Trawling Flickr

[zarathud.livejournal.com]

Every year after Dragon*Con I invariably end up spending a lot of time looking over flickr. I'm looking for pics of myself, my friends, stuff that I missed, and those really beautiful shots that talented (and/or lucky) photographers get.

I like flickr and in general I think it's a great place to post photos. Clearly many folks agree since over 73,000 Dragon*Con photos have been uploaded in the past few weeks.

The problem with flickr is this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zarathud/4983179528/
Basically flickr queries appear to be limited to 4000 results. Sure that sounds like a lot, but there are 18 times that many for dragoncon. Stick to a basic search (even viewing a tag) and you'll miss out on 94% of them. Sure you can look at the 4000 "most interesting," but there are a ton of great shots that missed that bus. Early uploads get a head start on views and favs and become the kings of flickr's 4000-limit hill.

This year I was on a mission to find some photos that I knew would be hard to find, so I wanted a way to trawl flickr effectively and efficiently. Something that would:

• hit every dragoncon photo, within reason
  
• support sane stop and resume -- 73k is a /lot/ to for one session
  
• minimize repeat views -- the numbers get a lot bigger when you start seeing photos more than once

This gets a little long, so I'm putting sections behind cuts.

( This is what I came up with )

( Day by Day )

( Scanning the queries )

( The hidden gems )

Costume manufacturing

[alexdelarge78.livejournal.com]

 

Ok fellow geeks and peeps, your humble narrator is appealing to the masses.

Does anyone have a link or a recommendation for a costume manufacturor, preferably small scale and personal that could produce custom costume peices and props?  This is for personal cosplay, details given privately.  I am looking for professional grade and would expect no less from the talent of such fine people.

Link me, talk to me, message me please. 

Thanks

(Droogie)  Rob