Credit: Karina Clemmensen

A new study undertaken by a diverse group of scientists in Sweden has found that contrary to popular belief, most of the carbon that is sequestered in northern boreal forests comes about due to fungi that live on and in tree roots, rather than via dead needles, moss and leaf matter.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-03-fungi-responsible-carbon-sequestration-northern.html#jCp

Nikon d800e Sample Image

2013-03-14T17:25:00.002-04:00

This is my first test shot with the Nikon d800e 36 megapixel DSLR using the Sigma 50mm f2.8 DG Macro lens. I will have more on this as I continue to get familiar with the camera.

Click to enlarge

Rose

2013-02-14T09:34:00.000-05:00

Rosa canina L.

Herbaria as Tools for Biogeographical and Environmental Studies - Benefit From the Computerization of Collections

2013-02-10T12:26:00.002-05:00

Pachystachys spicata

“Plant specimens stored in herbaria are being used as never before to document the impacts of global change on humans and nature," writes Claude Lavoie in his recent paper Biological collections in an ever changing world: Herbaria as tools for biogeographical and environmental studies.

Lavoie has gathered statistics on the use of herbarium specimens in papers that “study pollution caused by carbon dioxide, heavy metals, hydrocarbons, nitrogen, and phosphorus,” and “to identify priority sites for protected areas, especially in Africa and South America.”

The digitization of collections has dramatically increased the number of specimens included in studies. Lavoie writes that since 2004 “82 studies benefited from the computerization of collections. Indeed, the median number of specimens per study rose from 226 (without the use of computerized collections) to 15,295 (with the use of computerized collections)”

Digitizing Seaweed - "Preserving the Forest of the Sea"

2013-02-07T12:06:00.000-05:00

"This year, with the click of a mouse and high-speed internet access, seaweed scientists around the world will be able to more quickly and methodically study the impact of climate change on large swathes of seaweeds archived at the University Herbarium at UC Berkeley. Funded by a grant she submitted to the National Science Foundation, in 2011, Miller and her team began taking high-resolution photographs of nearly 80,000 specimens of seaweed collected from the west coast of North America. Undergraduate work-study students have been invaluable to this project, photographing up to 400 specimens a day." - Sheraz Sadiq Keep Reading